Could some longtime Mac user tell me, why has apple decided to have DVD player on its own and not just use Quicktime player instead for all media?
Quicktime is another application i think that need some sort of update.
It would be much more useful if they could allow full screen mode in quicktime ( or simply scrap the pro version and give it all out for free )
I don't understand it either...why can't Apple create an 'iTunes' for movies/videos on Macs. Call it iTheater or something.
iTunes handles music CDs, why couldn't Apple merge DVD Player and QuickTime into iTheater.
Lately, Apple has been pulling some boneheaded moves...they're not merging apps that could be merged but then they merge what should be a standalone app into current apps.
iTunes is the perfect example of bloatware. Leopard's Mail will be the next example...RSS, Notes and ToDo in a Mail client? Come on now. I know it's been previewed already but I hope Apple goes back on this decision to create a standalone RSS app and a standalone Notes/ToDo app and removes RSS from Safari and Mail.
The rule of thumb should be that if more than one app can benefit from one specific feature, that feature should get its own app (and data accessed through an API similar to the way iPhoto and iTunes libraries are accessed in iLife, iWork and third-party apps.)
Problem is that Apple is reluctant to remove features that already exist even if they're not really removed because people will scream bloody murder. I bet there are a lot of people that want the RSS feature to remain in Safari. It could...if RSS was moved to its own app for people that want an awesome RSS reader but accessible to Mail and Safari in an "RSS Browser" similar to the "Media Browser" for those that just want a simple RSS browser.
Could some longtime Mac user tell me, why has apple decided to have DVD player on its own and not just use Quicktime player instead for all media?
My guess would be too much stuff in one app. A dedicated DVD app can do it better than tacked on to Quicktime. Quicktime is already used to do a lot of things.
The same as Apple does not have contacts and calendar built into the mail app.
Quote:
It would be much more useful if they could allow full screen mode in quicktime ( or simply scrap the pro version and give it all out for free )
Yeah I agree forcing people to pay for pro for full screen is Apple nickel and dimeing the consumer. But you can play full screen video through iTunes.
Quote:
but I hope Apple goes back on this decision to create a standalone RSS app and a standalone Notes/ToDo app and removes RSS from Safari and Mail.
Perhaps I don't use RSS enough, but I don't see its need to become an entire app.
One thing i forgot to point out as well . H.264; infact mpeg 4 , or even more ALL video decoding built in on OSX are pretty bad ( i try to avoid the word SUCKS here )
It eat up loads of CPU resources ( the most CPU intensive Software H.264 decoder out there ) while doesn't produce the best quality picture.
And i argee with kim. RSS, Notes and Todo is just silly in Mail. However i do expect newsgroup to be in there but it is not. ( Although newsgroup could be a seperate package as well if those mail function could be used for newsgroup posting without Dev rewriting those portion again. )
I just keep hoping stuff like this means we'll see a nice shiny new Mac mini for under $900 (or preferably under $700) with a built-in Blu-ray player for the Leopard release.
I just keep hoping stuff like this means we'll see a nice shiny new Mac mini for under $900 (or preferably under $700) with a built-in Blu-ray player for the Leopard release.
don't get your hopes up. I can't see that happening until 2009.
I don't understand it either...why can't Apple create an 'iTunes' for movies/videos on Macs. Call it iTheater or something.
iTunes handles music CDs, why couldn't Apple merge DVD Player and QuickTime into iTheater.
Lately, Apple has been pulling some boneheaded moves...they're not merging apps that could be merged but then they merge what should be a standalone app into current apps.
Something like iTheater wouldn't make any sense considering both Apple TV and iPhone will be linked into iTunes.
Something like iTheater wouldn't make any sense considering both Apple TV and iPhone will be linked into iTunes.
That's the other problem, iTunes isn't an app anymore...it's a frickin' platform. Sad really. It's used to sync iPods, iTVs, future iPhones. It's used to sync notes, ToDos, calendars. Why? Because the hardware is sold to PC users and the only ported app that'll do it all is iTunes.
While iTunes has raked up a ton of money for Apple and pleases a lot of PC users, it's a curse to Mac users.
don't get your hopes up. I can't see that happening until 2009.
If PS3 sells for $600, I think an under $1000 Mac mini with Blu-ray is quite doable, especially if they can design it to use the same drive as for a Blu-ray iMac. You'll be paying ~$200 on top of the rest of the Mac to get it, but it seems doable. It's a nice fit for people hooking mini's up to large or very high-res displays, as well as the really high-res displays on iMacs.
I can pretty much guarantee we'll see some kind of high-def DVD as an option on all Macs before 2009, might not be on all Macs this year, but certainly by first half of 2008.
If more and more people are going to be using Mac Mini, etc with a big screen HDTV, the scaler better be top notch.
For me that's an overspecialized waste of a decent general purpose computer. I'd prefer using Apple TV, though so far its specs are disappointing and seem unnecessarily crippled as an unappreciated ploy to promote Apple Store sales while severing itself from legacy content (and SDTV).
I'd be curious to see a desktop vs. notebook DVD Player usage comparison. Or just an estimate of how many people use it at all.
If PS3 sells for $600, I think an under $1000 Mac mini with Blu-ray is quite doable, especially if they can design it to use the same drive as for a Blu-ray iMac. You'll be paying ~$200 on top of the rest of the Mac to get it, but it seems doable. It's a nice fit for people hooking mini's up to large or very high-res displays, as well as the really high-res displays on iMacs.
I can pretty much guarantee we'll see some kind of high-def DVD as an option on all Macs before 2009, might not be on all Macs this year, but certainly by first half of 2008.
The PS3 is sold as a Loss Leader while Apple makes most of their revenue in Hardware sales. Then again, I think the Mini is the worst selling Mac right now, maybe after the Mac Pro but the Mac Pro has an excuse.
For me that's an overspecialized waste of a decent general purpose computer. I'd prefer using Apple TV, though so far its specs are disappointing and seem unnecessarily crippled as an unappreciated ploy to promote Apple Store sales while severing itself from legacy content (and SDTV).
I'd be curious to see a desktop vs. notebook DVD Player usage comparison. Or just an estimate of how many people use it at all.
How is the AppleTV crippled?
It does exactly what Apple said it would do:
Stream Content from your iTunes (and iPhoto) Libraries.
Lately, Apple has been pulling some boneheaded moves...they're not merging apps that could be merged but then they merge what should be a standalone app into current apps.
iTunes is the perfect example of bloatware. Leopard's Mail will be the next example...RSS, Notes and ToDo in a Mail client? Come on now. I know it's been previewed already but I hope Apple goes back on this decision to create a standalone RSS app and a standalone Notes/ToDo app and removes RSS from Safari and Mail.
I already do Notes in Mail. My poor Drafts mailbox if full of them. I'd use TextEdit, but when it crashes, it tends to lose everything that isn't saved, so I switched to Mail which auto-saves and re-opens everything when I re-launch the app. Apple probably missed the boat on this one, watched someone like me who uses Mail for notes, and didn't get why I'm doing it. I always assumed everyone else uses Stickies anyhow.
I haven't quite been able to figure Apple's RSS approach out yet, but possibly that's because RSS is still emerging itself. If I remember right, doesn't the RSS visualizer get it's feed from the Safari feeds? Maybe someone just needs to convert an app like Vienna, or write a new one, to interact with the Safari feeds. In Leopard, will the RSS in Mail use the same feeds that are in Safari? Maybe Apple is heading in the direction you want.
I just keep hoping stuff like this means we'll see a nice shiny new Mac mini for under $900 (or preferably under $700) with a built-in Blu-ray player for the Leopard release.
A Mac Mini doesn't have the CPU or GPU to adequately use HD optical media.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pmjoe
If PS3 sells for $600, I think an under $1000 Mac mini with Blu-ray is quite doable, especially if they can design it to use the same drive as for a Blu-ray iMac. You'll be paying ~$200 on top of the rest of the Mac to get it, but it seems doable. It's a nice fit for people hooking mini's up to large or very high-res displays, as well as the really high-res displays on iMacs.
I can pretty much guarantee we'll see some kind of high-def DVD as an option on all Macs before 2009, might not be on all Macs this year, but certainly by first half of 2008.
The PS3 is being sold at a loss. Sony expects to recoup its HW losses from game sales and, potentially, gaining royalities by using the PS3 to help make Blu-ray the next standard.
You'll be paying a lot mor,e than $200 for a Blu-ray drive. Also, HD optical drives use a lot more power than your standard optical drive; not to mention the CPU and GPU that will be maxed trying to decode H.264 for 1080 resolution.
You'll see it in the Mac Pro first as an option. Then, many months later, when the media starts to become more mainstream, you'll see it as an option for the iMac and maybe the MacBook Pro.
In the meantime, you can always buy one of the several external models being sold.
I already do Notes in Mail. My poor Drafts mailbox if full of them. I'd use TextEdit, but when it crashes, it tends to lose everything that isn't saved, so I switched to Mail which auto-saves and re-opens everything when I re-launch the app. Apple probably missed the boat on this one, watched someone like me who uses Mail for notes, and didn't get why I'm doing it. I always assumed everyone else uses Stickies anyhow.
I haven't quite been able to figure Apple's RSS approach out yet, but possibly that's because RSS is still emerging itself. If I remember right, doesn't the RSS visualizer get it's feed from the Safari feeds? Maybe someone just needs to convert an app like Vienna, or write a new one, to interact with the Safari feeds. In Leopard, will the RSS in Mail use the same feeds that are in Safari? Maybe Apple is heading in the direction you want.
I use Journler for all my notes. Steve said he keeps sending himself To Do Items in the form of an Email, which wasn't working to great, and so the idea of Notes and To Dos in Mail came along.
As for Apple's RSS approach, Mail and Safari will use a shared store. I can't remember if Developers will be able to access it or not though. They also have an Aggregator built into iTunes, for Podcasts and such, but it only works for Audio and Video and only if that Audio or Video is in a format that iTunes will read.
That's because Quicktime isn't WMP's competitor. iTunes is. Yes yes, I know iTunes uses the Quicktime codecs for play back. But I think Quicktime's day is over. At least, the Quicktime Player.
I think that's only because iTunes is now the multi headed hydra of the Mac software world. It slices, it dices, it chops and makes smoothies. Apple's desire to cram everything into iTunes is highly annoying. Quicktime WAS WMP's competitor back in the day of WMP6, but it's been lying there, mostly forgotten for so long that it looks sort of basic now.
Quote:
Originally Posted by smashbrosfan
I think it's a case of Quicktime not being sure what it wants to be. All of it's player fuctionality is now done by iTunes, so what's left? Editing? That's iMovie's job. They need to get rid of the app altogether and have the other application take care of the codecs. Quicktime Player is a reminent of OS 9.
Quicktime PRO also does a pretty good job of converting from one codec to another, splitting out audio or video, splitting out frames, joining movies. Sometimes it's much quicker to edit things in Quicktime PRO than one of the heavier editing packages.
I think Quicktime should stick around but lose some of the crap like the movie trailers so it's lighter and of course it should have all the PRO features built in or at least fullscreen.
I quite like Classic Windows WMP6 too though.
I've never quite seen why we need QT Player AND DVD Player either, except for the stupid full screen limitation in Quicktime. Merge the two.
I agree, open up quicktime, don't make it a pain to save the movies and go fullscreen.
You can go fullscreen anyway... It's easy if you know applescript, apple just needs to get a life in that regards, I'm not paying to watch quicktime trailers full screen. As for media, I've got final cut and junk so I don't bother paying for media creation. What I do need is a good binary extractor But w/e.
Comments
Could some longtime Mac user tell me, why has apple decided to have DVD player on its own and not just use Quicktime player instead for all media?
Quicktime is another application i think that need some sort of update.
It would be much more useful if they could allow full screen mode in quicktime ( or simply scrap the pro version and give it all out for free )
I don't understand it either...why can't Apple create an 'iTunes' for movies/videos on Macs. Call it iTheater or something.
iTunes handles music CDs, why couldn't Apple merge DVD Player and QuickTime into iTheater.
Lately, Apple has been pulling some boneheaded moves...they're not merging apps that could be merged but then they merge what should be a standalone app into current apps.
iTunes is the perfect example of bloatware. Leopard's Mail will be the next example...RSS, Notes and ToDo in a Mail client? Come on now. I know it's been previewed already but I hope Apple goes back on this decision to create a standalone RSS app and a standalone Notes/ToDo app and removes RSS from Safari and Mail.
The rule of thumb should be that if more than one app can benefit from one specific feature, that feature should get its own app (and data accessed through an API similar to the way iPhoto and iTunes libraries are accessed in iLife, iWork and third-party apps.)
Problem is that Apple is reluctant to remove features that already exist even if they're not really removed because people will scream bloody murder. I bet there are a lot of people that want the RSS feature to remain in Safari. It could...if RSS was moved to its own app for people that want an awesome RSS reader but accessible to Mail and Safari in an "RSS Browser" similar to the "Media Browser" for those that just want a simple RSS browser.
Make it happen Apple...or else...
Could some longtime Mac user tell me, why has apple decided to have DVD player on its own and not just use Quicktime player instead for all media?
My guess would be too much stuff in one app. A dedicated DVD app can do it better than tacked on to Quicktime. Quicktime is already used to do a lot of things.
The same as Apple does not have contacts and calendar built into the mail app.
It would be much more useful if they could allow full screen mode in quicktime ( or simply scrap the pro version and give it all out for free )
Yeah I agree forcing people to pay for pro for full screen is Apple nickel and dimeing the consumer. But you can play full screen video through iTunes.
but I hope Apple goes back on this decision to create a standalone RSS app and a standalone Notes/ToDo app and removes RSS from Safari and Mail.
Perhaps I don't use RSS enough, but I don't see its need to become an entire app.
It eat up loads of CPU resources ( the most CPU intensive Software H.264 decoder out there ) while doesn't produce the best quality picture.
And i argee with kim. RSS, Notes and Todo is just silly in Mail. However i do expect newsgroup to be in there but it is not. ( Although newsgroup could be a seperate package as well if those mail function could be used for newsgroup posting without Dev rewriting those portion again. )
Perhaps I don't use RSS enough, but I don't see its need to become an entire app.
So you can see QuickTime and DVD Player being separate apps but not Safari and RSS?
RSS could benefit from a better UI. The one in Safari is decent but not nearly powerful enough.
The problem with RSS getting its own app would probably be third-party devs feeling betrayed.
I just keep hoping stuff like this means we'll see a nice shiny new Mac mini for under $900 (or preferably under $700) with a built-in Blu-ray player for the Leopard release.
don't get your hopes up. I can't see that happening until 2009.
The problem with RSS getting its own app would probably be third-party devs feeling betrayed.
Vienna is free, open source, and does nearly everything I'd want an RSS app to do.
http://www.opencommunity.co.uk/vienna2.php
Yeah, it'd be nice if Apple separated this out of Safari though. I haven't found in-browser RSS support that I've liked yet.
I don't understand it either...why can't Apple create an 'iTunes' for movies/videos on Macs. Call it iTheater or something.
iTunes handles music CDs, why couldn't Apple merge DVD Player and QuickTime into iTheater.
Lately, Apple has been pulling some boneheaded moves...they're not merging apps that could be merged but then they merge what should be a standalone app into current apps.
Something like iTheater wouldn't make any sense considering both Apple TV and iPhone will be linked into iTunes.
Something like iTheater wouldn't make any sense considering both Apple TV and iPhone will be linked into iTunes.
That's the other problem, iTunes isn't an app anymore...it's a frickin' platform. Sad really. It's used to sync iPods, iTVs, future iPhones. It's used to sync notes, ToDos, calendars. Why? Because the hardware is sold to PC users and the only ported app that'll do it all is iTunes.
While iTunes has raked up a ton of money for Apple and pleases a lot of PC users, it's a curse to Mac users.
don't get your hopes up. I can't see that happening until 2009.
If PS3 sells for $600, I think an under $1000 Mac mini with Blu-ray is quite doable, especially if they can design it to use the same drive as for a Blu-ray iMac. You'll be paying ~$200 on top of the rest of the Mac to get it, but it seems doable. It's a nice fit for people hooking mini's up to large or very high-res displays, as well as the really high-res displays on iMacs.
I can pretty much guarantee we'll see some kind of high-def DVD as an option on all Macs before 2009, might not be on all Macs this year, but certainly by first half of 2008.
If more and more people are going to be using Mac Mini, etc with a big screen HDTV, the scaler better be top notch.
For me that's an overspecialized waste of a decent general purpose computer. I'd prefer using Apple TV, though so far its specs are disappointing and seem unnecessarily crippled as an unappreciated ploy to promote Apple Store sales while severing itself from legacy content (and SDTV).
I'd be curious to see a desktop vs. notebook DVD Player usage comparison. Or just an estimate of how many people use it at all.
If PS3 sells for $600, I think an under $1000 Mac mini with Blu-ray is quite doable, especially if they can design it to use the same drive as for a Blu-ray iMac. You'll be paying ~$200 on top of the rest of the Mac to get it, but it seems doable. It's a nice fit for people hooking mini's up to large or very high-res displays, as well as the really high-res displays on iMacs.
I can pretty much guarantee we'll see some kind of high-def DVD as an option on all Macs before 2009, might not be on all Macs this year, but certainly by first half of 2008.
The PS3 is sold as a Loss Leader while Apple makes most of their revenue in Hardware sales. Then again, I think the Mini is the worst selling Mac right now, maybe after the Mac Pro but the Mac Pro has an excuse.
Sebastian
For me that's an overspecialized waste of a decent general purpose computer. I'd prefer using Apple TV, though so far its specs are disappointing and seem unnecessarily crippled as an unappreciated ploy to promote Apple Store sales while severing itself from legacy content (and SDTV).
I'd be curious to see a desktop vs. notebook DVD Player usage comparison. Or just an estimate of how many people use it at all.
How is the AppleTV crippled?
It does exactly what Apple said it would do:
Stream Content from your iTunes (and iPhoto) Libraries.
Sebastian
I don't understand it either...why can't Apple create an 'iTunes' for movies/videos on Macs. Call it iTheater or something.
iTunes handles music CDs, why couldn't Apple merge DVD Player and QuickTime into iTheater.
Well first, they already did this. It's called Front Row. Second iTheater already exists, and it does pretty much what Front Row does.
http://www.itheaterproject.com/
Lately, Apple has been pulling some boneheaded moves...they're not merging apps that could be merged but then they merge what should be a standalone app into current apps.
iTunes is the perfect example of bloatware. Leopard's Mail will be the next example...RSS, Notes and ToDo in a Mail client? Come on now. I know it's been previewed already but I hope Apple goes back on this decision to create a standalone RSS app and a standalone Notes/ToDo app and removes RSS from Safari and Mail.
I already do Notes in Mail. My poor Drafts mailbox if full of them. I'd use TextEdit, but when it crashes, it tends to lose everything that isn't saved, so I switched to Mail which auto-saves and re-opens everything when I re-launch the app. Apple probably missed the boat on this one, watched someone like me who uses Mail for notes, and didn't get why I'm doing it. I always assumed everyone else uses Stickies anyhow.
I haven't quite been able to figure Apple's RSS approach out yet, but possibly that's because RSS is still emerging itself. If I remember right, doesn't the RSS visualizer get it's feed from the Safari feeds? Maybe someone just needs to convert an app like Vienna, or write a new one, to interact with the Safari feeds. In Leopard, will the RSS in Mail use the same feeds that are in Safari? Maybe Apple is heading in the direction you want.
I just keep hoping stuff like this means we'll see a nice shiny new Mac mini for under $900 (or preferably under $700) with a built-in Blu-ray player for the Leopard release.
A Mac Mini doesn't have the CPU or GPU to adequately use HD optical media.
If PS3 sells for $600, I think an under $1000 Mac mini with Blu-ray is quite doable, especially if they can design it to use the same drive as for a Blu-ray iMac. You'll be paying ~$200 on top of the rest of the Mac to get it, but it seems doable. It's a nice fit for people hooking mini's up to large or very high-res displays, as well as the really high-res displays on iMacs.
I can pretty much guarantee we'll see some kind of high-def DVD as an option on all Macs before 2009, might not be on all Macs this year, but certainly by first half of 2008.
The PS3 is being sold at a loss. Sony expects to recoup its HW losses from game sales and, potentially, gaining royalities by using the PS3 to help make Blu-ray the next standard.
You'll be paying a lot mor,e than $200 for a Blu-ray drive. Also, HD optical drives use a lot more power than your standard optical drive; not to mention the CPU and GPU that will be maxed trying to decode H.264 for 1080 resolution.
You'll see it in the Mac Pro first as an option. Then, many months later, when the media starts to become more mainstream, you'll see it as an option for the iMac and maybe the MacBook Pro.
In the meantime, you can always buy one of the several external models being sold.
Well first, they already did this. It's called Front Row. Second iTheater already exists, and it does pretty much what Front Row does.
http://www.itheaterproject.com/
I already do Notes in Mail. My poor Drafts mailbox if full of them. I'd use TextEdit, but when it crashes, it tends to lose everything that isn't saved, so I switched to Mail which auto-saves and re-opens everything when I re-launch the app. Apple probably missed the boat on this one, watched someone like me who uses Mail for notes, and didn't get why I'm doing it. I always assumed everyone else uses Stickies anyhow.
I haven't quite been able to figure Apple's RSS approach out yet, but possibly that's because RSS is still emerging itself. If I remember right, doesn't the RSS visualizer get it's feed from the Safari feeds? Maybe someone just needs to convert an app like Vienna, or write a new one, to interact with the Safari feeds. In Leopard, will the RSS in Mail use the same feeds that are in Safari? Maybe Apple is heading in the direction you want.
I use Journler for all my notes. Steve said he keeps sending himself To Do Items in the form of an Email, which wasn't working to great, and so the idea of Notes and To Dos in Mail came along.
As for Apple's RSS approach, Mail and Safari will use a shared store. I can't remember if Developers will be able to access it or not though. They also have an Aggregator built into iTunes, for Podcasts and such, but it only works for Audio and Video and only if that Audio or Video is in a format that iTunes will read.
Sebastian
That's because Quicktime isn't WMP's competitor. iTunes is. Yes yes, I know iTunes uses the Quicktime codecs for play back. But I think Quicktime's day is over. At least, the Quicktime Player.
I think that's only because iTunes is now the multi headed hydra of the Mac software world. It slices, it dices, it chops and makes smoothies. Apple's desire to cram everything into iTunes is highly annoying. Quicktime WAS WMP's competitor back in the day of WMP6, but it's been lying there, mostly forgotten for so long that it looks sort of basic now.
I think it's a case of Quicktime not being sure what it wants to be. All of it's player fuctionality is now done by iTunes, so what's left? Editing? That's iMovie's job. They need to get rid of the app altogether and have the other application take care of the codecs. Quicktime Player is a reminent of OS 9.
Quicktime PRO also does a pretty good job of converting from one codec to another, splitting out audio or video, splitting out frames, joining movies. Sometimes it's much quicker to edit things in Quicktime PRO than one of the heavier editing packages.
I think Quicktime should stick around but lose some of the crap like the movie trailers so it's lighter and of course it should have all the PRO features built in or at least fullscreen.
I quite like Classic Windows WMP6 too though.
I've never quite seen why we need QT Player AND DVD Player either, except for the stupid full screen limitation in Quicktime. Merge the two.
You can go fullscreen anyway... It's easy if you know applescript, apple just needs to get a life in that regards, I'm not paying to watch quicktime trailers full screen. As for media, I've got final cut and junk so I don't bother paying for media creation. What I do need is a good binary extractor