With DVDs, you can easily select options to watch a movie with a particular set of criteria, including different audio tracks, subtitles and even alternate endings (or “middles”). There are very straightforward ways to code that into the options on the discs and users know how to cue up what combination they want to view. The best that iTunes could do – given the current distribution model and viewing options – would be to present a small clip as an additional download that contains deleted or extra scenes. There are no user expectations in the current UI – either in iTunes, Front Row or the Apple TV – that indicate one could or should be able to gain access to such content/options.

Your personal feelings on movie integrity aside (some folks despise alternate endings or “director’s cuts”), the lack of a standard in this area will mean that streamers and downloaders are relegated to second-class citizen status when it comes to video content in the same way that we were relegated to low bit-rate MP3′s in the early days of music downloads, which is a completely unacceptable situation.

Apple has an opportunity to take the lead and define how extra content will be bundled and viewed as the industry [quickly] moves to widespread digital distribution. We consumers also need to also step up and demand access to the same or even better content and not settle in and just take what we’re given. In the meantime, it looks like I’ll still be relying on DVDs – old school or (hopefully soon) Blu-Ray – for longer than I had anticipated (if you’ve ever tried to keep a DVD collection pristine with three kids in the house, you know what a losing battle that is).

Give the media bots that sweep the interwebs something to take notice of and drop a note in the comments with your take on the state of digital video content distribution. The more we raise issues, the better chance our voices will be heard.

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I started the download before my evening run and it was ready to install when I finally had time to complete the upgrade. What followed was a series of very un-Apple events. From the point I told it to start the process to being greeted with the new main menu I received practically no useful feedback apart from the pretty silver-grey Apple logo and a progress bar. I experienced waiting through at least three reboots, had “static” appear (briefly) and was finally placed into a completely foreign menu system. Apple provided no verbiage on what was going on nor whether each step was truly successful, and there were no “go to apple.com/… to learn more about the update” prompts to help me prepare for the feature changes & additions. While I didn’t need those prompts, I suspect there were more than a few Apple TV users who would have really appreciated them since navigation is – in some places – radically different.

As far as the new features are concerned, Flickr & .Mac integration work very well (for as long as we have Flickr…sigh) and are easy to configure. I haven’t had the opportunity to try purchasing or renting anything from the integrated storefront (perhaps if they had managed to get Martian Child in on the Tuesday store update I would have had more reason to), but I suspect they made extra effort to get that right given how it sets up a nice, direct revenue stream for them. HD trailers, however, are just horrible. Wall•E (our two year old loves the trailer) stalled five times despite the Apple TV being hooked up via Ethernet and my Comcast link being very solid/speedy (contrast the trailer hiccups with the 180MB 10.5.2 update retrieval which downloaded in just under 2 minutes, though I realize it’s not a completely fair comparison).

So, overall, I was left a bit disappointed after the update, but look forward to being able to use the new features as Apple expands their video library and improves retrieval of HD content.

What’s your Apple TV ‘Take 2′ story and what are your thoughts on the update? If you’ve tried purchasing or renting directly from the Apple TV, how easy/seamless was it? Any hiccups with trailers, .Mac or Flickr? Share your experiences over at the Community or drop a note in the comments.

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To go along with the new iTunes movie rental service, Apple’s new version of the AppleTV has had a nice update.

A quick feature rundown:

• No computer required
• Rent movies directly from the AppleTV (HD movies for $3.99; $4.99 for new releases)
• DVD quality and HD quality + Dolby 5.1
• Buy music directly from AppleTV
• Browse podcasts (audio and video)
• Browse photos from Flickr and .Mac
• Sync with iTunes
• Preview movies and see what other users have rented
• Run photo screensavers pulled from .Mac web galleries

There has also been minor price drop from $299 to $229.

All of these features will be available as a free software update in about 2 weeks. Good news is that you don’t need to purchase a new AppleTV to get all of the new stuff!

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