AppleTV Supports H.264 AND iTS Purchased Video ???
How does protected H.264 and iTunes Store purchased video differ?
The Apple TV webpage lists them as seperate supported video formats. Could the Apple TV one day conceivable work with other protected video content? Like say ABC's own online video store or maybe even Amazon's?
The Apple TV webpage lists them as seperate supported video formats. Could the Apple TV one day conceivable work with other protected video content? Like say ABC's own online video store or maybe even Amazon's?
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How does protected H.264 and iTunes Store purchased video differ?
The Apple TV webpage lists them as seperate supported video formats. Could the Apple TV one day conceivable work with other protected video content? Like say ABC's own online video store or maybe even Amazon's?
They really aren't different. H.264 is a codec, and they probably listed iTunes Store purchased video just to be really clear for the people who might get confused about whether it can play video from iTunes.
Oh and the Apple TV isn't going to ever support Windows Media DRM (which I assume ABC, like most others, use) because the entire reason the iTunes store exists is to maintain content compatibility with Apple's own hardware.
Sebastian
Oh and the Apple TV isn't going to ever support Windows Media DRM (which I assume ABC, like most others, use)
That's true
They really aren't different. H.264 is a codec, and they probably listed iTunes Store purchased video just to be really clear for the people who might get confused about whether it can play video from iTunes.
Oh and the Apple TV isn't going to ever support Windows Media DRM (which I assume ABC, like most others, use) because the entire reason the iTunes store exists is to maintain content compatibility with Apple's own hardware.
Sebastian
Apple won't support Windows Media DRM because Microsoft is their competitor and because Microsoft won't give them the code to support it. Microsoft hasn't even given Flip4Mac the code to support it fully and they are Microsoft's official (?) WMP compatibility developer for the Mac once Microsoft stopped development of WMP for the Mac.
iTMS exists to make money for Apple and the content owners, and to be a legal outlet for digital content with DRM for copyright protection for the content owners. Content compatibility is built into iTunes and Quicktime, and to a lesser degree Apple TV. Apple TV could be have a lot more compatibility than it does and be future proofed with software updates and through a plug-in model like QuickTime could be expanded more by 3rd party developers, but as far as we know Apple has chosen not to do this at this time. Even so it could be something that they add later and may even be there in some unsupported fashion just like the debug mode of Safari.
Apple won't support Windows Media DRM because Microsoft is their competitor and because Microsoft won't give them the code to support it. Microsoft hasn't even given Flip4Mac the code to support it fully and they are Microsoft's official (?) WMP compatibility developer for the Mac once Microsoft stopped development of WMP for the Mac.
iTMS exists to make money for Apple and the content owners, and to be a legal outlet for digital content with DRM for copyright protection for the content owners. Content compatibility is built into iTunes and Quicktime, and to a lesser degree Apple TV. Apple TV could be have a lot more compatibility than it does and be future proofed with software updates and through a plug-in model like QuickTime could be expanded more by 3rd party developers, but as far as we know Apple has chosen not to do this at this time. Even so it could be something that they add later and may even be there in some unsupported fashion just like the debug mode of Safari.
Except one thing, Apple doesn't make much money off of iTunes. All of it goes back into the store. The reason? If it never existed the world would be owned by Microsoft and Music (that isn't on CDs) would be a Windows "Feature" probably botched by Microsoft at every turn.
The content owners making money is like a bonus compared to Apple's real goal. The only DRM scheme at the time of the iTunes Store creation that would play on a Mac was Real if I'm correct with my history.
it's listed like this:
Video formats supported
Why would they list "H.264" and "protected H.264" AND "iTunes Store purchased video"? That is pretty darn specific and doesn't constitute an actual list of features by being so specific. Each bullet point in my mind should represent a seperate issue, specification, item, or in this case, a seperate format.
Why don't they then do this for the audio formats too?
- H.264 and protected H.264 (from iTunes Store): Up to 5 Mbps, Progressive Main Profile (CAVLC) with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps (maximum resolution: 1280 by 720 pixels at 24 fps, 960 by 540 pixels at 30 fps)
- iTunes Store purchased video: 320 by 240 pixels or 640 by 480 pixels
- MPEG-4: Up to 3 Mbps, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps (maximum resolution: 720 by 432 pixels at 30 fps)
I'm flippin' out.Maybe they are just trying to make it look like the Apple TV supports a great number of formats.
OK. This is weird. I just went back to view the specs again and now it says this:
- H.264 and protected H.264 (from iTunes Store): Up to 5 Mbps, Progressive Main Profile (CAVLC) with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps (maximum resolution: 1280 by 720 pixels at 24 fps, 960 by 540 pixels at 30 fps)
- iTunes Store purchased video: 320 by 240 pixels or 640 by 480 pixels
- MPEG-4: Up to 3 Mbps, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps (maximum resolution: 720 by 432 pixels at 30 fps)
I'm flippin' out.Maybe they are just trying to make it look like the Apple TV supports a great number of formats.
It supports every format I use.
H.264
.m4a
.m4v
.mov
.mp4
Sebastian
OK. This is weird. I just went back to view the specs again and now it says this:
- H.264 and protected H.264 (from iTunes Store): Up to 5 Mbps, Progressive Main Profile (CAVLC) with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps (maximum resolution: 1280 by 720 pixels at 24 fps, 960 by 540 pixels at 30 fps)
- iTunes Store purchased video: 320 by 240 pixels or 640 by 480 pixels
- MPEG-4: Up to 3 Mbps, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps (maximum resolution: 720 by 432 pixels at 30 fps)
I'm flippin' out.Maybe they are just trying to make it look like the Apple TV supports a great number of formats.
Why are you flipping out? Apple's trying to make it easy: whatever you download from iTMS will play; if you want to encode your own video, then use the above setting for H.264 or MPEG-4. Why the hell are you making it more complicated?
The wierd part to me is that in doing so, they essentially made those two seperate formats into the same thing. One says "from iTunes Store" and the other says "iTunes Store purchased" — IT'S THE SAME THING!
... One says "from iTunes Store" and the other says "iTunes Store purchased" ? IT'S THE SAME THING!
No, they are not. The iTMS has many free downloads.
I'm talking about formats.