On the Box
After months of anticipation and speculation about what Apple would call their little box that puts your iTunes content on your widescreen TV, the other announcement on Tuesday was that the Apple TV will be shipping in February for CDN$349.
The new device features an (as yet unspecified) Intel processor, a 40GB hard drive*, and a plethora of ports and interfaces, including HDMI and component video and audio. Streaming video content requires a wireless network that uses either the 802.11g or n standards. Video formats supported by the Apple TV include H.264 and protected H.264 up to 1.5Mbps; as well as MPEG-4 up to 2.5Mbps.
The press release quotes Steve Jobs as saying, “Apple TV is like a DVD player for the 21st century—you connect it to your entertainment system just like a DVD player, but it plays digital content you get from the Internet rather than DVDs you get from a physical store.” That’s a bold play and especially interesting given the continuing state of high-definition DVD. While they’re busy squabbling, will Apple swoop in and steal the market from under them? The continued success of iTunes contrasted with the relative obscurity of DVD-Audio could prove prophetic.
*Approximately 33GB for media storage.
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