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Apple Adds New TV Shows To iTunes
Phaedo00 writes "Ars Technica is reporting that Apple has added eleven new and classic television shows from NBC, the Sci-Fi network, and USA. The new shows include Alfred Hitchcock, Battlestar Galactica, Monk, Surface, Conan O'Brien, Jay Leno, Dragnet, Law & Order, The Office and most importantly: Knight Rider!" From the article: "Steve Jobs took the opportunity to toot Apple's horn, stating that since the inception of video downloads on the iTMS, they'd sold nearly three million individual items. In addition to the sales figures, the PR from Apple stated that their current offering of video stands at approximately 300 episodes. All in all this looks like a slam dunk for Apple as they're rounding up their distribution deals and diversifying their suppliers. If the rumored deals with FOX and CBS are true then Apple will have a dominating lead in this market, much like their current domination in the digital music distribution arena."
International Superstar David Hasselhof.
Wow, the entire first season of Adam-12! I've been waiting for this.
I can't believe it. I mean, I like Knight Rider as much as the next guy, but if I had to pick one David Hasselhoff series it would be Baywatch. Call me crazy.
Just when you thought you'd never be able to get live action David Hasselhoff on your iPod video
s/thought/hoped
I want to drag this out as long as possible. Bring me my protractor.
Apple! Increase the frakking resolution of the video! I would love to download Battlestar Galactica but I won't do it if its only going to look good on my iPod. I want video that will look good anywhere I play it, including my DLP projector.
Cool art gallery, if you're into that sort of thing.
Sorry, but I have to rebutt this.
h.264 will be the format of choice with the next-gen video cards with hardware support for h.264.
FairPlay does sort of suck, since you can't do anything with it, but at least it works, and doesn't get the movie/music people are bent out of shape.
Mac + Windows represents virtually all the _consumer_ market. Plus, iTunes can run on Linux via CrossOverOffice and others, so this point is not all that strong. The market just isn't there for solid native Linux support.
You can play these videos are FAR many more devices than the 5G iPod, like EVERY PC and Mac with iTunes. Yes, the videos right now are built for the iPod, but if you think the iPod is the only intended device, you've missed the point - the iPod is just a test.
Why do you need to burn a DVD when you can hook up your PC/Mac to your TV/HDTV, or even better yet, watch them on your nice high res monitor? Most people don't have HDTVs, so their computer monitors are as high res as they go. And you can burn the files to a data DVD to take wherever, or network share, or whatever. The DVD isn't tomorrow's technology - it's barely even today's. These videos represent a physical media-free environment, so again, whether this is a good thing or not, I think you're missing the point.
HDTV downloads would take FOREVER. Of course, if reports from Front Row-equipped iMacs streaming in HD trailer without stuttering or loading times is true, Apple is two steps ahead of us on this already.
Point is - this isn't meant to be a be all that ends all offering. This is a test, this is only a test. Why the heck else would they pick such a crazy variety of shows to test many potential demographics?
It's Standard Definition (SD) quality television. In fact, it can look a lot better than SD if you play it through an HD set with upsampling or other quality improving technologies.
For example, I have a Sony 50" LCD Projection HDTV (Love it, BTW.) I also have a PowerBook. All I do is plug the S-Video cable from my computer to my TV and play all those episode of LOST I love. I had never seen LOST prior to downloading on iTunes, so I thought I would DL a couple and try it out. I was really impressed by the quality. It's better than a normal SD broadcast, the colors are amazing, and the compression is almost never noticable.
So, yes, I would like HD quality downloads for video (nominal charge is fine for bandwidth) and I'd like higher quality AAC's (norminal charge fine) as an option. But this is a great start and will prove the validity of the concept.
"Politicians find new names for institutions which under old names have become odious to the people."
'FairPlay' DRM? Not good. I can't play it outside iTunes.
It's an Apple service intended for video iPod users. Why would they want you to have it anywhere else?
Open and accessible store? Nope. You need iTunes which is only available for Macintosh and Windows.
Hm, Mac OS X and Windows. That covers how much market?
Compatibility with many devices? Nope. Only one: the iPod 5G.
Here's an idea. Lets build a time machine and go back and build in video functionality in the old iPods.
Well at least I can create a DVD, like iTunes lets me burn a CD with my purchased songs, right? Nope. No burning. Only playback.
Hrm. Let's see. Can you play a DVD on your iPod? No?
Well at least the new episodes of Law & Order, which are filmed in HDTV, will be shown in brilliant 1280x720 resolution, right? Nope. 320x240.
Again, you're talking about a service for the video iPod. The resolution it can display is only so high.
Good for you, Apple. Welcome to the 19th century. I'll be over here with my trusty BitTorrent client.
19th century? Wow. I guess you're trying to make your point. Yet Apple is the first company to offer something like this.
As for BitTorrent, grow up. Do you seriously expect that everyone would work for free to create these shows?
Imagine if half the audience for Lost suddenly started watching the shows only on BitTorrent. The advertisement rates for the slot would drop, creating less cash for the network and the show, probably causing the network to pull the show because it's not creating enough revenue.
That is one of the reasons I shell out $40 for the seasons worth of Battlestar Galactica. I know I can get a reasonable quality copy off BitTorrent, probably even the very same DVD images. However I'd like to see more of the show. Thus I pay some money so the actors and the crew and the network can earn some money and be encouraged to create another season.
TANSTAAFL
And you even forgot the most important reason - David Hasselhoff!
That is all.
Let's get out my handy-dandy little red pen here.
Sure, let's. I'll get out my bright green pen and join you.
h.264 format? I guess that's okay.
Oh, you're too kind.
'FairPlay' DRM? Not good. I can't play it outside iTunes.
Well, actually, you can play it in QuickTime. A much better video player.
Open and accessible store? Nope. You need iTunes which is only available for Macintosh and Windows.
And...Apple should cater to the 1% of computer users who run only Linux with this why, exactly?
Compatibility with many devices? Nope. Only one: the iPod 5G.
Um, actually, it's compatible with those 99% of computers running Windows and Mac OS X.
Well at least I can create a DVD, like iTunes lets me burn a CD with my purchased songs, right? Nope. No burning. Only playback.
I'll admit that this is kind of annoying, but I have little doubt that it will change, given time. Don't forget, this is still a very new service.
Well at least the new episodes of Law & Order, which are filmed in HDTV, will be shown in brilliant 1280x720 resolution, right? Nope. 320x240.
Ah...well, you may have a nice fat OC3 to download shows on, but many (if not most) of us are still stuck on nominally 784kbps pipes, that actually turn out to be more like 80kbps most of the time if we're lucky. Oh, and most of us don't have HDTVs to watch them on, either.
Good for you, Apple. Welcome to the 19th century. I'll be over here with my trusty BitTorrent client.
And I'll be here with my copy of iTunes, watchin' the next Law & Order legally in what I, and many, many others consider to be a perfectly acceptable resolution and format, on my laptop, or maybe plug my TV into it and watch it there (it'll probably be higher quality than what comes over the cable anyway).
I think your real problem is that you are both rich and extremely myopic. You seem to think that Apple's (essentially) brand-new service should provide the absolute top-of-the-line product to be worth purchasing at all, when in reality, most people either couldn't use that product ('cause it would take them 3 days to download the file) or it wouldn't be any different, for them, than what they're getting ('cause they don't have a 60" 1080p HDTV with 9.2 ultra-surround--they have a 28" analog TV with ordinary stereo speakers).
So take a peek outside your soundproof, well-upholstered, $30,000 technological paradise and glance at the real world once in a while, and you'll see why Apple is doing this. Then stop being such a whiner.
Dan Aris
Fun. Free. Online. RPG. BattleMaster.