Apple Announces Apple TV (Formerly 'iTV')

HD size doesn't matter much since it supports streaming from a PC. The big question is if it supports h.264 so I can replace my BLT.

Apple Store just came back up; $349 in Canada.

From the apple site:

Video

* Video formats supported: H.264 and protected H.264 (from iTunes Store): 640 by 480, 30 fps, LC version of Baseline Profile; 320 by 240, 30 fps, Baseline profile up to Level 1.3; 1280 by 720, 24 fps, Progressive Main Profile. MPEG-4: 640 by 480, 30 fps, Simple Profile

Audio

* Audio formats supported: AAC (16 to 320 Kbps); protected AAC (from iTunes Store); MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps); MP3 VBR; Apple Lossless; AIFF; WAV

http://www.apple.com/appletv/specs.html


What I can't find is any limit on the width of the encoding. ie: 1500k, 5000k etc. That's the only question left, as 1280x720 is supported, but at 24fps. is that what 720p broadcasts it in the US?

Note that a new version of iTunes is required:

System requirements
Mac or PC
iTunes 7.1
Mac: Mac OS X v10.3.9 or later
PC: Windows XP Home/Professional (SP2)
AirPort Extreme, Wi-Fi 802.11b, 802.11g, or 802.11n wireless network6 (wireless video streaming requires 802.11g or 802.11n), or 10/100 Base-T Ethernet network

I can't find any info on iTunes 7.1. Wonder if it will 'serve' my eyeTv recordings to the Apple TV (which, BTW, I think is a dumb name).

Craig

I /think/ it will serve any video that is in iTunes. We need confirmation of that, it says h.264 AND h.264 DRM, so I would assume.....

Apple site said the device support all resolution except 1080P.

Just did a "Take a Tour" on the web site. It says you need iTunes 7.1.

I updated to 7.0.2 yesterday to check out the 'Browse Cover Art' feature. It works OK on my desktop but seems to have problems with my Laptop graphics.

Anyway the look of 7.1 appears a little different. Only had a quick play with 7.0.2 but it seems a wierd way of browsing although it does look good. I'll play some more but me thinks 7.1 has an upodated feature.

Cheers

Alan

sorry for the noob question, but can DVDs be ripped in h.264 format?

If so, do you guys think iTunes/iTV would recognize them?

Thanks!

Yes, they can.

Yes, it does.

You have to use settings that Quicktime understands, but once you do that you can import the video into iTunes without problem.

There are various ways to do this, I prefer Nero Recode as it's very simple and produces great output. Also blazingly fast.

You can also use MeGUI, check out the doom9 forums for information on all of the H.264 UIs and setting information.

Per the specs at: http://www.apple.com/appletv/specs.html

It seems to dance around 1080i support.

"Enhanced-definition or high-definition widescreen TVs capable of 1080i 60/50Hz, 720p 60/50Hz, 576p 50Hz (PAL format), or 480p 60Hz"

Interesting wording.

So, does that mean if you use Window Media Center 2005 and record a CBS HD program on your PC that you can then stream the show to this device????

No, Windows Media Center doesn't save files in MPEG-4 format.

Evidently not until you've re-encoded (transcoded?) it to H.264 and imported it into iTunes, and as long as you don't want 1080i.

I hope it's not really as restrictive as it sounds. If it turns out so, I'll go elsewhere. I have hundreds of movies (SD and HD; .mpg, .vob, .ts) I'm not about to reprocess.

I had hoped Apple would break the log-jam. Plan B, anyone?

No MPEG2 support at all? I guess this thing is interesting if you get all your video content from Itunes - but not from DVDs, HDTV broadcasts, etc.

I guess the DLINK and NETGEAR boxes are better options for me then, if this cannot play OTA HD I record on my HTPC and or Server.

Please correct me if I'm wrong (and I hope that I am), but h.264 is mpeg4, right? So it's not really a DVD rip. It's a rip and convert (with the requisite quality loss). Yes? Or am I missing something.

Basically, I'll be interested if it can play true ripped files with no extra compression applied. Is this possible?

-Steve

What is Apple doing messing around with 720p? The world is moving to 1080p.....get with it Apple!

Looking forward to the first "review'.....

It appears that the unit falls short with the it's video capabilites, however it may have promise as a hi-def photo viewer and music player. It may be worth $300 if can do a good job with photos and music.

Jay

I have a HD picture and Music player, a Roku, that will also play MPEG2 files. I will wait for the reviews, but if it doesn't support MEG2 then it will be of little use. I have an HD camcorder (Sony) that I can import into HDmovie on the mac. Then what? The Camcorder records in .ts files. Nice but it would be nice if this was as good as my Roku, but it looks like it is going to fall short.

Unfortuately, the AppleTV seems to be geared much more toward selling you stuff from the iTunes Music Store than playing the stuff you already have.

Sniff: I had such hopes. . . .

Oh well, maybe Netgear and D-Link have gotten it right this time?
And, for a few hundred more, there's the Mac Mini. . . .
(Btw, I think Apple crippled the AppleTV to avoid cannibalizing sales of the Mini.)

Well, remeber guys, iTunes supports MPEG2 video in its catalog. It categorizes them as "movies" and plays them like any other iTunes-ready file. It will even play .VOB files from a regular DVD if you rename them to .MPG.

So if this new Apple TV will play "everything" that iTunes will play, then you might be in luck.

The website admits only to flavors of H.264.

Argh! I wasted $20 trying to get QuickTime to play mpeg2 program streams, if that is true. (I never bothered with iTunes on my wife's Mac because I didn't see any need to download content, rather than ripping CDs.)

Incidentally, if you waste $20 on the mpeg2 part of QuickTime, it will play the video fine but still won't play AC3 or even LPCM audio! For us it's a steaming pile.

Oh! That's MPEG2, well...it's more then that. To just /play/ them there is a rumor that renaming the .vob file to .mpg will let it be played. However, if you want menu, chapter, vob spanning etc then that's another matter.

I've seen two different kinds of "Play it as a DVD" solutions. using ISOs and just having video_ts and audio_ts on a hard drive. Those are really the only two solutions that don't involve a "Media" drawback, the drawback is diskspace.

So yes, your right. h.264 is the current itteration of video compression, with the mp4 container it can do a lot of things (chapters, subtitles, multiple audio streams, cover art...actually, anything. mp4 has something like "user space" where you just define it and go). It can not (to my knowledge, feel free to correct me people) do menus yet...and even if I am corrected on that, it would not be "standards based". Think Nero, they can encode h.264 to comply to the standards (recode 2 can make iTunes importable mp4 files) but it can also do "Nero Digital". Both are technically mp4/h.264...but the first is widely implemented while the Nero Digital stuff has some new bells-and-whstles AND Nero defined streams that don't play nice with others (but can work fine if they are just flat ignored, which is what better players do).

To the question, it is unknown. As I said, I've seen people say that renaming a vob to an mpeg lets it work in iTunes, but that's rather well useless IMHO as most vobs are split (Never tried, gapless may work..dunno). However for full ripped DVD support (Menus, extras etc) I don't think there is an answer formally, but most seem to be assuming not. Remember, Apple wants you buying the movie and shows on iTunes...which don't include the extras. What reason would they have to ship with the ability to play better versions of something they sell? .

Nothing saying that the people around these parts and doom9 will not find a way to do it. With things like XMBC, MyMovies and the other userspace modifications...I'm fairly sure that once the AppleTV hits the streets we may find that it does more then anyone...even Apple...intended.

Edit: Disclaimer: I'm newish to this whole thing, so if I'm not using the correct term, or getting something wrong...PLEASE correct me. Also, don't take my statements as fact, validate yourself. For mp4/h.264, Nero implementation and fundamental codec capabilitys head over to doom9's forums. For AppleTV information the Apple support forums are the best place I've seen so far.

I like the concept of the Apple TV. If it had DIVX support it would be awesome, perhaps it will be hacked after release.

I would not have a problem ripping dvd's to Mpeg-4 with nero recode and using itunes to stream them to the apple tv.

Does apple provide any HD content in the iTunes store? I would not mind paying for content from iTunes but I would like to get it in HD.

How big of a pipe do you have? It's like 8-10GB for an hour of 1080i.

I surfed iTunes store and can't tell if they do. Anyone seen it?

How would you down load a movie in HD and then be able to transfer it to a iPod device as well. It would require some kind of downsizing routine that I haven't seen.