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Lateralus · May 5, 2005, 12:38 AM

I got a kick out of it.

Especially the part where he compared Longhorn to road construction.

SSharon · May 5, 2005, 03:54 AM

That was a great line indeed, not a bad clip.
Aside, I never new Mossberg looked like that, I have read so many of his articles and for some reason I pictured someone very different.

OwlBoy · May 5, 2005, 04:17 AM

Cool, they used MPEG4, and AAC.

-Owl

alphasubzero949 · May 5, 2005, 11:14 AM

Billy Boy's going to find a way to stop the presses. I wonder how he is managing to sleep these days.

typoon · May 5, 2005, 11:28 AM

Not a bad clip at all

Apple Pro Underwear · May 5, 2005, 11:34 AM

when longhorn finally comes out it will be compared to OSX in every article except the unabashed pro-windows ones.

and everytime they f*ck up a feature compared to OSX, they'll have to take flak for that too.

willed · May 5, 2005, 02:35 PM

Originally Posted by OwlBoy

Cool, they used MPEG4, and AAC.

-Owl

So that's why it didn't play anywhere near smoothly on my iBook 500

wdlove · May 5, 2005, 02:43 PM

A nicely done clip.

Thorin · May 5, 2005, 03:18 PM

On the one hand it's great to see Apple using H.264, and the clip looked great. On the other hand isn't it a bit of a shame that no prospective switchers will be able to watch that yet as Quicktime 7 isn't out for Windows yet.

ManOfSteal · May 5, 2005, 03:35 PM

Very cool clip...

TETENAL · May 5, 2005, 04:08 PM

Originally Posted by willed

So that's why it didn't play anywhere near smoothly on my iBook 500

Actually I'm very impressed by this clip. It's just 12 MB for 2:30 minutes which means this can easily be streamed over my 1000 kbit line. For that the image quality was amazing if I compare it from the quality of all those keynotes I have seen streamed.

H.264 is good.

Psychonaut · May 5, 2005, 04:33 PM

Originally Posted by Thorin

On the one hand it's great to see Apple using H.264, and the clip looked great. On the other hand isn't it a bit of a shame that no prospective switchers will be able to watch that yet as Quicktime 7 isn't out for Windows yet.

I watched it with no problems on XP. Don't know what you might be talking about.

Ozmodiar · May 5, 2005, 04:36 PM

Originally Posted by willed

So that's why it didn't play anywhere near smoothly on my iBook 500

my TiBook 400 played the clip at about 1 frame every five seconds.

Sounded nice though!

JonoG4 · May 5, 2005, 05:07 PM

Originally Posted by Psychonaut

I watched it with no problems on XP. Don't know what you might be talking about.

On that movie page, they list 6.5 as the requirement for Windows. They must just be using h.263 or something for Windows users.

Mafia · May 5, 2005, 05:37 PM

Originally Posted by alphasubzero949

Billy Boy's going to find a way to stop the presses. I wonder how he is managing to sleep these days.

probably his billions of dollars.

OwlBoy · 11:55 PM

Guys, its MPEG4, not H.2---anything.

Notice they are different selections?

-Owl

TETENAL · May 6, 2005, 12:07 AM

Originally Posted by OwlBoy

Guys, its MPEG4, not H.2---anything.

No, it's H.264.

storer · May 6, 2005, 12:26 AM

That's fantastic! They need to do something like this in Australia because Apple gets no publicity whatsoever here. A lot of people think that Macs died in the early 90s.

GSixZero · May 6, 2005, 12:44 AM

Thing is, when Longhorn comes out people will have forgotten all about 10.4. If Longhorn is on schedule (jokes aside), it'll appear right around the same time as 10.5 does. No one will say how Longhorn was a year and half later than 10.4 or three years later than 10.3.

Longhorn will be 3 months sooner than 10.5! Ahead of the curve! It's all in marketing. Microsoft may look bad today, but come winter 2006, Apple will still have a lot of work to do.

Eug Wanker · May 6, 2005, 02:16 AM

It's H.264 and 640x480 with QT7. It's sucktacular with QT6.

MilkmanDan · May 6, 2005, 03:10 AM

gooo apple.

joltguy · May 6, 2005, 02:08 PM

Originally Posted by Ozmodiar

my TiBook 400 played the clip at about 1 frame every five seconds.

Add my name to the "playback sucked on my machine" list. The machine in question is my iBook G3 600. I'm glad nobody else was around to witness that. Sad.

GFitzy · May 6, 2005, 02:37 PM

Played fine on my G4 450 w/ QT 6.0 Pro. over ethernet . . . .

I see the CNBC guy is still floating the 'critical amss' theory for 'why no Mac viruses?', he might want to read this: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/04...les_big_virus/

-gfitzy

Eug Wanker · May 6, 2005, 02:40 PM

Originally Posted by joltguy

Add my name to the "playback sucked on my machine" list. The machine in question is my iBook G3 600. I'm glad nobody else was around to witness that. Sad.

Were you guys running Tiger?

This is gonna prove interesting. It should play OK in QT 6. The QT7's H.264 stream is much harder to decode (but plays fine on my Cube 1.7).

greenamp · May 6, 2005, 03:12 PM

Great article.

One thing I always wonder about in these threads is why some Mac users seem to be so obsessed with competing toe-to-toe with windows. Apple is in great financial shape, and is putting out great products available to everyone who wants them. So what's the big deal?

Could you imagine *if* Apple someday had over 50% market share in the computer world? Call me a pecimist, but I think the day that comes is when Apple-innovation stops.

GSixZero · May 6, 2005, 03:12 PM

Did anyone else think that piece was really odd? It seemed like they had no Apple, or even computer related footage. They made all these analogies ("Longhorn is like a road that is always under construction, with no end it sight", "Apple is like the sports car of the computing world"), just so they could use stock footage of people building a road, and a BMW peeling out.

Good clip, but sort of oddly constructed.

Kenneth · May 6, 2005, 03:16 PM

The clip used to be 320 x 240 MPEG-4, 9.1MB. Right now, it's 640 x 480 H.264, 12.52MB.
Sorry to say, the MPEG-4 footage is better than H.264 this time.

Eug Wanker · May 6, 2005, 04:10 PM

Originally Posted by Kenneth

The clip used to be 320 x 240 MPEG-4, 9.1MB. Right now, it's 640 x 480 H.264, 12.52MB.
Sorry to say, the MPEG-4 footage is better than H.264 this time.

Not sure what you're talking about. The H.264 stream simply blows it away. The smaller clip has only a 30% lower datarate, but has 75% less pixels.

QuickTime 6:

QuickTime 7:

Kenneth · May 6, 2005, 04:59 PM

Well.. I saved them down to my local hard drive and played them on the QuickTime Player.
May be something do with the raw source?

storer · May 6, 2005, 05:41 PM

Hrmn well, I can't see the whole file. It stops right after they cross to the reporter.

smacintush · May 6, 2005, 07:10 PM

What gets me is�name another product that any of us buy where we give a rats ass about market share.

Mr Scruff · May 7, 2005, 07:32 AM

h264 version played back perfectly for me with Tiger on an iBook G4 800.

Best streamed video quality I've seen.

storer · May 7, 2005, 07:39 AM

GRR! I still can' see the blasted thing!

jedimstr · May 7, 2005, 07:50 AM

I actually work at CNBC... so imagine my surprise when I saw the clip on Apple's site. Nice

I've been able to "convert" a few people at work... and there's a certain buzz about two things right now at the news desk, satellite operations, and IT (graphic dept's already "in our camp"... no surprise). Tiger and Episode III. Warms my heart....

Just two years ago, there was a major move from old Apple PowerMac G4 editing stations running Avid's stuff on OS9 to Windows 2k machines with Avid stuff (bleh!). There are definite changes a-foot for the whole NBC news organization when it comes to the way we handle video... and as more buzz picks up, I see a good future for Apple in the broadcast industry. They had a great presence at the last two NAB conferences... and it's starting to show behind the scenes, and "leak" enthusiasm all the way down to the reporters (even if they are a bit clueless about the tech).

jarod · May 7, 2005, 08:02 AM

Tiger is simply outstanding.

Why anyone would want to have anything to do with Microshit is beyond any form of logical comprehension.

Eug Wanker · May 7, 2005, 12:06 PM

Originally Posted by jarod

Tiger is simply outstanding.

Why anyone would want to have anything to do with Microshit is beyond any form of logical comprehension.

Because unlike Apple, Microsoft has bent over backwards to cater to the business market. Tiger's significant networking issues, etc. certainly don't help Apple's cause. Hopefully Apple will get this fixed asap, especially because some of Apple's new hardware likely won't even run on Panther.

OwlBoy · May 7, 2005, 12:09 PM

Wow, ok guys, sorry

For some reason I kept getting the MPEG4 version despite having QT7.

My apologies. :blush:

-Owl

Eug Wanker · May 7, 2005, 12:13 PM

Originally Posted by OwlBoy

For some reason I kept getting the MPEG4 version despite having QT7.

Try flushing your cache/resetting Safari.

P.S. What kind of hardware do you have, and how smooth is the playback? If you download the clip you can also check the frame rate in QuickTime.

TheMacOracle · May 7, 2005, 01:21 PM

I'm sorry, but am I the only one who is a little sick and tired of EVERY FRICKIN' ARTICLE about Tiger in the media today mentioning Longhorn and comparing Tiger to it? I mean, could MS get a little more free press on Longhorn? Did most non-techie people even know it was coming in "late 2006" before they started reading articles about Tiger? I don't know why they feel a need to do a comparrision between a shipping OS and vaporware.

I'm not ragging on this video clip per se, this has been bothering me since last week. Can ANYONE find a Tiger article that doesn't mention Longhorn in some way? Good luck trying.

-- TMO

Sosa · May 7, 2005, 02:19 PM

Ah.. did anyone see that beautiful chick at the start of Jim Goldman's report? She tries to walk behind him and then turns around?! Wow.....

Eug Wanker · May 7, 2005, 02:22 PM

Originally Posted by Eug Wanker

Try flushing your cache/resetting Safari.

P.S. What kind of hardware do you have, and how smooth is the playback? If you download the clip you can also check the frame rate in QuickTime.

This thing seems to get close to maxing out a G4 667 MHz.

Can someone with a slower G4 give it a shot, and check what frame rate you're getting? (You're supposed to get 30.) And it probably sucks royally on a G3.

CharlesS · May 7, 2005, 02:56 PM

Originally Posted by Eug Wanker

This thing seems to get close to maxing out a G4 667 MHz.

Can someone with a slower G4 give it a shot, and check what frame rate you're getting? (You're supposed to get 30.) And it probably sucks royally on a G3.

Dual G4/450 here, my framerate fluctuates between 29 FPS and 31 FPS, so no problems here.

Mac Write · May 7, 2005, 03:16 PM

Originally Posted by jedimstr

I actually work at CNBC... so imagine my surprise when I saw the clip on Apple's site. Nice

I've been able to "convert" a few people at work... and there's a certain buzz about two things right now at the news desk, satellite operations, and IT (graphic dept's already "in our camp"... no surprise). Tiger and Episode III. Warms my heart....

Just two years ago, there was a major move from old Apple PowerMac G4 editing stations running Avid's stuff on OS9 to Windows 2k machines with Avid stuff (bleh!). There are definite changes a-foot for the whole NBC news organization when it comes to the way we handle video... and as more buzz picks up, I see a good future for Apple in the broadcast industry. They had a great presence at the last two NAB conferences... and it's starting to show behind the scenes, and "leak" enthusiasm all the way down to the reporters (even if they are a bit clueless about the tech).

Do you think you could get full DV quality versions of all of Apple related stuff that has aired on CNBC and get the copyright info added and see if they would allow AppleAds to post them in the Apple in the Media section? a section just for CNBC could even be added.

CharlesS · May 7, 2005, 03:50 PM

Originally Posted by Eug Wanker

This thing seems to get close to maxing out a G4 667 MHz.

Can someone with a slower G4 give it a shot, and check what frame rate you're getting? (You're supposed to get 30.) And it probably sucks royally on a G3.

Hehe, you are definitely right about the G3, though. My Pismo fluctuates between 0 and 1 fps (meaning, the video is mostly a single static frame that only updates every so often).

Of course, the Pismo is still running Panther, so maybe that has something to do with it. However, I'm guessing that Apple's probably optimized QT heavily for AltiVec.

MindFad · May 7, 2005, 04:02 PM

Dang. I can't believe that is only 12MB, 2:35, and looks that nice. I <3 H.264.

jedimstr · May 7, 2005, 04:04 PM

Originally Posted by Mac Write

Do you think you could get full DV quality versions of all of Apple related stuff that has aired on CNBC and get the copyright info added and see if they would allow AppleAds to post them in the Apple in the Media section? a section just for CNBC could even be added.

I do have access to all NBC News and CNBC segments in MPEG and DVCPro. I doubt this would get anywhere through me though... it's something that has to go through PR and Legal...maybe the Brand development group. They probably did that already for this clip, or went through one of the third-party media clip distributors.

BTW- Steve J. is a regular on CNBC (usually after his big keynotes) and Mossberg's been a big cheerleader for Apple on his regular "Power Lunch" Tech Segment appearances (usually every business day).

Eug Wanker · May 7, 2005, 04:47 PM

Originally Posted by CharlesS

Dual G4/450 here, my framerate fluctuates between 29 FPS and 31 FPS, so no problems here.

Yeah, a dual G4 450 shouldn't be a problem. A single G4 450 would be though.

Originally Posted by CharlesS

Hehe, you are definitely right about the G3, though. My Pismo fluctuates between 0 and 1 fps (meaning, the video is mostly a single static frame that only updates every so often).

Of course, the Pismo is still running Panther, so maybe that has something to do with it. However, I'm guessing that Apple's probably optimized QT heavily for AltiVec.

Panther 10.3.9 with QT7 should be close to the same for the H.264 decode speed, as far as I can tell on my machines. What clockspeed is the Pismo by the way? Just wondering.

P.S. Is Pacifist fine for Tiger?

CharlesS · May 7, 2005, 06:46 PM

Originally Posted by Eug Wanker

P.S. Is Pacifist fine for Tiger?

I haven't noticed any problems yet...

OpenStep · May 7, 2005, 09:02 PM

Plays like a 10 second delay slide show on my G3 iBook 800 MHz with Panther and QT7.

Eug Wanker · May 7, 2005, 10:31 PM

Originally Posted by OpenStep

Plays like a 10 second delay slide show on my G3 iBook 800 MHz with Panther and QT7.

Ouch!

Apple needs to put a couple of options on the page. There are gonna be a few annoyed people on broadband who upgrade from QT6 to QT7 only to discover this page becomes totally unplayable.

P.S. The Cube people are saying they get about 15 fps on a stock Cube. Wow, what a difference: 150X as fast on G4 450 vs. a G3 800.