Apple TV vs. Xbox 360: Quick, Apple Needs Some HD (and why the Studios Won't Give it To Them)!
Posted Mon, 9 Apr 2007 12:11:03 EDT by Michael Wolf
Interesting comparison of Apple TV vs. Microsoft Xbox 360 Video Marketplace. I tend to think that most press give Apple a pass on most everything, because for the most part they've all fallen in love with their iPods and can't see past the shiny white (or black) casings to other products. Not to say the company doesn't do a great job on most everything they do, and for a gen 1 product, it looks like they did more with the DMA or connected entertainment category than others who have been in the space much longer.
That being said, this guy does point out where Apple TV does really fall short vis-a-vis the 360, in particular on HD and on direct-to-TV downloading. I do think Apple needs to move quick on the HD side, and even look at creating higher resolution versions of their standard definition downloads, because as this article points out the Apple TV content standard definition doesn't look all that good on HDTVs. This may be a problem since most studios won't consider sending feature films in the VoD window in HD over the public Internet to a PC or MAC (the Xbox 360 is viewed as more secure, and since FairPlay has been hacked, forget HD anytime soon). Because of this, they should consider moving from the 640 by 480 resolution they are at today up to 720 by 483 (what most studios consider the limits of standard definition), as well as upping the bit rate.
And another thing, in my opinion, that Apple needs to do now that they've gone heavy into movie downloads is to open up rentals. I tend to not buy many movies, and when I do I want a physical copy on DVD. I've made this point before, but spending $15 or so for a file rather than a DVD, without all of the extra neat packaging, isn't a real winner in my mind. Its been rumored before, but I think that Apple will open up rentals at some point because renting is such a big part of the way consumers consume video (as opposed to the ownership model with music). On the other hand, I don't have a problem spending $4-$5 for a rental, which is the going rate for digital rentals.