I voiced my displeasure with me AppleTV experience on Twitter and to a few friends this weekend only to be told that it’s not the AppleTV’s fault, it’s the content I chose (Survivor) and not the fault of Apple. Of course one of those friends is an admitted Fanboy and the other is a big fan himself, but it makes me wonder. Having just finished three seasons of Heroes in HD quality on Netflix via Xbox 360 (HDMI) I was shocked to see that Survivor’s video quality was just about on par with YouTube. I wish I could say I am exaggerating or blowing it out of proportion, but I am being quite literal.
Quality sucks, who do I shoot?
So Matt thinks that “It only looks as good as what was delivered to Apple.” Which I get, but that makes me question Apple’s quality control and pricing. I paid $19.99 for this season of Survivors, that’s $1 more than the Seasons we purchased at Fry’s on DVD. So I am paying more money for less quality. Something doesn’t sound right.
So who is responsible? Should Apple provide content quality ratings of some sort? Should they discount substandard quality content? Should I get an asterisk of some point that says “This is <1500k bit rate content and it’s going to look terrible on a larger TV?” I feel like I did not get what I paid for.
One of the things I have noticed with Netflix is even Standard Definition content looks really good. I have watched 30 Rock, Heroes, Dexter, Harper’s Island, not to mention countless movies and documentaries and have yet to come across something that looks as bad as what I have seen so far with AppleTV, and I pay around what this season cost a month to watch whatever I want.
And while I am on my soapbox, a few other questions about your content delivery and media options:
- Why does everyone love Netflix Watch Now, but have a huge problem with paying a subscription for music ala ZunePass? What’s the difference?
- How much would you pay per month if everything was available, even new releases?
- Should the AppleTV be so automatically integrated with iTunes on the Mac? What if I don’t want the video on the AppleTV copied onto my Mac?
- How important is it to you to be able to get one copy of a content item and use it on any of your devices regardless of brand?
- If all TV shows were available on Netflix the day after (like Harper’s Island) would you cancel Cable?
These are just some of the questions I am wondering. With Comcast totally screwing over us Media Center users by dropping analog cable and making it all but impossible, without some questionable hackery, to get digital content, I am pretty close to dropping cable tv. If I can get fast, reliable internet from FIOS or Quest, and get the most important channels via Over The Air HD, supplant my watching options with AppleTV, Xbox 360 and Netflix, my need for cable is dropping rapidly.