On September 9th at a special media event, Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled iTunes 8. Alongside a slew of new features including the return of NBC, HD TV Shows were unveiled, and added to the ever-growing library of iTunes content. However, one group of users that were left out, were Apple TV users. Which have been growing frustrated with the lack of HD TV Show downloads on the device.
The Apple TV was left out of the party on September 9th. Currently, the only way to get HD TV Shows onto the device is to transfer them from your computer via iTunes. A simple search through Apple’s discussion threads shows the frustration some users are experiencing while attempting to rent and watch HD TV Shows on their Apple TV’s.
“Seriously??!!
The premiere HD device in Apple’s lineup and you can’t purchase the HD TV shows through it?
Who thought this would be a good idea?!
Fine, I can purchase the HD TV shows through iTunes 8 and watch them on my computer, but I don’t want to watch my movies and TV shows on my computer. That’s why I don’t bother with Hulu or any of the other network streaming shows that are in near HD quality already. I want to watch TV on my TV. That’s why I bought an AppleTV. Please please please, tell me that there will be an imminent update for the AppleTV that turns on the ability to download HD TV shows. What’s the point in this box otherwise. Sheesh, it should have been turned on at the same time as iTunes 8 was released,” one frustrated user explains.
MacBlogz has learned from the same person people that told us about the new Macbook Pro keyboard, that Apple is indeed working on an update that will deliver HD TV Show downloads, directly to the device. In other words, Apple will be releasing a juicy update that will let you download HD TV Shows straight to your Apple TV. We figure Apple has been working on this functionality specifically for the Apple TV, but it’s either late, or Apple chose to wait with its launch. Users have begun grumbling about a possible software update, and they are right. It is indeed coming. Understandably users were shocked when Apple unveiled HD TV Shows, and then left out the ability to download them straight to the Apple TV.
“I’m not sure why you can’t purchase HD TV shows directly from the ATV, but there could be a couple of reasons. One is that it may require another ATV software update before it has that capability (if that’s the case, it’s probably in the works but late, as was the 2.0 upgrade).”
“Another reason could be disk space and device issues. When you purchase an HD TV show from iTunes you get both an SD (for iPods) and an HD version (which, at least in my case, is the one that syncs to the ATV). Downloading an entire season of both SD and HD versions of the same episodes to a 40GB ATV would likely run afoul of the capacity issue rather quickly.”
Issues about formatting may have been the culprit in delaying the functionality (though doubtful because HD Movies are available for direct download). When a user downloads a TV Show, iTunes initiates two downloads. One HD version, which is what syncs with your Apple TV, and one SD version which is what you watch on your iPod. Apple may have needed to develop a bypass that would download only the HD version straight to the device (Apple TV) itself, and then automatically download that SD version in iTunes so you could download it to your iPod as well. Perhaps when you sync your Apple TV with your computer, it will detect recent purchases and then initiate the SD download? Apple would need to figure this out before releasing HD TV Shows for direct download from the Apple TV as well. Even if it is just a hobby of theirs.
7 Comments to “Apple Working on Direct HD TV Show Downloads for Apple TV”
All I know is that I’ve run into countless situations where I’ll watch one show that I’ve synced from my computer, then I’ll want to watch another one and I have to go back to my computer, buy it on iTunes, then sync it to the Apple TV.
This is a joke. I’m sooo glad to hear that an update is coming.
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I hope, that with this Update you can finally switch the movie language…
I’m waiting for this so long!!!
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I haven’t been waiting for the language choices. But I was definitely stunned when Apple unveiled HD TV Shows and didn’t let us download them to our Apple TV’s.
I’m waiting for this update just as much as anyone else.
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Genius playlists while you’re at it, please?
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My guess is that Apple either had to push this Apple TV update back, or had technical problems, and wanted to smooth things out before releasing it.
There’s simply too much functionality that needs to be integrated into the Apple TV for them to ignore.
Unless of course, they just ditch the whole device altogether, combine the Apple TV and the Mac Mini and build in a set-top box with DVR. Maybe that would be a good start.
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With HD shows I’ve purchased on iTunes, my Apple TV lists both the HD and SD version *with no way of distinguishing between them!!” - it’s madness.
It’s also madness that HD shows cannot be purchased using the shopping cart option - and there is no warning and no message about this; however, if you add an HD show to your cart, only the SD version is added - I wonder how many people have inadvertently purchased the SD version because of this (luckily I noticed - and so didn’t make the mistake, but have had to disable the shopping cart option).
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“*with no way of distinguishing between them!!” - it’s madness.” That part of your situation is definitely madness.
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