Apple's announcements - unanswered questions

Reading Paul Boutin's coverage of Apple's video announcements today, There are several questions that come to mind (and I know Jobs prefers not to answer questions).

• Songs bought from iTunes can be burned to CD and play anywhere. Why can't movies and TV shows bought from iTunes be burned to DVD?
• Could this explain why they have sold over a billion songs but only 45 million TV shows?
• Jobs talked about 640x480 movies. The Apple screenshot shows Pirates of the Caribbean filling the screen. Does this mean they are selling pan-and-scan versions, not widescreen? (checking with the iTunes Store, Pirates is widescreen, which makes sense)
• Apple's pre-announced iTV box has an HDMI output, but looks like it is running Mac OS - does it implement HDCP-style downrezzing?
• In other words, will it play HD content made by independents cleanly, or will it require broadcast flag handshakes?

What this does illustrate is that the telco's coveting of the Cableco's TV revenues may be irrelevant. As I have pointed out, their model of delivering TV by real-time streaming, requiring massive upgrades to their aging networks, can be completely short-circuited by downloading movies and TV over current broadband, scaling from slower than real time to faster than realtime depending on connection speed and congestion.
Bittorrent users have been doing this for a while. Apple is making it more convenient and much easier to use than most cable set-top boxes, let alone whatever the telcos are likely to come up with. It all adds to the alternatives.
The real revolution is hinted at by Jobs showing Rocketboom in his set-top box demo. Chatting to Andrew and Joanne this weekend in Boston, it is clear that they and others are growing their audiences and ready to short-circuit the existing broadcast or Hollywood commissioning treadmill.

Technorati Tags: Apple, DRM, HD, PodCamp, podcasting, Rocketboom, Showtime, video