janstett
Oct 18, 11:32 AM
For those who aren't intimately familiar with HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, I've really gotten into it in the past few months so here's a quick primer:
Discs will be replaced by downloads? Let me know when I can download a movie in 1080p with lossless 5.1 sound in a reasonable amount of time. Perhaps to the iToons generation that thinks 128kbps sound is good you can live with downloaded movies, but for me I don't think CD is good enough (I'm an SACD/DVD-A geek). Likewise I don't think DVD is good enough, why do I want to go backwards (downloadable movies) instead of forward (HD disc)?
Blu-Ray is the superior format, on paper. No doubt. However, there are a couple of wrenches in the works.
First, both formats are actually 90% the same. The physical storage medium is based on the same principles (blue laser) but different implementation (mostly depth of the reflective layer in the substrate). Blu-Ray is slightly denser and offers a higher total capacity (50GB vs 34GB, something like that). Blu-Ray is actually sort-of a superset of DVD from there, once you get to what's actually on the disc. HD-DVD has a new encryption layer (they learned from CSS), Blu-Ray uses this same scheme and then puts a 2nd layer of encryption on top of it. Both use the same codecs -- MPEG2, MPEG-4 H.262, and VC1 (Microsoft's codec), and Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Pure HD, DTS Plus, etc.
I believe movie studio support determines who wins. The studios were split 50-50 pretty much. Then, something funny happened. Some HD-DVD studios announced they would ALSO support Blu-Ray. In my mind, that meant Blu-Ray wins.
The launch came, HD-DVD came out first and Toshiba led the way with a pair of chunky, heavy, PC-based players at $500 and $1000. Everyone hated the Toshiba players, they were slow, unwieldy, and have awful remotes. A few months later Blu-Ray launched with Samsung's $1000 player, and surprisingly this player was AWFUL, and the picture quality looks worse over HDMI than component because they forgot to turn off some video filtering. Worse, the Blu-Ray transfers thus far have been very poor quality. This seems to be because Blu-Ray is leaning towards old MPEG-2 HD transfers, while HD-DVD has embraced VC1 (which is the best of the 3 video codecs for quality and size) and gotten new encodings with Microsoft's attention. Then, Toshiba started putting out firmware updates for their HD-DVD players and suddenly their players didn't suck so bad.
So here we are; the only Blu-Ray player on the market is a Samsung, Sony has no presence. We're one month away from the launch of the PS3 (which will play Blu-Ray) and the X-Box 360 HD-DVD drive.
Right now, HD-DVD has all the momentum. The Blu-Ray titles are low quality, they have no $500 player, and HD-DVD is building a head of steam.
I know I'm the minority around here when I say this, but I don't own an iPod. :eek: Yeah, it's true... I personally don't care for the MP3 format and the lesser quality offerings of iTunes. If it isn't at least CD quality, uncompressed, I don't want it. And yes, I can hear the difference on my sound system which is a separate setup from my home theatre.
:) I love iPods but I know I'm trading off quality for convenience. Meanwhile, I'm re-ripping all of my hundreds of CDs into Apple lossless format and putting the CDs in storage. It's not SACD, but at least I'll be back to CD quality.
Discs will be replaced by downloads? Let me know when I can download a movie in 1080p with lossless 5.1 sound in a reasonable amount of time. Perhaps to the iToons generation that thinks 128kbps sound is good you can live with downloaded movies, but for me I don't think CD is good enough (I'm an SACD/DVD-A geek). Likewise I don't think DVD is good enough, why do I want to go backwards (downloadable movies) instead of forward (HD disc)?
Blu-Ray is the superior format, on paper. No doubt. However, there are a couple of wrenches in the works.
First, both formats are actually 90% the same. The physical storage medium is based on the same principles (blue laser) but different implementation (mostly depth of the reflective layer in the substrate). Blu-Ray is slightly denser and offers a higher total capacity (50GB vs 34GB, something like that). Blu-Ray is actually sort-of a superset of DVD from there, once you get to what's actually on the disc. HD-DVD has a new encryption layer (they learned from CSS), Blu-Ray uses this same scheme and then puts a 2nd layer of encryption on top of it. Both use the same codecs -- MPEG2, MPEG-4 H.262, and VC1 (Microsoft's codec), and Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Pure HD, DTS Plus, etc.
I believe movie studio support determines who wins. The studios were split 50-50 pretty much. Then, something funny happened. Some HD-DVD studios announced they would ALSO support Blu-Ray. In my mind, that meant Blu-Ray wins.
The launch came, HD-DVD came out first and Toshiba led the way with a pair of chunky, heavy, PC-based players at $500 and $1000. Everyone hated the Toshiba players, they were slow, unwieldy, and have awful remotes. A few months later Blu-Ray launched with Samsung's $1000 player, and surprisingly this player was AWFUL, and the picture quality looks worse over HDMI than component because they forgot to turn off some video filtering. Worse, the Blu-Ray transfers thus far have been very poor quality. This seems to be because Blu-Ray is leaning towards old MPEG-2 HD transfers, while HD-DVD has embraced VC1 (which is the best of the 3 video codecs for quality and size) and gotten new encodings with Microsoft's attention. Then, Toshiba started putting out firmware updates for their HD-DVD players and suddenly their players didn't suck so bad.
So here we are; the only Blu-Ray player on the market is a Samsung, Sony has no presence. We're one month away from the launch of the PS3 (which will play Blu-Ray) and the X-Box 360 HD-DVD drive.
Right now, HD-DVD has all the momentum. The Blu-Ray titles are low quality, they have no $500 player, and HD-DVD is building a head of steam.
I know I'm the minority around here when I say this, but I don't own an iPod. :eek: Yeah, it's true... I personally don't care for the MP3 format and the lesser quality offerings of iTunes. If it isn't at least CD quality, uncompressed, I don't want it. And yes, I can hear the difference on my sound system which is a separate setup from my home theatre.
:) I love iPods but I know I'm trading off quality for convenience. Meanwhile, I'm re-ripping all of my hundreds of CDs into Apple lossless format and putting the CDs in storage. It's not SACD, but at least I'll be back to CD quality.
quigleybc
Oct 3, 03:36 PM
That unit will be the center of a human's universe, Steve's dream of his lifetime. Phone/broadband, iPod, PDA, remote, OSX lite, everything except wiping your butt.
Ok then I don't want it, no butt wipe no buy buy. :p
Ok then I don't want it, no butt wipe no buy buy. :p
Thex1138
Sep 29, 11:27 PM
The prototyping lab :rolleyes:
qtx43
Apr 16, 01:22 PM
Miss by a mile pal. iPad has nothing to do with your opinion about iPhone. If you can't accept the fact that iPhone has re-invented the phone industry, a fact all the media accepted, then even a hundred iPad in your household couldn't save your ********. You know that if you're older than 15.Miss by a mile, indeed. You can't read.
Fossie
Jan 11, 06:53 PM
I think people should just get over it. Although doing it while he was doing the talk was a little :mad:
wildmac
Oct 2, 03:46 PM
You'd expect Jobs would have some sympathy for the guy, what with his phreaking days before Apple.
No honor among theives... :cool:
No honor among theives... :cool:
bushido
May 3, 03:18 PM
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_2 like Mac OS X; de-de) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8H7 Safari/6533.18.5)
lol america
lol america
ct2k7
Apr 16, 10:19 AM
Ok, Mr. Intelligent. It's been 3 years since the original iPhone launched. Perhaps Apple found a way to make a phone out of aluminum or a similar material, without affecting performance? Also, the iPad is made out of aluminum, yet it uses 3G service. You're acting like you know for sure what will happen, and you don't. None of us do.
The iPad has a black strip if you hadn't noticed, much like the original iPhone.
The iPad has a black strip if you hadn't noticed, much like the original iPhone.
theosib
Apr 29, 08:17 PM
I like it as it is in Snow Leopard.
Yes! I completely agree! What's wrong with Aqua candy blue style? It looks great and is intuitive. This gray-only stuff seems like a step backwards.
Yes! I completely agree! What's wrong with Aqua candy blue style? It looks great and is intuitive. This gray-only stuff seems like a step backwards.
alexprice
Jan 9, 04:28 PM
How long does it usually take before they post the stream? I'm dying to watch it!
"Good things come to those who wait"
I won't give any info, but for those waiting to see it and don't know anything about whats been shown.... its all really cool.
"Good things come to those who wait"
I won't give any info, but for those waiting to see it and don't know anything about whats been shown.... its all really cool.
inkswamp
Oct 3, 04:00 AM
Ug, I can't believe I just defended a monopoly.
Bear in mind, there is nothing inherently bad in a company having a monopoly, not even Microsoft. What's bad (and illegal) is when a company in such a position abuses its monopolistic power. I have to remind MS defenders of this fact as many of them don't seem to grasp the nuance here. MS wasn't in trouble for being a monopoly (rightly so--being one is not illegal.) MS was in trouble for abusing that power.
Speaking of MS defenders, is it my imagination or are there an awful lot of Macrumors newbies on the board now who seem to bash Apple pretty quickly and at every turn? What's that all about?
Bear in mind, there is nothing inherently bad in a company having a monopoly, not even Microsoft. What's bad (and illegal) is when a company in such a position abuses its monopolistic power. I have to remind MS defenders of this fact as many of them don't seem to grasp the nuance here. MS wasn't in trouble for being a monopoly (rightly so--being one is not illegal.) MS was in trouble for abusing that power.
Speaking of MS defenders, is it my imagination or are there an awful lot of Macrumors newbies on the board now who seem to bash Apple pretty quickly and at every turn? What's that all about?
RebeccaL
Apr 30, 07:28 AM
I hope they go back to the rounded buttons. The new square ones are too windows-like. Also that new iCal interface looks like crap.
rtdgoldfish
Mar 26, 05:29 PM
Your thinking too much about the worst side of things. Aren't you grateful they didnt steal umm... $10000?
Well, they did steal over $1000 worth of stuff. Thats a big deal in my book when I only make $10,000 a year and that I'm in college. I know what you are saying but its still crappy for someone to even steal $100 worth of stuff from you.
Well, they did steal over $1000 worth of stuff. Thats a big deal in my book when I only make $10,000 a year and that I'm in college. I know what you are saying but its still crappy for someone to even steal $100 worth of stuff from you.
flopticalcube
Nov 24, 08:05 PM
Online stores are still having problems. Try reviewing your orders.
tvguru
Sep 12, 08:22 AM
The links from that iTunes Videos thing DO NOT point to any movies. They point to iPod versions of movie trailers. It's just a consolidation of the current content.
But saying that doesn't matter because people aren't reading the thread.
LOL Chundles, looks like your the ring leader for the evening. :p
But saying that doesn't matter because people aren't reading the thread.
LOL Chundles, looks like your the ring leader for the evening. :p
Geckotek
Jan 3, 07:55 AM
Or not. After all, it isn't like you can take your phone with you to Verizon. Many people aren't going to want to spend the money on an ETF because that's the money they would use for a new phone.
That said, after all these years there are probably enough folks already on Verizon that would jump for an iphone. Enough that it could get interesting in some areas. Just like it did with ATT who thought they could handle the load.
That's the whole point, if you can't take your phone with you, you'll just sell it. Selling an iPhone 4 right now will easily pay for the ETF and the cost of a new Verizon iPhone (assuming pricing is similar.)
That said, after all these years there are probably enough folks already on Verizon that would jump for an iphone. Enough that it could get interesting in some areas. Just like it did with ATT who thought they could handle the load.
That's the whole point, if you can't take your phone with you, you'll just sell it. Selling an iPhone 4 right now will easily pay for the ETF and the cost of a new Verizon iPhone (assuming pricing is similar.)
Luis
Jan 11, 10:17 PM
I still like Engadget better. And after this, It'll probably be only Engadget that I continue to read.
chrono1081
Mar 17, 11:32 PM
OP I completely sympathize.
I have friends who cell cell phones and I'm always hearing how their droids are better than my iPhone...but what I also hear is non-stop complaining about the droids being slow, or such and such not working on it. I always say things like "Funny, I never have problems with my iPhone". (My friends all assume that since I use an iPhone I know nothing about Android (surprise! I develop for both platforms!)).
It can get worse with computers. I'm a windows desktop and server tech and I almost lost my job simply because a co-worker found out I had a mac, went to my boss and told him that I obviously wasn't good with computers since I needed to use an "easier, less capable" machine. My boss called me into his office (mind you this is my personal computer at home!) and asked me about it. Luckily not only was I able to show my work was excellent, but I also sold my boss on a mac who know owns one thanks to me and wonders why he didn't try them sooner.
Its amazing how foolish people can be over a stupid piece of electronics.
I have friends who cell cell phones and I'm always hearing how their droids are better than my iPhone...but what I also hear is non-stop complaining about the droids being slow, or such and such not working on it. I always say things like "Funny, I never have problems with my iPhone". (My friends all assume that since I use an iPhone I know nothing about Android (surprise! I develop for both platforms!)).
It can get worse with computers. I'm a windows desktop and server tech and I almost lost my job simply because a co-worker found out I had a mac, went to my boss and told him that I obviously wasn't good with computers since I needed to use an "easier, less capable" machine. My boss called me into his office (mind you this is my personal computer at home!) and asked me about it. Luckily not only was I able to show my work was excellent, but I also sold my boss on a mac who know owns one thanks to me and wonders why he didn't try them sooner.
Its amazing how foolish people can be over a stupid piece of electronics.
Passante
Sep 12, 05:37 AM
If it's just Disney, then there's not much point. The reason iTMS succeeded from the start was that it was simple and it had the largest library from which you could purchase single songs. If the iTunes Movie store starts with just Disney movies, then it's dead in the water. Let's just hope that ThinkSecret is wrong again, as usual.
As I recall itunes was very small when it started.
As I recall itunes was very small when it started.
mkrishnan
Sep 7, 10:12 PM
I've never heard myself say "Yo, Yo, wut up dude?" either...
God, I hope not! :eek: ;) :D
No, I downloaded it from somewhere else.
*wink wink, nudge nudge*
Say no more! :p
God, I hope not! :eek: ;) :D
No, I downloaded it from somewhere else.
*wink wink, nudge nudge*
Say no more! :p
Winni
Mar 9, 06:43 AM
I won't get into a furball over your post. Which large tech company operates in a candid & open way with customers?
I don't know about "candid", but "open" as in "dialogue" certainly describes the way in which Microsoft, Dell, IBM and several other enterprise elephants communicate with their (enterprise) customers. It's mandatory for their business.
I don't know about "candid", but "open" as in "dialogue" certainly describes the way in which Microsoft, Dell, IBM and several other enterprise elephants communicate with their (enterprise) customers. It's mandatory for their business.
itgoesforfun
Nov 24, 03:39 PM
Thanks , let us know man!
I wont be going until way later so I wont have a way to confirm until tonite.
It's really great that Apple doesn't give their employees the proper information. I called the Glendale store and received a yes I can use the discounts together(Corporate). I went to the store and was told i cannot combine the discounts, but that option is available online. Apparently I was the 10th person who encountered that fun situation within 90 minutes.
I wont be going until way later so I wont have a way to confirm until tonite.
It's really great that Apple doesn't give their employees the proper information. I called the Glendale store and received a yes I can use the discounts together(Corporate). I went to the store and was told i cannot combine the discounts, but that option is available online. Apparently I was the 10th person who encountered that fun situation within 90 minutes.
dmelgar
Jul 21, 10:52 AM
Really classy apple. Try to cover up your mistake by confusing users and trying to insult competitors you didn't think you even had to worry about.
Apple continues to disappoint in surprising ways. What happened to the focus on building great products?
Apple continues to disappoint in surprising ways. What happened to the focus on building great products?
MorphingDragon
Apr 30, 10:39 PM
And what is exactly your point? The specific app is not intended to be a part of the OS interface. It is using a more immersed, recreational interface, which makes it fun to use. (Have a look on the review here to see what I mean: http://www.inews24hs.com/2011/03/15/led-machines-–-led-flashlight-for-iphone-4-review/ ) Users enjoy the animations and sound effects. They are using it for the whole experience, not just for the usability of it.
On the other hand, OS interfaces are belonging to a different category. And although there is a trend to make the native OS apps more immersive (take as an example the new iCal. It uses an interface that tries to emulate a real object, a real leather Calendar), users could have given the option to switch between a more abstract UI style. The main reason of using native OS apps (such as ical, mail, etc) is more task centred rather than experience oriented. The ideal would be not using any interface at all and just have a personal assistant do all the hard work for us accepting voice commands. Hopefully we are not far away from something like that though…
It is interesting to notice that there are two different trends for the interface design criteria of the OS apps. Two different schools. One is the school of immersive interface, such as iCal, garageBand for iPad, iMovie for the iPhone with all the eye candy on the movie selection menu. The other is the minimalistic approach: the new Mail interface, the iPhoto, e.t.c. It is as there are two different interface design teams working in parallel, doing their experiments on UI usability, each following a different direction.
A bit out of topic though!! Lets get back to the slider conversation!!
Was talking about the ad itself, not the UI.
On the other hand, OS interfaces are belonging to a different category. And although there is a trend to make the native OS apps more immersive (take as an example the new iCal. It uses an interface that tries to emulate a real object, a real leather Calendar), users could have given the option to switch between a more abstract UI style. The main reason of using native OS apps (such as ical, mail, etc) is more task centred rather than experience oriented. The ideal would be not using any interface at all and just have a personal assistant do all the hard work for us accepting voice commands. Hopefully we are not far away from something like that though…
It is interesting to notice that there are two different trends for the interface design criteria of the OS apps. Two different schools. One is the school of immersive interface, such as iCal, garageBand for iPad, iMovie for the iPhone with all the eye candy on the movie selection menu. The other is the minimalistic approach: the new Mail interface, the iPhoto, e.t.c. It is as there are two different interface design teams working in parallel, doing their experiments on UI usability, each following a different direction.
A bit out of topic though!! Lets get back to the slider conversation!!
Was talking about the ad itself, not the UI.
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