Could Apple TV HD downloads skew the HD DVD vs Blu-ray war?
By Sean P. Aune
Just as it seems that the HD DVD vs Blu-ray war is winding down, the reality of high definition downloads looms even larger than ever over the battlefield.
As the HD DVD and Blu-ray camps have battled it over domination of the physical media side of high definition, many people have been saying that it won’t matter anyway due to downloads. Many have scoffed at this idea because there was no easy way to do it, let alone show it on your HDTV.
Leave it to Steve Jobs to try to throw a monkey wrench into every argument people could throw at the concept.
For now, Apple is only offering HD download rentals, but they are coming in via the updated Apple TV, and will be offering Dolby 5.1 audio as well as the HD picture. With the interface being the much maligned pet project of Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, this gives you instantaneous ability to play the movies to your television with no go-between connections.
Mr. Jobs has also accomplished something that neither of the HD camps could; he brought together all the studios under one umbrella. Disney, Fox, Lionsgate, MGM, Miramax, Paramount, Touchstone, Universal, and Warner Brothers have all signed on to support Apple movie rentals, and when you add in the over 600 television shows, podcasts, 4 millions songs and more that you can now use the Apple TV to display on your television, a unit that does nothing but play DVDs seems a bit obsolete.
Will this be the be-all-end-all answer to HD downloads? Probably not, but it will certainly be the first salvo of many to come at the traditional physical media. Add in the Netflix/LG streaming device coming later this year, and physical media could be in for a rough road ahead as streaming of films becomes more common place.
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January 16th, 2008
would this work on any hdtv or only a tv bought from apple? also is it a one-time view or can you watch it as often as you want? i would like more details about the operation of this. you know the cost of the downloads?
January 16th, 2008
It will work on any TV. I’ve had an Apple TV for a while now and have grown to love it for music alone, the upcoming upgrade is going to awesome!!
January 17th, 2008
This article is a joke!. “instantaneous ability”?? Who’s going to supply the bandwidth and broadband speeds to download HD content “instantaneously” ??.
Do the people who try to peddle movie downloads realize that in order to achieve Blu-Ray definition (both image and sound) you’d have to download 25 to 50 gigabytes?.
I’m not talking about some WMV scaled at HD resolution with MP3 audio, but the real thing.
The average broadband connection is 1.5 to 2 Mbits. In some places there’s still people at 512K cable modem.
H*ck, Bell’s entry ADSL is 768K down 128K up.
http://www.bellsouth.com/consumer/inetsrvcs/inetsrvcs_compare.html