TV over the internet -- not yet...

A was really excited to see Apple would host some ABC TV shows on iTunes. Clearly the has to be the wave of the future.. with the advent of DVRs the days of overtly commercial sponsored TV seem to be numbered… and Apple’s foray into on-demand TV download business is no doubt a harbinger of the future…

Or maybe that is just my wishful thinking as we seem to have the only house with highspeed internet connection but no cable, satellite or even bunny ears TV service.

So I got an iTunes account yesterday and downloaded one of the shows for $2. While the browsing and purchasing was seamless, the video quality was poor. It might look fine on a 2.5 inch iPod player, but not on my laptop. I wonder if that was part of the deal – ABC didn’t want to give up the crown jewels just yet so they release it in less then perfect quality.

Well, maybe MovieLink or CinemaNow will do a deal and get some high quality downloads up there. Until then, I guess I will continue to work on other stuff…

Anyone else tried this out? Did you have the same results?

Comments

• Anonymous
  October 29, 2005
  
  The resolution is only 320x240.
• Anonymous
  October 30, 2005
  Yes! I have been tried it for last couple of weeks before.
  
  For those of you who haven't been paying attention, iTunes is Apple's incredibly successful combination of a computer-based jukebox and music store. While Apple certainly didn't invent the idea of playing music on a personal computer, their combination of music playback with legal purchase and download and pocket-sized portability via the iPod, may make this the killer app of the decade.
  
  I've singled out iTunes as an example of well-designed software for a couple of reasons. First of all, it simply works. A relative neophyte can quickly and easily browse the Music Store, make several selections, complete the purchase and be out the door listening to the music on an iPod in under five minutes. This is about as well as you can hope to do as far as "purposeful" goes. Enough said.
  
  Secondly, the three major interfaces—the Music Store, the iTunes Library (jukebox functionality) and iPod—all use common concepts (such as Playlists) and bits of information related to the music (such as Album and Artist) to structure the interface and interactions in a meaningful and effective manner. It's easy to find what you're looking for when you're shopping because you can use the same interface that you use when you're picking out the right music to listen to (alternatively, you can use a mode that more closely resembles a souped-up ecommerce site). And, it maintains the social and human aspect of the organization and distribution of music by allowing users to publish playlists to the Store and share them around the office through automatic, built-in networking.
  
  Cheers,
  Smith