Apple's iTV: Too good to be true?

Let's not underestimate Steve Jobs and Apple - certainly Business Week tech guys Cliff Edwards and Steve Wildstrom don't. But they offer up a healthy dose of skepticism over iTV, the $299 gadget that is supposed to transfer movies from your PC to your high-definition TV. This could be the missing link in the years-long effort to make downloaded digital media worth everybody's while. Except will it work?

Steve: You were there when Steve Jobs previewed iTV. What did you think?

Cliff: My take is, it could be great—with a lot of "ifs." Apple now has powerful Intel (INTC ) chips and iTunes, the best software for organizing digital entertainment. The interface for the new iTV is a remote control and on-screen graphics that a grandmother could understand, and it works with both Windows and Mac computers. Simply put, if Apple can deliver what it demo'd, it trumps every offering out there.

Steve: Forgive my skepticism, but this is all on the come. It could be really important, assuming it delivers what is promised, works simply, meets Hollywood's demands for content protection, etc. But the devil is in the details. Devices of this sort are called digital media adapters, and I think I have tried every one of them. I have yet to see one that I would buy, or even use if it was given to me.

Cliff: People might call this vaporware because it was announced so far ahead of when it will be sold. Personally, I think Apple did that to blunt criticism that its new movie-download service does not let you burn DVDs or do anything but watch on a PC or tiny iPod screen.

Steve: The real issue is how you get the content from the PC or Mac running iTunes to the iTV, which is off somewhere else in your house. Apple would like you to just connect this $299 box to your big digital television and you could stream the movies you have downloaded from your PC or Mac. But it's a huge question whether you can connect this stuff wirelessly.

Cliff: Jobs says it will take 30 minutes to download a movie if you have a 5-megabyte Internet connection. That ignores the fact that most DSL customers get nowhere near that. And Apple right now is only promising "near-DVD quality" for movie downloads. You can bet purists will notice the difference when watching on a pricey big-screen HDTV.