Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
63,283
30,346



A customer satisfaction survey of streaming video services by analytics firm ForeSee has placed Apple's iTunes Store in first place with a score of 80, ahead of other popular video services such as HBO GO and Netflix, which both finished with a score of 79. The survey also revealed tendencies about individual usage, such as how often users make visits to premium video services and the number of minutes users spend on streaming services per visit.

foresee_itunes_store-800x521.jpg
iTunes is the de facto experience when consumers are using Apple's iOS platform. The iTunes app comes pre-installed on iPhones and iPads. It is a significant market advantage that users do not have to elect to download the app. Also, it provides guidance to other content and media apps since the iTunes app's user experience has become the standard for how other apps look, feel, and behave. Millions of consumers then actively choose to engage with iTunes to download content.
Last year, ForeSee ranked Apple second in mobile shopping satisfaction behind Amazon. Apple originally started selling videos on the iTunes Store in October 2005, and expanded movie content to 42 new countries in December of last year, bringing the total number of countries with access to purchased and rental iTunes Store movie content to over 100.

Article Link: iTunes Store Ranks First in Streaming Video Satisifaction
 

WestonHarvey1

macrumors 68030
Jan 9, 2007
2,771
2,187
The best thing about iTunes is that it is always full quality. There's no adapting to network conditions - it will stop and buffer if it has to. On a slow connection you always have the option of walking away and waiting for the full content to download.

Watching your video bitrate change constantly sucks. It's a really annoying "feature" of the other services.
 

barkomatic

macrumors 601
Aug 8, 2008
4,518
2,821
Manhattan
iTunes is great--now if Apple could somehow strike a deal with HBO and Showtime to sell the latest seasons of their programs shortly after they air. Come to think of it, even some of the broadcast networks hold back content. So tired of cable.
 

dholzer

macrumors newbie
Jan 15, 2008
18
9
The best thing about iTunes is that it is always full quality. There's no adapting to network conditions - it will stop and buffer if it has to. On a slow connection you always have the option of walking away and waiting for the full content to download.

Watching your video bitrate change constantly sucks. It's a really annoying "feature" of the other services.

I don't agree with this at all. Yes, having video stutter because it's changing bitrate is annoying (and is something that should be and can be fixed via software as the technology matures), I'd find it useful both (i) to dynamically adjust the quality of the image to allow streaming with worse internet connections and (ii) to be able to adjust quality to manage data usage. Unfortunately, I don't know of any streaming services that allow you to select or adjust the quality. :confused:
 

2457282

Suspended
Dec 6, 2012
3,327
3,015
Since getting my AppleTV, I have migrated almost exclusively to streaming through iTunes/AppleTV. I still use Netflix, but definetly think they are not as good in quality. Prior to AppleTV, for quality I mostly went with VUDU, so was very surprised that they did not even rank here. However, I do think this makes sense. A few years ago, I dropped Hulu and stuck with Netflix. If Apple creates a subscription based option in addition to their current offering, I could easily see me dropping Netflix too.
 
Last edited:

Jsameds

Suspended
Apr 22, 2008
3,525
7,987
The best thing about iTunes is that it is always full quality. There's no adapting to network conditions - it will stop and buffer if it has to. On a slow connection you always have the option of walking away and waiting for the full content to download.

Watching your video bitrate change constantly sucks. It's a really annoying "feature" of the other services.

You can manually force HD on Netflix on your computer and it will buffer when needed. Just go to any movie and Control + Shift + Option/Alt + S and a little menu will pop up.

Screen-Shot-2012-03-15-at-March-152012-8.12.12-PM.png
 

rpe33

macrumors regular
Jul 19, 2012
212
365
iTunes video and audio quality blows the others out of the water. I stopped buying Blu-rays.

Video quality is somewhat negligible, but Blu-Ray's lossless audio is still superior. If iTunes ever gets to that level of audio quality, I'm done with Blu-Rays for good.
 

bloggerblog

macrumors regular
Jun 27, 2007
103
21
I'm surprised that Netflix got 79%. Usually their streaming isn't all that especially when FF or FR-ing, iTunes does it in full-screen at a reasonable frame-rate. Netflix on the other hand, stutters and displays lowres, and then sometimes you have to wait to buffer. Moreover, iTunes' 1080p is BR quality.
 

benpatient

macrumors 68000
Nov 4, 2003
1,870
0
Whatever, Amazon Instant goes 100% full quality all the time and does 5.1 on my old first-gen Roku. And it doesn't require HDMI, so it works with my 7-year-old plasma that STILL looks better than anything available today for under $1500.

Also, I have spent exactly zero dollars on Amazon streaming, since I already have a Prime membership for its other benefits, and there is so much on Prime Instant streaming for free that I haven't run out of things to watch in over a year of full-time use.

I've watched:
All of BSG and Caprica (HD)
All of Lost (HD)
All of Arrested Development (except for the new season)
All of Suits (HD)
A bunch of Star Trek and Star Trek TNG (in HD!)
A bunch of Doctor Who (new stuff in HD)
All of Downton Abbey (HD)
All of Under the Dome so far aired (HD)
All of Falling Skies (HD)
All of Fringe (HD)

Probably watched about 30-40 movies in that time, too.

Kids have access to several seasons of probably 3 dozen of their favorite Nick, PBS, and Disney shows, although Disney shows seem to be going away due to a Netflix exclusive deal.

That's probably about $500 in iTunes Store streaming, and maybe not even in HD.

I may run out of things to watch in a few years, but they keep adding things, and I don't watch THAT much TV and movies.
 

ChrisCW11

macrumors 65816
Jul 21, 2011
1,037
1,433
Apple, please apply satisfaction to Trailers

While it has been years since I had any issues with trying to rent and stream a movie/show from iTunes on the Apple TV, I can't say the same about Trailers.

I have no idea how Apple could ***** up streaming a 2 minute movie trailer as bad as they do on AppleTV.

I mean half the times a trailer will not even load and the other times when the trailer starts to play it has to stop 1/4 of the way thru before it can cache the rest of the trailer. Sometimes it works instantly, other times its just an effort in futility.

I have done all the usual checking of my ISP bandwidth, router, network issues, etc. I mean I have actually seen trailers fail repeatedly and then I have immediately rented an HD movie and started watching it right away without an issue, so I know its not a network issue at my end, its an issue with Apple. Apple obvious streams Trailers using different infrastructure then their movies and TV shows, it would be nice for them to integrate everything into one consistent and GOOD user experience.

There is no reason why Apple cannot stream 2 minutes of HD movie trailer instantly without hesitation or caching issues in the 21st century.

Aside from that, the only reason why Netflix doesn't top Apple is that the Netflix client on AppleTV is not as good as on other clients, like you cannot watch a sequence of TV shows, create a queue, or even navigate Netflix content on AppleTV as good as other clients (PS3 is still considered one of the best Netflix interfaces). But at least Netflix on AppleTV is not as bad a disaster as HuluPlus on AppleTV, which I find nearly unusable.
 

donutbagel

macrumors 6502a
Jun 9, 2013
932
1
Moreover, iTunes' 1080p is BR quality.

Actually, I Googled this and found articles saying that it's close but not equal, not that I care since iTunes is so much more convenient.

----------

I'll bet Netflix got a big boost when they dumped Silverlight from their site. I used to have Netflix, and I went to the site and couldn't believe it, nor did I want Silverlight on my computer. Just gimme the mpeg-4 version they use for iOS!!!

EDIT: Sorry, I was partially wrong about this. I got the info that they were going to dump Silverlight from an article made last April, but I dug deeper and found out that you need IE 11 to use Netflix without Silverlight. So unless you're using IE 11 (basically never), you can't do it :(
 
Last edited:

entropi

macrumors 6502a
May 20, 2008
583
384
yeah right...

What a joke! The last time we rented a movie from iTunes here in Sweden we had to stop in the middle because it was streaming so slow so playback couldn't play the film without frequent stops & pauses! We solved the issue by going eleswhere... :mad:
 

powaking

macrumors 6502
Jul 3, 2008
466
181
Netflix ranked higher than Amazon? I can't tell you how many times I had to wait for Netflix to start streaming (only to stream in piss poor quality) when flipping over to Amazon to watch the same movie/show started right up. I have been finding this lately, I'm sure the time of day may be the cause but come on son, get the show on the road.
 

radiohead14

macrumors 6502a
Nov 6, 2008
873
42
nyc
I'll bet Netflix got a big boost when they dumped Silverlight from their site. I used to have Netflix, and I went to the site and couldn't believe it, nor did I want Silverlight on my computer. Just gimme the mpeg-4 version they use for iOS!!!

wait.. so i could uninstall silverlight right now and netflix will still work?
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.