The studios fundamentally control the price and availability of what is available online – not Apple or Netflix; that’s my point.

I feel like I saw a quote from a Netflix executive speaking exactly to their limitations on offering streaming video, but I can’t seem to dig it up.

HD-DVD… Blu-Ray… Netflix… discs… yawn! Browsing at WalMart? Clicking on a PC to manage a “queue”… yawn… man some people just refuse to see a good thing when they see one.

Must suck to live your life that way…

I don’t understand your last paragraph. You basically say Netflix is better and then explain that we won’t see cheap rentals on the Internet any time soon… But that’s just it, Netflix has already arrived as the cheap-on-the-Internet solution.

Al,

Sounds great, but I still think Apple TV isn’t much without its rental/purchase offerings. If Apple was relying on consumers like you that already have 1 TB of media, well, they wouldn’t sell much hardware.

The movie rental service is only available in the United States.

No joining at the hip at all Bob. The Apple TV is the iPod for your HDTV. It connects the audio and video content on your computers and on the Internet to your HDTV. It does it very well. You wouldn’t say the iPod and the iTunes Store are joined at the hip since it is common knowledge that only about 3% of iPod content is purchased from iTunes Store. Most of the content streamed through Apple TV does not come from Apple either.

The movie rental service, as it now stands, sucks. It does, however, work with a Windows PC, a Mac, and the iPhone as well as Apple TV. If you don’t need Apple TV to use the service, Bob, it is not joined at the hip to Apple TV.

My Apple TV serves over 1 TB of media to my HDTV flawlessly.

That’s really something Bob. If you ever saw the ease at which you can browse 100′s of movies or dozens of play-lists and stream any digital file to your HDTV instantly, you’d be blown away.

You think that Time Warner’s move on per-bandwidth pricing is “testing” now just imagine if the media companies let Apple undercut their prices while using their pipes.

Apple has plenty of shortcomings, but I find it odd when people seem to blame them for decisions clearly not entirely of their choosing. Apple could care less what it charges for the media- they just want to sell ipods, iphones, appletvs ,etc. It’s about hardware to them.

Clearly, netflix is a better deal than renting movies on AppleTV. Netflix is also a better deal than on-demand or the local dvd rental brick and mortar store. But until the media-companies grasp that, we won’t see cheap rentals on the internet any time soon.

Nice! Here are my responses to your responses:

1. Um, actually all those options you mentioned are great ways to get TV shows… TV shows come on DVD, you know.

2. Yeah, but Apple made several of its products obsolete in under five months… a bit much, don’t you think?

3 & 4. Point taken.

5. Agreed, even if Apple’s logic does the opposite of what they’re hoping (for me).

6. O.k., sounds good… But Apple not being in a position to lead?? Heaven forbid! j/k

7. There’s an easy answer here: Mac users may not be worth the trouble for Amazon or Netflix (at least, in comparison to the much larger market needing to be served first). Both will eventually go for Mac support, once it makes sense financially.

And Apple and Mac users needing to be apologetic in their offering? That’s not really the point. Again, it’s simply a matter of economics: Apple simply can’t afford to go through all this without enticing the PC crowd; it just wouldn’t be worth it. That would be like making iPods only for Mac users, simply not an option if the company wants to continue growth. So whatever Apple comes up with better be good for everyone (like the iPod is/was), otherwise Apple would be left with its dedicated, smaller fan base (which doesn’t bring in nearly as much as the masses with their iPod purchases).

But you make it sound like a matter of fairness of some sort, which really can’t be the purpose of a corporate entity. If Apple wants to design this only for the Mac crowd, then great, but it won’t take off (do you think the iPod would have taken off in that context?). But Netflix and Amazon? It may be hypocritical in some way, I suppose, but their role isn’t to make sure the universe is balanced between Mac and PC users. They’ll come out with Mac support at some point… but that’s no reason for Apple not to have high quality PC support immediately. It may not be fair, but it’s reality.

8. “Do you think since I can’t get a movie rental on iTunes, I’m now going to drive to Wal-Mart and buy that DVD?!” You, no, I don’t think you’d do that. But how many of the millions of users buying DVDs at Wal-Mart will switch to Apple if they have to wait an extra month? Answer: Hardly any.

9. Interesting… For me, Apple TV would be an addition to my setup. There is nothing I could take away as a result. I still need my DVD player, game console, receiver, cable box, etc, etc. But hey, if it allows you to consolidate and take something out of your setup, then great.

10. Fair enough, I suppose, but I’m still waiting until it “takes off” before I go buy one.

All and all, if Apple TV works for you, I’m glad it was available for you to make the purchase.

1. No TV Focus – yep, neither do DVD players, HD-DVD/Blu-Ray Players, Xboxes, etc. I figure that’s why they put multiple ports on HDTVs. But Apple compliments w/ other features not found on these other items.

2. Older iPods – Technology of all kinds is littered with products that became obsolete upon the release of new products. The biggest culprit is the computer industry….today’s DVD-R is tomorrow’s floppy drive. This will never change.

3. & 4. Rental Time & Price – I bundle these together because they controlled by the same entity: Movie Studios. I know your rebuttal to Luke, but isn’t this the same as people complaining about their ever increasing cable bill…don’t like, don’t buy it. The studios wanted it their way or no way for Apple to even be allowed to offer movies. I, for one, appreciate Apple at least giving Mac users the option to decide if we want to rent movies or not…more on this later.

5. No HD on PCD – This you’re dead on. We should be able to watch HD movies on our computer’s screen via iTunes as well. But then again, Apple sells hardware (Apple TV) and content (movie rentals) are the bait to get us to buy, so follow the logic on this one.

6. Compatibility – To some extent I agree w/ you and Luke; there should be more formats accepted within Apple TV. It certainly hasn’t hurt iPod sales. But I guess the issue there was that MP3 was the digital music standard, and AAC is the next generation of MP3 and FairPlay is an extension of AAC; so the underlying technology is the same. However, in the video world, you have a plethora of formats to view movies, each requiring its own codec and, just as important, its own licensing. The customer service issues would be huge when dealing w/ all the types out there. Still, I think this does have possibilities on resolution; I just don’t see Apple being the one to lead.

7. Selection – Once again, I see this as half the doings of the studios; they don’t want Apple to come out so strong that it destroys the competition based on its name alone. Plus, like anything else, it takes time to get this geared up. I’d rather have a limited selection now than to wait another 6 months to have a larger library at launch.

Which brings me to the finer point I touched on in 3 & 4. For all the clamor about Apple being restrictive in pricing, hardware and DRM, it seems a bit hypocritical for such accusations to be made. The iTunes video rental service is the FIRST and ONLY service available to Mac users (for major studio offerings). Netflix, Amazon and others have, at best, given lip-service to vaporware for all Mac users. Why should Apple and its Mac users be the least bit apologetic in their offering?!

8. New Releases – Now this is most definitely the sole work of the movie studios. I believe Amazon also falls under this restriction. Apple can press only so much so fast on this issue. But at the end of the day, this appears to nothing more than studios thinking they need to protect their DVD sales turf; more like cutting off the nose to spite the face, in my opinion. Do you think since I can’t get a movie rental on iTunes, I’m now going to drive to Wal-Mart and buy that DVD?! Ridiculous!!

9. Separate Box – Apple TV is beyond just another piece of home theater equipment. It offers an extension to your movies (which in theory it is trying to replace the DVD player), your music (no stereo unit) and your photos (computer monitor); plus it adds You Tube, podcasts, and home movies. I’d imagine web access is another element that might be added in the future. Nonetheless, I find your analysis to be just the opposite on this point. Apple TV seems to consolidate & extend.

10. No HD Purchase – Again, I feel like you’re on point with this one. And I also feel like this falls into the lap of Apple, although the “can’t hurt Wal-Mart sales” theory does apply in general. Still, a sale is a sale as far as the studios are concerned. I feel like Apple wants to make sure the rental part of this takes off quickly and what better way than to restrict HD movies to rentals only.

Well there you go. That’s my .02¢ rebuttal on your analysis. At the end of the day, people will make their choice based on their need. I, for one, have now bought an Apple TV because I feel like, at the very least, Apple is on to what the future will be like in the home entertainment arena.

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