blog@cliffdweller

This week, thanks to a gift certificate*, I purchased a few episodes of TV shows on the iTunes Music Store. I figured it would be a good chance to (1) see how well the videos work on my Mac and (2) see the Night Stalker episodes before ABC cancels it.

So I shelled out my $1.99 (thanks Kurt!) downloaded the Pilot Episode. I learned a lot in the process.

1. Quicktime Player plays videos better than iTunes. Go Figure
2. Full screen Quicktime Playback on my iMac G4 is really nice
3. I really am going to have to get a video iPod, even though for the life of me I can't think of any good reasons besides "I want one."

and you'd think that'd be enough. but noooooo. here are the depressing ones:

1. One Hour TeeVee shows on ABC now last only 42 minutes when the commercials are removed.
2. that's right, 42 minutes
3. iTunes doesn't have a big enough selection yet.

When I was a kid, I heard somewhere that TeeVee shows were 52 minutes long with 8 minutes of commercials. It aint so any more! When I want to think of how many hours I've rotted my brain watching shows, now I can simply divide by 4 and get a number to tell me how many hours I've wasted watching commercials for The Gap, Budweiser, Dodge, Pizza Hut, Coke-a-cola, cough medicine, Lucky Charms, and even iPods (altho, I tend to like the apple ads). And the scary part is when you divide by 4, the true answer is actually larger than it first appears, because you should only be dividing by 3 and a fraction.

Sigh. I knew the half hour simpsons were getting shorter, but by these standards they should be down to around 20 minutes by now.

As for the selection thing, hopefully, that'll all change next week at Macworld. I expect Apple will announce a dozen new partnerships and a thousand new titles in the video lineup. Let's watch and see.

*My birthday is coming up, so it'd be an excellent chance for you to send me an iTunes Gift Certificate of your own. Make it out to adams@cliffdweller.com.