Is Apple TV a 21st century Newton?
I’m beginning to think so. While I love my Apple TV hardware and the software that powers it, it’s beginning to feel like a dead end product. The business model just isn’t there. The economics of buying or renting movies and TV shows on iTunes doesn’t make sense – $2.99 – $4.99 for a 24-hour rental just doesn’t cut it for most consumers.
Sure, downloading is the future and DVDs are the past. But in 2008 the DVD is remains more flexible than an MP4 file with DRM. The DVD I receive from Netflix can be played in my living room, my bedroom, my PC, and my car. Netflix’s terms are far more flexible than a $5 rental that times out in 24 hours whether I view it or not. Throw in Netflix’s instant watching option and iTunes doesn’t compete.
Obviously iTune’s cumbersome and costly movie rental model is not all Apple’s fault. The studios won’t allow Apple to rent (or sell) at better terms. (After watching Apple strongarm the record labels into a single price model, the studios were understandably wary, but their caution is costing them.)
Today my Apple TV sits in the family room, it serves up my music quite nicely. But I could always stick m iPod in a dock and feed it through the home theater just as nicely. It doesn’t serve much video beyond the occaisional YouTube break. What video is stored on it is overflow from the DVR, and it’s a good amount of manual labor to get those programs properly encoded – not work for the average television viewer.
For Apple TV (and Apple) to succeed in the video distribution space, Apple TV has to replace something — my Netflix acocunt, my DVR rentals, or a few cable channels. TO date, it’s done noe of that. I have set top box and subscription fatigue, and I’m not alone among consumers. I want fewer devices — not more.
For a while it looked like Joost had a reasonable chance at becoming IPTV’s killer app. With the announcement that Joost is dropping its standalone client to focus on browser-based playback, it’s in danger of becoming just another web video service with nifty distribution technology.
Apple and Joost need each other. Together they can bring IPTV to the masses. Separately they are both teetering on the precipice of irrelevance.
Avid posts RED workflow paper
Credit my colleague Michael Phillips for authoring this RED workflow paper. Avid’s RED support continues to evolve, so stay tuned for further anouncements.
Next generation DVRs
FierceIPTV is reporting that Cablevision is planning to go ahead with deployment of its RS-DVR as early as next month. The major studios and other large content owners sued for copyright infringement and lost, but the case may still be appealed to the Supreme Court.
The idea of remote storage for DVRs allows a host of new players to get in the game. Who knows remote storage better than Google? The RS-DVR battle has simmered rather quietly to date, but how this plays out will have a significant effect on the media landscape.
Science policy of the candidates
Slashdot has been reporting on the science policies of John McCain and Barack Obama. I thought gathering it in one place would be useful.
- 2008 presidential candidate responses to a survey by Scientists and Engineers for America
- Ars Technica article on the positions of key advisers to the campaigns in the area of science and technology. This includes the issue of immunity for telecoms cooperating with government wiretapping programs, net neutrality, and H1-B visas.
The Ars Technica article is likely of more interest to this audience, though it includes no direct quotes from the candidates.
Layer management in After Effects
Lloyd Alvarez posted this incredibly useful script at AEScripts.com. My one beef with After Effects over the years has been how difficult it is to manage layers in the timeline. Using the simple concept of tags, this script makes layer management much easier.
