I was reading this story about someone replacing their Apple TV with a Mac Mini. I think this is an interesting idea. I have been thinking about a Home Theater Computer for some time now. I am not looking for something to solve all my problems. I am not going to get rid of my TiVo. I think the standalone DVR is the only way to go. There are somethings that I really want a home theater computer for.
There is a minimal list of things I want a media computer to do:
Podcasts Youtube Hulu Joust Network Websites MP3 Upconvert DVDs Bluray DVDs Play Music Display photos from Flickr
It is a shame that none of the set top boxes out there like VUDU or Apple TV do this. There is a lot of good free content out there. Right now the set top boxes let you get to minimal free content. They are closed platforms limiting the kind of content you can get to. It is a shame that I have to set up a media computer to get to this content.
I understand it will not make any money for them like letting you rent or purchase content would, but it would make the box more useful. It would make it so customers used the boxes more often. If people are using your box you get more chances they might decide to purchase or rent something. It also open up the doorway to advertise to the users.
This is really a game of chicken. Both Sides think the other side needs them more. Both sides think if they do not need to give in. Both of them think they are better off in control.
They are both wrong is the problem. NBC thinks it can make more money with other online providers. They want to make different bundles because they think it will bring more revenue. What NBC is missing what customers love about iTunes. not needing to buy albums, just cherry picking ones they want. If NBC wants to force customers to buy content they don't want to get what they want, they are making a mistake. They run the risk losing customers to other content.
The mistake that iTunes is making is that they are opening the door to other download providers. NBC, Sci-fi, and USA networks have been the cornerstones of the iTunes Video store. If content is king, other providers will play ball with NBC to get this content. Those providers what a chunk of what iTunes has.
The interesting thing about NBC's decision for me is how a year ago it was a big story how iTunes saved the Office. After being saved by iTunes the Office has become a hit. One of the anchors of NBC's Line up. It is funny to me how this would not be important to NBC.
My guess is that NBC has no way to figure out how many people who viewed the Office on iTunes. They think they could get that many people on their own site when they launch it. The problem is that NBC is trying to be in more control when they do not understand the world they are operating. This is a major problem.
One interesting bit was this.
In addition to the pricing issue, NBC Universal wants iTunes to stiffen anti-piracy provisions so computer users would not have easy access to illegal downloads.
What are they talking about. Do they want Apple computers not to work with bittorrent? Do they want iTunes files harder to crack? Do they want more control over the Mac platform. All three of these are bad ideas. I want to know what they want.
Fortune editor-at-large Brent Schlender wrote an interesting article about why the AppleTV is a bust. I do not have an AppleTV, I do not know anyone who has an AppleTV, I do not know anyone who is planning on getting an AppleTV. I think that lack of desire, in the prime group of first adopters is a pretty bad sign.
Before the AppleTV was released I read a lot of stories how this box could really change things. I read a couple of stories that called this a Netflix killer. I think it is far from that. Right now I am not sure AppleTV will still be alive in another year.
Using the AppleTV if feels like a Television device for people who have a disdain for television. To start with the lack of a DVD player is a big mistake. I understand that Apple thinks DVDs are going away. I know that offering a download service it a comment about the future of DVDs. But if you are trying to make my life simpler I either need a way to play the DVDs I already have or a way to get them to the AppleTV. Now I cannot use the AppleTV to replace my DVD player. I understand you are trying to keep prices down, but there should be a way to run a Mac Mini in Apple TV mode if it does not fit into your price point.
I also understand that AppleTV is a statement that broadcast and cable TV will be replaced by download. Right now that is how people get TV. The AppleTV is not a DVR replacement. You still need a DVR to record broadcast or cable TV. On top of that there is no clear path to transfer programs from a DVR to an Apple TV. It can be done, on an around the corner path.
There is one quote that really caught me:
You get the feeling that Apple didn't create this thing because it was insanely great but in order to freeze competitors out of downloadable video.
That might be why they did it, but they are doing a disservice to themselves. I know we live in a world where most consumer electronics can be upgraded via software patch, but the problems with the AppleTV are much greater than a patch can fix.
The Big Gap is the place between early adapters and average consumers. The Big Gap is the difference between a single company being able to carve out a business and a whole industry being able to thrive. The Big Gap is often the difference between what people are saying and what they are doing. Right now that big gap is between Apple being able to sell TV shows on iTunes and the average customer wanting to pay for TV show downloads.
A new report from Forrester Research says people are not willing to pay for TV show downloads. This does not surprise me at all. People feel that they are already paying enough for TV. People pay a lot of money for cable, they do not want to pay more for other TV.
Only a sliver of the video-viewing masses -- about 9 percent -- have the know-how, time, money and patience to surf the Internet for programming, according to the Forrester report.
I am in that 9 percent, but I am still not willing to do it. I missed a couple of important episodes of Heroes, but I am not willing to pay $2 an episode to catch the ones I missed. I will just watch something else instead.
I know that television producers have made a lot of money with TV shows on DVD. TV shows DVDs have been big sellers. I think that people see downloads as different than DVDs. I think the downloads are not as friendly or collectible as the DVDs. Until people can burn downloads onto DVD I think this problem will continue.
Television producers face a real problem. They will have a problem passing along any more cost along to the consumer. Consumers are going to spend their money else where. The 30 second ad is coming to an end. Television producers and networks have to find a new way to get advertisers messages across. That might mean less revenue for them. That will turn the world of television up side down.
Lets see if the Apple TV has any power to change this. I do not think it will.
According to iPod Observer, Disney CEO Bob Iger has revealed that iTV Has a Small Hard Drive. This answers one of the questions I have. My guess is that the hard drive will be small, just large enough for network performance not to be a concern.
Bob Iger refers to the TVR experience. Wow, I think that this is a new term. My guess is that he is referring to Television recorder. Most people use the term PVR (personal video record) or DVR (digital video recorder). I wonder if we are seeing the birth of a new term.
PS, We know that Steve Jobs is running Disney when the CEO of Disney becomes Bob iGer.
But I also inserted the DVD versions of the two movies in my laptop, and the difference was stark. The DVD versions, in both cases, were noticeably sharper. The lower video quality of the downloaded movies would have been especially obvious if I'd connected my computer to a big-screen TV -- a move Apple and many others see as the next step for online video.
.....
The few dollars I'd save with Unbox or iTunes movie downloads aren't enough to compensate for all these shortcomings. With DVDs, I can easily move from players attached to my home TV sets to the DVD-ROM drives on my computers to the $89 portable player I bought to keep my 6-year-old daughter Sara amused on long car trips
.....
The transition to digital downloads won't ``happen overnight,'' Jobs told the Wall Street Journal. ``It takes years of investment,'' he said.
I'm happy to let Apple, Amazon and others make that investment, as long as they don't expect me to help that investment pay off until downloads are faster, video quality is better and prices are lower.
I am not sure how much control the download services will have on speed or price. If the price is too low the movie companies will say no. Speed is all about your internet collection. I wonder how much Apple and Amazon will be able to effect these things.
Replacing CDs with iTunes was a no brainer. The iPod and iTunes made listening to music easier for most people. It looks like the movie services make it harder than a DVD to watch movies. I think this is going to be the hard thing to overcome.
I also think that Apple and Amazon need to get companies to allow movies to be ripped into people's collections. Right now this is a major problem. Maybe they should work with rental companies to make discs that cannot be ripped and the ones I buy from the store can. I think that will be a barrier for these services to take off.
iTV - I Could swear Someone Else Owns that trademark
I looked at Apples Announcements today about the new iPods and new iTunes Movie Store. I think that Apple has done a lot get into a place where they can download video to people. I think they answered a lot of the questions I had last week.
I am happy to see that the movies and TV shows will be downloaded at 640x480 now. I think this is important. This makes it much more watchable on a larger screen. It will still look kind of crappy on a big TV. I wonder if they are working their way up to HD signals. That would take a lot more bandwidth.
I am not sure about the selection of movies. They are launching with 75 movies. That is a lot less than Amazon has right now with Unbox. Apple is only launching with movies from Disney. I wonder how long it will take Steve to get other studios on board.
I am interested in seeing the iTV hardward. I could swear that someone owns that trademark already. Maybe Apple bought it too. It has HD outputs, I wonder if HD content is coming. I wonder if that hardware will have a hard drive or not. If there is HD content without a hard drive, that will be rough on home networks. The iTV is an answer that Amazon Unbox does not currently have.
I think the iTV as shown implies that Steve Jobs has no interest in broadcast. He has said before that he was not interested in making a DVR. The iTV would lead me to believe this is true. There are no video inputs just video outputs. I wonder if it will be able to stream DVDs also.
I think the new iPod Nano without video is a good move. The Nano is already the most popular iPod ever. I see no need to ad video pay back to that product. I think it helps them create a value proposition for the regular iPods. I think they are really creating a family of products not just putting the same functions on every product.
