>Apple’s iPhone: Part II: Is The iPhone The Best Portable Movie Player?
In today’s media frenzy world, we’re at a point where many of us want to carry movies, television shows, and even our favorite YouTube clips with us to watch and share with others. We’ve evolved beyond photos and audio alone. We’re on the brink of the portable video revolution, and to answer this call, Apple has announced their long awaited Video iPod. Oh wait! No they haven’t! Instead of releasing the best Video iPod, Apple decided to mix an iPod with a Phone and Internet Communicator. Is this overkill, or the best pairing since chocolate chip cookie dough hit ice cream (arguably the best pairing after chocolate and peanut better got together)? Continuing this ongoing series, this article will examine how the iPhone measures up as only a Video Player. (Since the iPhone has yet to be released, evaluation of screen clarity and quality will not be examined until hands-on experience is available.)
There was a period of time when I went to the film studios and told them that I wanted films to be presented in the “letterboxed” format for home video. The outrage! The madness of such an idea! People would never accept it! They would return the movies as being DEFECTIVE because their entire screen was not being used! (referring to the empty black space on the top and bottom) People would NEVER understand the concept, or worse, feel cheated by losing PART of their screen to just… empty… cold… black… Well, today, I can find just about any film widescreen, and I love it. Even HiDef televisions have changed their shape and accommodate widescreen films better than ever before.
We’re not as stupid as the studios thought we were and we now enjoy our films the way the filmmaker intended (to be fair I was a teenager and those executives aren’t at the studios anymore). Everyone except for those people who still think they’re being cheated by black bars on their screen, those people who have HBO but insist on no-widescreen presentations, and people with portable video players that are often too small to want widescreen. Take my word for it, you can’t enjoy a film if as much as half the viewable image is missing!
The Shape of Movies:
While there are many different aspect ratios for films, there tends to be three standards. 1.33:1 (or 4×3) which is the same as your standard television set (which was created to match the square shape of movies at the time), 1.85:1, and 2.35:1. The widescreen formats were created to entice you away from watching your movies at home on TV by offering a more sensational experience in the theater (not unlike the purpose behind 3-D presentations today).
The Wizard of Oz was photographed in the 1.33:1 or 4×3 aspect ratio
which is the same as the standard NTSC television.
Stealing Time was photographed in the 1.85:1.
Star Trek: The Motion Picture was photographed in the 2.35:1 aspect ratio.
Movies on our portable video players:
The iPod, Zune, iPhone, and PSP in scale to each other, demonstrating how each screen crops a theatrical image that is 2.35:1 (Star Trek), and 1.85:1 (Stealing Time). When using a handheld video player in fullscreen mode, you will often lose part of the original theatrical movie image.
Apple has labeled the iPhone a “Widescreen iPod.” Today, widescreen tends to mean the 16:9 aspect ratio, the same shape as a HiDef television. This doesn’t mean that there won’t be black bars on the top and bottom of a movie, just that the bars will be lesser if the film is in it’s proper aspect ratio. Since the introduction of 16:9 widescreen televisions, many filmmakers feel that the ratio difference between the 1.85:1 ratio they shot their films in and 16:9 (1.78:1) is negligible.
The most complete way to experience a film is in its proper aspect ratio, and for 1.85:1 movies, 16:9 has become the defacto standard. If this is the case, then why is the PSP the only device with a screen in 16:9? When you look at the overall picture, the Sony PSP has movies currently available for it in stores on their UMD discs, a removable battery (therefore upgradeable), and changeable memory cards for a price lower than any of the other devices–$169. But does this make the PSP the best video player? Many would think so because the PSP has the biggest screen at 4.3 inches with 16:9 aspect ration and a resolution of 480×272.
But what about the iPod and Zune? You may think that the Zune’s screen, a whole half inch larger than the iPods, is better. This is where we have to start talking about resolution. Dot for Dot, the Zune and iPod show exactly the same image. Both screens measure 320×240 and are in the television aspect ratio of 4×3. However, the Zune’s larger screen may seem “better” to some; this practice of products appearing better is a common theme with Microsoft. But, a half-inch is a half-inch. Both the iPod and Zune offers a proper television aspect ratio of 4×3 (an ideal aspect ratio for television shows from the past fifty years, or even music videos. Hummm… see a connection?)
Which brings us to the iPhone. How does it stack up? Brilliantly. The iPhone hits the aspect ratio issue in two important ways: First, when held vertically, the 320×480 screen can reproduce a 4×3 television image that is as high a resolution as either the iPod or Zune’s 320×240 screen. Second, when you turn the iPhone sideways, you get a nice 3×2 aspect ratio 480×320 screen. The drawback here is that when watching content that is either 16:9 or 2.35:1, you will have to reduce the image size on the screen to fit the proper aspect ratio.
Apple knows you want to both fill your screen, and also have the ability to see the entire image. That’s why they added the nifty feature of allowing you to double-tap on the playing image and it will shrink down to its proper aspect ratio. This is an excellent solution and one that offers the best of both worlds. The unusual part about this feature is that if you reduce the size of a 16:9 image on the iPhone, you will actually be matching the resolution of the PSP by using only 480×272 of the screen for the picture.
While I don’t want the iPhone to get any larger, you can clearly see from the graphics above that the PSP has the largest of all screens, however, the resolution of the iPhone makes the image resolution the same if not better between the products. The PSP has a replaceable battery and switchable storage that will allow it to playback video longer, and have more possible storage for programming. These are important issues, and the only issues that may make it a better choice for some.
In general, Apple’s approach to the iPhone’s video playback is excellent. My only disappointment is in the fact that you can’t change the battery, and the lack of storage space on the initial iPhone. In upcoming parts of this series, and as more information is released about the iPhone, I’ll be covering these issues.
Addendum: So, does this mean that if I want a Zune or PSP, I can still get all of those great television or movies from iTunes?
Unfortunately NO! Arguably, the iPhone and iPod’s greatest feature is not hardware at all, it’s the iTunes store. The best and only way to get your latest favorite shows is on iTunes and because of this, you have no choice but to get an iPod or an iPhone if you want this content on a portable video player.
And by the way, you can’t legally make your own movie files either: See Buy Movies From iTunes? Why Not Just Rip Your DVDs? Oh Yeah, It’s Illegal!.
Many people don’t see how Apple’s DRM is keeping the market exclusively to Apple. The blessing we have in this is that Apple is doing a great job with their iTunes store, and has truly made a revolutionary difference in the way media is being distributed. However, with locked down media, they are causing a Microsoft level of monopoly that doesn’t leave room for other players at the table, and I don’t see our current political climate causing any change to this in the future. Besides… If I were Apple, I’d do everything to lock down the market as well. It’s just a shame that we, as consumers, don’t get as much of a choice.
Be sure to read the first part of this report, Apple’s iPhone: Part I: Does the iPhone measure up? Literally!.
Thanks go out to Neil S. Bulk for breaking the DMCA to grab us some frames from films for the story, and to Tony Diaz for some additional research for this article. Thanks Guys!
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