Stan's List

Getting your media into Apple TV

Is the Apple TV, take two, sufficient to move the market? Certainly, its ability to log on to the Apple Movie Store has to be attractive. Order and receive movies from your favorite movie chair. While the resolution may not be the highest its not bad. There is one feature of the Apple TV that should be taken advantage of. All media you can load into iTunes can be displayed through Apple TV. Read the rest of this entry »

The DOJ does not care about a single company creating a music store, internet or otherwise. Neither does Apple, as there has not been one, expect Amazon.com, that has keep Apple awake at nights. Yet, when you have a number of music companies thinking about starting the their own music store, the alarms go off at Pennsylvania Avenue. The Wall Street Journal reports “Universal and Sony BMG Music Entertainment, the No. 1 and No. 2 music companies in the world, by market share, have gotten letters of inquiry from the Justice Department.”

If you buy any 20th Century Fox DVD labeled ‘iTunes Digital Copy’ you’ll will have a digital copy along with the physical DVD. You can view the movie on your Mac, iPod, or iPhone as many times as you like (since you own the movie) but the digital copy can only be imported into one iTunes library.

This AppleCare article explains just how to transfer that digital copy into iTunes, and once done, into video iPod, Apple TV or iPhone.

A high school student has program an application called tooble. tooble creates an index of YouTube video and clicking on any one video will take you to YouTube where the video will be played. Selecting a video and clicking the download button will not do anything. You first have to check the box next to the video then hit Download. tooble will download the video, convert it and send the video to iTunes. This is amazing. Enjoy!!!!

The iTunes Music Store has Box Sets, such as Time3, a Journey compilation, at $19.99 ($0.54 per song). There are 40 box sets of various styles of music. The Box Sets focus on classics like Etta James’ The Chess Box and Joan Baez; The Complete A&M Recordings There are four offerings in iTunes Plus format (DRM Free and 256 kbps AAC coding).

Macworld’s Chris Breen has an associate whom watched a part of Spider-Man after renting from iTunes that morning, concerned they would have to rent it again, were surprised to find the movie where they left it, 36 hours later. There has been one major complaint about the rental service, that being, for many, especially families, you may not get back to the movie for days. So, how long has Apple extended the time to view the rentals? The focus of the article said 36 hours. More …

Apple is willing to let you keep the rental for 30 days, so how does this violate by giving the user a week to finish viewing the movie?

The following updates are available via Software Update or from Apple’s Downloads page:

iTunes 7.6

Rent and download your favorite movies with iTunes on your computer or directly to your living room on Apple TV. Enjoy rented movies in sizes up to 720p HD with surround sound on your Apple TV and sizes up to DVD-quality on your computer. Transfer your rented movies from iTunes to your iPod or iPhone and enjoy them on the go.

Also, purchase and download your favorite TV shows, music, and more directly on your Apple TV. Effortlessly transfer purchases made on Apple TV back to your computer with iTunes.

QuickTime 7.4

QuickTime 7.4 addresses security issues and delivers:
- Numerous bug fixes
- Support for iTunes

This release is recommended for all QuickTime 7 users.

For detailed information on the security content of this update, please visit this website.

iMovie 7.1.1

This update addresses issues when publishing movies to a .Mac Web Gallery, improves overall stability, and addresses a number of other minor issues.

Front Row 2.1.2

This Front Row update provides for bug fixes and improved iTunes compatibility.

Never… well, maybe      According to Businessweek Apple authorized Fox to include Apple’s Fairplay copy on its DVD. This would allow easy transfer to iTunes. Was this possible without actually licensing Fairplay? MacRumors reported a copy of a Family Guy DVD intended for release January 15th and discovered an included iTunes/iPod compatible digital copy.

A Rolling Stone blog delves in what many consider a subjective area (just read the comments). Has the move to mobile music invited a less than high fidelity sound. Music has been subject to the “loudness war” where the engineers raise the sound levels to compensate for the less quality expected from portable music players and computer stereo speakers. What are the alternatives? MP3 in 256 kbps is considered to be close to CD quality. A very interesting article. More …

Read the comments from mostly producers and artists, there is some mud slinging, but lots of information. Some will sound like my comments below.

I extracted the audio source “California Hotel” from the Eagles “Hell Freezes Over” video DVD. I exported it to a 44.1 KHz .aiff file. This created an outstanding sounding file, and without a doubt, at least, true CD quality. It is one single song, 70.3 MB, and too large to burn to a normal CD, without compression. Fortunately that is not necessary, as my iPod and IPhone play it close to true quality. The iPod, in its cradle, is often connected to a soon to be replaced, but adequate Gemini PA-7000 pre-amp (the previous crashed and burned), a Soundcraftsmen PM-840 amplifier and Bose 901 Series 1 speakers. I have had the amplifier and speakers for 30 years. There is no doubt analog output is warmer and more dynamic with high fidelity equipment. Even CD’s and the iPod are clearer and silent parts (mainly classical music) are so quiet. I love to listen.

The fault is the engineers presuming to know what we want to hear. This is also a plausible cause for the reduction in CD buying. CD quality is very poor.

This video explains why dynamic range matters
There is anther YouTube example of the “loudness wars”

Showing how popular Wal-Mart’s online was, not till Gizmodo got a tip, did anyone notice.

The store’s sudden death actually isn’t too surprising even though it was less than a year old and the first one to sport content from the “big six” studios. Who thinks “Wal-Mart” when they think “video downloads,” and wants to deal with a … of DRM, WMV files and Windows and IE-only compatibility? More …