Thursday, May 31, 2007

YouTube Makes Apple TV Less Bad

Apple has gone outside the shelter of iTunes to provide uses free content from the web by partnering with YouTube. I'm happy that Apple is listening to Applet TV customers (and to me) by making more content available, and I applaud them for making it free.

Unfortunately for Apple, partnering with the most popular video site, compromises the quality of the viewing experience since YouTube's videos are low resolution, according to Carl Gressum, senior analyst at consulting firm Ovum.

For Apple this could be a good deal, as there is limited movie content available on the Apple TV, or iTunes. The downside is that YouTube streams low resolution content. Poor video resolution quality does not necessarily look great on a high definition TV.

It is not like Apple to provide a less than stellar user experience, so this deal won't do much to change Apple TV from being an unnecessary device. I'm still hoping that TiVo, which finally turned a profit, will expand their content selection to enable watching any web video through the TV. (RealNetworks could use a boost for its media player, maybe the two should talk.)

Posted By John Gartner at 09:59 AM
Permanent Link: YouTube Makes Apple TV Less Bad | Comments (0)

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