Poll: Are you interested in purchasing movies online (via download)?

[MacRumors]

Vote: Poll: Are you interested in purchasing movies online (via download)? (http://www.macpolls.com/?poll_id=226&ref=forums.macrumors.com)

[Kwyjibo]

nope.....not unless they are pretty cheap...plus i would need more hard drives...theo nly kinds of movies i download know are those that are not yet in theaters and those that are currently in theaters :)

[vniow]

Depends I guess, on some things like quality, price, selection, etc etc...

Oh, and anyone know anything about Pixlet? Apple's site doesn't exactly give a whole lot of info about it....

[tazo]

It would have to be like 2.50 for a whole movie. flat rate. Otherwise people are just going to go the local rental store and get it for the same price, or cheaper then apple. And the last thing apple needs is *another* overpriced product :) ;)

[MrMacMan]

They would need a REALLY good download speed AND good quality AND cheap.

And if they put some sort of stupid protection on it also I will not buy anything!

[Kwyjibo]

Originally posted by tazo
It would have to be like 2.50 for a whole movie. flat rate. Otherwise people are just going to go the local rental store and get it for the same price, or cheaper then apple. And the last thing apple needs is *another* overpriced product :) ;)

i think the service would be taretting DVD sales no necessairly rentals unless the files expired....

[DOUBLEADESIGN]

really, the key here is to be able to watch this downloaded movie where you want. i want to watch it on my "tv" not at my computer. so, the next step is to be able to burn this movie to disc. Ah, here is the raodblock for most. iDVD only burns 1.5 hours. and futzing with dvd studio is not worth the time or effort if you can either rent it for the same cost or buy it for a few dollars more.
maybe this is a hint towards an iDVD upgrade to 2+ hours. if not, forget it. imagine buying music you could only listen to at your computer. Unless you live an everquest life you are not always at your computer, especially if you main hub is at an office.
So, no, I'm not that interested yet.

[shadowself]

DVDs often contain more than 3 GB. They can hold up to 4.7 GB in the standard configuration. Sometimes special edition movies come with two or more DVDs.

Forget Pixlet. That is not for this purpose. It is for real time compression and decompression for movied editing folks and the like. MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 are what will be used for DVD for quite a while into the future -- and they typically surpass the quoted 25:1 compression mentioned for Pixlet.

Let's assume for a moment that your movie is 3 GB or 24 Gb. Even if you had your own T-1 at approximately 1.5 Mb/s (and forgetting for a moment about trivial real world things like transmission overhead, etc. which eats up part of that bandwidth and Internet congession which slows things down even further) the download would take over 4 hours. If the movie used the full 4.7 GB then the download would take over six hours. And that is using up 100% of your available bandwidth. Have a typical 256 kb/s DSL? Multiply these times by at least a factor of six. Real world conditions could easily add up to doubling these download times.

Additionally, many personal high speed connections (I'm not talking about business grade lines here which you pay more for.) have maximum throughput per month limits. For example, for the basic 1 Mb/s DSL personal line (1 Mb/s up, 1 Mb/s down) the maximum monthly throughput is 12 GB. Download 3 movies and you could well be over your limit and paying surcharges.

It is true that broadband is getting broader and throughputs are getting higher. However, neither the typical user's speed nor allowed throughput would support people buying even a few movies a month from an Apple iMovies Cinema Store.

[Jerry Spoon]

I'm suprised at the number of people showing an interest through their vote (about 57% of just under 120 people) with all of the limitations that would now exist with download times and transers to dvd. I'm sure the technology will get there...eventually.

[awinn233]

not worth the effort and costs! Just stick to the hardware and updating current software (especially iPhoto, that thing is sooo slow.)

[scem0]

Yes, I'm interested, but no, I wouldn't do it.

scem0

[MrMacMan]

This Service would flop faster then New Coke!

It would cost a massive ammount for bandwitch, and even for the movie itself, and if there is copy protection no one will get it.

[Doctor Q]

In the long term, compression techniques will continue to improve, bandwidth options and speeds will continue to increase, and Apple will work out the licensing issues, finding the best compromise between user freedom/convenience and media owner's rights. All this implies that the iMovie Video Store (you heard the name first here, folks!) will become a practical enterprise, eventually.

But, the way things are today, the first thing I would do with my downloaded movie is burn it to my own media to play in my off-line DVD player on my off-line TV. That negates the convenience of downloading in comparison to buying a ready-made DVD from a local store or having it delivered overnight from an online site. So I voted no for now.

[Rower_CPU]

Until I've got a widescreen monitor and Dolby Digital 5.1 / DTS surround sound system I can't see myself doing it. I'd have to have a central computer and home theater set up for me to enjoy it.

Although, with optical audio out on the G5s and rumblings of new monitors...;)

[SilvorX]

if its $5 CDN or less, i'll dig it :D, but i would need a firewire dvd-r drive thats compatible with idvd or whatever :(

our cable company charges $5 CDN for a movie and the quality sux (sound has humming all the time cuz its a cruddy wireless cable company)

[maradong]

certainly not.
btw i don t know anybody who is interested in such things.

[hvfsl]

If Apple release Macs that are real digital hubs. Computers that can be pluged into a TV and act as a TIVO like device, then this would be a good thing. You could download a movie and ether store it on your 1TB disk or burn it to DVD. Then all other computers on the home network could watch the movie as well as it being shown on the main TV.

Anyway this is not new, in the early 90s Apple teamed up with British Telecom to make a digital TV service that could be used to download movies on demand, it was similar, but better to M$ WebTV. However because of problems with the UK gov and BTs anti-competitive behaviour, it was cancelled. One of the devices was for sale on the UK ebay last year.

[hvfsl]

Originally posted by SilvorX
if its $5 CDN or less, i'll dig it :D, but i would need a firewire dvd-r drive thats compatible with idvd or whatever :(

our cable company charges $5 CDN for a movie and the quality sux (sound has humming all the time cuz its a cruddy wireless cable company)

In the UK I ahve digital cable and download movies all the time at £3 a go and the quality is very good. But that is because I have 8Mbit for TV and 1Mbit for Internet.

[Rocketman]

Originally posted by Kwyjibo
nope.....not unless they are pretty cheap...plus i would need more hard drives...theo nly kinds of movies i download know are those that are not yet in theaters and those that are currently in theaters :)

In order to be widely practical, Internet 2 will have arrived and far cheaper local raids will be commonplace. So, great, this means all that is arriving next month too!

Rocketman

A bit skeptical.

[pimentoLoaf]

I'll stick to Border's and B&N stores for my DVD needs.

[Freg3000]

I am interested, but I don't see it happening for a while, and even if it does, I don't know if I'd even use it.

[P-Worm]

I really can't see how a low quality internet movie can be worth my money. But if Apple does something brilliant, I'll try the service out.

P-Worm

[macnews]

I would be interested and might even be willing to let a movie download over night on my DSL connection. Price wise, if it was priced at or equal to a DVD in a store and contained the same features it would be a go. Of course there is the burning issue (speaking of which - does anyone know of a way to burn more than 1.5 hours of video to a DVD not going through iDVD?).

I think a more possible solution to selling movies online would be like a partnership with Amazon or just selling them straight out and then snail mailing. This would allow the expansion of the iTunes music store, probably fit in the demographics for the music store (the people that buy music there might be more interested than the average joe to buy movies), eliminate any needs/worries about DRM on Apple's part (already in the DVD or DVD player), and provide an additional revenue stream for next to nothing (I would imagine done right could require little to no inventory held by Apple if done through a third party).

[bennetsaysargh]

this won't happen untill the low end of users have 100Mbps internet connections, and i have a way bigger hard drive. i don't know how they would do it. maybe they coul stream it, but then aren't there ways to ffind the stream's source?

[hvfsl]

Originally posted by bennetsaysargh
this won't happen untill the low end of users have 100Mbps internet connections, and i have a way bigger hard drive. i don't know how they would do it. maybe they coul stream it, but then aren't there ways to ffind the stream's source?

Most DVDs are only 5.5Mbits so a 6Mbit Internet connection will do. No DVDs are encoded at higher than 9Mbits so people with 10Mbits or more will have no problem using the service in real time. Remember that digital TV ranges from 4Mbit to 8Mbit.

[wdlove]

I would be interested in the service, something to try at least once. From what I have read, it would be preferable for improvement of the technology first!

[Mr.Hey]

Oh, and anyone know anything about Pixlet? Apple's site doesn't exactly give a whole lot of info about it...


Arstechnica (http://arstechnica.infopop.net/OpenTopic/page?q=Y&a=tpc&s=50009562&f=8300945231&m=1770938175&p=1)

[macguymike]

Originally posted by pimentoLoaf
I'll stick to Border's and B&N stores for my DVD needs.

Why? Those stores are way overpriced for any music or video in my experience. :P

Best Buy. *nods*

[MacFan25]

I think that I would definitley be interested in buying movies through Apple. But, I don't think Apple will come out with this for some time.

[Doctor Q]

It's a few years from now. My 50" rear-projection flatscreen Apple monitor is my TV set and my Mac is my stereo system. My Mac replaces all my other equipment (DVD player, TIVO, VCR, receiver) and is the hub for my handheld audio/video player, my cell phone, my PDA, my cameras, and whatever else is vital to my existence. Or maybe all those devices are part of a single hand-held Apple product named iExist.

If that's my setup, then yes, I see myself downloading all my movies.

[Nermal]

While this is a good idea, and I voted Yes without thinking hard, I probably won't do it. The local DSL company is introducing a movies-on-demand service later this year (under the horrible brand name "JetVideo"), and I'll probably end up using that, if I want to get movies. These are more of a rental than a purchase, so we'll see what happens.

[zen]

Originally posted by hvfsl
Most DVDs are only 5.5Mbits so a 6Mbit Internet connection will do. No DVDs are encoded at higher than 9Mbits so people with 10Mbits or more will have no problem using the service in real time. Remember that digital TV ranges from 4Mbit to 8Mbit.

Unless I've misunderstood your post, you're wrong about DVD encoding. Most DVDs are variable bit-rate, and I have some that peak at 11 Mbits/sec (which is the max that DVD can encode).

The only way an iMovie video store would work was if they streamed the movies...but who wants to sit in front of a computer and watch a movie anyway?

Dumb idea ;)

zen

[contract73]

Unless they make my monitor 52" or larger whats the point, most of us sit in front of this all day....No

[TheMacOS.com]

nope. files would be huge. can you imagine downloading a 3 or 4 gig file? even on cable.... :confused: