Feature: Playing ITunes Video on a Notebook

The big news from Apple: You can now watch video on an IPod.

But in my opinion, here's the bigger news: If you miss last night's Lost or Desperate Housewives, you can download the episode the day after it aired and watch it on your notebook--legally, easily, and without commercials--thanks to Apple. Even better, connect your notebook to your TV, and you can watch the show on a big screen. I've viewed downloaded ITunes video content on my notebook and TV, and overall, I liked what I saw. But more about that in a minute. First, the back story.

Video on Demand, Apple Style

Apple recently began offering 2000 music videos, episodes of five ABC TV programs, and Pixar animation shorts for download at $2 per file. The videos are purchased and downloaded through Apple's ITunes Music Store using ITunes 6.0, Apple's free software that connects to the online store and organizes your music, podcasts, videos, and audio books.

Just as you do with audio content, you can synchronize downloaded videos onto one of Apple's new IPods. The new IPod's screen is only 2.5 inches on the diagonal, however--hardly ideal for getting sucked into an episode of Lost.

I was curious to see how video purchased from ITunes would look and sound on my notebook and my TV. The idea of downloading video to watch while on a plane or at home is appealing to me and, I bet, to lots of other notebook-carrying travelers.

After installing the easy-to-use ITunes 6.0, and the latest version of Apple's QuickTime video playback software, I downloaded Michael Jackson's classic Thriller music video and the first-season pilot episode of Desperate Housewives. Thriller, a 66MB file, took 7 minutes, 11 seconds to download over my DSL connection; the Housewives episode, at 208MB, downloaded in 22 minutes, 46 seconds. The files are in MPEG-4 format.

I played the videos via ITunes 6.0, at full- and small-screen sizes. At full-screen size, however, there are no pop-up controls (such as Stop, Start, and Rewind), like some DVD playback programs offer. The video quality was roughly equivalent to a VHS tape: fine for casual viewing, but not nearly as detailed as a DVD. I noticed an occasional dropped frame, but overall the motion was fluid. The audio sounded good--crisp and without distortion--on both my notebook and Sony stereo TV.

To protect copyrights, you can play videos downloaded from Apple's online music store only in the ITunes player. And as with songs downloaded from the ITunes store, you can play the video files on no more than five different computers, another copyright-protection restriction.

The Bottom Line

Apple's ITunes isn't your only online video-on-demand option, of course. For instance, services such as MovieLink have been offering legal movie downloads for several years now. And there are plenty of Web sites with illegal video downloads. But Apple is first to offer prime-time TV show episodes for legal download the day after their first broadcast. Combine that with a price tag of just $2 an episode and ITunes' easy-to-use interface, and mobile professionals have a great new option for goofing off with their laptops in flight, on the train, or at home.

For tips on connecting your notebook to a TV, read my July 2005 column, "Fun With Your Notebook." For more about MovieLink and competing services, read PC World Contributing Editor Dan Tynan's "Internet Movies."