Forget the Apple TV Podcast Showcase, where are my movies?

Friday March 30th, 2007

By Adam TURNER

With an Apple TV media player in my lounge room I confess I'm impressed with the hardware, but it seems a little pointless if I can't download movies and television from my local iTunes store.

Apple TV offers a world of entertainment, but sadly most of the world can't view it

I've watched Pirates of the Caribbean, "sourced" from the US iTunes store, and it looked surprisingly good even on a 42 inch LCD HDTV. Sadly the Australian iTunes store doesn't sell movies and TV shows - the best you'll get are video podcasts.

It didn't take long for people to produce video podcasts optimised for the Apple TV, and iTunes already features an Apple TV Podcast Showcase (sorry, this link requires iTunes). The showcase features 30 video podcasts including clips from BusinessWeek, National Geographic, Diggnation, Comedy Central and The Merlin Show.

The great thing about video podcasts is, unlike movies and TV shows, there are no download restrictions according to which country you live in. Unfortunately there's not a lot to get excited about amongst video podcasts if you're looking to be entertained rather than informed. A quick search reveals everything from The Sopranos to Family Guy, but frustratingly these are only podcasts of people talking about each episode. The best viewing we can find is The Chaser's War on Everything - which is on Australian free to air television anyway.

Considering Apple's media player is designed only to work with iTunes, it's hard to get excited about Apple TV when your local iTunes store sucks. Forget the Apple TV Podcast Showcase, where are my movies?

UPDATE: PayPal opens iTunes and Apple TV to the world

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4 comments

Comment from: Patrick M [Visitor]

I really agree. I purchased my apple tv last week and have been busy ripping my dvd collection and converting them over. The Irish itunes store has no apple tv content even though tv shows can be restricted to Irish parental levels, handy when there are NO tv shows available! Grrr

20/04/07 @ 07:47

Comment from: Adam TURNER [Member]

Yep, the Apple TV is more hassle than it's worth in such situations, especially considering other media players read VOB and even ISO files.

20/04/07 @ 10:08

Comment from: John [Visitor]

This looks great! It would be fun to have it before my neighbor buys it and shows off to me.

15/05/07 @ 15:00

Comment from: ester [Visitor]

oh my gosh i toootally agree!it is so frustrating going on the american itunes n seeing all the cool stuff they can download but being unable to get any wthout the use of a credit card which i dont have!i hope that we will be able to get movies and tv for australian itunes users soon!
ester x

09/07/07 @ 21:32

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