Apple TV, ‘horrible on HDTV’
p2pnet.net news:- It’s as if Apple had launched an iPod that sounds like a cassette player.
That’s how Associated Press tech writer Peter Svensson sums up Apple’s latest Gosh-Golly appliance, Apple TV.
It’s not designed to connect via the older single-lead RCA video cable so one needs a TV which takes, ” either the three-lead component cable (the jacks are usually colored red, green and blue) or the all-digital HDMI cable. Newer standard-definition sets may have component inputs, but most TVs out there don’t”.
Enter high-definition TV. So, “It’s surprising, then, that videos from Apple’s online iTunes store look horrible on an HDTV set,” says Svensson, continuing:
The movies and TV shows have the same nominal resolution as DVDs, but look much blurrier, approaching the look of standard-definition broadcast TV.
To make it worse, these barely watchable movies aren’t cheap. “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” costs $15 on iTunes, almost as much as the DVD. TV episodes are more reasonably priced, at $2 each.
It’s possible to convert home footage shot with high-definition video cameras to play on the Apple TV, but not in their native resolution, known as 1080i, so some quality is lost even there.
I compared the Apple TV to Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360 game console, which can more or less do the same things, acting like a bridge between a Windows computer and an HDTV set.
After having my eyes gently caressed by the Apple TV’s menus, the Xbox interface is like a slap in the face. It’s garish and confusing, and you have to press more buttons to get where you want to go.
Oh dear.
But at least, “the Xbox does your HDTV justice”.
Not worry, though, because Apple may soon have some innovative answers, thanks to Free product development.
Stay tuned.
Also See:
Associated Press – Apple Appalls Where Xbox Excels, April 6, 2007
Free product development – Apple TV DIY, April 7, 2007
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Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local politicians. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance. Don’t just complain. Do something!
April 9th, 2007 at 12:56 pm
Sounds like Apple overcompressed the video to squeeze it through everyone’s “broadband” connection. When Internet speeds increase maybe they’ll be able to sell a higher quality version. I find it hard to believe Apple would screw this up so badly.
April 10th, 2007 at 12:28 am
Well YOU may not believe it, but I certianly do! Apple may do OK in getting music to an ipod, but high quality video is another story!
I think they will find that out as they go along.