I actually have wanted an Apple TV since its launch as I have bought a collection of videos on iTunes Store including complete seasons of my favorite TV shows and a handful of movies.

Apple TV for me would be useful for managing my video content from iTunes and getting it to my TV — I would have bought one already but don’t yet have a High Definition Television — and the TV I do have uses RCA input/output. Apple TV requires Component 2 HDMI, HDMI 2 HDMI or VGA 2 HDMI.

Composite and RCA don’t work that well out of the box. So unlike you I would need Apple TV.

Sorry for the double post but forgot to mention my collection of video is quite large and so the original 40 GB Apple TV wouldn’t be able to store all the content — I want to sync up most of my content to Apple TV while content can stream from computer to Apple TV the computer needs to be on for the streaming feature to work.

Content synced to Apple TV can be played when the computer connected to Apple TV is off.

Then Apple TV plugged into a TV can playback iTunes video. Brilliant solution for iTunes users like me buying video on iTunes — yes video can also be converted to iTunes format and synced to Apple TV however, having my content already in iTunes format with no conversion neccessary is simple and convenient — yes it has DRM but otherwise works great.

I would urge you to check out ArchosTV before deciding on the AppleTV. As with all things Apple, the AppleTV is pretty locked down. The only real reason to get one is if you regularly purchase video content from the iTunes Music Store. Otherwise, the ArchosTV plays more formats (and can record too, which the AppleTV can’t do).

And you could get an iPod Touch or iPod Nano (or iPod Classic for that matter) if you wanted to take your videos portable.

From what I hear, the streaming of media to the AppleTV doesn’t work all that great.  But it might be alright if it’s a wired (not wireless) connection.

-Mike

Archos TV is probably a great media extender but can it playback video purchased from iTunes Store that is protected with the FairPlay DRM system made by Apple. Indeed I do regularly purchase video content from iTunes — your reasoning is that before settling for Apple TV I should look for a better solution like Archos TV — and that I should avoid Apple TV because it is locked down. You mentioned the only real reason to get Apple TV is if video content is regularly purchased via iTunes.

For the record I have 11 TV shows in my iTunes Library and over 166 videos total there — counting all episodes of all TV shows I have.

I have 3.1 days worth of TV content in iTunes all purchased from iTunes Store and locked by FairPlay DRM. If Archos TV could playback purchased videos from iTunes — that is all my FairPlay protected videos I would buy it but at present Apple TV is only product to work with Apple’s DRM. I already mentioned having DRMed video from iTunes in an earlier post. If I got a media extender that I wanted to work with my videos I bought on iTunes I would have no choice but to use Apple TV — My content is already locked down — if I get Apple TV I’m screwed. If I don’t get Apple TV and get Archos TV or something else I’m still screwed.

I am looking into getting a silver iPod Classic with 120 GBs of space and/or an iPod Touch next time I’m looking for a new mp3 player. My existing 80 GB video iPod (5th gen) still works just fine for now. Next time I buy one I’d make sure to buy from Apple Store online also so I can get the free name engraving — my existing iPod was bought from Amazon.com so there is no engraving unfortunately.

Well, obviously the ArchosTV won’t play iTunes content. Apple keeps those cards close to the vest.

To me the question is, do you want to continue to be locked into that, or would you like to break free? And how much more content will you be buying from iTunes?

All in all, the AppleTV is a good product, except that it doesn’t record video. But if you have all your audio and video in iTunes, then the AppleTV would be fine. Or you could spend a few hundred more and get a Mac Mini, which would be an excellent media extender/player. And it can record if you get an EyeTV or the like.

To the best of my knowledge, the iPod Classic comes in 80 and 160GB. I have the old Video iPod at 80GB and it’s always been plenty.

-Mike

I’m actually using a Mac Mini already — all my iTunes content that is bought with the locked down FairPlay DRM is stored on my Mini if I got Apple TV I would sync content from Mac MIni to Apple TV. The Mac Mini thus is the computer I use with my iPod. I also have the older (5th generation video iPod) 80 GB video iPod — from the last generation of iPods before the Classic name was announced and before the iPod Touch came to be.

Today’s video iPods including the third generation iPod Nano, the iPod Touch, and the iPod Classic in 80 GB and 160 GB (or is it 120 GB?) the iPod Classic makes up the 6th generation of original iPod players. I wouldn’t want to get locked down too much further you have a point there but I would like to get my iTunes content on my Mac Mini over to my TV. One solution probably would be to connect the Mac Mini to a TV and use the TV screen as Mac Mini monitor but if the Mac Mini is hooked up to an existing computer monitor and the TV is in another room maybe having a media extender like a Apple TV, Archos TV etc would be a good idea.

I’ll just have to think hard about that question of whether I want to stay locked down or break free. If I could remove the DRM in my iTunes videos I would. I know there are ways already for removing DRM from iTunes audio files without having to burn an audio CD and lose sound quality and have to re-make the tags when re-importing tracks from audio CD — however, while there are methods for removing DRM from the audio it is harder to do so from the video.

I have heard some people state whether they buy an iPod or not they won’t buy any content with DRM that locks them to a specific hardware or software platform. No Play for Sure DRM by Microsoft (formerly Janus DRM), no Zune DRM, no FairPlay DRM and none of RealNetworks DRM system (can’t remember the name).

Best choice scenario if downloading and purchasing download mp3s from Amazon mp3 and similar sites including but not limited to even EMusic.com or download for free if even there are piracy concerns — or buy the audio CD or DVD of a movie, TV show, or album and copy it to your iPod or other mp3 playback capable device that handles video too — same applies for Apple TV can copy a DVD for playback on Apple TV — just rip or extract the file and then convert the re-saved file to iTunes format and tell it to sync to Apple TV.

I agree with your points for reasons not to buy Apple TV and reasons to do so. I’m caught in the middle and am interested in moving my iTunes video content to the TV.

I will do more research in this when the time comes for me to decide what media extender to purchase. I don’t have a HD TV yet so will wait till I get one to decide to do so.

Well, it sounds to me like you already play a majority of your content through iTunes, so an AppleTV might not be so bad for you. It’s certainly convenient.

But for people who download WMV, divx, xvid, or the like, they may wish to go with the ArchosTV or some other extender.

To me, the real kicker is whether you want to record TV or not. If so, then the AppleTV doesn’t do that (yet… I’ve heard rumors). But if you have some other means of recording TV and getting it into iTunes (I use a combination of methods, which I’ll describe next), then you should be okay there too.

I have a TiVo and TiVo2Go, which doesn’t work well on a Mac, I fear. But I have the client installed on a PC and it pulls video from the TiVo and re-encodes it into h.264, which I then drag-n-drop onto iTunes. Voila! Total cost: $25 for the upgraded client and $12.95 per month for the TiVo service. Plus the cable/satellite TV cost. Oh and the original cost of the TiVo.

As well, I have a PC that records TV using Snapstream’s BeyondTV ($69.99), and I also have their plug-in ($29.99) that re-encodes videos into h.264 and sets up a podcast server. This is an excellent way to get videos into iTunes because it’s 100% automatic. Of course, the videos show up as a podcast and not as TV shows, but that’s fine. The other problem I have with it is that when I play the videos on my Mac Mini, the sound and video get increasingly out-of-sync as the video goes on. But it’s perfectly synced when I play them on my iPhone. Go figure.

I like the Snapstream system for some shows better than the TiVo. For some reason, the TiVo can’t distinguish new shows from old ones if the description is missing. This means that shows like Southpark and The Colbert Report, which are aired many many times per week, all get recorded, and then I have to wade through them to see which ones I’ve already seen. Snapstream seems much better at handling that and only giving me new episodes.

All in all, I’d say that if you are perfectly able to get your desired content into iTunes, then an AppleTV would be an excellent extender for you.

Oh, and for ripping DVDs, I like Mac The Ripper. And to re-encode them on-the-fly to h.264, I love Handbrake.

Out of curiosity, where do you store all your videos? The Mac Mini (mine, anyway) has a smallish hard drive. I have an external drive hooked up to it, but it’s somewhat cumbersome. Do you do it another way?

-Mike

I store most of my videos on the Mac Mini that are in iTunes compatible format — I have a bunch of videos ripped from DVDs on my PC also (I have a tower desktop computer the manufacturer is called Eureka) but those aren’t exactly in iTunes.

I got the 2nd generation 80 GB Mac Mini and when mine first came it showed in the Finder my Macintosh HD had 90 GB of free space that was before installing all my third party applications (not bundled with Mac OS X the stuff I had to install my own like Mac The Ripper, Hand Brake, D Vision etc including VLC Media Player) my Mac Mini came with iTunes 6 so I had to update it to iTunes 7 — although it did come pre-installed with QuickTime 7 and Mac OS X Tiger.

I don’t particularly like WMV files although AVIs are okay — AVI is a much better format than WMV which is way more proprietary — I don’t even like unprotected WMV so that makes copy protected WMV a whole lot worse. Apple’s video file formats are just fine though — since the video was originally designed to fit on iPods if you try watching on television the quality won’t be perfect it may be a little blurry but otherwise its okay

AVIs and QuickTime Movie files (MOV) in addition to MPEG 4 Video files (.mpeg, .mpg, .mp4 and .m4v) are fine also.

I have often used Mac The Ripper in the past and Hand Brake as well for ripping or extracting the video on DVDs and copying to my computer and then re-burning another personal copy on DVD just as a safe backup, and/or only storing on computer or even to transfer to iPod.

When it comes to using non copy protected files I am a big fan of exercising my fair use rights in that regard for time shifting and place shifting of content.

Sometimes I like to record TV I have a TV Tuner in my PC and can record the video, then convert it to iTunes format and move it over to my Mac Mini etc from which I could sync it to an iPod, iPhone or Apple TV.

At present unfortunately I don’t have an external drive for my Mac Mini so I just store all I can on my Mac Mini without filling it up completely. I have left between 27 MB of free space and 30 MB of free space on my Mac Mini of the 90 some MBs of free space it originally had.

I have had to compromise on what to buy and keep on my Mac Mini and what not to get from iTunes for my Mac Mini to save disk space. I regularly make backups of my purchases by archiving them on DVDs.

While the DVDs won’t play in a DVD Player my computer will recognize them just for copying files back to my computer if they ever get accidentally deleted from there and allows me to restore the files without paying to download again.

I’m not that big a fan of movie downloads while I have bought a few on iTunes gradually they take up too much space — the bigger the file size I have noticed the better the quality of the file — they are not under-compressed or too over compressed. There have been a few instances in the past with some iTunes videos being too blocky, or grainy for me or even too blurry even when played on my computer or iPod but they have been fixed as I have contacted iTunes and they fixed the problem.

Problem is once its fixed in order to get the fixed version I have to buy it again and download the fixed version of the video. So you end up paying for the same file twice but first time the quality sucks second time the quality is great.

How small is your Mac Mini’s hard drive? Up until Apple released the third generation of Mac Minis this year with Intel Core 2 Duo processors I had a Mac Mini with the maximum amount of disk space offered. Now they have come out with a 120 GB or 160 GB model with Intel Core 2 Duos and updated the 80 GB from Intel Core Duos to Intel Core 2 Duos — mine is the one with Intel Core Duo and is 80 GB. That was the biggest hard disk size they offered before upgrading them to have 120 or 160 GB disk space,

Sorry for the double post but my TV Tuner in my PC is an ATI TV Wonder VE — works with Windows XP perfectly. Only problems I have had sometimes is when recording video the audio and video fall out of sync. When I first got my TV Tuner this problem did not happen I have recorded TV without this problem before but over the past year this has developed into a regular occurrence and I am now trying to figure when I can how to stop this error from happening. I use Virtual-Dub to record and edit the video and it has always worked great with my TV Tuner.

The only drawback sometimes to using iTunes is if you use it for video and you use your own videos you must first convert them to work with iTunes — I don’t really mind but I’m sure there are those who will.

What do you think about iTunes movie rentals now being available? There are articles on the web about this being part of Apple TV Act II of how Apple has improved the device.

I am lukewarm on the rental thing. I guess it’s pretty nice to be able to rent movies on a whim without having to get them mailed to you or having to go to the rental store. But they still place limits on you, which I dislike. You have, I think, 30 days to watch the movie and 24 hours to finish it once you’ve started. I’m not a big fan of that, but I guess as long as you wait until you are ready to watch a movie and then rent it and watch it right away, then you won’t mind those limitations.

The AppleTV Take 2 is now a viable product. I am actually considering getting one myself. But there are still 2 things that are preventing me from jumping off that bridge. First, it still can’t record TV. Second, not everything I want to watch is available via iTunes.

If I could get every show I want to see via iTunes, I would get an AppleTV and dump DirecTV in a heartbeat. Of course, I would still have to watch sports in a bar, but that’s where I watch most of my sports anyway.

Back to the rentals, I still prefer the Netflix method, which gives me all the time I want to watch movies. For less than $18 USD I watch anywhere from 6-10 movies per month. I guess that’s not far out of line with the iTunes rental costs.

But again, my interests lie more in TV shows. AppleTV and iTunes rentals looks like a good solution for movies, especially if they get most of them in HD. But until they have a more complete agreement for TV shows, I will probably pass. Or at least, it won’t become my primary source of video entertainment.

Now, add in a browser to AppleTV that can get to sites like Hulu, and I might be a lot happier.

-Mike

The only thing I don’t like about iTunes movie rentals is the restriction you mentioned of 24 hours. They really should allow users to have more time to watch the movie if they have to get up in between and finish the movie in another sitting. If movie rentals can work for 30 days but expire 24 hours after first being played — why not extend the number of hours it can be played.

When you rent a DVD you can keep it till the day you need to return it and play it as many times as you want. It doesn’t expire or anything after a certain time frame.

What they could do is offer 48 hours or 72 hours for the file to expire after first being played. The rentals would still work for 30 days but when the file is first played the expiration limit could be 48 or 72 hours = 2 or 3 days to finish watching it then.

That would be great if they could extend the time limit for the expiration but you know what most video on demand download stores/services like Amazon Unbox even have similar limits on the length of time movie rentals can work and they also tend to impose 24 hour expirations after a movie starts playing.

Until the movie studios start cutting these movie rental download stores/services more slack these restrictions will still remain just as restrictive.

Its not Apple’s fault its the movie studios but at least all the movie studios are offering movie rentals on iTunes and at least some of them are also offering sales or purchases of movies on iTunes.

Also you can use HandBrake to rip DVDs to work in iTunes and have them converted if need to be to work on Apple TV. You can also get EyeTV if you have a Mac and use that as a TV Tuner they have begun providing features to convert video you record to Apple TV/iPod/iPhone and you can always import that content then into iTunes and sync to Apple TV so Apple TV doesn’t have its own TV Tuner but recorded programs on a Mac can be converted for Apple TV and synced to it.

Also the option of copying DVDs to iTunes and syncing to Apple TV is an option.

Since Apple announced iTunes Movie rentals Netflix responded by improving its service to now offer unlimited streaming of movies online.

iTunes is even offering movie rentals in HD but you have to have Apple TV to rent in HD and the Apple TV doesn’t require a computer anymore. Just as iPod Touch and iPhone have an iTunes WiFi Music Store the Apple TV can now be used to buy content directly from iTunes including renting movies in HD. Apple TV can still be synced with a computer but it is not required to sync your content to Apple TV when wanting to store files on it. Apple TV can now even sync back to the computer.

If you buy a movie via iTunes Store using Apple TV’s updated software and download straight to Apple TV you can then sync the movie from Apple TV to your computer and vice versa. It used to be that content could only be synced to Apple TV from computer you couldn’t download to Apple TV and sync to iTunes on the computer. Apple TV like I said can also let you rent movies from iTunes in HD. Apple already has a web browser with Safari they could add that to Apple TV it already works with Mac and Windows & iPhone/iPod Touch and then Apple TV can go to sites like Hulu as you mentioned they just have to add it for that functionality to work. I’m pretty sure if they added a browser they would have some form of a Safari implementation it could be a slimmed down version designed for Apple TV.

I use Dish Network as opposed to say DirecTV or a cable television provider, the local cable television provider in my area is Time Warner Cable.

I’m just waiting till I can buy one. I don’t have a HDTV yet but if I did I would buy Apple TV right now. I’d buy the $399 version with more hard drive storage. I don’t plan on replacing my TV provider with Apple TV though I would keep Dish for broadcast satellite television and pay per view, interactive channels + DVR and HD channels etc, and use Apple TV for bridging the gap between iTunes purchases and rental content on my computer and my television.

In your case if you would prefer one or the other that’s fine its entirely up to you but I still want TV service — I heard a rumor last year that AT&T might offer IPTV service to Apple TV users starting this year but no news since then.

As soon as I buy an HDTV I’ll be ready to use Apple TV.

For me Apple TV would be a secondary choice of entertainment unless they do get an IPTV service I like in which case I could get television service via Apple TV instead of using Dish Network, DirecTV, Comcast or Cox Digital Cable, Time Warner Cable etc.

For the time being I see myself having Apple TV alongside DISH!

Yes, I think that AppleTV is now a far more attractive product than it was before. I am seriously considering one now.

As for EyeTV, I haven’t gone down that road because I am not sure if it can record from a tuner (satellite box). It has to be able to change the channels on the set-top box, or else it’s useless to me. I don’t have cable, so the built-in tuner won’t work for me.

But I have other ways of getting that content into my computers (I use SnapStream’s BeyondTV as well as my TiVo Series 2 with TiVo-2-Go).

By the way, ripping DVDs with HandBrake is illegal, even though I don’t believe it should be. We used to be able to make copies for personal use or backup, but the DMCA changed all that. But to be certain, I doubt anyone would sue you for making backups of DVDs that you own, as long as you’re not sharing them online.

I think it’s bad that so many people are using Netflix as their personal video collection and ripping the DVDs and keeping the content. I admit, I do rip Netflix DVDs occasionally, but only when I can’t get to watching them in a decent amount of time, and I also delete the M4V/MP4 files after I watch them.

In any case, the reason I was saying that I would drop DirecTV is that if I could get everything I want to see on iTunes/AppleTV, then why pay for the satellite service? That’s just throwing money away.

However, as I said, there is always a use for live TV. Sports is a huge one. But sports is also a great reason to use iTunes (or the like). Ever look on your TiVo for your favorite show, only to find 30 minutes of baseball and then only the first 30 minutes of your show? That sucks!

News is another pretty good reason to keep live TV. But these days, news on the internet is more up-to-date than anything you see on TV. You just have to read it instead of watching someone read it to you.

As for the movie rentals, I agree that the 24 hour thing is bad. It makes little sense to give 30 days to watch it, then only 24 hours to watch it as many times as you’d like. To me, they should give you a week for the whole thing, just like Blockbuster or other movie-rental houses. My point is, who decides they want to watch a movie and starts the download, but then doesn’t begin watching it for a month? I don’t see that happening, except maybe for those with a slow download speed who might start the download and then not have the file ready to play for many many hours, by which time they’ve gone to do something else. But surely they can get to the movie in a week.

But part of my problem with the 24-hour thing is the privacy. In order for that clock to start, Apple has to be told when you started watching it, time and date. Why should that be necessary (or any of their business)? If the above scheme (7 days for the whole thing) were adopted, then that would save that.

As well, what if you want to watch the movie on a laptop, that may not be connected to the internet at the time you start it? Can you still watch it? Can you watch a movie while your internet connection is down (a good way to pass the time, by the way)? I don’t know the answers to these questions, but they vex me terribly.

-Mike

I also have satellite television and use the TV Tuner on my PC running Windows just fine. I don’t know if there’s a difference considering I have an actual TV Tuner capture card that I installed inside the computer to get better quality than most Windows USB TV Tuners otherwise give when recording. I tried an AverMedia TV Tuner once and the quality when I recorded was awful. The ATI TV Wonder VE was much better. What I do is run a cable wire from the satellite TV box into my PC.

If EyeTV allows you to do this you can connect your TV Tuner to satellite television with a cable from the sat box to the computer — you plug one end into the sat box and the other the computer using a switchpoint that matches well enough and you can still change the channels from the set top box using the Dish or DirecTV remote.

You can record the following way if EyeTV allows this — ATI TV Wonder VE certainly does but USB TV Tuners are different:

1) Make a cable connection between the sat box or set top box you mention and the computer. You will still change the channels using the set top box but with the TV Tuner software running and the connection made changing the DirecTV channel on the set top box will also change the TV channel on your computer.

2) Ideal thing is to have the set top box in the same room as the Mac your going to use your TV Tuner with because of 1). Make sure in TV Tuner settings for the main software if it asks if your using an antenna or satellite to pick satellite. Assuming the cable from the set top box is connected correctly to the computer it will auto-tune all of the available channels at least once. Remember in the TV Tuner software regarding the channel changing options to set the TV channel on your computer to the correct channel for receiving DirecTV.

There are 3 TVs in my home connected to DishNetwork and 2 set top boxes. 1 set top box is for downstairs and also works with master bedroom TV. There are 3 bedrooms plus a guest bedroom. All 3 are upstairs and the master bedroom is one of them. The master bedroom is connected to the set top box downstairs and so is the family room TV downstairs.

Then in room # 2 (mine is # 3) there is the set top box and it also is connected to a TV. Furthermore, there is a cable connection from the set top box which I’ll just call the box from now on going into my room which connects to my desktop PC running Win XP Professional SP2 — the cable is connected to the back of the computer The master TV channel in room # 2 is channel 3 — the channel always has to be set to 3. That’s what it is programmed for by the box — the master TV which is directly connected to the box always has a number like 3 or 6. The master TV channel in my room oddly is 116 or 117. but that’s on the actual TV in my room not for TV on computer.

Since my TV via computer is connected to the box in room # 2 which assigns master TV channel number as channel # 3 I always have the TV channel on my computer set to channel # 3 in the TV channel settings for my TV Tuner. Now if I want to change the channel I have to have the computer on first of all and my software running (I use VirtualDub http://www.virtualdub.org) for recording and then editing the video. It works better than the custom software for my TV Tuner and VirtualDub recognizes the TV Tuner hardware I have and makes the TV connection.

Since the box is in the other room when I am having TV on my computer I require having the TV remote for my room (bedroom # 3) and the remote for bedroom # 2 upstairs. The remote from room # 2 will only work in my room with the TV Tuner not my TV. For my TV I need my own remote.

I keep my bedroom door open and I sit close to the door — the other bedroom door has to be open also (the computer is near the door so its fine) I point the remote at the box in the other room and press to make the channel selection. I change the DishNetwork channel on the box of course this would also change the channel on the TV in room # 2 to my desired channel — it changes the channel on my computer and on room #2’s TV to Dish Network channel 105 or 124, 170, 200, 205 etc whatever number I choose as long as that channel comes.

If I change the channel in the other room to 174 then 174 will be on in my room via my TV Tuner and on that room’s TV. So I have to borrow the other room’s TV Remote.

This is why I said it might be a good idea to have the box configured in the same room as your Mac with the Eye TV TV Tuner so when changing the DirecTV channel on the box with your DirecTV remote it will be easier to do from the same room — you won’t have to point it outside the room to change the channel on your computer. It doesn’t have to be Eye TV though it can be Miglia or any other brand of Mac TV Tuners

As for iTunes movies. Well I can’t speak for the rental ones but iTunes content I have bought online and downloaded including music, TV shows and movies once its done I just have to authorize the computer once (only 5 computer authorizations are allowed for any 5 computers — if you want to authorize a new computer but already have 5 authorized one must be de-authorized before authorizing the new one) you need Internet access for the authorizations — its a one time thing though and once its authorized unless you want to de-authorize and then re-authorize you can go offline and still access the purchased iTunes content.

I can see movies in iTunes I bought even when Internet access is gone so long as the computer had been authorized earlier. For iTunes movie rentals I don’t know if it requires any Internet access and if it does that’s a shame!

I once tried buying from the Google Video store and their DRM was worse than using iTunes. They don’t let you archive your videos even to DVD for backup so no disc burning even for backups — iTunes movies cannot be burned to DVD for playback on TV with DVD Player but can be burned for archival and later a disc could then be used for retrieval of a file that got lost.

Google Video forbids DVD burning! Well it did while the store was still operational they closed it recently and the bad thing about DRM then is they can shut off access to content bought from them. They said after this date whatever you bought from us you won’t be able to use anymore. Since we are closing our store we are taking away your right to own the content you bought. You cannot use it we have taken your usage rights away.

That is a problem of DRM so is fear of viruses, remember the Sony rootkits and lack of privacy.

I don’t believe ripping DVDs should be illegal either and have actually done so a few times on occasion but I don’t share ripped DVDs with others so as you mentioned as long as I don’t pass it on it should be fine. I don’t share them online so yeah I wouldn’t expect a lawsuit for just using fair use to copy DVDs for myself only.

I need live television thats the thing. Even with sports if I can get sports programming thru iTunes I have to wait for a special to be available for download. New episodes of TV shows by the way are supposed to be posted the day after they air. Why not watch the original broadcast. Sure owning a recording is nice but its not live. If I bought yesterday’s episode of the series Kyle XY I’ll still want to watch the next episode coming up next Monday. I want to see things when they are on. I can record for later to see it again or buy the program for same reasons. First time viewing should be live. Its more fun that way.

I heard a rumor of Apple making an IPTV service for Apple TV probably with AT&T last year but no actual news has come yet. That would be really cool. If I could get live television via Apple TV and transmit it to the TV I would probably make Apple TV my primary source and dump Dish too like you would DirecTV.

I don’t want to waste money using DISH if I get better experience from Apple TV/iTunes but if there is no live television by Apple I’ll stick to having a separate TV provider for live entertainment and Apple for viewing recorded content that I purchased or recorded myself.

The 24 hr rule on iTunes movie rentals with 30 days possible is common in other movie rental download stores/services like Amazon Unbox the terms may have some slight differences but a few similarities are there. Movie studios require all or most download based rental services I’m familiar with to require the movie be played in 24 hrs after starting for it to expire from.

Again I change the channels using my satellite box but am still able to have my TV Tuner work because of the setup I described above of having a connection with the box to the computer.

I also wanted to add that the Google Video download store required you to have an Internet connection even to play purchased videos so every time you wanted to launch a video for playback you had to sign-in to Google Video Store to watch your video. A connection was made between the user’s computer and Google Video and they would get to know what and when your watching, and monitor your account.

Once you start playing a video if you lose Internet as long as you have signed in I think you could finish the video but as soon as you close it if you want to re-open it you need to sign-in again which of course would again require an Internet connection.

I think you missed the point of my problem.

Say, for the sake of argument, that I wanted to record a show at 7pm on channel 140, and then the show at 8pm on channel 265. Sure, I could hook the satellite box to any one of a number of my computers (I have several with All-In-Wonder cards) to record the video and audio. But if I am not home (say, I’m out with friends, or on a date, or playing tennis), then my 8pm show gets recorded from channel 140, not 265, since I wasn’t there to change the channel. So it’s the wrong show.

Some TV2PC recording devices get around this in one of 2 ways. First, there is the serial connection. Some (not all) set-top boxes will receive a serial signal to change channels. But your PC’s DVR software has to support that and know what signals to send to the set-top box. As well, you have to have a serial-to-serial connection between your computer and the set-top box. Many PCs no longer have a serial port, so you have to use a USB serial adapter. And many set-top boxes also no longer have a serial input. Some have USB jacks and can use certain brands of USB serial adapters, but it’s a crapshoot. And USB serial adapters are not easy to find unless you order them.

The other way to change channels automatically is with an IR Blaster, which shoots the same IR signals as the remote control does. These don’t always work perfectly and sometimes a digit gets lost. Like the PC tries to change to channel 140, but ends up on 14. Or 40. It takes a lot of tweaking to get an IR blaster working right, and you generally have to tape the IR blaster to the IR input of the set-top box to get it to work well (which looks crappy).

Hauppauge has some lines of video capture cards and boxes that support IR blasters. But it’s still not the best way to go. I prefer serial if the harward is there to support it.

Some time ago, if you tuned to a DirecTV channel that you didn’t recieve, you would have to press a “clear” button to get it to allow you to change channels again. Of course, a recording device, such as a TiVo, can’t read the screen to see that you don’t receive that channel in your satellite subscription, so it records nothing. But since the set-top box is stuck, everything you record after that is also nothing.

Thank God DirecTV changed that, but some other services may do that. I get TiVo “suggesting” shows all the time that are on channels I don’t receive, so I get a half-hour or an hour of a blank screen with a message to call DirecTV to subscribe to that channel, but at least my other shows are still correctly recorded.

But anyway, that was my point. I haven’t been able to determine if the EyeTV has either an IR blaster or serial channel-changing support. It’s not really mentioned either way on their website (last I checked) or the side of the box at the Apple Store. So, I haven’t made the purchase. But the point is that the computer has to be able to change channels without my being present. Otherwise I have to be home, which defeats the point of having such a recording system.

I guess the way to say it is, I want a DVR, not just a digital VCR that I have to press record on after setting the correct channel mannualy.

-Mike

For changing the channel if you can set a timer using the DirecTV Remote in advance changing the channel is possible when your not home. Whenever I watch Kyle XY on ABC Family I have a timer set and at 6pm Monday nights no matter what channel is on currently my TV will switch to channel 180 for ABC FAM. So if my TV is on at 5:58PM and on DISH channel 170 at 6pm it will automatically change by itself to 180. I go into the Dish Network on screen programming guide browse to the channel within the channel listings my program is coming on and to the time it is supposed to air and when I see the specific program I go to it and click the select button it will ask me if I want to create a timer. I say yes and my TV thanks to this Dish Network feature I mentioned will auto-tune to channel 180 by itself.

I don’t have to change the channel manually I just have to set a timer in advance for the specific program I want to watch and it will auto-tune to that channel at the desired time by itself whether I am at home or not. I set the timer in advance using the DISH remote as I said earlier and the channel automatically changes at the time I set the timer for without my needing to push a single button no button pressing on the remote or mouse clicking on the computer needed for channel changing.

The thing is getting the program to record. I can’t set a timer for recording I can only set the timer to auto-tune to the channel I want to watch. To record I manually have to click record.

Channel changing is still automatic though with Dish Network timers. I dunno if DirecTV also lets you auto-tune the channel selection of your choice. However, Dish Network lets you change channels automatically by setting a timer as mentioned above. Recording is another story. There is no timer for beginning a recording if your not at home and your show is coming that you want to record it won’t record. It will change the channel automatically on your TV Tuner and your TV to the channel the program is coming on for you to view — there is no auto-recording but auto-tuning is possible and I have auto-tuned channels before even when not recording video.

I still have to press record but I can set it up to change to the correct channel automatically so if I click record and then leave for a while and in between the recording I want to change channels and record something else — lets say there are 2 programs coming back to back I want to record — and I want to record the whole thing in 1 file — imagine 2 hours of video compressed in 1 file — I would click record at 6pm if that’s when Kyle XY is on DISH channel 180 which is ABC FAM and it starts recording Kyle XY. Lets say I then leave the room and at 7pm there is another show on DISH channel 170 I also want to record. I don’t want to stop the original recording at 7pm and start a new one. I want to keep recording but I don’t want to record whatever comes on 180 at 7pm I just want to record Kyle XY at 6pm and at 7pm also record what’s on channel 170. Lets say its an episode of Fresh Prince of Bel Air — I want to record (yes this show is from the 1990s!) but I don’t want to make a separate recording and at 7pm there is at the same time as Fresh Prince an episode of WildFire on ABC Family but I don’t want to record WildFire I want Fresh Prince of Bel Air and I’m not at home then what do I do? I set up in advance a timer also for 7pm but on channel 170 to auto-tune to that channel.

At 7pm no matter what channel is on it will switch to 170. So if at 7pm its still on 180 it will automatically change to 170. I would manually set up a timer in advance for Kyle XY at 6pm on 180 and Fresh Prince of Bel Air at 7pm on 170. If at 55:58 PM I was watching Law & Order on channel 105 (USA) 2 minutes later at 6pm assuming I have left the TV on even if I’m not in the room and assuming I set the timer the TV will automatically change to channel 180 for Kyle XY and will remain on 180 until 7pm at which point it automatically changes again to 170 for Fresh Prince of Bel Air. The only issue is recording! Whenever I want to record do I have to be there to click record? For me the answer has always been yes. However, changing channels during a recording if I’m not at home isn’t a problem. The channel will automatically change by itself — since I would have manually set in advance the appropriate timers. Manually changing the channel then isn’t necessary when its time to change the channel it can change by itself.

The same way the TV can automatically change channels by itself having already set up the timers needed the TV Tuner can perform in the same way. The TV channel on the computer will change by itself if the timer is setup — remember my computer has a direct connection to the sat box in the other room and I use that room’s TV remote for the TV Tuner. If using that remote I setup a timer at 6pm on channel 180 for Kyle XY and if that room’s TV is on and my TV Tuner is opened up on my computer — that is the TV application is open and the connection is made to the TV then at 6pm on my computer the TV channel will automatically change from whatever it was on earlier to DISH channel 180 and the channel will also change to DISH channel 180 on the other room’s TV also assuming it is turned on since both the other room’s TV and my TV Tuner have a direct connection to the sat box in that other room and both require the same remote if I used that room’s remote to set a timer for Kyle XY at 6pm on DISH channel 180 so my TV Tuner will show that channel at 6pm whether I am at home or not it will auto-tune that also means the TV in the other room will also be on DISH channel 180 so I am changing the channel on both the TV Tuner and the TV connected to the sat box I’m using with my TV Tuner.

Automatically changing the channel isn’t a problem its recording. If I’m not going to be home I can’t auto-record by setting a timer for recording. Yes for auto channel changing you manually have to set a timer but you do that in advance — you can do it 2 days before the program your recording comes on or just a few hours in advance. The timer must be setup manually but in advance while your home. When your not at home it will auto-tune thanks to the timer.

I’m going to reply to the following statement by saying that actually you can change the channel while recording if your not at home. The solution to your problem as stated above even is to use timers. When your out with friends your 8pm show you want recorded on channel 265 will still get recorded from the correct channel if you manually set a timer in advance then while your out it will auto-tune from channel 140 at 8pm to channel 265. At 7pm an hour before if you had channel 105 running in the same way you can auto-tune to channel 140. It won’t record what’s on channel 140 at 8pm if the timer is set to auto-tune to channel 265. You still want it to record at 8pm but on another channel and you won’t be home to change the channel that’s fine just set a timer in advance and it will auto-tune to the correct channel.

Say, for the sake of argument, that I wanted to record a show at 7pm on channel 140, and then the show at 8pm on channel 265. Sure, I could hook the satellite box to any one of a number of my computers (I have several with All-In-Wonder cards) to record the video and audio. But if I am not home (say, I’m out with friends, or on a date, or playing tennis), then my 8pm show gets recorded from channel 140, not 265, since I wasn’t there to change the channel. So it’s the wrong show.

For recording I still have to manually click record and when I want to quit recording I have to be there also to cancel or stop the recording from continuing. However, as I said in the above post auto-tuning is possible for changing the channel when your not at home so long as you set timers. If DirecTV has a feature to do this like I mentioned DISH Network does use the DirecTV feature for auto-tuning just by setting a timer. It’s as easy as that!

DirecTV set-top boxes, for the most part, will allow you to schedule the channels as you are suggesting. But, man, that’s like watching TV in the 70s!

As for scheduling your recording, if you use VirtualDUB to record, it’s pretty scriptable. I used to use it to automatically re-encode my TV shows that I downloaded from my ReplayTV from MPEG-2 to DivX. I imagine that it can be scripted to record as well. Check out the forums online to see if anyone has done the same.

But still, that’s a draconian way of recording TV. There are far better methods. And TV schedules change all the time, and sometimes at the last minute. So, your system is still far from perfect.

As well, what about scheduling conflicts? What if two shows you like to watch suddenly come on at the same time? You want to be able manage those conflicts, in most cases, automatically. I think you could really use a TiVo. I love mine, but I get tired of the $13 per month charge.

Actually, I wrote to ElGato Systems (makers of EyeTV) and they gave me 2 IR blaster systems that the EyeTV software will work with. That’s the best answer. I may check it out and see if I can turn my Mac Mini into a DVR.

I also did some reading yesterday on various ways to grab content from DVRs and other set-top boxes via FireWire. Apparently, the FCC mandated that cable set-top boxes have FireWire ports for customers that request them. Most cable and satellite companies now have dedicated DVR boxes (my DirecTV receiver is actually a DVR, but the usability is the pits, so I disabled the DVR part of it and just use it as a set-top box to get shows to my TiVo). So, if it could be possible to just transfer recorded shows from a dedicated DVR to a computer… well, it would probably still have to be re-encoded, which puts me back to my ReplayTV days.

Believe me, I have spent a lot of time (and money) researching the best ways to automatically record TV and get it to my computers. The TiVo system works really well, but they haven’t gotten their Mac software working (last I heard).

There are other wonderful systems as well. MythTV, Snapstream’s BeyondTV, and SageTV are all great PC-based DVR systems. But they can be difficult to configure and can also be wonky.

In the end, the one thing that I have found lacking is a way to record 2 shows that conflict. My DirecTV receiver has dual inputs, but as I say, I hate the interface, so I dumped it. Plus, there’s no way to get those shows to my PCs in an automated (or semi-automated) fashion. But, for instance, 2 TiVos won’t work. Well, it would. I could just reverse the priority on one of them so that when TiVo #1 decides that show A is more important and records it instead of show B, TiVo #2 decides that show B is more important. But it still would be nice if they would allow one TiVo to tell another TiVo to record something that it can’t do itself.

But still, TiVo costs $13 per month per TiVo, so it’s not the best solution.

Which brings me back to iTunes. If I can subscribe to my favorite shows (all of them) and get them downloaded automatically (like iTunes does), then I would drop the TiVo thing immediately. And I might drop DirecTV as well. In the end, a series usually costs about $35 per season. Say I watch 10 shows religiously. That’s $350 per year, or less than $30 per month. DirecTV costs me $60 per month (and I don’t even have the movie channels, since I have Netflix) plus $13 per month for TiVo. Bingo, I’m saving $516 per year on that deal. I could buy 2 AppleTVs with that money in the first year and have the shows I want to see all over the house.

Sorry, I droned on there for a while. If you want to know more about the various efforts I’ve gone through to get TV recorded automatically, and then automatically get that into my PCs, I can tell you more about it.

-Mike

That is an interesting predicament about the recording of TV shows etc — and yes the way I described for setting timers compared to technologies like the IR blaster you mentioned is more draconian as you say (I only think of that term though when thinking of a DRM system that is too restrictive) or requires some more work in advance than necessary — and yes if the scheduled program you set a timer for changes to a different time or something it is rather tough. For me VirtualDub has worked very well in the past. I haven’t been recording much TV lately because I started having problems with the audio in the video being recorded. The problem was the video and audio got desynchronized while recording. I am still trying to figure out how to fix this problem.

However, I have recorded before without problems using VirtualDub and edited my recorded videos using that software and got great results. I still don’t know all the settings in VirtualDub which you say should be scriptable in the scheduling of recordings so I’ll have to do some more research on its features that I am less familiar with. I know enough about VirtualDub to know how to record and edit recorded video. I use the Huffyuv codec for recording video — that is the encoding codec to provide best quality and decoding when I edit the video and re-save it I use XviD or Divx.

If 2 shows I want to watch come on at the same time and I want to record them both my best solution would be to have a 2nd computer also with a TV Tuner and be sure to have a DISH remote ready for use with that one as well and have a sat box connection to it like stated earlier. Then record both at the same time using 2 different TV Tuners. It would probably be easier if it could be broken down into 1 task for both recordings if Tivo or another DVR can do it that’s great.

Problem for me with DVRs is that when you record a video you can’t go back later and edit it. I have seen the DISH DVRs by Dish Network before and when you record later you cannot remove the frames containing commercials. When watching a recording you have to keep the commercials with it. With an actual TV Tuner on the computer it is easier to remove frames and edit the video.

Going back to iTunes I hear Apple and NBC Universal may make nice again — they are certainly saying nice things suddenly about the other as if they weren’t fighting earlier in the first place. No official word yet on when NBC content might return to iTunes Store but based on this news there is hope it will be back soon.

It is interesting that the major DVD retailers have been pressuring the movie studios to raise prices on digital downloads of TV shows and movies etc to put them more in line with DVD prices. Remember with VHS tapes in the past, and now DVDs and soon Blu Ray Disc and HD DVD that the movie studios/distributors have to pay manufacturing costs for producing the physical tape or disc — a physical copy containing a movie. So in order to make a profit from selling Disney Pixar’s The Incredibles on DVD Disney must sell it at a price that is not too expensive but is higher than an iTunes digital download would be to make up for the manufacturing costs. Factor in the manufacturing costs and the studios have to make enough money that after manufacturing costs and the costs that were associated with filming the movie being sold they make enough money to not only pay the manufacturing costs and any other fees incurred for the movie being released but they must also have acquired more money from the sale of a specific movie after that movie’s manufacturing costs are paid and sales tax is taken care of if the customer buys from a store in a state that requires sales tax. I went to Tennessee once and realized they don’t have state sales tax so there are higher state income taxes over there.

With digital downloads there is no manufacturing cost and the studios can sell their goods cheaper on iTunes than on DVD if they wanted to and still make lots of money because they’ll get to keep at least almost all the money from the sale minus the price of sales tax (iTunes does have sales tax) they keep most of the money from an iTunes sale and give a small amount to Apple to keep and a small amount also goes to sales tax.

Digital downloads also don’t have the extra features though on a DVD its just the movie or just individual episodes of a TV show.

It is fair to price digital downloads as cheaper than DVD for consumers and makes sense for the studios to do until the DVD retailers start complaining that digital download stores are getting better deals in regards to pricing and start boycotting a specific studio’s DVDs by refusing to stock them when they come in to the store or when they do arrive hiding them from view of shoppers or some other actions to discourage the sale.

The DVD retailers get so riled up and rile the movie studios whose main source of income is from DVD retailers to act and movie studios suddenly start demanding higher prices from download to own/rent based stores that otherwise wouldn’t have to raise prices. DVD retailers want the cost of buying a download to be the same as a DVD itself which is silly! They should understand that downloads have been cheaper because there is no manufacturing cost for the studio so they can sell at a lower price and still make money — and DVD retailers should also be aware that there are no bonus features or extras in a download as opposed to being on a disc.

Being able to subscribe to your favor TV shows via iTunes Store with their Season Pass feature is enticing and then as new episodes come out being able to download automatically is good. If I buy a single episode of a TV show on iTunes that’s just $1.99 plus tax.

If I buy 20 episodes or more from iTunes — lets say I get the entire season of my favorite show I’ll still be paying $1.99 an episode plus sales tax and it will add up eventually to $30 to $35 which is what I normally pay for a DVD box set of my favorite shows. Theme based DVDs of my favorite shows would sell for between $16 and $21. While their cheaper than a box set they have less episodes and that’s a bit annoying! The thing you mentioned about TiVo’s policies on pricing $13 per month per TiVo stinks! I wouldn’t mind paying $13 per month for TiVo but $13 a month per TiVo box is crazy!

So what does that mean if you have 5 TiVOs in your home your monthly total will be $65 a month to TiVo. That’s paying $13 five times in a month to TiVo. Why don’t they let you just pay $13 a month for service regardless of how many TiVo boxes you have you’ll pay $13 a month not per TiVo but that individual $13 would cover all TiVo devices.

I can see what you mean about TiVo not being the best solutiion in that sense. With cable companies and satellite TV providers offering their own DVRs now it is getting harder for TiVo to establish itself as a unique and worthwhile provider. My own TV provider could get be a better DVR probably at a better price. That’s common sense thinking for some people just get what my provider offers me why go to a third party.

I’ve heard some nice things about TiVo in the past though.

Yeah I would like to hear more of your efforts in getting TV recorded automatically and then sending it automatically to your computers.

In reply to the following I’ll say that’s a good idea of course you probably wouldn’t need 2 Apple TVs but by getting rid of some of the stuff you wouldn’t need if Apple improved Apple TV even further being able to have enough for 2 Apple TVs even when yopu get just 1 sure is good news.

In the end, a series usually costs about $35 per season. Say I watch 10 shows religiously. That’s $350 per year, or less than $30 per month. DirecTV costs me $60 per month (and I don’t even have the movie channels, since I have Netflix) plus $13 per month for TiVo. Bingo, I’m saving $516 per year on that deal. I could buy 2 AppleTVs with that money in the first year and have the shows I want to see all over the house.

Note, in iTunes, you can buy an entire season at a discount. So, if there are 20 shows in a season, if you bought them individually at $1.99 a pop, then you would pay $39.80 (plus tax). But if you purchase the entire season outright, you may only pay $35. It’s the same as it is for music albuums. Albums generally cost $10, which may be less than the $0.99 per track.

I used to have a very convoluted system for recording TV. I used my ReplayTV, which has an ethernet port, to record shows and then software on a PC to download them nightly. Then I scripted VirtualDUB to re-encode all of the shows from their somewhat-proprietary MPEG-2 to DivX, which shrunk them and made them playable on my Archos. I had to play with the settings a lot with VirtualDUB because the ReplayTV MPEG-2 had the audio out-of-sync with the video by about 3 seconds.

Then I had another program which would check the ReplayTV’s schedule and parse out the conflicts. I downloaded the program that gets the schedule, but I wrote the program that looked for the conflicts.

From there, I borrowed some code that I’d seen online and wrote a program which scheduled the recordings on a PC that had an All-in-Wonder card. It was very hinky and worked pretty well as long as the schedules didn’t change too much. It was easy to schedule a recording on the All-in-Wonder software (mostly, it’s just a registry hack), but it was far more difficult to gather what’s scheduled and see what needs to be removed, changed, or is already-scheduled.

However, due to lawsuits and such, the ReplayTV lost a lot of support and it became difficult to find them. I’d always wanted a second one because they could talk to each other and schedule the conflicts themselves.

Moving to satellite complicated things immensely, since the All-in-Wonder can’t tune the set-top box itself. I tried several IR Blaster products to no good avail.

Currently, my main source of recording is my TiVo Series 2. I then use TiVo-2-Go on one of my PCs to automatically grab the content and re-encode it for iTunes/iPhone. But since I run iTunes on my Mac Mini and TiVo-2-Go is PC-only (they are working on a Mac client, but it’s not as full-featured as the PC version), the MP4 files just sit there. I manually add them to iTunes periodically, but that can be automated easily (Automator rox!). I just haven’t gotten around to it.

Meanwhile, I have a cheap PC that I built for around $350 that sits in my bedroom. It has a Hauppauge USB box which has an IR blaster and an IR receiver (and comes with a remote). All of this is very compatible with SnapStream’s BeyondTV DVR software, which I have installed on that machine. I have BeyondTV set to record the shows that the TiVo won’t get due to conflicts (basically, I have them set to record the same shows, but I reversed the priorities). BeyondTV is also much better at recording shows that frequently don’t have a description, but also have repeats many times per day. It’s very good at picking out the new episodes without getting old episodes many times each day. So I use it to record shows like The Colbert Report and South Park. If I recorded these shows with the TiVo, then I would quickly fill the hard drive with old episodes that I’ve already seen. TiVo really dropped the ball on that aspect, but BeyondTV does it very well.

BeyondTV also has a podcast plugin that will re-encode shows automatically to iTunes/iPhone/iPod format and then has a web-server and automatically creates RSS content… so I just pointed iTunes to the BeyondTV box and it gets my shows automatically as a podcast. It’s really cool. You can have a podcast for all shows, or you can have podcasts for individual shows. You can subscribe to whatever you want, it’s very cool.

Right now, there are two major shortcomings in this whole operation.

First, TiVo-2-Go isn’t complete in its features. You can tell it what shows to download and re-encode automatically. But you can’t tell it to look for any show that’s not currently on the TiVo (so you can’t schedule the recording and then immediately tell TiVo-2-Go to look for it). And you also can’t tell it to download all shows from, say, a Wish List. For instance, I am a Kennedy Assassination buff. So I have a TiVo wish list that records all shows with keywords “JFK”, “Kennedy”, and “assassination”. TiVo will record them, but I can’t get TiVo-2-Go to automatically download them, because the show’s name could be anything.

The second shortcoming is that I can’t control deletion of the shows off of the TiVo and the BeyondTV box from within iTunes. So I periodically have to go in and delete all of the shows I’ve seen already.

By the way, you’d made a comment about editing shows records on TiVo. You can indeed edit these shows, especially when they’ve been re-encoded. So if you want to remove the commercials, that’s easy. But the point is, I don’t do that. Sure it would be nice, but I don’t want to spend an hour editing a half-hour show’s commercials out, just so that I can then watch the show in 20-30 minutes and then delete it. My iPhone and iTunes both have ways to skip or fast-forward past commercials.

BeyondTV has a pretty good commercial-detector and watching shows on that PC makes it much easier to skip commercials. I thought about trying to hack that so that I can automatically set up something like VirtualDUB to remove the commercials. But it’s not perfect at detecting the commercials, so that’s not the best idea. It would be easy to lose an entire chunk of the program.

BTW, I bought a 160GB AppleTV last night. So far, I like it. But they haven’t rolled out the “Take 2″ update yet, so I’ll let you know more once that happens.

But the setup of the AppleTV was super easy. And I am so happy with it’s minimalism. There’s a power cord (no brick, though!) and the HDMI cable. That’s all you need, if you have a wireless network. I prefer to have such things wired because it’s a LOT faster and far more reliable, so there’s that cord. And I plugged the optical audio into my stereo (which means the Xbox360 now doesn’t have the full surround sound (my stereo only has the one optical input), but I can switch that cable if I have to). So that’s it, no rat’s nest of cables behind the thing.

-Mike

That’s cool that you got an Apple TV! I’m just waiting to get my first Hi-Def TV so I can also buy an Apple TV. I’m going to be moving later in the year and afterwards get an HD TV in my new home and probably will get a new surround sound system, a VCR/DVD recorder for converting my VHS home movies 2 DVD and maybe some movies in VHS I own to DVD or movies I recorded from TV to DVD.

I also am interested in the 160 GB model. Its good that the power cord doesn’t have a brick. My Nintendo Wii does and it is really annoying with that big power cord looking so messy.

I have already rented 4 movies using iTunes 7.6 and one I later bought after the rental. These movies are Disney Pixar’s Ratatouille (which I later bought on iTunes), The Simpsons Movie from 20th Century Fox, Spiderman 3 by Sony Pictures and Underdog from Disney. The first 2 I already finished watching and deleted. The last 2 I’m downloading right now and will watch later. All movies are in standard definition as Apple TV is required for HD movies via iTunes.

That’s great! So how is the rental? Was it fast enough to start playing immediately, as they claim? What’s the resolution of the HD content?

All in all, I think I would be more inclined to rent movies in that realm, rather than buy. I am still skittish about owning DRM’ed content that I may not be able to play back a few years from now. TV is okay, I guess. I don’t keep TV shows forever and I don’t usually go back and watch shows more than once or maybe twice. So that can be considered disposable, to me. But then, iTunes makes it difficult sometimes. You can, for instance, delete your purchased content, but the next time you sync your iPod, iTunes wants to reinstate your purchased content from it. I guess that’s a good thing, and you can get rid of the content if you really want. But there’s always that nagging feeling, “what if I want to keep it?”

In any case, tell me how your rental experience was. Positive? Negative? Can you get a discount if you decide to purchase the movie you rented?

I need to gauge my movie-watching habits. Netflix costs me $18 per month, and I guess I watch 6-10 movies a month. Sometimes fewer. iTunes rentals might be cheaper for me in the long run than Netflix.

-Mike

The HD content is supposed to be 720p — I was unable to rent in HD though but that’s what I heard. Also standard definition movies are supposed to have regular stereo audio and the HD ones being in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. Note: Not all HD movies though may have Dolby Digital 5,1 Surround Sound a few may still be regular stereo audio.

The download speed depending on the size of the file and speed of the Internet connection takes at least 1-2 hours — I think once most of the movie has downloaded you can start watching — I didn’t try playing the first one immediately — I only started playing after the entire file had downloaded because I wasn’t ready to watch it while downloading My rental experience was okay.

It was kind of annoying once I started each movie that it had to finish playing within 24 hours. I tried moving a rented movie to my video iPod and discovered this ability or feature Steve Jobs talked about at MacWorld 2008 only applies to the newer video iPods including the 6th generation video iPod (iPod Classic, and the 1st gen iPod Touch, 3rd gen iPod Nano now with video) the 5th gen video iPod which I have though cannot play rented movies.

iTunes does not sell movies unfortunately in HD — all movies sold are only in standard definition. The HD movies are only available for rent and you can only rent HD movies thru iTunes if you have Apple TV so until I get Apple TV I cannot even see iTunes movies in HD.

The rental was fine as I stated above as for your next question was it fast enough to start playing immediately as claimed — I don’t know I didn’t try playing it while downloading I waited the entire thing had downloaded then started the movie.

Some reviews I read state that it takes 6 hours for a movie rental from iTunes to be downloaded but the movie Underdog only took 1-2 hours 3 tops.

I just rented Fantastic Four Rise of The Silver Surfer by 20th Century Fox from iTunes (the time was between 5:15pm and 5:36pm — at 5:36pm which it is now for me 328.6 MB has been downloaded — 63 minutes are remaining) it is a 1.08 GB file and says 80 minutes remaining till the download finishes it keeps declining and sometimes increasing slightly from 80 minutes it goes up to 81 minutes then back to 80 min, then up to 81 min even as it continues to download now its gone down to 76 minutes — wait it just went up to 77 minutes even as it continues to download 56.7 MB have been downloaded. Now 60.9 MB and it says 78 min remaining.

Its kind of odd how even as it downloads the time till it finishes goes up and down. Okay 73.7 MB have been downloaded and I can already start watching the movie. It will play the first five minutes and 47 seconds of the movie and then stop — strike that now at 102.7 MB it stops at seven minutes and forty nine seconds.

So yeah you can start playing immediately but you can only play as much as has already downloaded. Also remember once you start playing you only have 24 hours to finish the movie. This entire movie is 1 hour 24 minutes and 04 seconds in length. Previous movies I have rented I waited till after it had finished downloading and to a time when I felt like watching the movie being rented.

In the iTunes Source List when you rent a movie a new source menu will appear called Rented movies. Assuming you have no rented movies and you have the latest version of iTunes with all the other sources turned on you should see 8 sources in the iTunes source list in the following order:

1) Music (which can never be hidden)
2) Movies (can be hidden but iTunes asks if you really want this)
3) TV Shows (again it can be hidden but iTunes asks if you really want to)
4) Podcasts
5) Audiobooks
6) iPod Games
7) Radio
Ringtones

Assuming you have rented movies in iTunes already you’ll see 9 sources instead of 8 (there will be 1 more by default again in the following order:)

1) Music (cannot ever be hidden)
2) Movies (can be hidden but iTunes asks if you want to)
3) Rented Movies — movies rented via iTunes show up here
4) TV Shows (can be hidden but again iTunes asks if you want to)
5) Podcasts
6) Audiobooks
7) iPod Games
Radio
9) Ringtones

Yeah my rental experience was positive — don’t think there is a discount option though for purchasing a movie already rented — I rented Ratatouille the Disney Pixar movie via iTunes and then purchased it at its regular price.

The only thing that bugged me is the 24 hour expiration of iTunes movie rentals. However, that same rule applies to a number of other movie rental download services/stores including Amazon Unbox Video Downloads which works with TiVo, services like MovieLink and CinemaNow.com etc.

I dunno why but movie studios insist on placing 24 hour expiration on downloadable movie rentals — the 30 days or 24 hours to watch applies to other sites offering downloadable movie rentals as stated above so its not just iTunes. I actually like iTunes movie rentals if it weren’t for that annoyance but that happens with other movie rental download stores/services as I said. It is not unique to iTunes — and the iTunes movie rentals I think otherwise are just fine.

Until downloadable movie rental services can get a better deal from Hollywood movie studios I’ll still prefer DVD rentals more often in the long run which I can keep for a few days and watch as many times as I want with no expiration — whenever I have to return it I can return it a few days after the rental — I can watch DVD rentals in 48 or 72 hours. I’ll still prefer iTunes for movie rentals once in a while when I’m willing to download a rental movie — so iTunes movie rentals are okay occasionally but most often I’ll prefer the DVD rental method.

DVD rentals have no such restrictions as downloadable movie rentals do in general. I’ll still get a downloadable iTunes movie rental every now and then but most of the time I’ll still rely on DVD rentals until Apple’s iTunes Store and other downloadable movie rental stores/services can get a better deal.

I would give iTunes movie rentals a B - (the minus is because of the 24 hr expiration which is not really Apple’s fault but that of the studios) and the B is because it does not yet have as many movies for rent as I would like. Although Apple is working on expanding the catalog of downloadable movies they have for rent and hopefully the ones they have for sale over the next few months and when they do get more movies for rent I’ll change the grade to an A. Some say it takes 6 hours but it takes me much less time.

Its now 5:54 PM and 533.3 MBs of the movie have downloaded — in 30-45 minutes most of it has downloaded. I paused the download a minute ago and when I restarted it said 44 minutes remaining but has now gone back up to 56 minutes and then down again to 54 minutes and back up to 54 minutes.

Wow, you’re really weirded out by the jumping time-remaining calculation.

Time remaining is a calculation based on how much has been downloaded in how much time, and then postulated to the remaining amount to be downloaded. However, many such calculations make adjustments for current throughput. There are several ways to look at this… how much and how fast everything to this point has taken, or how much and how fast things are going in the last few seconds or minutes. Communication factors change all the time, so it’s impossible to have a good accurate prediction here. It’s only for convenience sake and is only an estimate.

In any case, I started thinking about playing the HD content. Not everyone has a good fast connection. What happens if you start watching the movie, and then the 24 hours expires but the movie hasn’t finished downloading yet? That could be a problem.

Obviously, with HD content, it is best to download the entire movie before starting to watch it. As well, make sure to start the download just before going to bed, since it’s bound to dominate your bandwidth.

For me, as long as the SD content is 480p, I might just stick with that. Since I could probably download the movie while I’m watching it, and not get interrupted with too much caching.

I have to say, I am kind of excited about all this. My main concern, as you know, with iTunes video content is the fact that it is locked forever to Apple hardware/software. With music, I can at least burn a CD and then rip the CD (not the best solution, but it is there). But movie rentals are by definition ephemeral, so I think this will be really good.

-Mike

In response to the following I discovered something kind of odd yet interesting:

After I started the movie Fantastic Four Rise of The Silver Surfer yesterday evening (I had started it like I said while it was downloading) I let a big chunk of it download and then closed iTunes after signing out of the store. It told me the download would stop if I close iTunes but can resume next time I launch but I would have to re-login to iTunes Store to do so. I just logged in to iTunes Store today (Tuesday) the 29th of January 2008 at 4:54pm local time for me and attempted to resume the download even though the 24 hours would probably be up by now or almost up.

Well guess what I resumed the download and checked how long I have to watch the movie and from showing a number of hours it went back to days. When I started the movie yesterday while downloading it said I had 24 hours to watch it — at the time of my last post now I resume downloading a day later and iTunes forgot I started the movie already the 24 hour expiration should have happened by now but since I had discontinued the download process and stopped watching whatever portions of the movie I could already see 24 hours later the movie which should have expired is still available for playback and says I have 30 days to see it. Just like the hack some users found that by changing the time and date on their computers prior to a rental and then changing it back to the correct time/date after making the rental they would be able to extend the time of the rental by a year (assuming I changed my clock before a rental to 2009 and then changed back after clicking rent to 2008 I could have the movie for an entire year; this hack though was discovered by Apple and they fixed it to give an error when someone tries this; well this looks like another thing that can be done — I didn’t know this but if you start a movie while downloading, then cancel the download and resume the next day you still have 30 days to watch it.

In any case, I started thinking about playing the HD content. Not everyone has a good fast connection. What happens if you start watching the movie, and then the 24 hours expires but the movie hasn’t finished downloading yet? That could be a problem.

To the following I agree 100%: In much the same way it would be bad for all computer manufacturers if tomorrow Microsoft somehow decided to stop licensing Windows to them and Microsoft entered the hardware business and said they would tie Windows sales to sales of Microsoft PCs just like Mac OS X is tied to Apple hardware. Sometimes this can be a bad thing — other times in the iPod/iTunes case its not that bad at least for the time being its not because people are happy to use both they don’t mind the tie-in but they might someday in the future if something better than the iPod or iPhone or Apple TV come along from a company outside Apple.

I have to say, I am kind of excited about all this. My main concern, as you know, with iTunes video content is the fact that it is locked forever to Apple hardware/software. With music, I can at least burn a CD and then rip the CD (not the best solution, but it is there). But movie rentals are by definition ephemeral, so I think this will be really good.

Okay the download finished and because I started playing it yesterday somehow despite what I thought — remember what I mentioned in last post — as soon as it finished downloading it now tells me the download has expired and it was automatically removed from my iTunes library along with the Rented Movies source listing in iTunes. I have no rented movies from iTunes now at all. The file is still on the computer but has expired.

I just decided to rent a movie via regular pay per view for a change instead of having to rent a DVD and go to the store for that or wait for it to be mailed to me or download another iTunes rental and only see it on my computer since I don’t have Apple TV or a video iPod capable of rentals — I do have 5th gen video iPod which is capable of playing purchased iTunes videos but not rentals unfortunately — I would need iPod Classic, iPod Touch or iPod Nano with video or iPhone.

For iTunes rentals to TV I would need Apple TV unless I put it on iPod and then plugged iPod to TV.

I can’t even transfer iTunes rentals from my computer to another device because I don’t have one capable of playing back rentals.

I want to see something on TV so am using Dish Network Pay Per view tonight to rent The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Claus.

Well, for a minute, I thought you found a way around the 24-hour limit. But I guess that didn’t work out.

I thought about using my iPod as a sort-of AppleTV, but it only plays in SD. Plus, I keep my iPod in my car these days. Since I got the iPhone, I don’t keep podcasts on the iPod, so it’s just become a huge “CD changer” in my car. I take it out to sync it every now and then.

I made my first MP3 purchase from Amazon yesterday. I was very pleased. They even have an application that downloads the tracks and puts them into iTunes automatically. I was also glad to see the 254kbps bitrate. Now I wouldn’t feel bad about converting them to 128kbps AAC to save space on my iPhone/iPod. Of course, I will keep archive copies of the 254kbps files, just in case. But I hear Amazon will let you download them again if you need to.

Still no upgrade to the AppleTV firmware… truth to tell, I am somewhat pleased with it as-is, but to think that it will get better is a source of much joy.

-Mike

I just heard that the Apple TV software update is not yet finished — it has been delayed for another 2-3