iTunes 8.2 beta hints at support of Gracenote's video platform - Page 2

I'm doing the same thing and I'm up to about 50 movies. It's a daunting task, esp with my *lowly* 1.83ghz MB lol...we'll see how much more I feel like doing this.

Or they're going to slap an optical drive in the AppleTV after all. It wouldn't surprise me if licensing was more straightforward for a set-top box than a PC.

I also wonder if Apple wouldn't be able to get some sort of license to rip movies into iTunes, so long as they wrapped them in FairPlay on the way. (Particularly if it was limited to iPod-friendly encodes) If they come through with Grand Central, ripping video could get awfully quick and painless.

You can only do so much with an old movie title and remastering for HD. Even older movies on HBO-HD don't look as sharp as a current release in HD. The Dark Knight looks superb in Blu Ray. I don't have any older catalog Blu Ray titles yet, not sure if I will go that road unless they can be had for a discounted price.

I agree. Watching an HD movie on a computer is a waste of time. People don't gather around the computer to watch a movie. They also don't use optical storage for backup either, so Blu Ray's data storage doesn't seem to be a popular selling point either for computer use.

It won't matter what they wrap the DVD rip in the MPAA won't have it. Real is currently in court under the same matter. Their argument is that they support the DVD encryption and have DRM protections and the MPAA still sued them.

In a way the MPAA is in a tough spot. If you allow DVD ripping then nothing stops people from trying to rip every rental DVD they come across.

Good luck with that fantasy. Apple won't add DVR features because they want you to buy from the iTunes store, not record from your cable company. You'll never see Amazon On Demand or NetFlix on the AppleTV either. Glad to see that you are too lazy to get off the couch and put a disc in your DVD player.

I think of that as more of a perceived threat than anything else. Those who wish to rip rental dvd's can already do so. I don't think there would be a huge influx in this activity.

Edit: Or they could even create some sort of tag that identifies the dvd as a rental and not allow Real or Apple, or whoever to create software that rips movies that have the rental tag.

No one will have any interest in blank BluRay RW media, since they cost $15 (2x) -$30 (4x) per disc for 25 GB of storage. Amazon sells 50GB blank media for $25-$40 each. You would also need a dual-layer BluRay burner, starting at $529. I would have to spend $900 - $1,800 in blank media to equal the capacity of a 1.5 TB drive, which only costs about $150. Also the time wasted of trying to burn 25 GB at 2-4x. Let me know how that works out for you.

Wrong, hotshot. I don't think Apple cares where I get my content from - as long as I consume it on their hardware. If they only wanted my iPod to play music from iTunes, then ripping CDs would be out of the question. Not that I expect to see Amazon or Netflix on there necessarily, but DVR is totally in the realm of possibility, IMO (see Tru2Way). Who knows what they'll end up doing though.

If Apple takes 30% of digital sales, then has to pay for servers, advertising, etc, etc, they end up making a very small profit. How many $3 movie rentals must I download for them to make a reasonable profit? Exactly. But I only need to buy one AppleTV for them to make a nice chunk of profit. "Glad to see" you finally get the big picture.

I think the inclusion of Gracenote for video content is more about attaching metadata (artist info, chapter titles, movie posters, etc) to your own videos, and less about stuff you buy from iTunes (which already has all this data attached to the files). It would essentially replace the need for programs such as MetaX. In other words, ripping and digitizing your own DVDs would be much easier, much like ripping music CDs is easy.

I really don't think you want to do that. I can't imagine how long it will take to back up 50GB of data to an optical drive. After years with computers, I find it really unpractical to do that and it is much easier, safer, and sometimes cheaper to back up to either an external or secondary internal HDD. For me, Time Capsule solved all my archiving and backup problems.

Not true. Blu-ray data discs are read by the Finder and can be written to with Toast.

I bought a cheap DVD player capable of playing AVI format just to rip my sons DVDs (to AVI format) and burn as much as I can on a rewritable DVDs so he can watch them. Every now and then I find few that don't work due to scratches (time to burn another copy). I will be getting an AppleTV once they release an updated hardware. I think the 40GB storage in the current AppleTV is a joke (160GB is not bad though).

Can you provide a source for that bullshit statement? Equal to or better than the average home stereo (in 2006)? Any stand-alone receiver and speakers would put the iPod Hi-Fi (and any other iPod speaker system) to shame, even something from the 70's and 80's. I guess you don't know much about stereo equipment.

Which is exactly why I'd love to have BD ripping support in iTunes (I'd love to have HD DVD ripping too, as I picked up about fifty titles dirt cheap after the format was canceled, but that's pretty unlikely!). I've been, slowly but surely, ripping my DVD collection to h.264 and dropping them on my Mac Mini upstairs to serve up on my AppleTV. Just as we've all gotten used to having easy access to a vast library of music on our iPods (or other delivery method of choice), it's been handy to have frequently-watched movies available at the touch of a remote - particularly when it comes to the movies the kids watch, since they're apt to rewatch movies over and over again. Ripping also has the added benefit of preventing sticky fingers from coating the discs, and helping to keep the media scratch-free.

Even if the iTunes rips are Fairplay-encoded to the iTunes account in use (to prevent sharing), that'd be fine with me. I imagine Apple will wait and see what happens with the ongoing litigation against Real Networks before they consider adding this functionality.


I can see a difference on my 37" HDTV. Yes it's slight - my HD DVD player does a very good job of upconverting (something I thought was really just a gimmick before I saw it).

However, where I really see the difference isn't so much in the additional resolution, but in the added bitrate of the HD content - much less colour artifacting, and what appears to be a much higher contrast over standard definition DVD.

Unfortunately, the rented and purchased HD content from the iTunes store is also compressed into a very low bit rate and suffers the same artifacting you can see on SD DVD. It still looks better than standard DVDs, just not nearly as good as the HD DVD content in my library...

Your point is well taken however - I don't understand the current fascination Windows users have with ensuring their laptops have BD support, unless it's for either ripping their media, or for ensuring forward compatibility with future BD-ROM discs.

Well, hotshot (your new name, BTW), maybe he's not talking about stand-alone receivers and speakers. Maybe he's talking about a similar device to Hi-Fi?

Why don't you hook up your old VHS deck if you prefer watching poor quality video? Are your kids too unintelligent to know how to load a disc in a player, or are you teaching them to glue themselves to the couch because you are too lazy? Tell them to go outside and play after school and enjoy life instead of sitting their asses on the couch because it is just so hard to get up and change a disc.

Unfortunately it doesn't. It has nothing to do with watching BDs, making media backups or future compatability, and everything to do with the need to point at an apparently "glaring" missing feature in Macs, despite the limited real-world usability of such a feature.

Nope. The digital copy included with DVD's does not allow you to rip your own copy. It is a gift certificate code that allows you to download the movie from iTunes for free, including the DRM restrictions. The DRM doesn't bother me at all, and this is a great way to get a usable copy for my iPod/iPhone.

When Hotshot (fka hillstones) buys a TV or a DVD player, he obvioulsy doesn't bother with configuring or using the remote control, since he can simply get up and manually change the channel. He's old-school, and hates added convenience.

It is definitely lacking in that sense. I can't wait until there an app, like Shazam, that will sample audio and video in your library and rename your library and supply album covers/DVD covers to your iTunes library. Ripping TV Shows to view later on an iDevice is such a pain if you want to clean them all up.



While it's his typical "self-hating fanboy" response he did actually do some research to back up statement with a bit of sense. That in and of itself is impressive as I didn't think it was possible.



I don't think of anything of the Gracenote info, but I do think that Apple will add Blu-ray support at some point, but only when they really have to. By support, I mean the ability for a 3rd-party BRD to be attached to a Mac so that BR content with HDCP can be played. I don't foresee them adding the player to anything but the Mac Pro, and possibly a high-end 24" iMac, which I think uses the 12.5mm drives.

Not everyone sees things the way you do, it's something to get used to.

I saw a thread once accusing a guy of being lazy because he set his Mac to sleep by sending it an email. Turned out the guy had multiple sclerosis and it took him twenty minutes to get out of bed.

Regardless, your post is pretty short-sighted.

It's not about being lazy, really. Do you have a store of MP3s you've ripped? Damn, you must be too lazy to get up and put a disc in your CD player then. Yes, I get the argument that music is more 'replayable' than movies (not to mention each track being shorter than a movie), so that it makes more sense. I find the same thing to be true with movies too. I like that I can (theoretically) store a large portion of my video content into a tiny box that sits next to my television. I don't need to keep my media downstairs in the living room anymore; instead, I archive it onto my AppleTV and can box the media for storage.


I remember thinking the same thing some years ago when DVD-R was pricy and slow to burn. Although, with the cost of hard drives being so low now, I'll archive my media locally onto two drives, setting up an rsync process. For photos and important documents for which I want to have an off-site backup, I'm starting to play with Mozy. An alternative would be a handy bare-drive dock - stash off a copy of my media, undock the drive, and stuff it into a safe-deposit box (or other off-site location).


160GB isn't sufficient to store much content really, but it is good enough if you keep a media store that syncs with the AppleTV. I have (currently) a 500gb drive attached to my Mac Mini upstairs that stores my music and video, and have iTunes configured to push some of the more frequently-watched HD content to the AppleTV permanently, as well as a select number of unviewed TV season passes and movies. This way I don't have to worry about streaming HD content generally, and for the lower bit-rate media (such as music and standard definition video), it's stored upstairs and streams over the wireless as needed.

The only reason I really want more local capacity is for Boxee, so I can store non-iTunes content online. Boxee can connect to network drives, but it's not been very reliable for me. I find myself having to frequently reconnect manually...


http://www.appleinsider.com/articles...ine_store.html

(A bit of googling would find you the original quote, but it was something Steve said at the town hall meeting when he introduced the iPod Hi-Fi: he had replaced his expensive audio systems in his home with them)

I don't either but I've just formed a new hypothesis about PC user mentality versus Mac user mentality. Microsoft's add campaign feels funny because PC users never really talk about their PC as a whole entity. We say I'm a Mac user or I'm a Macbook user but we never break things down to the component level. PC users are really just collections of Nvidia, AMD, Seagate etc fans who have a stratified view of their computer. It's not a just a PC it's a PC with AMD procs, Nvidia graphics and a Seagate hard drive. Thus Blu-ray to them is another feather in the cap whereas a Mac user cares more about the end result "can I watch the movies I own? I don't care about the player"

DVD players for the HDTV are too cheap for me to be mucking around trying to get a BD drive in my mini or laptop. Costco has a BD player on sale for $50 off every month it seems. I almost bought Wall E on Blu-ray yesterday but the Woodinville Costco was out of stock on any good Blu-ray titles (they have a $6 off Disney Blu-ray coupon) so alas i've not been able to pick up my first BD yet (despite not owning a player)

Like you i've built my HD DVD collection very cheaply through craigslist and places like iNetvideo. I bought a second HD DVD player (got a steal on a A35 for $85 bucks) so i'm probably good for playing these discs for a long time.

That's actually what I was thinking too... I wonder how many of those BD trays have actually seen any BD media (other than the initial test: 'Hey cool, it works!').

I can't see it happening for several reasons. Optical media standards are in flux. DVD is a slowly obsolescing tech while Blu-ray is growing it is still not a dominate driver (yet) and still too expensive for Apple's needs. On top of that, all optical media is now competing with all digital media so Apple needs to tread carefully.

Using your computer's optical drive to push DRMed video over a network is even more unlikely if the content owners have anything to say about it. And they do.

I seem to remember (although the memory is vague) reading last year that the 'bag of hurt' Apple had with Blu-Ray was not about any royalty fees, but that Sony was demanding that Apple put a protected route through the OS right into the kernel to work with their DRM arrangement. Microsoft, I believe, complied with this demand in Vista, but Apple were unwilling to do so.

Does anyone know about this? If it is the case, and BR support is coming, does this mean that Apple have conceded the point in SL?

Every time my family goes on a 2+ hour drive, the kids "gather around" a computer to watch a movie.

Just hang on a few years bro - the future keeps coming!

Optical disc offers 500GB storage

Sounds to me that you do think the iPod Hi-Fi is great because your very next statement claims that it sounded better than most home stereos. Maybe you need to read what you just wrote because you sound like you are full of BS. I would love to know what your definition of a typical home stereo is, because the iPod Hi-Fi certainly did not sound better.

Not sure I'd bother with that one - I was hot to buy Wall-E myself, and then rented it instead. To each their own, but while I've loved every one of the Pixar films, Wall-E did not really grip me.

Funny though - I wonder if I've run into you at the Woodinville Costco - I live in Bothell, so that's where I often shop too


Oh Amazon's been a great place for me. I did get a bunch from iNetVideo, but their shipping charges end up eating into a lot of the discount. Amazon has all but exited the HD DVD business, but they still handle shipping for other providers such as traderbora, closeoutmovies, and movietronix. Because Amazon does the fulfillment, Amazon Prime (and free shipping over $25) still applies, but because they're not the actual seller, there is no sales tax. I've been picking up a bunch of discs lately for between $4-5, with no shipping and no tax.

On top of that, Warner is now offering very cheap crossgrades to BD, so it's a good way to pick up BD media cheap (particularly for box sets, such as Harry Potter).

Wall E is certainly an acquired taste for a Pixar movie. I respect them for tackling some tough subjects. What sold me on Wall E was flat out the quality. I didn't really know how good it looked until I saw it playing on the Samsung Luxia LED HDTV at Fry's in Renton. OMG...that set makes anything computer generated look freakin' amazing.

Truthfully I'm ok with Blu-ray now ..the movies are available at sane pricing if you know where to look and the players are now featured well and affordable.

In fact I "just" got the email from Oppo about the impending release of their BDP-83. $499 is a whole lot of money but i've wanted a player that does movies, SACD and DVD-Audio in once box. It's a definite contender depending on reviews.

Virgil-TB2 makes up stuff while guzzling that kool-aid cocktail. He speaks utter nonsense. Where is his source?

LOL. Wow you are full of shit. That marketing really went well for them didn't it? So well that Apple deleted it from the online store without a word because it was such an embarrassment. Unassailably true? Somehow you believe the audio quality cannot be questioned? Reasonable and accurate statements for replacing your home stereo? You must have bought one and you are trying to justify your loss of $349.

Sound and Vision Magazine said the sound quality was equal to other iPod Speaker systems. None of the reviews claimed it could replace your home stereo. That was Apple's fantasy dream, which failed miserably. They also did not recommend it either. Klipsch's iFi was $50 cheaper and offered far better sound. Even iLounge recommended the iFi and other speaker systems for better sound quality, better looking, lower cost, and easier to move (since the iPod Hi-Fi was a heavy 17 lbs with batteries).

Even the great Kasper (see his earlier post) remembers that statement- who could forget it? Only you and Virgil-TB2 would erase it from your selective memory.

That is a very strange case because their software does not circumvent the copy protection, yet the lawsuit claims they violated the DMCA. That would be a fun case to sit on as a juror.

And actually most of reviews were mixed and said it was basically a overpriced boombox for an iPod more than an actual "great" iPod sound system.
Your wasting your time with that Virgil-TB2- trust me. He's just goading you or anyone else who goes against his daft fanboy mantra.

STFU

http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/rev...ystem-for-ipod

"it is a simple but undeniably powerful audio source, designed primarily as a substitute for the separate speakers and amplifier of a 2.1-channel home stereo system, rather than as a boombox or table radio"

Nice looking player. I wish there were BD/HD compatible players. I'd love to not have yet another device on my stack. In fact, when I upgraded to HDTV, I replaced my entertainment center and thankfully didn't have room for the cassette, laserdisc and CD players. I now have just the HD DVD, a Philips multi-region DivX-compatible DVD, AppleTV and Wii. If this BDP was multi-region, then I could lose the Philips (is it? I see it converts PAL...). If it could only do HD DVD too... </dreaming>

WHO CARES? It was a FLOP!
And that not how SJ presented it or how it was marketed.