Ted Landau's User Friendly View - From Discs to Downloads: Apple Leads the Way

by
September 15th, 2006

At Apple's "Showtime" press event on September 12, the biggest news was about a product that won't be available until next year and which Apple barely mentions on its Web site. Before I get to that, however, I have a few semi-random observations about the rest of what Steve Jobs revealed at the press event.

Getting back to movies...

You can't copy downloaded movies to a DVD in a format that will play on a typical DVD player. Not a surprise here. This has also been true for the TV shows already available on iTunes. Yes, you can transfer music downloads (as copy-protected files) to a CD. But it remains a no-go for movies to DVDs.

Conversely, there is still no legal way to transfer a movie from a DVD to your Mac, so that you can get it on an iPod for example.

Too bad...as it would be convenient to have these options. They way it is now, if you want a movie available both as a DVD and on your Mac, you need to pay for the same movie twice. We've all been down this road before (such as having to get the DVD version of a movie you already own as a VHS tape), but I still hold on to some faint hope that the studios may relent on this some day (hopefully in my lifetime).

Until then, when I want to buy a new movie, I am going to have some intense internal debates. Do I want to pay as much as $14.99 to get the movie from iTunes or would I rather (often for just a couple of bucks more) get the DVD? The iTunes option allows me to play the movie on an iPod as well as in a "disc-less" form on a Mac (useful on plane rides where you don't want to drain your battery by the constant spinning of your DVD drive). The DVD option offers better resolution (although the improved 640 x 480 resolution of iTunes movies will be more than adequate for most users) and the ability to easily play it on a TV or any other medium that accepts DVD discs.

One partial solution here would be for Apple to do something it has so far resisted: offer a rental option for movies. I completely understand and support Apple's position to avoid rentals for music and TV shows. But the cost of one movie is much more than one song or one TV show. And people are much less likely to rewatch a movie than relisten to a song. So a rental option, with a $3.00 fee for example, might prove to be quite popular and profitable.

Finally, let's return to what I consider to be the biggest announcement at the press event: iTV. Essentially, it is a wireless device that will allow you to stream movies from your Mac to your television. Think of it as a combination of an enhanced version of Front Row software together with a hardware device that resembles a Mac mini that has expanded connectivity options but no hard drive. And all for just $299.

In an unusual move, Steve showed off a prototype of this product even though it won't be available for sale until the first quarter of 2007. I can understand why. Most people still watch movies on their televisions, not on their computers. This is likely to remain true for quite some time. By offering a convenient way for movies downloaded from iTunes to play on a television, the entire concept suddenly becomes a lot more attractive! Assuming iTV even comes close to working as well as it did in the demo, I know I will be lining up to get one.

What does this all portend for the future? It means that we are at the threshold of a new era in how we get and view media content. I have heard predictions that Apple's venture into movies is the beginning of the end for the DVD. The demise of the CD has been predicted for a couple of years now. I am not ready to start tossing out my discs yet. But clearly the move is on to shift content delivery from discs to downloads. With products such as iTV and iTunes movies, Apple is breaking down some of the barriers to this transition and is well-positioned to continue leading the charge. For Apple, and especially for Mac users, the future looks brighter than ever.

Ted Landau is the founder of MacFixit, and the author of Mac OS X Help Line, Tiger Edition and other Mac help books.

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