High Definition
Hey, Apple, Where's the Blu-Ray?
10/18/08 06:45 PM Filed in: Technology
There’s a lot of
commotion over Apple’s newest line of MacBooks,
MacBook Pros, iMacs, Cinnema Displays, etc. But
there’s something that seems severely lacking. Where
are the Blu-Ray drives, Apple?
Sure, you gave us a Wireless n card. You gave us 39% more on our touchpad for the MacBook and the MacBook Pros, made of wear-resistant glass and added more advanced finger gestures. You gave us a Solid-State Hard Drive for over $1,000 less than it was in the initial MacBook Air (told you ...). You gave us a sleeker, even more aesthetically pleasing (and I thought that wasn’t possible ...) design for the casing. You gave us faster processors (we like that)! You gave us two graphics cards--one integrated for better battery life, one discrete for ultimate performance. You even somehow managed, among all these things, to squeeze in a bigger battery, boasting up to five hours of life!
But ... First let’s talk about ports. I’m pretty excited that you moved to a single standard for display ports. On the MacBook AND the MacBook Pro, you are given a Mini DisplayPort; no DV and Mini-DV depending on your laptop. Though, annoyingly, Mini DisplayPort, as you may notice, is Mini DP, not Mini DV, so it’s a standard we have to switch to before it’s universal. Why they ever thought that was a good idea, I’ll never know, since there’s no difference in performance. We now have a gigabit ethernet port ... Awesome! Quick question: Where did my FireWire port go on the regular MacBook? It’s ... gone.
Jobs has only responded with the statement, “Actually, all of the new HD camcorders of the past few years use USB 2.” I love Steve Jobs, but that doesn’t actually answer the question. And a significant number of camcorders still use FireWire, though he’s right when he says most new ones use USB, or at least allow for both. However, here’s the strangest part. Do you know who invented FireWire? FireWire is Apple’s IEEE 1394 connection, created in 1995 and implemented on the first Macs somewhere around 1997. Even more ironically, FireWire officially became part of the IEEE Std. in June, 2008. If you’ll notice, that wasn’t too long ago ... And all of a sudden, it’s parent has abandoned it and accepted the more universal standard of USB (which appropriately stands for Universal Serial Bus)? That doesn’t seem right.
Also, my external hard drive uses FireWire.
But, most significantly, what about Blu-Ray? That is, after all, why you’re reading this, right? Well, here’s what Jobs had to say about that. “Blu-Ray is just a bag of hurt. It’s great to watch the movies, but licensing of the tech is so complex, we’re waiting till things settle down and Blu-Ray takes off in the marketplace.” Read “licensing of the tech is so complex” as “it costs way too much money.” That’s really what he means.
For some reason I can’t understand, Apple went out on a limb and incorporated $1,700 SSD drives in the MacBook Air ... A drive that costs over five times as much for less than half the space of a normal Hard Drive. A price that would be ridiculous to pay, but Apple understood that if they didn’t incorporate it into the marketplace at an expensive price, it would never be able to come down in price. Strange that they aren’t willing to do the same for Blu-Ray. Also, Apple and Sony are chums. Incidentally, Sony owned HD-DVD ... Which was the competitor for Blu-Ray and lost because it was far inferior, though much priced much friendlier.
That’s really all the answer we have from the guys at Apple as to why Blu-Ray is lacking in this line. And, from the several people I’ve talked to on the subject, that was the only reason they were going to buy a new MacBook this year. Now they aren’t. Way to go, Apple.
As just a bit of encouragement, here’s a fun fact about Blu-Ray: It’s highly encrypted. Those of you who like to rip-’n-return, as we say, are going to be in for a surprise. Blu-Ray discs are encrypted, in fact, all the way to the monitor. (Can you say “paranoid”?) So, get this, in order for Apple to actually include Blu-Ray drives on their laptops, it’s not as simple as you ordering a Blu-Ray drive and doing surgery on your MacBook Pro; you would need a new display to decrypt the discs. Apple included the decrypting technology in the displays for their newest MacBooks, MacBook Pros, Cinnema Displays, and iMacs. Maybe in the next generation, then ...
Sure, you gave us a Wireless n card. You gave us 39% more on our touchpad for the MacBook and the MacBook Pros, made of wear-resistant glass and added more advanced finger gestures. You gave us a Solid-State Hard Drive for over $1,000 less than it was in the initial MacBook Air (told you ...). You gave us a sleeker, even more aesthetically pleasing (and I thought that wasn’t possible ...) design for the casing. You gave us faster processors (we like that)! You gave us two graphics cards--one integrated for better battery life, one discrete for ultimate performance. You even somehow managed, among all these things, to squeeze in a bigger battery, boasting up to five hours of life!
But ... First let’s talk about ports. I’m pretty excited that you moved to a single standard for display ports. On the MacBook AND the MacBook Pro, you are given a Mini DisplayPort; no DV and Mini-DV depending on your laptop. Though, annoyingly, Mini DisplayPort, as you may notice, is Mini DP, not Mini DV, so it’s a standard we have to switch to before it’s universal. Why they ever thought that was a good idea, I’ll never know, since there’s no difference in performance. We now have a gigabit ethernet port ... Awesome! Quick question: Where did my FireWire port go on the regular MacBook? It’s ... gone.
Jobs has only responded with the statement, “Actually, all of the new HD camcorders of the past few years use USB 2.” I love Steve Jobs, but that doesn’t actually answer the question. And a significant number of camcorders still use FireWire, though he’s right when he says most new ones use USB, or at least allow for both. However, here’s the strangest part. Do you know who invented FireWire? FireWire is Apple’s IEEE 1394 connection, created in 1995 and implemented on the first Macs somewhere around 1997. Even more ironically, FireWire officially became part of the IEEE Std. in June, 2008. If you’ll notice, that wasn’t too long ago ... And all of a sudden, it’s parent has abandoned it and accepted the more universal standard of USB (which appropriately stands for Universal Serial Bus)? That doesn’t seem right.
Also, my external hard drive uses FireWire.
But, most significantly, what about Blu-Ray? That is, after all, why you’re reading this, right? Well, here’s what Jobs had to say about that. “Blu-Ray is just a bag of hurt. It’s great to watch the movies, but licensing of the tech is so complex, we’re waiting till things settle down and Blu-Ray takes off in the marketplace.” Read “licensing of the tech is so complex” as “it costs way too much money.” That’s really what he means.
For some reason I can’t understand, Apple went out on a limb and incorporated $1,700 SSD drives in the MacBook Air ... A drive that costs over five times as much for less than half the space of a normal Hard Drive. A price that would be ridiculous to pay, but Apple understood that if they didn’t incorporate it into the marketplace at an expensive price, it would never be able to come down in price. Strange that they aren’t willing to do the same for Blu-Ray. Also, Apple and Sony are chums. Incidentally, Sony owned HD-DVD ... Which was the competitor for Blu-Ray and lost because it was far inferior, though much priced much friendlier.
That’s really all the answer we have from the guys at Apple as to why Blu-Ray is lacking in this line. And, from the several people I’ve talked to on the subject, that was the only reason they were going to buy a new MacBook this year. Now they aren’t. Way to go, Apple.
As just a bit of encouragement, here’s a fun fact about Blu-Ray: It’s highly encrypted. Those of you who like to rip-’n-return, as we say, are going to be in for a surprise. Blu-Ray discs are encrypted, in fact, all the way to the monitor. (Can you say “paranoid”?) So, get this, in order for Apple to actually include Blu-Ray drives on their laptops, it’s not as simple as you ordering a Blu-Ray drive and doing surgery on your MacBook Pro; you would need a new display to decrypt the discs. Apple included the decrypting technology in the displays for their newest MacBooks, MacBook Pros, Cinnema Displays, and iMacs. Maybe in the next generation, then ...
|
The Future of Digital Media
12/25/07 09:03 PM Filed in: Technology
Since I want to be able
to claim credit for this before it happens, I decided
to blog about where I think the future of Digital
Media lies.
The current fight is between whether to produce solely HD DVDs or Blu-Ray Discs, though that fight is almost over seeing as how the HD DVD format has swept the market leaving Blu-Ray lagging behind and being used mostly by Sony on videos and games.
For years we've been trying to find the an unscratchable disk. We have yet to find one that is practical and cheap enough to mass produce. So the nagging question remains: What will the next Digital Media format be?
In large part, the Adult Film Industry (AFI) has always lead the way in choosing the next format which the public will use. Why? Because the AFI has enough billions per year to throw around on such things (yes, more than Hollywood). The AFI was one of the first to catch on to the VHS, it was the one of the first to realize the possibilities of the internet, it was the first to test out the DVD technology, it's paving the way for High Definition Technology, and it will pave the way for the next medium. The AFI has announced that it will accept the HD DVD as it's format of choice; first of all, the HD DVD is significantly cheaper to produce. Second of all, Blu-Ray discs are almost entirely produced by Sony, who has long refused to produce Pornographic films (go Sony!), so the AFI is almost forced to use the HD DVD. Blu-Ray players have been much more expensive than HD DVD players in the past, but they are coming down to a more competitive price.
With the release of the AppleTV, my guess is the next medium for our Digital Media is going to be small Flash Media, similar to the SDRAM chips for your Digital Camera. Currently those sell for about $10 a gig, so I'm guessing once they come down to around $5 for four gigs, the AFI will start looking at them (and so will the rest of the market.) Think how simple it will be! You'll have two ways to purchase a movie. You'll have a massive External Hard Drive which will be attached to your Entertainment System; You'll purchase the movie from somewhere in a small case, something like a GameCube video game comes in, I suppose, and bring it home. You'll open it to find the small Flash chip inside. No discs, so no worries of scratching! Plug the chip into the front of your AppleTV (or whatever the competition is by then). You'll need leave it plugged in for only a few minutes while it automatically copies the movie onto your External Hard Drive (in a High Definition format, of course). Once the video file is on your External Hard Drive, you can pull out the Flash chip, put it back in the case, and place it on a shelf to forget about. The movie is now on your External Hard Drive, easy for you to access by simply scrolling through all the movies on the drive, much like you would scroll through things you saved on DirectTV.
What if we don't want to go to the store to purchase that crazy Flash chip? Easy! It just so happens your TV will be hooked up to your wireless internet (does that make sense ... hooked up to wireless?) You'll be able to easily peruse the iTunes Music/Movie Store (or any digital media store that's available at that time) directly from your TV, select the movie you want to buy, iTunes will automatically charge your credit card and begin downloading the movie to your External Hard Drive immediately. And look, you didn't even have to go anywhere! Yet another excuse for American obesity.
The technology is almost there with Apple's AppleTV. It just needs to be pushed a little bit more, and the price of Flash media needs to come down. My guess is by the time my generation graduates from college and is beginning to purchase our own Home Entertainment Systems, we'll be making a choice for this medium! And, of course, by that time, there will be many more options for something like this; Microsoft will have their own soon enough.
UPDATE 1/7/2008:
Warner Bros. has announced that it will be adopting the Blu-Ray Disc format over HD DVD. Sony and Warner Bros. are two huge producers, and Hollywood has declared that it wishes to also complete the transition early into 2008. This makes the HD DVD essentially worthless. While it is good to have finally made a decision (so retailers can finally stock only one format), I'm not very pleased with the decision, though it seems final as 70% of the production market is now producing solely Blu-Ray (Disney, Fox, Sony, Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema), leaving Toshiba as just about the only company in support of HD DVD.
On that note, this is good news for Apple, since they have been planning to include full support for Blu-Ray (and only marginal support for HD DVD) in the upcoming MacBook Pros and Final Cut HD. Microsoft has been in support of the HD DVD format, however they will most likely change soon enough.
UPDATE 1/9/2008:
Paramount Pictures has abandon the HD DVD and has said it will be returning to producing the Blu-Ray Disc, leaving Universal as the only large company still in support of the HD DVD and over 75% of the market turning to Blu-Ray.
For a fancy graph, check out this article here.
UPDATE 2/15/2008:
After Best Buy and Netflix declared on the 12th that they would be carrying Blu-Ray exclusively, rental Wal-Mart announced today that it also will be stocking only Blu-Ray discs! Following these announcements, it is rumored that Toshiba will withdraw support of the HD-DVD and move solely to Blu-Ray, joining the rest of the pack.
The fight is almost over!
UPDATE 2/19/2008:
Game over! Toshiba has said it will discontinue use of the HD-DVD disc format, switching to Blu-Ray. The battle is over ...
The current fight is between whether to produce solely HD DVDs or Blu-Ray Discs, though that fight is almost over seeing as how the HD DVD format has swept the market leaving Blu-Ray lagging behind and being used mostly by Sony on videos and games.
For years we've been trying to find the an unscratchable disk. We have yet to find one that is practical and cheap enough to mass produce. So the nagging question remains: What will the next Digital Media format be?
In large part, the Adult Film Industry (AFI) has always lead the way in choosing the next format which the public will use. Why? Because the AFI has enough billions per year to throw around on such things (yes, more than Hollywood). The AFI was one of the first to catch on to the VHS, it was the one of the first to realize the possibilities of the internet, it was the first to test out the DVD technology, it's paving the way for High Definition Technology, and it will pave the way for the next medium. The AFI has announced that it will accept the HD DVD as it's format of choice; first of all, the HD DVD is significantly cheaper to produce. Second of all, Blu-Ray discs are almost entirely produced by Sony, who has long refused to produce Pornographic films (go Sony!), so the AFI is almost forced to use the HD DVD. Blu-Ray players have been much more expensive than HD DVD players in the past, but they are coming down to a more competitive price.
With the release of the AppleTV, my guess is the next medium for our Digital Media is going to be small Flash Media, similar to the SDRAM chips for your Digital Camera. Currently those sell for about $10 a gig, so I'm guessing once they come down to around $5 for four gigs, the AFI will start looking at them (and so will the rest of the market.) Think how simple it will be! You'll have two ways to purchase a movie. You'll have a massive External Hard Drive which will be attached to your Entertainment System; You'll purchase the movie from somewhere in a small case, something like a GameCube video game comes in, I suppose, and bring it home. You'll open it to find the small Flash chip inside. No discs, so no worries of scratching! Plug the chip into the front of your AppleTV (or whatever the competition is by then). You'll need leave it plugged in for only a few minutes while it automatically copies the movie onto your External Hard Drive (in a High Definition format, of course). Once the video file is on your External Hard Drive, you can pull out the Flash chip, put it back in the case, and place it on a shelf to forget about. The movie is now on your External Hard Drive, easy for you to access by simply scrolling through all the movies on the drive, much like you would scroll through things you saved on DirectTV.
What if we don't want to go to the store to purchase that crazy Flash chip? Easy! It just so happens your TV will be hooked up to your wireless internet (does that make sense ... hooked up to wireless?) You'll be able to easily peruse the iTunes Music/Movie Store (or any digital media store that's available at that time) directly from your TV, select the movie you want to buy, iTunes will automatically charge your credit card and begin downloading the movie to your External Hard Drive immediately. And look, you didn't even have to go anywhere! Yet another excuse for American obesity.
The technology is almost there with Apple's AppleTV. It just needs to be pushed a little bit more, and the price of Flash media needs to come down. My guess is by the time my generation graduates from college and is beginning to purchase our own Home Entertainment Systems, we'll be making a choice for this medium! And, of course, by that time, there will be many more options for something like this; Microsoft will have their own soon enough.
UPDATE 1/7/2008:
Warner Bros. has announced that it will be adopting the Blu-Ray Disc format over HD DVD. Sony and Warner Bros. are two huge producers, and Hollywood has declared that it wishes to also complete the transition early into 2008. This makes the HD DVD essentially worthless. While it is good to have finally made a decision (so retailers can finally stock only one format), I'm not very pleased with the decision, though it seems final as 70% of the production market is now producing solely Blu-Ray (Disney, Fox, Sony, Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema), leaving Toshiba as just about the only company in support of HD DVD.
On that note, this is good news for Apple, since they have been planning to include full support for Blu-Ray (and only marginal support for HD DVD) in the upcoming MacBook Pros and Final Cut HD. Microsoft has been in support of the HD DVD format, however they will most likely change soon enough.
UPDATE 1/9/2008:
Paramount Pictures has abandon the HD DVD and has said it will be returning to producing the Blu-Ray Disc, leaving Universal as the only large company still in support of the HD DVD and over 75% of the market turning to Blu-Ray.
For a fancy graph, check out this article here.
UPDATE 2/15/2008:
After Best Buy and Netflix declared on the 12th that they would be carrying Blu-Ray exclusively, rental Wal-Mart announced today that it also will be stocking only Blu-Ray discs! Following these announcements, it is rumored that Toshiba will withdraw support of the HD-DVD and move solely to Blu-Ray, joining the rest of the pack.
The fight is almost over!
UPDATE 2/19/2008:
Game over! Toshiba has said it will discontinue use of the HD-DVD disc format, switching to Blu-Ray. The battle is over ...
I'll Take Apple TV for $300, Please
01/13/07 05:01 PM Filed in: Technology
I've found a solution
to the HD DVD or Blu-ray debate: Apple TV.
I don't know if you've kept up with the argument, but regular DVDs are almost out of the picture. Everyone is switching to HD DVD, or the new (and debatably better) Blu-Ray Disc. So the question everyone (in the nerd circles at least) is asking is, "Which disc will win?" My personal opinion: HD DVD is going ot win the battle. But let's think of an even better idea. One that will be a little more permanent. After all, it wasn't too long ago that we were all on the VHS. The VHS became the DVD, the DVD is now becoming the HD DVD (or Blu-Ray Disc), and the never-ending search for the unscratchable disc will probably be the next thing to throw itself on the scene. My point is, the media scene is constantly a changing one. New technology is always presenting itself. As soon as you get the latest player, a new technology will come out to out date the player you have. Of course, the new HD DVD players will also support older, non-HD DVDs... but they won't support VHS unless you add an entirely separate interface to it. But will the next latest-and-greatest technology support the circular DVD format? Or will it be something even better and smaller, like a plug-in device such as a Flash Drive? That would make your DVD players obsolete then.
Let's get back to the current argument though. HD DVD or Blu-Ray? I say neither. What if you didn't even need a disc? What if you didn't even need a physical entity of the movie you wanted to watch? Imagine this:
You sit down with a group of your friends to watch a movie. You argue for a while trying to decide what movie is the greatest movie of all time and thus should be watched. Finally, someone chimes in, "Hey, what about that new movie that came out yesterday with Will Ferrell and Ben Stiller in it?" The arguing stops and someone says the name of the movie. Finally, you all agree that it sounds like a fabulous movie... of course it does, it has Ben Stiller and Will Ferrell in it! You can't get much better than that!! You reach for your Universal Remote and click the "Search For Movie" button. A search menu appears and you enter the title of the movie. You wait a few seconds as the online database is searched. A screen then pops up with the name of the movie, a brief description, a picture of the cover, and an option to watch the trailer. Over on the right there's a "Similar Movies" box with movies that are of the same genre. Near the bottom of the screen you navigate to the "Purchase" button for $9.99. The screen fades and you see the spinning circle informing you that the next screen is loading. After about 15 seconds, the movie starts playing.
So let's break this down. You just used the technology of the future. The fool-proof technology of the future. The Apple TV. You also just purchased a new movie that you can watch anytime you want, as many times as you want, without fear or scratching or damaging a disc that the movie might be contained on.
The Apple TV is a very small device, about the same size as the new Nintendo Wii, that has two cables. One plugs into your TV. The other plugs into the outlet to provide the box power. The rest is done wirelessly. The Apple TV wirelessly communicates with you PC or Mac anywhere in the house via Wi-fi 802.11 b, g, and/or the soon-to-be-standard n. It currently comes stands with a 40gb hard drive built in. Using the Apple TV, you can view almost any media file on your computer, whether it be music, photos, or a video. Basically, if it can be viewed using iTunes, and it transfers to your iPod, you can view it using Apple TV. Using a remote about half the size of your palm (which is probably a downside because it'll be super easy to lose), you can navigate all of the media you have on your computer. After browsing through your movies, or whatever, you select the one you wish to watch. As soon as you click on it, a file transfer is initiated, transferring the entire movie file to the Apple TV's hard drive. After a good portion of the movie is transferred to the Apple TV, the movie should start playing--probably after just a few seconds. The rest of the movie file will continue to transfer over as you watch the movie. This is going to be the same with any file you choose to look at, but it would be most significant with a movie file because they are the largest.
The optimal connection to use will be the 802.11n, because it's about ten times faster than the g. And the b... well, that's not even really worth discussing anymore.
Now check this out. You didn't even have to worry about finding the disc. You don't have to worry about ever scratching it. You didn't have to worry about leaving the comfort of your couch (lazy Americans) and going out and buying or renting it. And you just paid $9.99 for a new release, which is a pretty good price!
This isn't limited to just movies. This could be applied to anything, like TV shows. Anything that's currently on the iTunes Music Store can be viewed on the Apple TV via the wireless connection to your computer via the internet connection your computer gets from whatever ISP you have. From your TV remote, the entire iTunes Music Store is at your fingertips. (Just a side note, this is also true with the iPhone, minus the remote part.) In the near future, anything available on a DVD now (and then) could very easily be made available online to download as well. Apple currently only has the rights to Disney movies and some of Paramount's older releases, but nothing new from Paramount. Apple also has a lot of TV shows, both popular and unpopular, available. I think as soon as this technology catches on the online database of movies is going to grow tremendously... right now all the movie producers are freaked out about the DRM. But as soon as they calm down about that, they should release their movies for download as well.
This of the possibilities for ease of use and the ability to make America even fatter... yet another convenience for us! Now we don't even have to leave our house to purchase a movie!
Quit arguing about HD DVD or Blu-Ray for the new standard. I choose Apple TV for my entertainment system when I get my own house and a few million.
For more specs on the Apple TV, check this link to Apple. Apple TV
I don't know if you've kept up with the argument, but regular DVDs are almost out of the picture. Everyone is switching to HD DVD, or the new (and debatably better) Blu-Ray Disc. So the question everyone (in the nerd circles at least) is asking is, "Which disc will win?" My personal opinion: HD DVD is going ot win the battle. But let's think of an even better idea. One that will be a little more permanent. After all, it wasn't too long ago that we were all on the VHS. The VHS became the DVD, the DVD is now becoming the HD DVD (or Blu-Ray Disc), and the never-ending search for the unscratchable disc will probably be the next thing to throw itself on the scene. My point is, the media scene is constantly a changing one. New technology is always presenting itself. As soon as you get the latest player, a new technology will come out to out date the player you have. Of course, the new HD DVD players will also support older, non-HD DVDs... but they won't support VHS unless you add an entirely separate interface to it. But will the next latest-and-greatest technology support the circular DVD format? Or will it be something even better and smaller, like a plug-in device such as a Flash Drive? That would make your DVD players obsolete then.
Let's get back to the current argument though. HD DVD or Blu-Ray? I say neither. What if you didn't even need a disc? What if you didn't even need a physical entity of the movie you wanted to watch? Imagine this:
You sit down with a group of your friends to watch a movie. You argue for a while trying to decide what movie is the greatest movie of all time and thus should be watched. Finally, someone chimes in, "Hey, what about that new movie that came out yesterday with Will Ferrell and Ben Stiller in it?" The arguing stops and someone says the name of the movie. Finally, you all agree that it sounds like a fabulous movie... of course it does, it has Ben Stiller and Will Ferrell in it! You can't get much better than that!! You reach for your Universal Remote and click the "Search For Movie" button. A search menu appears and you enter the title of the movie. You wait a few seconds as the online database is searched. A screen then pops up with the name of the movie, a brief description, a picture of the cover, and an option to watch the trailer. Over on the right there's a "Similar Movies" box with movies that are of the same genre. Near the bottom of the screen you navigate to the "Purchase" button for $9.99. The screen fades and you see the spinning circle informing you that the next screen is loading. After about 15 seconds, the movie starts playing.
So let's break this down. You just used the technology of the future. The fool-proof technology of the future. The Apple TV. You also just purchased a new movie that you can watch anytime you want, as many times as you want, without fear or scratching or damaging a disc that the movie might be contained on.
The Apple TV is a very small device, about the same size as the new Nintendo Wii, that has two cables. One plugs into your TV. The other plugs into the outlet to provide the box power. The rest is done wirelessly. The Apple TV wirelessly communicates with you PC or Mac anywhere in the house via Wi-fi 802.11 b, g, and/or the soon-to-be-standard n. It currently comes stands with a 40gb hard drive built in. Using the Apple TV, you can view almost any media file on your computer, whether it be music, photos, or a video. Basically, if it can be viewed using iTunes, and it transfers to your iPod, you can view it using Apple TV. Using a remote about half the size of your palm (which is probably a downside because it'll be super easy to lose), you can navigate all of the media you have on your computer. After browsing through your movies, or whatever, you select the one you wish to watch. As soon as you click on it, a file transfer is initiated, transferring the entire movie file to the Apple TV's hard drive. After a good portion of the movie is transferred to the Apple TV, the movie should start playing--probably after just a few seconds. The rest of the movie file will continue to transfer over as you watch the movie. This is going to be the same with any file you choose to look at, but it would be most significant with a movie file because they are the largest.
The optimal connection to use will be the 802.11n, because it's about ten times faster than the g. And the b... well, that's not even really worth discussing anymore.
Now check this out. You didn't even have to worry about finding the disc. You don't have to worry about ever scratching it. You didn't have to worry about leaving the comfort of your couch (lazy Americans) and going out and buying or renting it. And you just paid $9.99 for a new release, which is a pretty good price!
This isn't limited to just movies. This could be applied to anything, like TV shows. Anything that's currently on the iTunes Music Store can be viewed on the Apple TV via the wireless connection to your computer via the internet connection your computer gets from whatever ISP you have. From your TV remote, the entire iTunes Music Store is at your fingertips. (Just a side note, this is also true with the iPhone, minus the remote part.) In the near future, anything available on a DVD now (and then) could very easily be made available online to download as well. Apple currently only has the rights to Disney movies and some of Paramount's older releases, but nothing new from Paramount. Apple also has a lot of TV shows, both popular and unpopular, available. I think as soon as this technology catches on the online database of movies is going to grow tremendously... right now all the movie producers are freaked out about the DRM. But as soon as they calm down about that, they should release their movies for download as well.
This of the possibilities for ease of use and the ability to make America even fatter... yet another convenience for us! Now we don't even have to leave our house to purchase a movie!
Quit arguing about HD DVD or Blu-Ray for the new standard. I choose Apple TV for my entertainment system when I get my own house and a few million.
For more specs on the Apple TV, check this link to Apple. Apple TV