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rmeister0 · 10-13-2005, 12:37 PM

I know it is fashionable to say people will watch video on these things, but I still say past 3-minute trailers and videos, it isn't going to happen. People are buying large screen TVs for a reason.

Right now, the ability to purchase video on iTunes and play it on my computer doesn't really give me anything more than my big-screen TV and my NetFlix subscription doesn't give me, except for a faster time to market. Anybody with cable TV and a Replay is way ahead of what Apple's offering - they can capture any show at any time.

Apple made a big misstep: they put Front Row on the wrong box. Great for crowded dorm rooms but not much else. Unless they change the displays they're putting in, the iMac lcd monitors are not that good for full motion video. What people really want from what I've read on the boards is something in the form factor of a Mac Mini.

Time will tell, but I have to think about my personal experience just in the last two weeks. The wife and I watched the three Matrix and Harry Potter movies on a 65" wide-screen CRT from DVD, in Dolby Digital 5.1. Not a single one of these movies was less that 2 hours 20 minutes. Watching them on a 2.5" lcd screen, or even a 15" display in the back of a car, would have been a greatly diminished experience.

Oh, and those TV episodes they're selling? According to the Apple web site you can burn them to a "data CD"; no mention of burning to a set-top playable DVD, which is a real problem. At least you can burn iTunes music to a standard audio CD. I won't pay for downloadable video I can't do the same thing with.

All that said, the really cool thing in Wednesday's announcement are the specs on the new iMac G5. $1300 buys a heck of a lot of computer these days, and the boost to a better graphics processor was way overdue.

10-13-2005, 12:37 PM	#7
rmeister0 Addict Posts: 270 Karma: 298 Join Date: Mar 2005	I know it is fashionable to say people will watch video on these things, but I still say past 3-minute trailers and videos, it isn't going to happen. People are buying large screen TVs for a reason. Right now, the ability to purchase video on iTunes and play it on my computer doesn't really give me anything more than my big-screen TV and my NetFlix subscription doesn't give me, except for a faster time to market. Anybody with cable TV and a Replay is way ahead of what Apple's offering - they can capture any show at any time. Apple made a big misstep: they put Front Row on the wrong box. Great for crowded dorm rooms but not much else. Unless they change the displays they're putting in, the iMac lcd monitors are not that good for full motion video. What people really want from what I've read on the boards is something in the form factor of a Mac Mini. Time will tell, but I have to think about my personal experience just in the last two weeks. The wife and I watched the three Matrix and Harry Potter movies on a 65" wide-screen CRT from DVD, in Dolby Digital 5.1. Not a single one of these movies was less that 2 hours 20 minutes. Watching them on a 2.5" lcd screen, or even a 15" display in the back of a car, would have been a greatly diminished experience. Oh, and those TV episodes they're selling? According to the Apple web site you can burn them to a "data CD"; no mention of burning to a set-top playable DVD, which is a real problem. At least you can burn iTunes music to a standard audio CD. I won't pay for downloadable video I can't do the same thing with. All that said, the really cool thing in Wednesday's announcement are the specs on the new iMac G5. $1300 buys a heck of a lot of computer these days, and the boost to a better graphics processor was way overdue.