Apple’s HD Media Center (Coming Soon)
(Opinion)
So what’s taking so long for Apple to get around to releasing a media center to bring Front Row into the living room? Every mac user and iPod owner will want one and it’ll drive iPod video sales to new levels. The stars are starting to align in making this dream product possible. Here they are:
CableCARD 2.0 - Look at DVRs these days... TIVO, Windows MCE, ReplayTV, etc., with the exception of cable and satellite company supplied DVRs, HD content can not be integrated into media centers (other than OTA) easily because of cable provider differences. CableCard 2.0 will allow one way premium HD content to be received easily from any cable company, Tivo series 3 will use it as well as Vista MCE. Forget the digital cable box and get a CableCard instead. (release date - summer 2006)
Intel Conroe Processor - HD content playback and simultaneous recording is going to require a huge amount of processing power. More power than the current CoreDuo mobile processor can provide. The Conroe chip benchmarks at IDC beat the fastest AMD chip by 20%, and consume far less power. With Apple’s successful transfer to Intel’s Core line expect this chip to power a few Apple products. (release date - summer 2006)
Blu-ray Drive - Apple is a board member of the Blu-ray Disc Association and has recently been in the news about wanting iTunes media content included on Blu-ray discs. These drives will be very expensive initially so expect this to be a CTO item. (release date - summer 2006)
iTunes Media Store 7.0 w/ HD Movies - You’ll see movie studios (starting with Disney) releasing HD 1080p movies through iTunes this year to be played on the Apple HD Media Center. There has been news lately that Apple will utilize p2p technology in the next release of Mac OSX (Leopard). More likely is that they’ll use p2p in the next release of iTunes to distribute HD content, maybe. Apple has been a leader in HD content online with their Quicktime trailers. The recent release of 4:3 aspect ratio iPod video players and TV show releases on the Apple Store is more of a proof of concept leading up to the ultimate goal which is HD movie releases through the iTunes store.
Many people have suggested than Apple will release a version of the Mini that will be used as a media center. No way. The Mini is never going to be a media center (mostly for the fact that its essentially made up of laptop components). The power and capacity will require a larger enclosure, plus the Conroe processor will require a hefty power supply and heat sink, and who is going to want a 120GB laptop drive in their Media Center when 750GB drives are on the market?
Expect announcements at the WWDC this August and the iPod Video wide screen player to follow.
Saturday, May 27, 2006
