"always" might mean something different than you think. If the Studio decides at any time to stop offering that movie through iTunes and you don't possess a physical copy of it on your own drives (in other words, you are only trusting the cloud), it won't be available to you. How you perceive "always" is heavily dependent on the Studio always offering that movie through iTunes (something that isn't very reliable for any given film).
That would definitely suck. When has that been a big issue though? And "the cloud" was just a bonus in my book. I download the actual copy onto my hard drive. "the cloud" was just a pro to me as a "what if i lose my hard drive copy oh thats cool i can just redownload it" kinda situation.
#2) you probably also think you own that movie just like if you had purchased a Blu Ray disc instead. But you don't. Instead, you have a lifetime license. Try selling the movie to someone else. Try giving it away to someone else. Try loaning it to a friend to watch at their home. Try willing it to someone else. Basically, iTunes movies are rentals for up to the end of your life... or until the Studio decides to no longer offer the movie, whichever comes first.
True that! That would indeed be a con for alot of people and i wouldn't be surprised if people held off on buying through itunes soley for those reasons. But for me and my purposes, it totally fits. I don't lend anyone my blu-rays or care about re-selling movies. The only movies i "Buy" are ones i want to keep forever. Everything else i rent. I'll rent a chick flick for my girlfriend, but "buy" the dark knight rises because it's a movie i'll watch more than once. And being able to just copy it to my ipad bing bang boom, makes it an attractive option. Or better yet, stream it through any of my apple tv's in the house. Saves on clutter too
#3) As others have offered, while iTunes 1080p media certainly looks good, it is typically far more compressed than Blu Ray and it will have 1992's Dolby Digital sound standard at best. Blu Ray wins in both quality of picture and quality of much more modern sound formats (including lossless).
Everyone has their own requirements for what they consider a "good" picture. I think most will think itunes 1080p is just fine. But i get that alot of people like yourself probably wouldn't. Wonder if Apple is going to address that in the future with like an hd+ download solution? As hard drives get bigger, i don't see a problem downloading an entire blu-ray's worth of movie
#4) Often one can find Blu Ray for cheaper than it will cost in iTunes. A little shopping- especially if you'll shop the used market- and you can save some money too.
I'm surfing the $10 section of itunes right now. Lots of good movies. But i get what you're saying.
The hassle with Blu Ray is really 2-fold. 1) If you want it in iTunes, you'll sometimes have to rip it which can involve a few hopes and several hours of encoding. 2) You have to go get it or wait for it to arrive in the mail (where with iTunes you get that immediate gratification of the download). Others might add that they don't want to store discs anymore, and especially "I can't see the difference, so you can't either" (which were also offered when Apple stuck with 720p instead of 1080p for- IMO- too long), etc.
iTunes has a lot of potential. Personally, I save building a library from iTunes movie/TV show downloads until the iTunes version is fully toe-to-toe with BD in terms of picture quality & sound. Apple could just offer that option for those that wanted it and that would thoroughly tempt me. It would also be good if Apple could address issues like #1, #2 and #4 above too.