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April 28, 2007

apple_tv

One bad Apple TV review

Posted Apr. 28, ’07, 9:08 AM PT by Thomas Gagnon-van Leeuwen
Category | Apple TV

appletvsucks.jpg

Yesterday, I wrote about the National Post’s untrue iTunes article, now I just need to pick on another Canadian publication: Jack Kapica reviews the Apple TV for the Globe and Mail, Canada’s biggest newspaper.

One bad Apple TV
It won’t play protected WMA content, you won’t be able to download TV and movies and unless you have a Mac, you won’t be able to stream photos. Is it even worth considering?
Just by reading the headline, I knew I was in for one of these misinformed Apple product reviews. And I wasn’t wrong. The introduction itself contains a mix of obvious statements (the inability to play WMA protected music) and lies (no photo syncing without a Mac — correction: he says there’s no photo streaming without a Mac, but I think he means syncing because streaming is impossible, on Mac or Windows). OK, let’s get into the meat.

But because it’s bundled with iTunes, Apple TV becomes a closed system. Put another way, you can’t stream much through Apple TV unless iTunes declares it to be legal, whatever that means in the context of the Canadian legislative jurisdiction.
Wait, whaaaat? iTunes declaring if content is legal or illegal? Not only does Kapica use the old (false) argument of the “closed system”, he states that iTunes decides if content is legal or not. This is so ridiculous, I don’t know how to contradict him. Do I need to remind him iTunes will accept any MP3 song or any MPEG-4 movie, regardless of its source? And no, it doesn’t have some kind of sophisticated legal analyzer robot that determines the legality of your content. But there’s more.
Put still another way, Apple TV will convert most files to formats it prefers, but there are files it will not play — such as a WMA file that has been protected by copyright, purchased legally using another system (say, Puretracks) and residing in the same directory of the same computer it was downloaded to.
Have you heard of this thing called DRM? It seems obvious to me that Apple TV doesn’t support Microsoft’s rights management system, but perhaps those two or three Globe and Mail readers that had even heard of Puretracks needed a reminder.
Although iTunes and QuickTime are available for computers running Microsoft Windows, potential buyers will also be out of luck trying to run their collection of still photos through Apple TV — for that you need iPhoto, and Apple has not made a Windows version of iPhoto.
False. Windows users can sync photos from a folder, Photoshop Elements, or Adobe Album. Seems like reading Apple TV’s homepage would have been useful when reviewing the product.
What’s currently available on iTunes is pretty bad, in terms of quality, and you can judge that in Canada only by the quality of the music videos, although U.S. reviewers have complained that Apple TV’s TV and movie content are no better.
This statement is kind of weird: he first blames iTunes Canada because he thinks pop artists produce crappy music videos. If iTunes only offered Pussycat Dolls videos, I’d understand, but it offers nearly all popular music videos today.

But he also complains that TV and movie content on the American iTunes Store sucks. Movies, I can understand: Apple’s selection is very limited. However, its TV show catalog offers almost all major shows, and plenty of smaller ones. Again, if he thinks the totality of U.S. TV is crap, that’s not Apple’s problem.

If all you have is an analog TV, forget it too — Apple TV will not connect to non-wide-screen TVs.
False. The Apple TV supports all TVs that have either HDMI or component jacks. Paul Kafasis at Rogue Amoeba was the first to confirm this on his blog. Apple should make this clearer, but it’s definitely possible.
Apple TV’s connecting cables are sold separately, which is like selling a car’s wheels as extras, and the prices on HDMI cables are a crime against humanity.
HDMI cables traditionally cost an arm and a leg, but Apple offers those cables from XtremeMac for a reasonable CND$29.95. Sure, it’d be nice to have them included, but CND$30 is hardly a crime against humanity.

Yes, yes, the Apple TV is no perfect device, but I just couldn’t resist busting these Apple TV myths. Kapica does point out the box’s slick design and easy configuration, but it’s scary how misleading the rest of his review is.

Just like anybody living outside the U.S., I’d really love to see TV shows and movies come to our local iTunes store, and yesterday’s news that Europe might be getting decent video content soon is a step in the right direction. After all, Steve Jobs did promise movies on iTunes internationally in 2007.

However, there are some alternative solutions available. It’s possible to get movies to iTunes by ripping your own DVDs with an app like HandBrake (something legally questionable), or watching TV shows by recording live TV with boxes such as Elgato’s EyeTV hardware and software. I won’t recommend BitTorrent’s massive catalog of legal and illegal content, but it exists for people who are comfortable with taking advantage of it.

Of course, for people who are into them, video and audio podcasts are an incredible gold mine of free, high-quality content; Apple has even created an Apple TV podcast section in the iTunes store which you can access here (iTunes link). Bottom line: the Apple TV is not for everyone, but it’s a lot more than the Globe and Mail thinks. And apparently, Canadian customers know that.


11 Comments

spiderbat said:

This trend of canadian magazines makes me worry a lot! Maybe Microsama Bill Gates bought Canada? :->

April 28, 2007 9:50 AM
Tim said:

As some one who lives in Canada, frankly I'm concerned about these recent trend of FUD here in major press, did Microsoft relocated their public relations department here?

April 28, 2007 10:08 AM
Riacrdo said:

He said no Photo Streaming unless you have a Mac, not no Photo syncing!

April 28, 2007 10:33 AM
Thomas GvL Author Profile Page said:

Ricardo, good point. It's only in the article he says it can't be done with a Mac, in the introduction he claims it can't stream photo, which is true (on all platforms). I will correct my mistake.

April 28, 2007 10:44 AM
Thomas GvL Author Profile Page said:

Hmm, never mind, I misunderstood his introduction again, so disregard the previous comment. I think he meant syncing, because streaming is impossible on Mac or Windows. Correction added, sorry for the confusion.

April 28, 2007 10:52 AM
Brian said:

Its funny. Its the rest of the industry forgetting about Mac users. There are no decent alternatives for us. Bitorrents Legal section is Windows only. And all the new VOD online movie rentals are also either Windows only or Explorer only. They are the ones that needs to turn crap around and make it more universal.

April 28, 2007 1:47 PM
Andrew said:

"What’s currently available on iTunes is pretty bad, in terms of quality, and you can judge that in Canada only by the quality of the music videos, although U.S. reviewers have complained that Apple TV’s TV and movie content are no better."

I think he's trying to comment on image quality, not actual content. Either way, clearly confused.

April 28, 2007 6:21 PM
George said:

Although much of his technical points are wrong, his overall point that the AppleTV is pretty pointless because of the limited content available in Canada is correct. All they have available is music videos and music. Fine, you can rip DVD's but what's the point? As numerous people have commented in the past, the AppleTV isn't intended to replace the DVD player. So why waste time ripping all those DVD's when you're left with a DVD player sitting right next to your TV anyway? If it's too much trouble to open up the case and put the disc in the DVD player, then you're probably also too lazy to rip DVD's for AppleTV.

The only practical content for the AppleTV comes from iTunes, so the fact that the Canadian iTunes Store only sells music videos makes it pretty useless device unless putting your music collection on your TV is a killer feature. Sure, there's podcasts but many of them are still at 320x240 and will look like crap blown up to TV resolution (they look really bad double-sized on my iMac).

And since iTunes is the only real viable source of content for the AppleTV, in effect creates a closed system. iTunes purchased content only plays in iTunes, iPods, and AppleTV's. That seems pretty closed to me. Yes, his ranting about iTunes validating your content was utter nonsense though.

As for the whole required widescreen myth, it's one that Apple itself perpetuates in its advertising. Also, how many non-widescreen TV's have component inputs? Probably less than 50% so the "myth" is mostly true.

And what was your pointa with the article that was linked to about how well AppleTV is selling in Canada? One reseller says they are selling well? I'm sure I could likewise find one retailer where PS3's are "flying off the shelves" as well, but most places I've seen have a surplus lying around.

Apple really seems to have "put the cart before the horse" with the AppleTV. the AppleTV's killer feature is 720p content, which doesn't exist yet. If I could get TV shows in 720p, that is something difficult to do otherwise. Most cable/satellite providers have a pretty paltry selection of HD and having access to iTunes 350 TV shows would be a huge boon.

April 28, 2007 7:13 PM
Thomas GvL Author Profile Page said:

Oh, I'd love to see good video content on iTunes as well... Apple really needs to step up there. But I have to say a lot of podcasters have stepped up and offered high resolution versions of their shows (including MacBreak, The Merlin Show, ScreenCastsOnline, and those on iTunes' Apple TV podcast section).

As I said, it's no perfect device and it's definitely more useful in the US right now than here, but for some people, it is a very compelling choice.

April 28, 2007 7:21 PM
joel said:

so what's the deal if the iTV is a closed system? Isn't ANY streaming television device bound to it's own proprietary software? Did he expect this thing to be open source? Does he expect to be able to natively sync Photoshop with this device? I fail to see the issue. The close integration allows the user experience to be so fluid... forcing the iTV to be compatible with everything will cause it to SUCK (i.e. microsoft and 10 million pieces of hardware)

April 29, 2007 5:37 PM
George said:

The problem is that the content and the hardware are forming the closed system in this instance. Imagine if Sony CDs and DVDs only played on Sony equipment and that's essentially what you have with iTunes-iPod-AppleTV. Requiring the AppleTV or iPod use iTunes is not the issue, it's that the majority of viable video content for the AppleTV (iTunes Store purchased content) is locked into that same hardware. Imagine if Apple decided to drop Fairplay and "updated" iTunes to no longer support Fairplay DRM'ed content. You're left with a bunch of files you can no longer play.

April 30, 2007 5:57 AM

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