HD Movie Rental Experience on the Apple TV
Last night I rented Pirates of the Caribbean in HD on my Apple TV and the experience was fantastic. The movie was playable about 10 minutes after I started downloading it. For an HD movie, I thought this was reasonable. I could imagine having a bunch of friends over, selecting an HD movie, spending 10 minutes getting popcorn and drinks ready and then starting the movie. Of course it isn't as convenient as having the movie start instantly but then again there isn't 30 Megabit Fiber in my neighborhood yet either.
I wondered if the movie would actually be in 720p or 1080p / 1080i format, but given that the Apple TV Tech Specs list a maximum resolution of 1280 x 720 at 5 Mbps, I think I have my answer. It didn't matter much in my case as my projector is only capable of 720p anyway but it is somewhat disconcerting that 1080p doesn't seem to be on Apple's To-Do list. Of course a 1080p movie rental would be quite a bit more to download, not to mention that it would probably be down-converted to 720p by the majority of consumers watching it anyway, but I still wish the Apple TV could do Main / High 1080p at 20 Mbits. My home videos are at that rate, so why shouldn't I be able to watch them in full resolution through my AppleTV? It won't be long before I get a 1080p projector so it looks like I'll be switching sources for the foreseeable future.
Apple's 720p restriction makes sense in light of movie rentals though movie rentals presumably weren't in the picture when the Apple TV was first designed. In hindsight it was a good restriction because the bandwidth is cheaper on 720p HD movie rentals. Come to think of it, HD movie rentals will probably be in 720p industry-wide for a long time to come. Because of this though, the Apple TV restricts all of your 1080i home videos as well. Either you down-convert your home movies or the Apple TV isn't your media center. I don't know, perhaps it isn't so important for people. I can't see Apple being able to differentiate a "Higher-Def" Apple TV enough to make it a viable product. Perhaps it just doesn't matter enough, but we'll see.
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