Forget the Apple TV Podcast Showcase, where are my movies?
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.
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?
 Subscribe to Hydrapinion
|
Recent Posts
4 comments
ester x
Comment feed for this post
The digital lounge room is Adam Turner's office and it's also becoming the new battle ground for the hearts, minds and wallets of the masses. Reporting from the front line where PC converges with AV, Adam offers a view from the couch of everything from digital television and hard drive recorders to piracy and digital rights management.
