My new Apple TV
February 29th, 2008
I finally broke down and got an Apple TV as part of my forays into HD platforms. I got interested after we shot Casting Pearls in HD and seeing the picture quality when screened on good equipment at the Directors Guild of America. I doubt I will ever bother with film again. Our distributor is not selling it in HD, though they traffic an HD print if the venue can project it.
Delivering HD movies on demand seems to be a problem with my cable company at the moment. I’ll let you know what I think of it as I go. Now that the stupid format war is over, I may also get a Blu-Ray just for kicks.
Keep in mind that Sony is due to release Blu v2.0 before long, so if you decide to foray into HD-movies-on-disc you might consider using one of the cheaper Playstation 3 consoles for movie playback. The concern is that some stand-alone Blu-Ray players may not be flash upgradeable as the format continues to evolve.
I dislike the idea of buying a $400 game console to play movies, but right now there are no other viable options. The other stand-alone players are either buggy, too expensive, or deliver inferior picture quality. Still, I am resisting the urge to dive in. Now that the format war is over, I think we should be seeing some $150-ish players on the shelves before long… I hope!
Heh, here’s a funny YouTube video about the fall of HD DVD:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywWfmRdOmJ0
YouTubers sure have a lot of time on their hands. They should make more useful videos, like a video on how to cook a greasy southern egg dish, or a video about really stupid & inappropriate questions people sometimes ask!
@ nicole: yeah, I can’t have a video game console. I won’t get anything done.
@ michael: very funny, and if you haven’t seen the original film Downfall, it’s very intense.