iVote for iTunes. It has proven the most convenient way for people to manage storage and playback of media files. No other program has come close... yet.
Granted, any integration would need to be done very carefully as to not ruin the superb iTunes interface.
Perhaps a movie library as distinct from the music library. Click on that in the source (left most) column, and you'd be presented with a list of movie genres and titles. Embedded tags like stars, director, release date, etc could be presented in the same way as MP3 or AAC tags.
The biggest drawback to this as I see it is that music listening and movie watching differ drastically. People routinely browse a list of songs and rapidly switch between them. Short attention spans have people constantly switching songs. However, with movies or video content, it is far less likely for people to skip the last 1/3 of a program just to start another one... The typical time between selection changes is much longer. Still, I think it could work.
I say QuickTime, since that's what you use to play movies, like how iTunes plays music. iMovie is for movie editing. With that logic, then the Music Store should be associated with SoundTrack or GarageBand.
QuickTime Movie Store would be cool, if only it had movie-management capabilities like iTunes' music-management capabilities. That would require some metadata to be written directly to the movie files.
I doubt it will be iTunes. Although iTunes now has movie trailers, those movie trailers are being cross promoted with movie soundtracks, so it is kinda logical to have them in there. If iTunes does end up having movies, it will change the sort of application iTunes is.
If it was in my hands, I would think a new app would be developed for movie distribution with a similar UI to iTunes. iMovie and QuickTimes interfaces don't lend themselves too well with a store type of flow.
QuickTime Movie Store would be cool, if only it had movie-management capabilities like iTunes' music-management capabilities. That would require some metadata to be written directly to the movie files.
I currently use iTunes to do just that... I have separate playlists for a bunch of movies that I like to keep organized (music videos, GI Joes, etc...) when I want to watch the video I just hit command-L to view the file in the finder and launch it from there...
I also uncheck all of them so they don't get loaded to my iPod...
I rather think a very enhanced, revamped version of QuickTime Player would be required... one that borrows from (and builds upon) both the UI of DVD Player and iTunes.
Dudes, Apple should rework the Quicktime Player to be more of an iTunes-for-movies program. Right now, it is just a viewer, and people use other programs for the sorting. Then when a movie store comes along, it will be easy to integrate it into the QTP. But, think about it..... ohkay?
Apple has Quicktime Player to sync with the iPod for Movies, iPhoto for photos, and iTunes for tuneskies..... eh? COME ON!
QuickTime Player right now useless. If Apple got rid of the QT Player completely and replaced it with a brand new iTheater app, I'd be really happy.
DVD Player could disappear too and it's functionality could be merged into iTheater.
iTunes is the default CD player. iTheater could handle DVDs the same way iTunes handles CDs. They'd pop up in the sidebar.
There's no reason for QuickTime Player to exist anymore. iMovie and FCP have replaced it as editing programs. You have to pay for QT to get editing features enabled. Why pay for that when you can get iMovie editing free or unquestionably better editing via FCP apps.
QT Player is probably the most archaic Apple app. It has essentially remained unchanged since QT4 with only minor aesthetic tweaks. The reason is probably to keep it compatible with as many OS X versions as possible.
But there is zero reason to keep it around in Tiger. Zero! Please Apple, if you're listening, make some kind of iTheater app that acts like iTunes...but for movies. It's the next logical step since GarageBand integrates with iTunes to store user created songs...iMovie should integrate with iTheater for user created movies.
If this is to big of a change, QT Player could be kept but I think the default movie file app should not be QuickTime Player anymore.
kip kam sol , I think your observations are correct, but I would suggest instead of merging DVD Player and Quicktime Player into one new iApp (that I guess would be part of the iLife package and probably be downloadable), keeping the DVD Player as a lightweight viewer, keeping Quicktime Player as an editor and viewer, and also making a new App. (which sort of contradicts my previous statements)
Many of you may not know, but the ability to have a dvd player window in any Mac OS X application is there, much like the WebCore of Safari. Also, some people really just do need those quick editing features of QuickTime Pro. Apple could introduce a new program, iTheater, which could use Quicktime and an encoding DVD Player. I think it would work as a three pane window: one pane for the "source list," one for the "playlist list" and another for the "viewer." The whole window could be made into a viewer or made into full screen. Too bad companies do not like people ripping DVDs the way they sort of allow people to rip CDs.... darmnit.....
And then, in four years, when broadband spreads wide enough and HD sizes catapult high upwards, the iTheater Movie Store will debut.
I have wondered about this myself. Should it happen, and it might.
I think the idea of a completely new iTheater application modeled after iTunes and integrating the QT Player, DVD player and DVD burning functionality of three other apps, and integrating th iTunes store infrastructure makes the the most sense. It might say something like "Powered by QuickTime".
QuickTime is the underlying media platform. The brand is still important. But, as many have pointed out, the player seems dated and featureless at this point.
I can see iTheater also being nicely integrated with iLife such that my personal iMovie creations can be easily added to my iTheater library (like I can do with GarageBand).
It is important to note a few things about Apple's video plans:
1. They have invested a LOT in video technology at various levels.
2. Steve has stated that the download model is not ready (at least) because of bandwidth and "instant gratification" issues (like music).
3. The iPod is not expected to have full video capabilities because no one wants to watch video on a 2" screen.
4. Steve has stated that there is (currently) no "headphone equivalent" for video right now.
Regarding the last three points, I think it is important to realize, I don't think I have Steve categorically deny any work on video products and services. He's just stated what he sees the current problems to be. No doubt, they are working on trying to find ways to solve those problems. Perhaps a new (different) device than iPod. Perhaps a new (different) distribution model. Perhaps a new (different) display model.
I happen to believe that Apple WILL do something with video. Item #1 seems too string for me to counter 3-4. I think they would love to have a solution from "creation to consumption" of all digital media (music and video).
The iTunes UI paradigm is something Apple can indeed build on. In order to support video playback accordingly I think Apple needs to encapusulate the video files in a container that contains metadata. Basically we need tagging just like mp3/AAC since it is so vital to organization.
I still recommend they keep a small lightweight player for those that want to keep their ram footprint down when playing video.
Who knows maybe there is a cottage industry waiting to form for independent Video productions. I don't have much hope in seeing video downloads for quite some time. The infrastructure is getting there but bandwidth for anything above DVD quality is going to be tough.
AVC and Divx are going to be important. We need to be able to compress 2hrs of video into a file that is 300MB or less. Once that happens at acceptable quality there may be a market.
Comments
Originally posted by Nebagakid
What program would an Apple branded movie download store be associated with?
Quicktime Player? iMovie? DVD Player? iTunes?!
iTunes.
Download to iMovie and send to iDVD.
Granted, any integration would need to be done very carefully as to not ruin the superb iTunes interface.
Perhaps a movie library as distinct from the music library. Click on that in the source (left most) column, and you'd be presented with a list of movie genres and titles. Embedded tags like stars, director, release date, etc could be presented in the same way as MP3 or AAC tags.
The biggest drawback to this as I see it is that music listening and movie watching differ drastically. People routinely browse a list of songs and rapidly switch between them. Short attention spans have people constantly switching songs. However, with movies or video content, it is far less likely for people to skip the last 1/3 of a program just to start another one... The typical time between selection changes is much longer. Still, I think it could work.
Originally posted by FormatC2
iMovie.
Download to iMovie and send to iDVD.
This makes little sense IMO. My best guess would be QT, but iTunes would be second since it already has a distribution model in place.
QuickTime Movie Store would be cool, if only it had movie-management capabilities like iTunes' music-management capabilities. That would require some metadata to be written directly to the movie files.
If it was in my hands, I would think a new app would be developed for movie distribution with a similar UI to iTunes. iMovie and QuickTimes interfaces don't lend themselves too well with a store type of flow.
That is my 2 cents.
Originally posted by eVo
QuickTime Movie Store would be cool, if only it had movie-management capabilities like iTunes' music-management capabilities. That would require some metadata to be written directly to the movie files.
I currently use iTunes to do just that... I have separate playlists for a bunch of movies that I like to keep organized (music videos, GI Joes, etc...) when I want to watch the video I just hit command-L to view the file in the finder and launch it from there...
I also uncheck all of them so they don't get loaded to my iPod...
Something like, QuickTime Theater.
Apple has Quicktime Player to sync with the iPod for Movies, iPhoto for photos, and iTunes for tuneskies..... eh? COME ON!
DVD Player could disappear too and it's functionality could be merged into iTheater.
iTunes is the default CD player. iTheater could handle DVDs the same way iTunes handles CDs. They'd pop up in the sidebar.
There's no reason for QuickTime Player to exist anymore. iMovie and FCP have replaced it as editing programs. You have to pay for QT to get editing features enabled. Why pay for that when you can get iMovie editing free or unquestionably better editing via FCP apps.
QT Player is probably the most archaic Apple app. It has essentially remained unchanged since QT4 with only minor aesthetic tweaks. The reason is probably to keep it compatible with as many OS X versions as possible.
But there is zero reason to keep it around in Tiger. Zero! Please Apple, if you're listening, make some kind of iTheater app that acts like iTunes...but for movies. It's the next logical step since GarageBand integrates with iTunes to store user created songs...iMovie should integrate with iTheater for user created movies.
If this is to big of a change, QT Player could be kept but I think the default movie file app should not be QuickTime Player anymore.
Many of you may not know, but the ability to have a dvd player window in any Mac OS X application is there, much like the WebCore of Safari. Also, some people really just do need those quick editing features of QuickTime Pro. Apple could introduce a new program, iTheater, which could use Quicktime and an encoding DVD Player. I think it would work as a three pane window: one pane for the "source list," one for the "playlist list" and another for the "viewer." The whole window could be made into a viewer or made into full screen. Too bad companies do not like people ripping DVDs the way they sort of allow people to rip CDs.... darmnit.....
And then, in four years, when broadband spreads wide enough and HD sizes catapult high upwards, the iTheater Movie Store will debut.
I think the idea of a completely new iTheater application modeled after iTunes and integrating the QT Player, DVD player and DVD burning functionality of three other apps, and integrating th iTunes store infrastructure makes the the most sense. It might say something like "Powered by QuickTime".
QuickTime is the underlying media platform. The brand is still important. But, as many have pointed out, the player seems dated and featureless at this point.
I can see iTheater also being nicely integrated with iLife such that my personal iMovie creations can be easily added to my iTheater library (like I can do with GarageBand).
It is important to note a few things about Apple's video plans:
1. They have invested a LOT in video technology at various levels.
2. Steve has stated that the download model is not ready (at least) because of bandwidth and "instant gratification" issues (like music).
3. The iPod is not expected to have full video capabilities because no one wants to watch video on a 2" screen.
4. Steve has stated that there is (currently) no "headphone equivalent" for video right now.
Regarding the last three points, I think it is important to realize, I don't think I have Steve categorically deny any work on video products and services. He's just stated what he sees the current problems to be. No doubt, they are working on trying to find ways to solve those problems. Perhaps a new (different) device than iPod. Perhaps a new (different) distribution model. Perhaps a new (different) display model.
I happen to believe that Apple WILL do something with video. Item #1 seems too string for me to counter 3-4. I think they would love to have a solution from "creation to consumption" of all digital media (music and video).
The iTunes UI paradigm is something Apple can indeed build on. In order to support video playback accordingly I think Apple needs to encapusulate the video files in a container that contains metadata. Basically we need tagging just like mp3/AAC since it is so vital to organization.
I still recommend they keep a small lightweight player for those that want to keep their ram footprint down when playing video.
Who knows maybe there is a cottage industry waiting to form for independent Video productions. I don't have much hope in seeing video downloads for quite some time. The infrastructure is getting there but bandwidth for anything above DVD quality is going to be tough.
AVC and Divx are going to be important. We need to be able to compress 2hrs of video into a file that is 300MB or less. Once that happens at acceptable quality there may be a market.