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Macworld and your Home Theater

Last week it was CES and this week its Macworld. On today's show we cover Macworld from the perspective of HDTV and Home Theater. This year's Macworld was not as exciting as last year's but there were four announcements that all our listeners may be interested in.

iTunes Movie Rentals - It was probably the worst kept secret in Silicon Valley. But as of Tuesday January 15th it is possible to rent movies from iTunes. Library titles go for $2.99 while new releases cost $3.99. You have thirty days to start watching and 24 hours to finish once the movie has started. Every major studio is on board. The list is pretty large (Touchstone, Miramax, MGM, Lionsgate, Newline, FOx, WB, Disney, Paramount, Universal, Sony). There are over 1000 movies. The only limitation we see on titles is that the movies won't be available on iTunes until 30 days after DVD release. Watch on Macs, PCs, all current iPods and iPhone. Watch instantly (within 30 seconds with broadband).

We rented Live Free or Diehard as a test. We could not get the movie to show up in Front Row nor could we get it to share on another computer. It seems that rentals are locked to a single computer. Not a big deal but not being able to watch from Front Row takes some of the shine off of the process. If you move a movie to your iPod or iPhone it is removed from your computer. But you can put it back on your computer if you chose. Now you see why the studios like this process. Apple can assure that there is only one copy of the movie that is watchable at a time. Quality is still near DVD and only two channel audio. But Dolby Digital and HD were promised for the Apple TV. Why not for all computers like Ara's Mac Minis. We are hoping that will be corrected with the AppleTV update. Movie Rentals are available today in the U.S. International stores will launch later in the year. Software updates for iPods and iTunes are on the way.

AppleTV - Apple also released AppleTV version two. No computer is required. Its kind of like the Vudu box but with the Apple store behind it. You can rent movies in DVD and HD quality with Dolby Digital 5.1. Buyers of the first version have no worries. There will be a software update that gives you the same functionality in two weeks. Apple reduced the price of the Apple TV to $229. They demoed the user interface, which you can find online, and it looks beautiful. Come on Apple, please give all computers the same functionality. HD Titles go four $4.99. There are 100 titles available today. We'll be buying one for test but if they do not add this functionality to the Mac Mini it may find a permanent place in Ara's home theater.

iTunes Digital Copy - Now there is a way to transfer a DVD purchase to an iTunes library. Once a DVD is purchased, users can insert the disc into their computer and enter a unique code into iTunes to automatically make copies the movie to the iTunes library. Customers own the iTunes Digital Copy of the movie, and the Digital Copy offers all of the same viewing options as other iTunes Store video content. The digital versions of movies play on computers, iPods with video, iPhones, and Apple TV devices. Each DVD will only transfer its iTunes Digital Copy to one iTunes library, however. No mention on the quality or audio codecs supported.

Full Airport Extreme base station with "server grade" internal hard drive - If you want to move to a N wireless network and you are looking for networked attached storage this is a no brainer. Apple is offering a 500 GB version for $299 and a 1 TB for $499. Now you have a place to put all your ripped content and have it available to the whole network, even if a computer is off. Again, Ara bought his Airport Extreme Router too early.