# New iTV (Not final name)



## MacFreak (Sep 12, 2006)

Its about time!!!  

HDMI and more..  Awesome!!! 

It looks like this {a flatter Mini} it's called iTV. That's a codeword. we need to come up with a better name. Interface is like next gen front row 1/2 size of Mac Mini, built-in power supply, USB, Ethernet, 802.11 "wireless component video", optical audio and HDMI ports, plus old RCA stereo audio ports. Works with Apple Remote Like a Mac Mini... iTV is its name (not final).


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## mindbend (Sep 12, 2006)

Well they've guaranteed a sell to me. I'm just now in the HDTV market and this will work perfectly.

My only complaint from today's announcements are that 640x480 isn't going to cut it in the long run. It's fine to start out with and will still look quite good at a distance, but 1080P is the future, hell even 720P is way better than 640x480. IN short, it will look way better than SD, but nowhere near as good as it could.


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## andyhargreaves (Sep 12, 2006)

Is this official anywhere?  Any idea on price?


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## mindbend (Sep 12, 2006)

http://www.macworld.com/news/2006/09/12/showtime/index.php

$299


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## MnM (Sep 12, 2006)

Sounds sweet, I'll prolly buy a HDTV in january so i'd definitely get an iTV. Once again problem is quality. 640 is great yeah but i'd much prefer 720P which we'll have to wait on. I hope its soon.


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## Satcomer (Sep 12, 2006)

When it comes out for sale I am definitely getting one. One more way I think Apple should integrate their iPods is the in card DVD player setup. If you could play the iPod movies in this setup it would great.


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## MacFreak (Sep 12, 2006)

My understand that they said its not 640 x 480. Its HDTV. Sound like its full HDTV supported.


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## Mikuro (Sep 12, 2006)

I doubt they'd use HDMI if it didn't support HD. You should be able to pump HD data (should be 5-20mbps) over 802.11g in real time, and if even an iPod can handle SD H.264, it shouldn't be _too_ hard to process HD H.264 in a set-top box.

But I didn't watch the event. Did he specifically say no HD?


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## mindbend (Sep 12, 2006)

Ok, right about the HDMI, but where is Apple expecting you to get HD video (720P or better) to run through the iTV? (Since iTunes won't get it to you).

Or maybe they're just planning ahead.


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## MnM (Sep 12, 2006)

I believe full HD is supported but not sure( HD trailer playing from apple.com to your tv). But my problem with quality is the movies you download from the ITMS. Its only 640...if you stream that to your TV and then stretch it on a 42 or 50 inch plasama its probably not that great.

Should have been full HD support and a built in video resizer to resize videos specifically for your ipod. This way your tv gets good quality and you don't kill space on your ipod.


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## fryke (Sep 12, 2006)

I'll use my MacBook instead, thank you. Connects to my video beamer just fine, and even with iTV, my MacBook would still have to be running and provide the movie. FrontRow works fine on my MacBook - and things look gorgeous on the beamer. But I guess there _is_ a market for this. Desktop computer users mostly, of course.


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## ksv (Sep 12, 2006)

Where's the TV tuner and the optical drive?  Without those, the device is pretty useless unless you buy all your music and movies from iTunes.


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## Captain Code (Sep 12, 2006)

I noticed they just said 802.11 networking, not 802.11*g* in the stream of the event. I think they think they'll be using 802.11*n* by then, so new Airports probably in the works as well. I don't think you'd get good performance with g since it already can't play an avi video without crapping out, at least in my experience.


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## Captain Code (Sep 12, 2006)

The thing has optical audio out so it supports Dolby 5.1 or better which is great. I guess the movies they sell on the store are going to be Dolby Digital.


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## Thank The Cheese (Sep 12, 2006)

mindbend said:


> IN short, it will look way better than SD, but nowhere near as good as it could.



will it? standard def is 768x576 (PAL), so I'd say it would look about the same, perhaps even slightly worse.

looks great, but I still plan on buying a Mac Mini instead, because I don't want to have my iMac on and doing nothing just to stream video to my TV.


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## mindbend (Sep 12, 2006)

True, the specs for SD may indicate something better, but we all know that in reality American (digital) SD is a horrific mpeg-2 transmission, which won't hold up nearly as well as h264 or even a nicely compressed mpeg4.

I watched last season of Lost on my 20" iMAc (dragged it into the bedroom like a TV). From about 8-10 ft away, even 320x240 looked surprisingly decent. I was really surprised by how watchable it was. In some ways it was better than digital cable thanks to cleaner compression, but obviously the 320x240 held it back. But keep in mind also that average old-school NTSC TV won't show you anywhere near all of those SD lines, so in that sense 640x480 on an LCD will be noticeably better than SD on an older TV.


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## MrNivit1 (Sep 12, 2006)

Just a historical note... I remeber reading something about an internet set-top box hooked up to a TV a few years ago.  Now where did I read this? Hmmm.. oh yeah, Gate's book back in '96.

http://www.microsoft.com/billgates/roadahead/cChap4.asp

Seems Jobs is executing a working plan that Gates couldn't (Media Center PC, anyone?).

This is just what the "iTV" reminded me of.


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## mindbend (Sep 12, 2006)

Does anyone know the deal with the 640x480 resolution in terms of the widescreen format. I see they have widescreen formatted movies (Gone in 60 secs) as well as 4:3 (Good Will Hunting).

So what is going on there in terms of resolution? Are they cropping the widescreen version or are they doing an anamorphic conversion? I don't feel like burning money right now just to find out, but I'm tempted.

At a quick glance the Gone in 60 secs trailer looked slightly more pixelated (i.e. cropped) than the Good Will Hunting trailer, but I may just be kidding myself.

This is obviously important in that people should know if the widescreen format version is really more like 640x375 or something as opposed to a stretched 640x480.


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## Mikuro (Sep 13, 2006)

mindbend said:


> Does anyone know the deal with the 640x480 resolution in terms of the widescreen format. I see they have widescreen formatted movies (Gone in 60 secs) as well as 4:3 (Good Will Hunting).
> 
> So what is going on there in terms of resolution? Are they cropping the widescreen version or are they doing an anamorphic conversion? I don't feel like burning money right now just to find out, but I'm tempted.


I've wondered this myself. All I can say is that the mp4 format certainly supports stretching, just like DVDs.

It's also possible that widescreen movies will be _wider_ than 640, merely hovering around 640x480=307,200 pixels. Old video iPods could support wider content as long as the overall area size was close to the standards Apple published. So a 16:9 movie could actually be 720x400, or even slightly larger.

Apple didn't take advantage of this flexibility before, but then, they didn't have any real reason to, either. Before, the intent was more to watch them on iPods; that's no longer the case.


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## MacFreak (Sep 13, 2006)

iTV do have HDMI port ready. That obviously supported HD. It will support 640 and better.


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## mindbend (Sep 13, 2006)

The question for me isn't whether or not iTv supports HD (it clearly seems to). The question is where the heck do I get HD source video since iTunes doesn't supply it.

And if I get HD from my cable/antenna and/or a Blu Ray disc, I don't need an iTv.

I'm definitely getting an iTv because I want to build an all computer-based library, but it's a shame my library will be outdated at some point when they eventually are able to provide HD footage and I'll have to buy it again. Unless 

I'm missing something.


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## fryke (Sep 13, 2006)

Then I'd suggest a Mac mini and a big harddrive instead. I, too, dream of a vast digital library of media in my living room, but I don't necessarily want to _stream_ that from another computer in the office. I'd rather have it right where it is.


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## CharlieJ (Sep 13, 2006)

They will not be able to call this itv as this is a tv channel in the uk


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## nixgeek (Sep 13, 2006)

CJ MAC OSX IPOD said:


> They will not be able to call this itv as this is a tv channel in the uk



Well, according to what I've read this is only an interim name until the official name is decided on.


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## lurk (Sep 13, 2006)

You all are missing the point I can now justify the XServ and the 8 disk raid array.  That bugger is noisy in a bad way so put it in the garage and then stream you content silently into you living room.

Not. A. Bad. Thing.


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## Thank The Cheese (Sep 13, 2006)

nixgeek said:


> Well, according to what I've read this is only an interim name until the official name is decided on.



MacTV?


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## Qion (Sep 13, 2006)

I guess I'm missing the real usefulness of this product. If I'm to spend 300 dollars on a piece of equipment that picks up a signal and sends a picture to my TV, it better damn well send any picture that I want it to. I don't want to be limited to what iTunes can do, and I want to be able to easily replace my DVD and CD players. Renting a DVD, ripping it, and streaming it to my TV sounds both illegal and time-consuming.


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## nixgeek (Sep 13, 2006)

Thank The Cheese said:


> MacTV?



Been there, done that.

And from the reputation of that Mac, it probably wouldn't be a good idea.


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## Tommo (Sep 14, 2006)

MrNivit1 said:
			
		

> Just a historical note... I remeber reading something about an internet set-top box hooked up to a TV a few years ago.  Now where did I read this? Hmmm.. oh yeah, Gate's book back in '96.
> 
> http://www.microsoft.com/billgates/roadahead/cChap4.asp
> 
> ...



Well as I understand the info on this it needs iTunes running on a PC or Mac for it to work so it does not stream directly from the internet. 

It is funny I have Windows system and an Xbox 360 that have been doing that for nearly a year now, plus I can play games on the 360 in HD as well. Not bad for a non working plan that Steve Jobs is executing, and they say Microsoft always copies Apple.


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## Captain Code (Sep 14, 2006)

Qion said:


> I guess I'm missing the real usefulness of this product. If I'm to spend 300 dollars on a piece of equipment that picks up a signal and sends a picture to my TV, it better damn well send any picture that I want it to. I don't want to be limited to what iTunes can do, and I want to be able to easily replace my DVD and CD players. Renting a DVD, ripping it, and streaming it to my TV sounds both illegal and time-consuming.




It's illegal in the US but most other countries aren't as backwards   I'm not talking about ripping movies you rented but ones you own you have rights to do whatever you want for personal use.  I think most people have DVD players already though so it's not going to replace that.  It's a lot easier to put the DVD in the player the iTV is probably sitting ontop of than to rip it.


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## fryke (Sep 14, 2006)

Depends. If you have 300+ DVDs and a couple of friends over, it's much faster to preview some of the movies from digital files than to swap DVDs every couple of minutes and wait through the FBI and other warnings - sometime even forced to watch other trailers -, then find your way through stupidly arranged menus etc.


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## Captain Code (Sep 14, 2006)

True but I don't know of anyone who owns a lot of DVDs.  It's usually better to rent them since most of the time you're not going to watch it again.


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## chevy (Sep 14, 2006)

"iTV", mac mini, Airport express, iTunes, remote control, iPod with universal socket, ... yes Apple is finally entering our living room.


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## lurk (Sep 14, 2006)

Captain Code said:


> ... you're not going to watch it again.



You don't have little kids I see...

You will watch it again, 

and again,

and again,

and again,

(are you sure you want Hamster Hewey and the Gooey Kablooey again?)

and again....



and again....


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## nixgeek (Sep 14, 2006)

lurk said:


> You don't have little kids I see...
> 
> You will watch it again,
> 
> ...




_*
I second that!!!!*_

LOL!

Thanks to my two boys (soon to be three in January), I think I know the dialogue to all the kids shows on Nickelodeon, Noggin, PBS Kids Sprout, Disney (Playhouse and regular), and all the Disney movies from the last 6 years.


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## chevy (Sep 25, 2006)

is iTV anything else than an iPod, with a main power supply and a wireless link ?

I mean all its functions are the same as the ones of an iPod, and it syncs the same way.


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## Qion (Sep 25, 2006)

chevy said:


> is iTV anything else than an iPod, with a main power supply and a wireless link ?
> 
> I mean all its functions are the same as the ones of an iPod, and it syncs the same way.



A graphical interface, multiple input/output ports, a decent video processer, and support for resolutions higher than 480x320.


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## Lt Major Burns (Sep 25, 2006)

and WiFi


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## hawki18 (Sep 26, 2006)

MrNivit1 said:


> Just a historical note... I remeber reading something about an internet set-top box hooked up to a TV a few years ago.  Now where did I read this? Hmmm.. oh yeah, Gate's book back in '96.
> 
> http://www.microsoft.com/billgates/roadahead/cChap4.asp
> 
> ...



What is the big deal there have been computers doing this for a long time already!  Plus the digital recorders from cable companys.  Just cause it is going to be made my Apple does not mean it is going to be the best.


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## Satcomer (Sep 26, 2006)

hawki18 said:


> What is the big deal there have been computers doing this for a long time already!  Plus the digital recorders from cable companys.  Just cause it is going to be made my Apple does not mean it is going to be the best.



I don't want to mouse with my TV! The iTV is just an Airport Express for video. I wouldn't be surprised if it is finally called the Video Express or something similar to that.


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## lbj (Sep 26, 2006)

hawki18 said:


> What is the big deal there have been computers doing this for a long time already!  Plus the digital recorders from cable companys.  Just cause it is going to be made my Apple does not mean it is going to be the best.



The same thing was said about MP3 players in 2001.


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## mdnky (Sep 27, 2006)

lbj said:


> The same thing was said about MP3 players in 2001.


You hit the nail directly on the head.


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