Speculation about an iTunes store for HD Video turn out to be baseless


When Apple released its Mac Mini, a few cyber pundits speculated about the possibility of an iTunes-like online store for high-definition video. The Mac Mini would be turned into Apple's highly practical and highly elegant version of a multi-media PC. You would download the high definition video to the Mac mini and play it on your high definition video.

We can now safely dismiss these speculative rumors as nonsense. After released its new high-tech operating system, Tiger, along with the newest version of QuickTime, with its capacity to play high-def video, Apple published its "System Recommendations" for taking advantage of QuickTime's new HD prowess. Turns out that you need a G5 for HD playback. And not just an G5, but at least a 1.8 GHz G5. Those who, like myself, purchased one of the lower-end G5 iMacs find ourselves out of the HD loop for good. Even more out of the loop are those who purchased mac minis. The G4 just isn't up to snuff when it comes to HD. Nor can we expect at any time that they will be. The lower end G5s can always hope that 64-bit optimization might make HD playable on their systems at some unspecified time in the future (unlikely, but not impossible). No such hope can be entertained by the G4 crowd. And with only a 32 MB video card, the Mac Mini finds itself placed firmly outside the HD playback camp.

So if a Mac Mini is ever going to be an HD multi-media computer, it's going to have to sport a G5. Given how hot the G5 runs, this is not likely any time soon.

Posted: Mon - May 9, 2005 at 01:34 PM          

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