Macworld Best of Show for Premiere Pro
Well, Macworld was a blast--Premiere Pro and Photoshop both won best of show! It was a lot of fun to be at the show with our Mac plans out in the public. Every time we showed the Production Studio running on a Mac we had a crowd that was standing room only, back to the back wall, and the response was overwhelming. We also had a great time showing Soundbooth on one of the demo stations all day. We got some great feedback and some even better suggestions. Good times!
Other than that, it was fun to be there for the iPhone madness--with the way people crushed in on it with cameras flashing while it was rotating under glass it was like the Louvre unveiled a new Van Gough. I'm interested to get my hands on it sometime. I do a lot of email from my Treo, so I'm suspicious of the on-screen keyboard, but the iPod features sure looked compelling. It's probably just as well... I doubt the $500 or $600 would fly past my better half. :) As for the actual video-related Apple announcement, I think iTV would be a whole lot more compelling to me if it recorded something. I'm still just not interested in buying 320x240 video. If it were a bit higher rez and had some sort of "rental" model for the movies and I'd probably be hooked. Still, it's yet another sign of the wave: broadcast is on its way down and just about all other video delivery is on its way up.
Comments
I concur with Chris P. that even 640x480 isn't enough. Although Battlestar Galactica through iTunes is viewable for me on a laptop if I'm willing to accept the muddy compression, it's too painful for me to watch it on my 50-inch HDTV. I've become spoiled with the HDTV broadcasts of 24, The Unit, and 30 Rock that I regularly record, and the 640x480 iTunes downloads don't even come close to matching an upsampled DVD. Until iTunes raises the resolution of its video downloads, I'll have to wait for the Battlestar Galatica season DVDs. There's a lot of talk about AppleTV, but if Microsoft gets its act together, I would watch out for HD video downloads through their Xbox 360 as a major competitor.
Absolutely. I haven't gotten a 360 yet, but the HD downloads are an appealing reason to pick one up (on top of the games). --Hart
Posted by: Charles Lai | January 16, 2007 09:51 AM
They did bump it to 640x480 when the new(er) video iPod was introduced...however HDTV screens are a different matter. I do think if they did offer HD shows and movies it would really make AppleTV take off. It will be nice to have video podcasts on there, Apple did change the QT iPod export to 640x480 a few months ago, but again, HD podcasts and content will really help sell the unit. Otherwise its just as easy to hook up an iPod to a TV. A real HD widescreen iPod with HD iTunes content plus the AppleTV would bring everything together, so I am sure that is where all this is heading.
Posted by: Franklin McMahon | January 15, 2007 07:42 PM
Minor point, the videos on iTunes are now 640x480.
Still, that's really not enough if you're used to HDTV. It's strange that Apple put an HDMI port on the AppleTV, and they're advertising it for HDTVs, but the only HD content they have are movie trailers. Maybe they'll be adding HD shows later...Battlestar Galactica in HDTV...yes...
Thanks for the clarification on size. And I agree--start offering HD content at a reasonable "season pass" and you'll be talking my language! --Hart
Posted by: Chris P. | January 15, 2007 12:31 PM