On the O’Reilly Editors’ mailing list, Danie Steinberg writes:
I’ve been suggesting that the play isn’t to view them on the ipod (although that will be possible) but to use the iPod to show them on a tv. The feature in the photo iPod that allows you to use s video out to show your slide shows on a tv at your mom’s house was what leads me to believe that this lets me rent or buy a movie using the internet and use my ipod or a revised version of airport extreme to play it on my tv or other large screen device.
Yes this has been my (still wrong) prediction for 9 months – but Jobs keeps stressing that the new video codec is designed to play video from HD down to mobile devices. This feels like a direct hint at where they are heading.