Poor bastard. It’s wrong, I know… but it’s hard not to laugh.

(via Darren via Dethroner)

Continuing on my television kick, I thought I’d follow up with a quick review of Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip, one the shows I’ve started watching.

This one took me by surprise actually, but I have to admit - this could be one of the best shows to start this season. It follows the cast, crew and executives of the television program “Studio 60” - a program clearly inspired by Saturday Night Live. It gives us a glimpse into the world of Hollywood, and shows us what it takes to run a weekly live-air television show. It’s incredibly well written, directed and acted. In fact, I can’t think of a single role that “Amanda Peet” has been in that I actually enjoyed, but she is perfectly cast as Jordan McDeere. Similarly, the chemistry between Bradley Whitford & Matthew Perry is remarkable.

Intelligent, political and humorous, Studio 60 should be a hit - but unfortunately isn’t faring all that well in the ratings, which is unfortunate because it deserves far more attention. Again, I can’t speak highly enough of this program, and I really hope it survives the cut.

Yep, we’ve got ourselves a few new jackasses this week. John Gruber sums up the recent Gartner analysis with a equal parts humor and critique, that it actually make me laugh out loud.

Two days ago, Gartner “analysts” Mark Stahlman and Charles Smulders issued a report recommending that “Apple abandon the computer hardware business and license Mac OS X to Dell”. Hello, Gartner? 1997 called and they want their advice for Apple back.

For those not following along, Apple just announced their quarterly earnings, and it was another record quarter for them:

• the most Macs ever sold in a single fiscal quarter (1.6 million)
• the most Macs ever sold in a fiscal year (5.3 million)
• strong quarterly profits ($546 million)
• high gross margins (29.2 percent)

Sorry, why exactly would Apple want to abandon the computer hardware business and license Mac OS X to Dell?

Gruber goes on to further explain why Mark Stahlman and Charles Smulders are jackasses of the week, but he really sums it up nicely with one single sentence.

It’s hard to get a handle on the magnitude of the jackassery here.

So true, John. So true.

And so it begins… the great television transition. After all the talk, I’ve decided to finally bite the bullet and drop my cable services in favor of downloaded television. However, before I can fully commit I need the new setup to meet 2 simple criteria: Can I consume the same content as before, and will my wife be able to use it on her own?

On the surface, it seems doable. The technology is (almost) there, the content is available (in one way or another), and the economics (somewhat) work. This is clearly premature, but I dove in headfirst and I picked up a Mac Mini last night. After a rather straight forward installation (and a few wasted hours of pointless troubleshooting), I’ve got it hooked up and everything seems to be working as expected. There are some issues to discuss, but first let’s take a look at the setup.

The Hardware

In the living room, I’ve got a rather straight forward setup:

• TV: Sony KV-36HS510
• Receiver: Sony HTDDW900
• Mac Mini: 1.66GHz Intel Core Duo

Pretty simply really. I ditched my DVD player as it’s duties will be offloaded to the Mini (and I may rip the DVDs and store them remotely… but that’ll wait for another day). I kept the digital cable box connected should I still need it, but I’m hoping to keep it turned off completely. If it stays off for a month, it’s gone.

Understanding that the content isn’t HD (or 5.1 for that matter) this is clearly overkill, but I’ve kept everything digital. Video is displayed over HDMI, and audio via TOSLINK. Here’s to hoping that Apple starts releasing higher-quality content sometime in the foreseeable future.

So where is all of this newfangled, downloaded content actually coming from? For the most part, the iTunes Store. I’ve been downloading content from iTunes on my G5, and storing everything on an external 1.2TB, FW800 LaCie Bigger Disk Extreme. All of the video and music is cataloged in iTunes, and is shared wirelessly throughout the house. That said, I could have easily hooked the external drive up to the Mini downstairs, and wirelessly connected to it from upstairs (there are some complications with this, but I may do just it… for reasons which will become clear below).

A few notes:

1. Being that the Mini and the TV are both DVI, I needed a few DVI > HDMI cables to interface with the receiver. Stay away from the standard retailers (Best Buy, Circuit City, FutureShop, etc.) as the prices are ridiculous. Hit up Google - there are some good deals to be found.
2. The receiver has standard TOSLINK inputs, so I needed a 3.5mm adaptor for the Mini… which I picked up at Active Surplus for $0.50.
3. The TV didn’t originally like the default resolution the Mini was serving up - everything was cutoff around the edges (the dock, the menubar, etc), and there was a slight flicker in the picture. After a few hours of research, fussing with DisplayConfigX to set the correct resolution/refresh rate (and come up short of course), I eventually realized that there was a simple checkbox under “options” in the display preferences which turned off the overscan. Problem solved.
4. With the optical audio, the Mini locks the sound volume… which in turn renders the volume keys on the Apple Remote completely useless. I have a Harmon Kardon TC30 which is an incredibly robust universal remote, but for some reason it’s not jiving with the Mini at the moment, and will require some further persuasion.

Issues & Observations

Inability to purchase shows directly from Front Row

This is probably the biggest “experience” issue so far. The fact that I need to go to my computer, queue up downloads and then go back to my TV is almost the deal breaker. I luckily have enough content to tide me over for the time being, but I can see this becoming an even greater issue soon… because my wife certainly won’t be doing this on her own.

That said, if you venture into the Movie Trailers section in Front Row, it quickly becomes clear that Apple’s moving to address this. To watch a movie trailer, you simply select the movie poster from the list (which are downloaded when you first enter the section). Doing so brings up a surprisingly decent fullscreen video, which begins playing almost immediately. There’s a slight buffer that occurs, but it’s marginal. Full-length shows streamed by many people at once will put a HUGE strain on Apple’s ability to deliver content, but it at least looks to be technically possible. I hope their new data center is up to the task.

Wireless bottleneck

Put simply, 802.11g is not up to the task. While you can get video to stream, it’s clear there isn’t enough bandwidth to fully deliver the goods. At the moment, your best bet is to connect an external drive to the Mini, or run some CAT5 and be done with it. However, if the rumors are true, the iTV will bring 802.11n, and the world will be a better place because of it.

Inconsistent video quality & lack of 5.1 surround sound

I’ve been noticing there’s a lot of inconsistencies between the various shows I’ve downloaded. Aspect ratio (4:3 vs 16:9), compression quality, and volume level are the biggest issues… beyond the actual 640×480 resolution that is. And lest we forget the low quality audio that accompanies the video. Guys, seriously, the video AND audio quality needs to improve… the current quality doesn’t hold a candle to HDTV. It’s not even close.

Insufficient (legal) content

At the moment, Apple simply doesn’t have enough content to completely replace the offerings available through traditional channels. The shortcomings can obviously be supplemented by Bit Torrent, but again - that adds a whole level of complexity to the mix, not to mention the questionable legality. While the number of programs are being added to each week, there simply isn’t enough yet. And where the hell is HBO already?

Front Row doesn’t automatically refresh content

I haven’t attempted to see if there’s a work around for this yet, and it may be a byproduct of wireless connecting to a shared library, but Front Row doesn’t seem to automatically update itself when new content is added. So for the time being, you need to step back to the main Front Row menu, and then navigate back to the shared library when you’ve added new content.

Lack of Meta Data in Front Row

This is minor to some degree, but I do believe it’s an incredible oversight. When you select a show, you have nothing to go by except the name of that particular show. If you’re not wirelessly connected, you do get a video preview of the show, but I still don’t think that’s enough. How about a text description, or some indication if I’ve already watched it?

What’s new, what’s old, and what might I like?

This is something that I think Apple needs to lift directly from TiVo. When I start up Front Row, it should tell me what’s been recently downloaded and/or what hasn’t been watched yet. Similarly, it should offer up recommendations for me to checkout and potentially purchase. Admittedly however, this is functionality that should (will?) be rolled out in conjunction with the ability to access the iTunes Store directly from Front Row.

Final Thought

This technology is clearly premature, and the size of the market has yet to be determined, but in the end I feel this is the future of television and I’m getting onboard. Now let’s hope I can get my TC30 universal remote working… or my wife will put a stop to all this nonsense, and I’ll be selling one slightly-used Mac Mini on Ebay soon.

I started this as a response to Geoff’s comment from my previous post, but it ballooned into a post unto itself.

Geoff Wrote: - “Good points, all of them. However, even Job’s himself stated this isn’t meant to take over as a single source of acquisition/consumption. I know I’ll still use my dvd player, satellite, YouTube and Torrents as video sources. But there are times when I want to watch something that simply isn’t available through those means. It’s at that moment when I’ll turn to the itunes store. I’m sure that I’ll enjoy the experience and be okay with the cost. I also expect that the experience will be so pleasant that I’ll occasionally turn to it even when other means are available - likely because it will be easier. I’m currently consuming about 90% of my media through non-traditional means. To me, all I want is a REALLY basic cable package, one that doesn’t cost $40/month. I’d love to be able to buy per channel. I still have a need to consume live news/events, but that’s about it.”

True. But Jobs also stated that Apple had no interest in making a flash-based mp3 player, or an iPod that plays video… Hell, he even said I don’t think the convergence of television and computer is going to happen.

For Apple to succeed, they need to play nice with the existing players, all while slowly disrupting the market until it’s too late for the competition to react. Similarly, I don’t think they want to reveal all their cards yet, for fear of other competitors (read: Microsoft) getting involved to soon. They caught everyone off-guard with the iPod + iTunes Store, and I think they’re doing it again with the iTV + iTunes store. And the irony is that they’ve used the iPod as the decoy.

Take a step back, and look how long TV shows have been available on the iTunes store. If I’m not mistaken, it’s been about a year now. While everyone took notice of it, no one saw it as a treat as the only suitable place to consume this video was on an iPod. Take a look now - Apple’s got thousands of new AND old television content, and it’s being updated quite frequently. When the pieces finally come together, I think it’ll be too late for the competition (be it the traditional cable companies, or Microsoft) to react.

For video, the critical missing piece is iTV, because at the moment, there’s no easy way to consume video from your television. Sure, you can string together a Mac Mini, or any number of existing technologies… but the experience is still flawed. For starters, the solution isn’t even remotely elegant, and secondly you cannot immediately acquire content, unless you go to your computer and queue it up for download. With iTV, I believe Apple will seamlessly tie the iTunes store with your television, and you’ll be able to download and purchase new content without leaving your couch.

If you look within Front Row, you can clearly see the signs of this… Movie Trailers is the clearest example - it seamlessly connects with Apple, serves up the movie posters and streams in the video. Add the ability to purchase that video with a single click, and you’re good to go.

Similarly, the iTV is without any sort of DVR functionality. If Apple was planning to have their wireless box cohabitate with traditional sources, I would assume they’d want to integrate everything together for a truly integrated experience.

But I don’t believe that’s the plan. It’s not “Apple” enough… it’s too clunky and complicated. And there are other players in that market, and none of them have been even remotely successful. No, Apple’s plan is to build another fully-integrated vertical, where it can control the experience from top to bottom. Purchase your content directly from Apple, with it stored in one central location, accessible from many devices… be it your iMac, Mac Book, stereo, TV and of course, your iPod.

Regardless of what Jobs has stated, I think Apple’s video strategy will be strikingly similar to their music strategy; Offer as much content as possible (the “long tail” if you wish…), available for immediate download at a reasonable price. The overall quality will be sacrificed for convenience (no HDTV, at least for the time being), but it’ll be good enough for Joe Average.

However, there are still some challenges ahead.

1. Bandwidth will play a major role in this strategy. I’m not sure if anyone’s noticed, but Apple recently purchased a massive data centre… one has to wonder what that was for.
2. Similarly, broadband will be critical, and one has to hope that ISPs don’t retaliate against the “mass downloading” by imposing strict download caps, or crippling the technology as they have with Bit Torrent.
3. Live TV will be a huge challenge, and one has to stop and wonder how they’ll deal with it. Because people won’t stand for watching a delayed feed of the Super Bowl.
4. Pricing is still an issue, and will have to come down for mass-adoption of this platform.
5. Storage capacity will be another issue for the general public. For instance, season 1 of Prison Break weighs in at 10GB. At that rate, people will be running out of space fast and furious. Luckily external drives are relatively cheap (and if Apple is smart, they’ll be releasing some sort of “lite” version of their XServe Raid system.)