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tentales

macrumors 6502a
Dec 6, 2010
771
1,184
I'll wait for 4K pricing.... next year

I guess $20 is "ok" historically, when you've been a movie buff as long as I have. I started with $70+ LaserDiscs in the early 90s that were slightly better than VHS but worse than SD DVD. Inflation adjusted, that'd be over $100 per movie nowadays, so yea... from a historical perspective, $20 for an 1080p download is great.

Wait for next year, when 4K will be all the rage. Maybe than you can buy the Bluray 4K + 3D + SD + Digital Download for $20-25, that'll be value :)

3D will look great with 4K, since it'll finally give us true 1080p in 3D even with passive glasses instead of the "fuzzy" 540 pixels on the current 3D vertical.
 

faizoff

macrumors regular
Sep 19, 2012
234
20
I own both blu-ray and iTunes movies and I honestly find the quality of iTunes 1080p movies amazing. Of course it isn't as impeccable as blu-rays, but in my opinion, they are very comparable. I recently rented Oz and I thought it looked awesome. It's a great example of how far digital HD movies have come.

As I stated in my reply, the Itunes 1080p Harry Potter version that came on sale doesnt look that great and I believe others commented the same way in the Harry Potter sale thread. I certainly hope other movies are up to par in terms of quality.
The movies I rip from Bluray and transcode using handbrake with the same file size looked much better than the itunes version. It might've been just those movies though.
 

thekingofnerds

macrumors regular
Jun 26, 2013
153
0
As I stated in my reply, the Itunes 1080p Harry Potter version that came on sale doesnt look that great and I believe others commented the same way in the Harry Potter sale thread. I certainly hope other movies are up to par in terms of quality.

The movies I rip from Bluray and transcode using handbrake with the same file size looked much better than the itunes version. It might've been just those movies though.

The bluray will almost always look better. The itunes versions are incredibly compressed.

Same goes for TV signals (FiOS, cable, anitmatter-transmitter [well, maybe not that]) - bluray is not compressed nearly as much. In fact, over-the-air broadcasts are compressed less than cable broadcasts. Try figuring that out.
 

faizoff

macrumors regular
Sep 19, 2012
234
20
The bluray will almost always look better. The itunes versions are incredibly compressed.

Same goes for TV signals (FiOS, cable, anitmatter-transmitter [well, maybe not that]) - bluray is not compressed nearly as much. In fact, over-the-air broadcasts are compressed less than cable broadcasts. Try figuring that out.

True I agree with that but that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that when I compress the Bluray version at home to the same file size that itunes is offering in 1080 HD format, my handbrake transcoded version looks better than the itunes offering.

Now I've only sampled the Harry Potter movies so thats all I can go by, others in the HP sale thread have said similar things.
 

Xiroteus

macrumors 65816
Mar 31, 2012
1,297
75
One thing that will be odd about 4K is acting like it will be digital download only which hardly makes any sense. Discs will be able to show off that image much better than some compressed download. The idea of going higher quality just to destroy that idea unless it has disc based media as well.
 

Icaras

macrumors 603
Mar 18, 2008
6,343
3,380
As I stated in my reply, the Itunes 1080p Harry Potter version that came on sale doesnt look that great and I believe others commented the same way in the Harry Potter sale thread. I certainly hope other movies are up to par in terms of quality.
The movies I rip from Bluray and transcode using handbrake with the same file size looked much better than the itunes version. It might've been just those movies though.

Was it one of the earlier Harry Potter films? Have you compared with the later ones? Some movies will look better than others because of how each film is treated during the video transfer by studios. You'll find the same kind of inconsistency with blu-rays or DVDs even. As an example, if you look at some reviews of the Lord of the Rings trilogy on blu-ray, the first film doesn't quite stack up to the same visual quality as the Two Towers or Return of the King.

But likewise, in my earlier post, I was pretty floored by Oz. Amazing video quality I thought. My wife and I are currently watching the second season of Enlightened on iTunes and its very clean looking. I have some iTunes content that is subpar quality, while I also have many that look excellent for being a compressed digital file.
 

faizoff

macrumors regular
Sep 19, 2012
234
20
Was it one of the earlier Harry Potter films? Have you compared with the later ones? Some movies will look better than others because of how each film is treated during the video transfer by studios. You'll find the same kind of inconsistency with blu-rays or DVDs even. As an example, if you look at some reviews of the Lord of the Rings trilogy on blu-ray, the first film doesn't quite stack up to the same visual quality as the Two Towers or Return of the King.

But likewise, in my earlier post, I was pretty floored by Oz. Amazing video quality I thought. My wife and I are currently watching the second season of Enlightened on iTunes and its very clean looking. I have some iTunes content that is subpar quality, while I also have many that look excellent for being a compressed digital file.

I haven't downloaded any of the earlier ones yet. I downloaded the last two ones. Those shouldnt be that bad.

I dont believe Apple does any of the conversions, its all given to them by the studios to make them look good on itunes.
 

Icaras

macrumors 603
Mar 18, 2008
6,343
3,380
I haven't downloaded any of the earlier ones yet. I downloaded the last two ones. Those shouldnt be that bad.

I dont believe Apple does any of the conversions, its all given to them by the studios to make them look good on itunes.

That sucks. I also have a few movies that are kind of subpar as well and do agree that the studios are responsible for providing the transfers to Apple. However, this also mean that studios should be able to resubmit new and improved transfers to Apple.

Catalog titles on iTunes are always getting updated with Dolby Digital 5.1, closed captioning, subtitles, and Extras all the time, so it's entirely possible that studios also update their video transfers to Apple, although I have no direct evidence of this because I'm not sure what movies to compare and when to compare since these refreshes would be silent and seamless. I also couldn't guess the likelihood of that happening.
 
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alent1234

macrumors 603
Jun 19, 2009
5,688
170
Was it one of the earlier Harry Potter films? Have you compared with the later ones? Some movies will look better than others because of how each film is treated during the video transfer by studios. You'll find the same kind of inconsistency with blu-rays or DVDs even. As an example, if you look at some reviews of the Lord of the Rings trilogy on blu-ray, the first film doesn't quite stack up to the same visual quality as the Two Towers or Return of the King.

But likewise, in my earlier post, I was pretty floored by Oz. Amazing video quality I thought. My wife and I are currently watching the second season of Enlightened on iTunes and its very clean looking. I have some iTunes content that is subpar quality, while I also have many that look excellent for being a compressed digital file.

the newer films like Oz were shot on 4K cameras. LOTR was shot either on the first gen digital cameras or on film

the end product is only as good as the source
 

mkdms14

macrumors newbie
Nov 3, 2009
3
0
Question to anyone who has already taken advantage of the Star Trek Double Feature deal. I saw someone post in the comments and review selection of Itunes saying that you when you buy the bundle you get both movies but don't get Star Trek into Darkness until after its official release date. Is that true? or is this person just making stuff up? I guess my real question is if I wanted to watch both movies today by buying this bundle I could do that? Please someone who has already taken advantage or know someone who has please respond.
 

jbachandouris

macrumors 603
Aug 18, 2009
5,775
2,900
Upstate NY
Question to anyone who has already taken advantage of the Star Trek Double Feature deal. I saw someone post in the comments and review selection of Itunes saying that you when you buy the bundle you get both movies but don't get Star Trek into Darkness until after its official release date. Is that true? or is this person just making stuff up? I guess my real question is if I wanted to watch both movies today by buying this bundle I could do that? Please someone who has already taken advantage or know someone who has please respond.

They're full of it. I purchased and downloaded both the same day.
 
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