More Speculation on Apple's New Movie/Video Store
 

Robert Cringley's column this week decodes the the Apple-Intel deal a bit more and suggests how it might lead to the "iTunes Movie Store"

http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20050714.html

Why is this stuff worth paying attention to?

Think about what Apple has done with iTunes. The latest version of the program provides support for podcasting and Apple has allowed anyone with a podcast feed to submit a link to the Music Store. The Music Store presents these links on a more or less equal footing with all the commercial podcast content Apple provides. This is a trivial thing for Apple to do because all Apple is doing is providing a search mechanism and link to material hosted on other peoples' servers.

Now imagine an iTunes Movie Store. What if Apple does the same thing with links to video content that it has done with podcast content?

Apple would make it a snap for anyone with the disk and server space to provide links to film/video content (for burning to DVD for an audience that now prefers to stay home to watch movies) on an equal footing, more or less, with major studios. This would obliterate one of the greatest hurdles that independent producers face: distribution. Apple will of course take a cut for content sold through the movie store for a fee, but that cost is an issue that pales in comparsion with distribution as it stands now.

Such a move by Apple would revolutionize the business and create great opportunities for independent video and film producers.

Will Apple do what I am suggesting? The fact is iTunes already supports video podcast content (for an example search for "Rocketboom" from the main podcast page).

That's why this story is worth following closely.

From today's news:

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/050718/apple_ipod.html?.v=2

Sounds good...but I don't think we have fast enough connections and bandwith to download a 4-8 gigs worth of data that a full length movie is made up of.
[I know my DSL isn't fast enough]

I rather see Apple come out with a $199.00 Apple branded DVD player that plays h.264 files in full HD[recorded on regular old DVD-Rs]

That is the missing piece right now...why wait till HD-DVD/Blu-Ray, when you can have HD now?

Now Forbes is also speculating about a video iPod. This story got "legs" in a Wall Street Journal article the other day, and the WSJ was right about the Intel switch...

http://www.forbes.com/technology/200...9andelman.html

Yes this is very interesting and getting more so.

BTW, Boyd, I took a look at the operaphilly and greenmist web sites. You all do nice work. Long time ago I was very involved in technical theatre.

Thanks Peter! We are now facing some tough budget challenges unfortunately. But I'm putting together a new production of A Masked Ball that depends heavily on video projection. I'm learning to use the Catalyst media server (Mac/Quicktime based - just to stay on topic :-) which lets you automate projections by networking with the stage lighting console. Cool stuff...

http://www.highend.com/products/digi...g/catalyst.asp

Here's a PC Magazine article about this issue put on the web about 5 hours ago:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1838668,00.asp

Why should podcasting be audio-related only? If Apple is successful in rolling out a video-enabled iPod (or rather vPod), then podcasting will truly mean broadcasting through an iPod or vPod.

I agree with Peter. This could very well open up new distribution possibilities for independent producers.

A Disney-Apple Deal?
 

From business2.blogs.com

A report that Apple is in negotiations with Disney to use Disney content on a iPod or vPod or whatever.

http://business2.blogs.com/business2...disney_co.html

I wonder if a new Disney-Pixar deal might be part of this. Jobs also still CEO of Pixar.

This is an interesting story. Steve Jobs and Disney back together. Perhaps Jobs sees new opportunities with the newly appointed CEO-to-be Bob Iger.

Picture of the video iPod
 

Here is a "picture" of the video iPod

I assume the photo is a fake, but it has some interesting design features. Note the 16:9 screen and what looks like a lens for a camera on the back side.

If Apple adds cellphone capabilities, then it could become an all-in-one device.

The screen size, while not large enough to make feature films watchable (not too mention download times for that option), is large enough to enjoy movie shorts.

Who knows, maybe DVC #4 will be available on vPods?

All Apple has to do is check out Sony's PSP and make something similar with 100% Quicktime Compatibility and they'd have a winner.
vPod, VideoPod, MediaPod?

New iPod to dock to TV?
 

Here's more on the video capabilities of a possible new iPod from an Apple source:

http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=454

The jist is that it may plug into a TV via a new dock to show video on TV.

And here's a contrarian view from BusinessWeek which suggests Apple won't be rolling out a video iPod...

http://yahoo.businessweek.com/techno...0483_tc120.htm

Arstechnica posts an unverified rumor about the possible brains behind an upcoming Video iPod.

According to the site, "Sharp sales reps are bragging to potential customers that Apple will be using the Sharp LH7A400 SOC (system on a chip) in the initial version of the video iPod."

The chip specs are posted and provide enough processing power to decode MPEG4 as shown in demonstration hardware.