How the iTV Can Replicate the iPod’s Success
Earlier this week, Steve Jobs announced Apple’s big 2007 product, currently codenamed “iTV”. It can stream video from your computer to your TV wirelessly, with a Front Row interface that can be controlled from the comfort of your sofa. Other companies have tried this before, but other companies had also built MP3 players before the iPod.
So how can the iTV, together with the new movie store, replicate the iPod/iTunes success story. Here are a few ideas- some of which are improbable, some may be impossible, but all of which would make for an interesting 2007 and beyond.
Record
Playing video from your computer to your TV is great, but at some point, the iTv has to become a DVR and send recorded video back to your computer. Recording live television, from videos, DVDs, exporting from cameras and sending it all back to your computer would be fantastic.
Back end for Windows
If those Windows users could just as easily plug that iTV in to their real TV, in the winter of 2007, we may be talking about the iTV-halo effect.
Interface to Tivo
Not just Tivo, but Myth TV and every other PVR software back end available out there. If there was a way Apple supported pulling content from your existing DVR, or if the device was left just open enough for a smart hacker out there to add that functionality. And other functionality. Mark my words, this little device, like every other little device, will run Linux.
iPod Dock
Everything has an iPod dock, so why not the iTV. In fact, this is one device that would really benefit from one. If the iTV back end could be the 80GB video iPod instead of your PC, all of a sudden you could view your iPod through Front Row using a remote right on your TV. Bliss.
The Mac Mini
It should be simple enough- through software and/or accessories- to turn the Mac Mini in to an iTV. There should be no need to buy both. As things stand, if the Mac Mini had the right audio and video outputs, there is no reason why it could not function as the iTV.
Accessories
The iPod turned many smaller companies in to very large companies through the accessory market. The iTV is a small device that is ripe for similar add-ons- both software and hardware. Apple is notorious for wanting to control the software, but hardware add-ons should be supported and encouraged.
Access your Mac
If the iTV could become a viable front end to your computer in general, instead of just your media collection, all of a sudden it becomes a much more powerful device.
Social Video
The real media revolution going on today is in short films- all of a sudden YouTube and Google Video have turned every kid with a video camera in to a short film auteur and pushing that content on to the big screen on-demand would make that phenomenon a lot more fun. The iTV is already supposed to access your podcasts- video and audio. iTunes is already missing out on the social audio and video phenomenon and teaming up with Google or YouTube would allow them to tap in to that market.
A Larger Video Store
As things stand right now, the ability to watch iTunes bought television shows on your TV is a more potent idea than the full length movies. Time will tell if people are actually buying Disney Corp. movies from the store, but a near complete iTunes library will go a long way to replicating the success of the music store.
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I think connecting to Windows is a given - as long as they’re running iTunes. The Mac Mini already runs FrontRow, and Frontrow can access movies shared from a different iTunes (afaik).
The ideas I liked most were
1) interface with TiVo / PVR, and
2) dock with the iPod (instead of wireless to iTunes).
If the decoder is built into the iTV, then it should work with ANY iPod right (not just video enabled iPods)
1. Apple is trying to change the way we watch TV, and a PVR is antithetical to that vision. No way, or it would have been done by now.
2. Sure.
3. That what a video converter is for. This device is little more than an Airport Express for video. Why should it have the capabilities to send video in 2 directions? The goal for Apple is that A) We buy content from Apple and store it on our computers and B) That we keep this material on our computers for use. Video will only ever travel from computer to iTV (or another computer via Front Row) in 1 direction only.
4. What do you think the USB port is for?
5. Theoretically speaking, one can already do this with a Mac mini. Many HDTVs have DVI inputs, and there are certainly DVI>HDMI or DVI>Component cables in existence already. Plus, the Mac mini (at least the new Intel ones) do 5.1 surround. I will have to think hard as to whether I would rather have a Mac mini as my entertainment server, or an iTV to stream it from somewhere else.
6. Sure.
7. Isn’t that what a Mac mini is for? What you’re asking for is another computer, not a video streaming device. It can already access movies, photos, and music (both on a local computer on your network, or over the internet). Anything else requires a computer rather than just a decoder chip.
8. Why does Apple need their fingers in every digital pie in existence? Since personal video is an ad-centric business, Apple will stay clear. Besides, viewing the horrible quality flash content on an HDTV (especially one as large as my 77” wall mounted projector screen) would be an eyesore. No way Apple goes in that direction.
9. Yes. More content is better. How is this some secret?
@e:leaf, some of your points are valid- but where did I suggest that my article was revealing some “secret”? A few other points:
* A PVR does change how we watch TV.
* My points are part informed speculation, part wish list, but not at all meant to be some secret, enlightened keyhole in to a larger world.
* Personal social video looks crappy today but bandwidth and disk capacities will only get better.
* On your point 7, I am not asking that the iTV be a computer. I am asking that it allow me to remote-desktop in to my Mac.
You forgot the most important thing to me: ripping.
I can rip CD’s to iTunes to listen to on my iPod.
Why can’t I legally rip my DVD’s to iTunes to watch on iTV (or my iPod)?
Well… I know why….
* A PVR does change how we watch TV.
I agree. A PVR has been far more revolutionary in changing TV habits than the iTunes store. I have used iTunes maybe once or twice to catch a couple of episodes of 24 I missed while I was out of town. But my PVR has been a total sea change. I pause live TV. I record shows. In HIGH-DEFINITION. I record movies. I time-shift.
I also agree on the iPod dock. That seems like a no-brainer.
Why can’t I legally rip my DVD’s to iTunes to watch on iTV (or my iPod)?
The iTV is not a player. It’s only a conduit between iTunes and your TV. If you had a DVD, you would just play it in your DVD player that’s already attached to your TV.
Or alternatively, you could buy a movie from the iTunes store and send it to your TV via iTV/iTunes. If you felt like paying $10-15 for less resolution and no extra features that is.
Why can’t I legally rip my DVD’s to iTunes to watch on iTV (or my iPod)? -Tiger
You may know it but I will remind you anyway. Every DVD is encrypted by CSS and thereby prohibited by the DMCA to circumvent that although anyone can with any open-source app like Handbrake with DeCSS decryption algo.
So, what you and me and everyone else ripping their purchased DVDs are criminals per the DMCA. Until the DMCA’s broad interpretations of such fundamental aspects of copyrights as fair-use and intellectual ownerships are ironed out in the next revision of the law, there won’t be a chance that Apple will make iTunes host self-encoded DVD materials.
Apple is only playing it safe along the lines of the current law. They are in business to sell you videos and movies and they will not do anything to break the supply chain (Hollywood?).
Hollywood may relax their anxieties with DVDs in the future and allow Apple to implement such a feature. Even this scenario will require retooling the DMCA’s wordings to make such legal.
Case in point, iTunes 7 now allow you to sync your music collection for up to five computers you’ve authorized using your iPod even. This wasn’t possible before because of the content owners’ unwillingnes to give that right to Apple and all iPod/iTunes users. Now they have relaxed a bit since they are beginning to realize these actions do not hurt sales. How many of you buy the same titles more than once? For every TV in your house? Nonsense.
So, these greedy content owners are realizing that not allowing these “fair use” principles on “owned” content will only worsen the pirating and p2p sharing problems that is broadband’s killer app.
The iTV is not a player. It’s only a conduit between iTunes and your TV. If you had a DVD, you would just play it in your DVD player that’s already attached to your TV. -Bbx
I say you’re right and have a point. But let me add this, the concept of the iTV by Apple is a very powerful one. It is sort-of like how TiVo forever changed the TV timeshifting landscape.
If the iTV will have a similar impact as the TiVo in the living room, in a few years TiVo itself may become threatened. Now for those who swear by the TiVo and how great it is, the days of the commodity TV broadcast is coming to an abrupt end comes February 2009. Content will all become digital and without the proper authorization from its owners, free TiVo will not work. Newer TiVos can accomodate CableCards to tune to digital QAM and ATSC channels but if you were subsribing to these in the first place, you may already have a DVR anyway.
Of course, older TiVos will still work in the analog domain. TiVos can always capture and digitize the component (RCA) video outputs of set-top boxes and DVRs. Where TiVo will not work (unless authorized by…yes content owners) is time-shifting digital TV broadcasts directly. That is an area where the cablecos and telcos will not allow TiVo. The only niche that TiVo have is in DBS with DirecTV. Those niches are also in trouble of disappearing if not for the behest of TiVo’s loyal fans. But yet again, without free HD content to capture, the TiVo ways will migrate to the iTV ways.
So, let’s get back to the iTV. Apple has obtained explicit rights to unicast (one-to-one) movies to your Mac or PC now. In the future, the iTV itself will morph as the central device to control and download these content, all without a Mac. This is where the TiVo ways will eventually conflict with the iTV ways.
But let’s not say that Apple will not allow the iTV to bypass the Mac for the iTV will be much better in conjuntion with a Mac - the Mac mini and an iTV makes a great pair. There will be things that the Mac can do better and so will the iTV that a Mac isn’t good at.
For example, H.264 decomposition alone can take a toll on any processor for up to multi-Gigabits per second to decompose even a 6Mbps MPEG-4 encoded with H.264/AVC. And this is the area where the iTV will shine and perform better than a general purpose CPUs like the Core Duos.
The G1 iTV will be ordinary, yes, and unexciting. Remember, this is a first gen of a product strategy that will embolden a seismic shift in our TV watching paradigm. Much like the TiVo did.
If this is true then you have to wonder if Apple will eventually purchase TiVo just to have the TiVo UI software in the iTV. Hmmmm…
I’ve got to wonder if there’s some use for that USB port about which we have yet to be informed.
(a quick browse reveals eleaf has had the same thought)
It’s a tell-tale sign that the iTV is, in fact, a miniaturized PPC Mac mini stripped of its capability to power ordinary Mac apps + keyboard + mouse.
It is then an Application Specific Mac (ASM?) containing Application Specific ICs (ASICs) and Software (Front Row 2).
And will, no doubt, run Linux- thanks to some smart hackers out there. And once it can do that, it can be a DVR, video game machine, or anything else you want it to be. Since it has a USB port, a lot of its limitations (besides RAM and processor speed) can be overcome.
It’s a tell-tale sign that the iTV is, in fact, a miniaturized PPC Mac mini stripped of its capability to power ordinary Mac apps + keyboard + mouse.
Given its form factor I seriously doubt the iTV shares any significant portion of its hardware with the Mac Mini. However I would like to know how they’re going to get enough processing power for HD decoding into that space without the thing melting. And I seriously hope there is an API for 3rd party peripherals.
I would like to know how they’re going to get enough processing power for HD decoding into that space without the thing melting. -Ben
The outer shell may be made from similar anodized Al as the MB Pros and new iPod nanos. That material is a good heat conductor. My older PBG4 17 never had any heat prob as my new MB13.
The system-on-a-chip ASIC would already contain a PPC core (G4 on steroid?) and media processors for MPEG decoding, sound, IO, GPU, all in a convenient package with minimal TDP that lets Apple engineers place that board inside a wafer-thin enclosure.
Given its form factor I seriously doubt the iTV shares any significant portion of its hardware with the Mac Mini. -Ben
Anyway, perhaps you’re right but Front Row 2 appears to be a native OSX app don’t you think? Why would Apple re-engineer the code for another platform for no apparent gain?
The reasons the iTV is being delayed is not because the hw is not ready - it is and you saw Steve’s demo right? The thing works. What the iTV is waiting for are the content and lots of it.
I really do doubt that Apple would use a different platform aside from the Mac or iPod to use in the iTV.
Why? Time to market is one. Another, feasibility - What is the reason for not using your current platform and what advantage? Does decoding H.264 justifies another platform? What about running Front Row? Does it make sense to re-engineer that code to fit a “new” platform?
All those Q’s do not point to a different hw platform that Apple had or has. It would be very wise and prudent of them to use an existing platform that they know how to tweak to excellence.
Just because the older Mac mini G4 hw is obsoleted does not mean it doesn’t fit the mold for the iTV. My experience in system engineering say, there is no good reason not to take that design as the reference design of the iTV. It already works as it is.
All it needs is the MPEG nitro decoding engine, and voila! You have the iTV.