Well I'm glad they didn't leave me hanging, but this news doesn't make me any happier. It's extremely frustrating to buy something and not use it the way it was shown for a month afterward.
the impression I got from the Apple TV Demo was that the main interface was going to take the form of the square, bordered 2-tier menu in the center of the screen, instead of the hierarchical list on the right side of the screen. I was wondering if something like this was coming to Front Row
I think that is only for the Rental section. Whether it's Blockbuster, Best Buy or Netflix people are accustomed to searching for movie titles by the front cover. I think the rest of the AppleTV interface will still remain the same. Though, it would be nice to see some sort of Delicious Library-type interface option.
You simply can't compress movies down to a couple of gigs and expect them to be HD. That's why Blu-Ray movies take up 10x more space and deliver bit rates 10x higher than an "HD" movie from iTMS.
Do we actually have any indication at this point as to how big the iTunes HD movies are going to be? Where did this "couple of gigs" come from?
And, as Hattig points out:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hattig
Also it's not like 1/10th the bitrate will translate to 1/10th the image quality (if you can somehow have a fractional measure of image quality). 720P is half the pixels to encode, so that's less information to have to encode straight up. In addition doubling the bitrate might only add a fractional amount of information into the visual quality past a certain point.
The bit-rate on HD discs is for the most part overkill. Firstly, they have to encode twice the number of pixels per frame (1080p Vs. 720p), secondly the 30 Mbps is only really necessary when using MPEG-2 compression. H.264 is a much more efficient codec.
Maybe in those next two weeks they'll add Safari to the list of things you can do on your giant computer monitor now called a TV.
If you want a full computer experience on your big TV, buy a computer. The beauty of my AppleTV is its simplicity why ruin that by making it a Mac-wannabe.
According to all the announcements, it won't be "HD" movies, so I wish sites would stop parroting that line. Yes, it will use the HD standards, but the compression will render it worse definition than a standard DVD. And just using HD standards like MP4/AAC and 720p doesn't make something HD.
You have 2 options with Apple TV: YouTube quality, or almost-DVD quality for $1 more.
Wow that is 100% wrong. HD is nothing but resolution, what you're talking about is compression and things like artifacts and macroblocking which can be effects of compression but have nothing to do with the res of the source.
And even in that arguement you're wrong. "You have 2 options with Apple TV: YouTube quality, or almost-DVD quality for $1 more"
What a joke.
And you don't even know what the hd rentals will even look like yet.
Anyone know if this update will also update front row on macs? Maybe this is a sily question since i can rent movies in iTunes but I like using the remote instead of the track pad on my MacBook some times... also would be nice if I could browse podcasts with this interface... oh well.
I figure they will with time but they'll probably do it a while after appltv so it can have it's day in the sun.
I've now re-wired my HT for HDMI and the AppleTV seems to be at a useful point for me.
About to make the plunge.
I'm pretty confident that the DVD's I've ripped, the home video I've done in iMovie, and probably HD downloads from ATS will look good.
But when I go to the Apple Store and look at the content they have on their demo machines, the quality looks worse than VHS.
Is that what the standard ATS downloads look like? If so, then that's far from 'near-dvd' quality. If not, then they're doing a grave disservice to the product by even showing that crap as a demo.
In any event, I'll still be going with the ATV for music, pictures and the above mentioned 'other' content', but I'm curious what the story is on the Apple Store demo content.
The original iTunes content wasn't that flash but has improved quite a bit. Even converting to iPod & AppleTV in iTunes is much better than 6 months ago. Did you view the content at normal viewing distance on a decent TV? (I exclude the entry-level Bravias from this - the colour/depth is awful)
The thing a lot of these arguments don't address is the subjectivity aspect of encoding i.e. what should stay & what should go. This is the reason DivX & 3ivx MPEG-4/ASP videos look better than Quicktime's AVC (despite a 10-30% compression disadvantage). Sony have also introduced a new encoder for their HD camcorders giving more details in the areas you're likely to look at (faces) so we're improving all the time.
The best thing to do is use your eyes and ignore the specs. I've seen a few ~3.5Mbps 720p H.264 downloaded TV shows and they look great on my TV much better than and SD broadcast and DVD. Unless Apple messes it up again the rentals should be fine and they'll improve over time - remember, they're just rentals.
AppleTV is great & we're starting to watch ours more than normal TV & it's a great way to show photos to friends as well as the best HiFi I've had (convenience not quality)
For those contemplating the Apple TV, here's my nontechnical review as an Apple TV owner since May 2007. My setup: AppleTV-HDMI-Receiver-HDMI-480p (DVD resolution) Projector. (We don't have a regular TV.)
The TV shows from iTunes have looked generally great, most are widescreen and the picture is crisp (no jaggies or other obvious compression artifacts). The audio sometimes gets out of sync with the video - which may be a result of my passing it through a receiver first, dunno.
We purchased one movie from iTunes - Ratatouille - and it was definitely at what I would consider DVD resolution. I have viewed an archive MP4 of one of my feature film DVDs on the Apple TV and it is only a little less sharp than the original - probably having more to do with compression choices than limitations of the Apple TV. (The "Apple TV" setting in the Elgato Turbo works great.) If this is how the non-HD rental movies will look, the Apple TV will have fulfilled its promise.
Video podcasts are all over the map, though. Some of the "HD" podcasts look quite good over this setup and others are full of compression artifacts. For example the neat This Week @ NASA podcast has unwonderful video quality.
The Apple TV is a good home movie viewing platform. It would be better if folders could be created within the Movie category. They (currently) cannot, so I identify all home movies as "TV Shows" where at least they can be grouped together. There is a little shareware program called Lostify that does batch changes to the meta data of MP4's - which, without getting too into it, is unfortunately necessary if you have lots of home movies, because iTunes makes you drag down menus one-at-a-time for every movie file you want to recategorize as a TV Show.
The YouTube connectivity is fun, especially if you are already into YouTube. However, the YouTube videos are generally low resolution and horribly compressed (through no fault of the Apple TV) and don't look that great when projected on our setup, so we don't watch 'em unless there is a must see film going around. (More FOTC, please.)
In terms of software, the iTunes integration is easy - just like an ipod that's always plugged in - so it is always updating the latest podcast or subscribed TV show, etc.
In terms of the hardware, it sure would be nice to have an off switch for easier reboots - the device does refuse to wake up once in a while, otherwise almost never crashes. Right now, I have to pull the cord out of the back of the device and re-insert it - which always makes me worry that I'm shorting it out or something. I'm thinking of adding one of those lamp cord switches to its cord for this purpose. A reset button would be even better...
So, the Apple TV is not perfect, but the things it had to get right - like video quality and ease of use - it does get right.
i don't understand why the lack of AirTunes isn't a bigger deal?
playing music to multiple speakers directly from the aTV would be so convenient.
I was thinking that feature was going to be included, but iLounge's preview makes it seem the opposite of what you would expect. Why would you want to play back streamed audio? It already does that!
Maybe in those next two weeks they'll add Safari to the list of things you can do on your giant computer monitor now called a TV.
It already has too many features. If it just booted up and went straight to the movie rental screen (with the bricks along the top), and that was its only feature, then it would be less nerdy and ordinary people would understand immediately what it does, and they would want to buy it to save them having to return movies to the Blockbuster.
The reason Apple and other companies keep failing in this area because they are still trying to sell Digital Living Room/Convergence as the Big New Idea, something people don't want or understand.
The ACTUAL Big New Idea they should be trying to sell is Internet Movie Rentals. It is something far more concrete and understandable (no more trips to Blockbuster), and the first company to grasp this and sell a box that does ONLY this will make a killing.
It already has too many features. If it just booted up and went straight to the movie rental screen (with the bricks along the top), and that was its only feature, then it would be less nerdy and ordinary people would understand immediately what it does, and they would want to buy it to save them having to return movies to the Blockbuster.
The reason Apple and other companies keep failing in this area because they are still trying to sell Digital Living Room/Convergence as the Big New Idea, something people don't want or understand.
The ACTUAL Big New Idea they should be trying to sell is Internet Movie Rentals. It is something far more concrete and understandable (no more trips to Blockbuster), and the first company to grasp this and sell a box that does ONLY this will make a killing.
And it looks like Apple has done this. I know I've read several posts here and elsewhere from people who have purchased a new AppleTV and are patiently and impatiently awaiting the "Take 2" update. Also, i still maintain my "4 out" Netflix account, but I've now rented 7 movies from iTunes because the moment struck me. I love instant gratification!
PS: Perhaps I'm completely off base, but it seems like the people who want the simple items to be more complex are the same ones who want the complex items to be less complex. For instance, I have a friend who calls iTunes bloatware because it has a store, codec conversion and burning capabilities built in, but then won't buy an AppleTV until it has a web browser and access to email. I just don't get it.
And it looks like Apple has done this. I know I've read several posts here and elsewhere from people who have purchased a new AppleTV and are patiently and impatiently awaiting the "Take 2" update.
The Take 2 update *adds* rentals to all the other features it already has. I am suggesting they take out all the previous features (which were unsuccessful anyway) and only have movie rentals.
That way the movie rental screen can be the first thing it shows when it boots up and the last thing when it shuts down which is the least confusing GUI, and makes it clear what you're buying, In it's current form it is too amorphous and unsure of itself.
Actually, doesn't anyone remember the Flickr-feature malfunctioning on Steve at the keynote? It looked like there was something wrong with downloading images from Flickr, but the software would still happily start a slideshow, showing black screens. That's a bug in my book. If that happens during the high profile opening keynote, I dread to think what other rough edges are lurking beneath the surface.
Quote:
I am suggesting they take out all the previous features (which were unsuccessful anyway) and only have movie rentals.
That's a horrible idea. The biggest reason I bought AppleTV in the first place was so I could have my music library in the living room through an easy to use interface. With movie rentals not coming to Europe for another few months (heck, I'm not even sure we will get them in the Netherlands by that time, we don't even have movie downloads yet) that's probably still going to be the primary use for some time to come, for me.
I do think the new interface (which definitely is different, just look at the walkthrough on the Apple website, the welcome screen giving access to all the features is very different) looks too cluttered, I actually think it is a shame they're changing it so drastically. Maybe it's nicer to use, but it's definitely not nicer to look at. Actually, fingers crossed that one of the delays is some tweaking of the interface to make it look better.
And finally, I too would like Apple to add web-functionality to the Apple TV. I think that similar technology to that on the iPhone could make the web very useful from the living room couch, especially when combining Apple TV with the Apple wireless keyboard. Maybe they could even introduce a wireless mouse that doubles as a remote I'm sure there are ways to not bother people that don't want all this with these things and still make it possible for those that do want it. Why not allow configuration of what menu's to show, so everyone can just choose the menu's they use while not being bothered by all the other ones?
The software's not ready yet even though they said it would be. And yet, surprisingly, the sun still came up here where I live...
The quality isn't wonderful. How do we know? I thought the software wasn't ready yet...
Reality Check time. The little Apple TV costs well less than a good quality VHS VCR did in it's heyday, and does a very good job at what it was designed to do. For Pete's sake, go out into the Home Entertainment market, look at the cost of things in general, and get a sense of scale. There are people paying $2800 for 3-foot audio cables for their systems, and we're beating up a device that plays music, videos, photos, and soon allows wireless download movie rentals for under $300.
I'm glad to see such drama over a device some of you guys said would be "dying a slow death". While I'm looking forward to the update, AppleTV gets plenty of usage in the meantime.
For everyone who wants to be able to browse the web on their @TV, you should try it on a Wii first to see how it shouldn't be implemented.
At a minimum, in order to do the web correctly on the @TV it would need to support a Bluetooth wireless keyboard and mouse/pointing device, and @TV as it exists today doesn't have BT...
In the end, I think I'm in the "don't overdo it" camp.
For everyone who wants to be able to browse the web on their @TV, you should try it on a Wii first to see how it shouldn't be implemented.
At a minimum, in order to do the web correctly on the @TV it would need to support a Bluetooth wireless keyboard and mouse/pointing device, and @TV as it exists today doesn't have BT...
In the end, I think I'm in the "don't overdo it" camp.
Or if they want to they can buy a Mac Mini. It's an ideal mismash of media extender and personal computer.
Quotes like these are hilarious. Have you USED an Apple TV? Go to their TV show or movie trailer menu and tell me those are "youtube quality". The quality of the images is 99% as good as my digital cable signal.
Overall, I'm really impressed with aTV and look forward to HD res content.
I have an AppleTV , HDMI, and 42' plasma and the image looks like crap- unless you Handbrake a DVD, which looks acceptable or view photos. Evrything sold on iTunes looks barely better than VHS. looks fine on an iPod but not on a large HDTV.
And the HD that Steve talked about is pure BS. Read this:
The Take 2 update *adds* rentals to all the other features it already has. I am suggesting they take out all the previous features (which were unsuccessful anyway) and only have movie rentals.
That way the movie rental screen can be the first thing it shows when it boots up and the last thing when it shuts down which is the least confusing GUI, and makes it clear what you're buying, In it's current form it is too amorphous and unsure of itself.
Only Steve Jobs could sell you an empty box with its only intention is to $ell Itunes content only. It should be re-called the iTunesJukeBox.
We wanted an update that increased funtionality on the device but instead only got more options to buy from iTune$.
Apple, not the movie studios, has botched this product.
Comments
the impression I got from the Apple TV Demo was that the main interface was going to take the form of the square, bordered 2-tier menu in the center of the screen, instead of the hierarchical list on the right side of the screen. I was wondering if something like this was coming to Front Row
I think that is only for the Rental section. Whether it's Blockbuster, Best Buy or Netflix people are accustomed to searching for movie titles by the front cover. I think the rest of the AppleTV interface will still remain the same. Though, it would be nice to see some sort of Delicious Library-type interface option.
Any news on 10.5.2?
I think Apple needs a few more irons in the fire
This is just crap.
Better to wait and release bug-free software.
You simply can't compress movies down to a couple of gigs and expect them to be HD. That's why Blu-Ray movies take up 10x more space and deliver bit rates 10x higher than an "HD" movie from iTMS.
Do we actually have any indication at this point as to how big the iTunes HD movies are going to be? Where did this "couple of gigs" come from?
And, as Hattig points out:
Also it's not like 1/10th the bitrate will translate to 1/10th the image quality (if you can somehow have a fractional measure of image quality). 720P is half the pixels to encode, so that's less information to have to encode straight up. In addition doubling the bitrate might only add a fractional amount of information into the visual quality past a certain point.
The bit-rate on HD discs is for the most part overkill. Firstly, they have to encode twice the number of pixels per frame (1080p Vs. 720p), secondly the 30 Mbps is only really necessary when using MPEG-2 compression. H.264 is a much more efficient codec.
Maybe in those next two weeks they'll add Safari to the list of things you can do on your giant computer monitor now called a TV.
If you want a full computer experience on your big TV, buy a computer. The beauty of my AppleTV is its simplicity why ruin that by making it a Mac-wannabe.
McD
According to all the announcements, it won't be "HD" movies, so I wish sites would stop parroting that line. Yes, it will use the HD standards, but the compression will render it worse definition than a standard DVD. And just using HD standards like MP4/AAC and 720p doesn't make something HD.
You have 2 options with Apple TV: YouTube quality, or almost-DVD quality for $1 more.
Wow that is 100% wrong. HD is nothing but resolution, what you're talking about is compression and things like artifacts and macroblocking which can be effects of compression but have nothing to do with the res of the source.
And even in that arguement you're wrong. "You have 2 options with Apple TV: YouTube quality, or almost-DVD quality for $1 more"
What a joke.
And you don't even know what the hd rentals will even look like yet.
Anyone know if this update will also update front row on macs? Maybe this is a sily question since i can rent movies in iTunes but I like using the remote instead of the track pad on my MacBook some times... also would be nice if I could browse podcasts with this interface... oh well.
I figure they will with time but they'll probably do it a while after appltv so it can have it's day in the sun.
OK, guidance solicited...
I've now re-wired my HT for HDMI and the AppleTV seems to be at a useful point for me.
About to make the plunge.
I'm pretty confident that the DVD's I've ripped, the home video I've done in iMovie, and probably HD downloads from ATS will look good.
But when I go to the Apple Store and look at the content they have on their demo machines, the quality looks worse than VHS.
Is that what the standard ATS downloads look like? If so, then that's far from 'near-dvd' quality. If not, then they're doing a grave disservice to the product by even showing that crap as a demo.
In any event, I'll still be going with the ATV for music, pictures and the above mentioned 'other' content', but I'm curious what the story is on the Apple Store demo content.
The original iTunes content wasn't that flash but has improved quite a bit. Even converting to iPod & AppleTV in iTunes is much better than 6 months ago. Did you view the content at normal viewing distance on a decent TV? (I exclude the entry-level Bravias from this - the colour/depth is awful)
The thing a lot of these arguments don't address is the subjectivity aspect of encoding i.e. what should stay & what should go. This is the reason DivX & 3ivx MPEG-4/ASP videos look better than Quicktime's AVC (despite a 10-30% compression disadvantage). Sony have also introduced a new encoder for their HD camcorders giving more details in the areas you're likely to look at (faces) so we're improving all the time.
The best thing to do is use your eyes and ignore the specs. I've seen a few ~3.5Mbps 720p H.264 downloaded TV shows and they look great on my TV much better than and SD broadcast and DVD. Unless Apple messes it up again the rentals should be fine and they'll improve over time - remember, they're just rentals.
AppleTV is great & we're starting to watch ours more than normal TV & it's a great way to show photos to friends as well as the best HiFi I've had (convenience not quality)
Good luck, McD
The TV shows from iTunes have looked generally great, most are widescreen and the picture is crisp (no jaggies or other obvious compression artifacts). The audio sometimes gets out of sync with the video - which may be a result of my passing it through a receiver first, dunno.
We purchased one movie from iTunes - Ratatouille - and it was definitely at what I would consider DVD resolution. I have viewed an archive MP4 of one of my feature film DVDs on the Apple TV and it is only a little less sharp than the original - probably having more to do with compression choices than limitations of the Apple TV. (The "Apple TV" setting in the Elgato Turbo works great.) If this is how the non-HD rental movies will look, the Apple TV will have fulfilled its promise.
Video podcasts are all over the map, though. Some of the "HD" podcasts look quite good over this setup and others are full of compression artifacts. For example the neat This Week @ NASA podcast has unwonderful video quality.
The Apple TV is a good home movie viewing platform. It would be better if folders could be created within the Movie category. They (currently) cannot, so I identify all home movies as "TV Shows" where at least they can be grouped together. There is a little shareware program called Lostify that does batch changes to the meta data of MP4's - which, without getting too into it, is unfortunately necessary if you have lots of home movies, because iTunes makes you drag down menus one-at-a-time for every movie file you want to recategorize as a TV Show.
The YouTube connectivity is fun, especially if you are already into YouTube. However, the YouTube videos are generally low resolution and horribly compressed (through no fault of the Apple TV) and don't look that great when projected on our setup, so we don't watch 'em unless there is a must see film going around. (More FOTC, please.)
In terms of software, the iTunes integration is easy - just like an ipod that's always plugged in - so it is always updating the latest podcast or subscribed TV show, etc.
In terms of the hardware, it sure would be nice to have an off switch for easier reboots - the device does refuse to wake up once in a while, otherwise almost never crashes. Right now, I have to pull the cord out of the back of the device and re-insert it - which always makes me worry that I'm shorting it out or something. I'm thinking of adding one of those lamp cord switches to its cord for this purpose. A reset button would be even better...
So, the Apple TV is not perfect, but the things it had to get right - like video quality and ease of use - it does get right.
i don't understand why the lack of AirTunes isn't a bigger deal?
playing music to multiple speakers directly from the aTV would be so convenient.
I was thinking that feature was going to be included, but iLounge's preview makes it seem the opposite of what you would expect. Why would you want to play back streamed audio? It already does that!
Maybe in those next two weeks they'll add Safari to the list of things you can do on your giant computer monitor now called a TV.
It already has too many features. If it just booted up and went straight to the movie rental screen (with the bricks along the top), and that was its only feature, then it would be less nerdy and ordinary people would understand immediately what it does, and they would want to buy it to save them having to return movies to the Blockbuster.
The reason Apple and other companies keep failing in this area because they are still trying to sell Digital Living Room/Convergence as the Big New Idea, something people don't want or understand.
The ACTUAL Big New Idea they should be trying to sell is Internet Movie Rentals. It is something far more concrete and understandable (no more trips to Blockbuster), and the first company to grasp this and sell a box that does ONLY this will make a killing.
It already has too many features. If it just booted up and went straight to the movie rental screen (with the bricks along the top), and that was its only feature, then it would be less nerdy and ordinary people would understand immediately what it does, and they would want to buy it to save them having to return movies to the Blockbuster.
The reason Apple and other companies keep failing in this area because they are still trying to sell Digital Living Room/Convergence as the Big New Idea, something people don't want or understand.
The ACTUAL Big New Idea they should be trying to sell is Internet Movie Rentals. It is something far more concrete and understandable (no more trips to Blockbuster), and the first company to grasp this and sell a box that does ONLY this will make a killing.
And it looks like Apple has done this. I know I've read several posts here and elsewhere from people who have purchased a new AppleTV and are patiently and impatiently awaiting the "Take 2" update. Also, i still maintain my "4 out" Netflix account, but I've now rented 7 movies from iTunes because the moment struck me. I love instant gratification!
PS: Perhaps I'm completely off base, but it seems like the people who want the simple items to be more complex are the same ones who want the complex items to be less complex. For instance, I have a friend who calls iTunes bloatware because it has a store, codec conversion and burning capabilities built in, but then won't buy an AppleTV until it has a web browser and access to email. I just don't get it.
And it looks like Apple has done this. I know I've read several posts here and elsewhere from people who have purchased a new AppleTV and are patiently and impatiently awaiting the "Take 2" update.
The Take 2 update *adds* rentals to all the other features it already has. I am suggesting they take out all the previous features (which were unsuccessful anyway) and only have movie rentals.
That way the movie rental screen can be the first thing it shows when it boots up and the last thing when it shuts down which is the least confusing GUI, and makes it clear what you're buying, In it's current form it is too amorphous and unsure of itself.
Most things look 'just fine' in a demo.
In the wild is another thing altogether.
I'd prefer they release it when its solid.
Actually, doesn't anyone remember the Flickr-feature malfunctioning on Steve at the keynote? It looked like there was something wrong with downloading images from Flickr, but the software would still happily start a slideshow, showing black screens. That's a bug in my book.
I am suggesting they take out all the previous features (which were unsuccessful anyway) and only have movie rentals.
That's a horrible idea. The biggest reason I bought AppleTV in the first place was so I could have my music library in the living room through an easy to use interface. With movie rentals not coming to Europe for another few months (heck, I'm not even sure we will get them in the Netherlands by that time, we don't even have movie downloads yet) that's probably still going to be the primary use for some time to come, for me.
I do think the new interface (which definitely is different, just look at the walkthrough on the Apple website, the welcome screen giving access to all the features is very different) looks too cluttered, I actually think it is a shame they're changing it so drastically. Maybe it's nicer to use, but it's definitely not nicer to look at. Actually, fingers crossed that one of the delays is some tweaking of the interface to make it look better.
And finally, I too would like Apple to add web-functionality to the Apple TV. I think that similar technology to that on the iPhone could make the web very useful from the living room couch, especially when combining Apple TV with the Apple wireless keyboard. Maybe they could even introduce a wireless mouse that doubles as a remote
The quality isn't wonderful. How do we know? I thought the software wasn't ready yet...
Reality Check time. The little Apple TV costs well less than a good quality VHS VCR did in it's heyday, and does a very good job at what it was designed to do. For Pete's sake, go out into the Home Entertainment market, look at the cost of things in general, and get a sense of scale. There are people paying $2800 for 3-foot audio cables for their systems, and we're beating up a device that plays music, videos, photos, and soon allows wireless download movie rentals for under $300.
At a minimum, in order to do the web correctly on the @TV it would need to support a Bluetooth wireless keyboard and mouse/pointing device, and @TV as it exists today doesn't have BT...
In the end, I think I'm in the "don't overdo it" camp.
For everyone who wants to be able to browse the web on their @TV, you should try it on a Wii first to see how it shouldn't be implemented.
At a minimum, in order to do the web correctly on the @TV it would need to support a Bluetooth wireless keyboard and mouse/pointing device, and @TV as it exists today doesn't have BT...
In the end, I think I'm in the "don't overdo it" camp.
Or if they want to they can buy a Mac Mini. It's an ideal mismash of media extender and personal computer.
Quotes like these are hilarious. Have you USED an Apple TV? Go to their TV show or movie trailer menu and tell me those are "youtube quality". The quality of the images is 99% as good as my digital cable signal.
Overall, I'm really impressed with aTV and look forward to HD res content.
I have an AppleTV , HDMI, and 42' plasma and the image looks like crap- unless you Handbrake a DVD, which looks acceptable or view photos. Evrything sold on iTunes looks barely better than VHS. looks fine on an iPod but not on a large HDTV.
And the HD that Steve talked about is pure BS. Read this:
http://www.dvdfile.com/index.php?opt...=6497&Itemid=5
The Take 2 update *adds* rentals to all the other features it already has. I am suggesting they take out all the previous features (which were unsuccessful anyway) and only have movie rentals.
That way the movie rental screen can be the first thing it shows when it boots up and the last thing when it shuts down which is the least confusing GUI, and makes it clear what you're buying, In it's current form it is too amorphous and unsure of itself.
Only Steve Jobs could sell you an empty box with its only intention is to $ell Itunes content only. It should be re-called the iTunesJukeBox.
We wanted an update that increased funtionality on the device but instead only got more options to buy from iTune$.
Apple, not the movie studios, has botched this product.