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Apr 12, 2001
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AppleInsider reports that Apple may be preparing to begin supporting 1080p movies in its iTunes Store later this year, based on reports of film studios submitting films to Apple in a new "HD+" format at the higher resolution.
Thus far, 1080p HD content has largely eluded users of Apple products, with HD versions of videos on the company's digital download service maxing out 720p (1280x720) and chief executive Steve Jobs balking at adoption of Blu-ray on Macs due to licensing complications and other challenges that he said threatened to translate into a "bag of hurt."

But that could begin to change later this year, as a handful of feature films being submitted to the iTunes store for a release in the September and October timeframe are being sent with documentation for an optional 1920x1080 resolution, according to people familiar with the matter.
According to the source, at least three of the five largest movie studios have submitted titles scheduled for fall releases with optional resolutions of 1920x1080 at average bitrates of 10 Mbps.

apple_tv_top_movies.jpg



The report's sources also point to rumors of an updated 1080p-capable Apple TV, which lines up nicely with increased 1080p support in iOS 5, which is due for release around the same September timeframe. Those improved capabilities were noted last month to have opened the door to a true 1080p Apple TV.

Apple is said to have the capability to stream 1080p video already in hand, but that the company remains concerned that many users' personal connection speeds aren't yet high enough to support streaming of the "HD+" content without significant buffering time.

In order to address that issue, Apple could offer the 1080p only for downloadable movie content, although that would be incompatible with the simplicity of the Apple TV, which offers only limited storage space for caching purposes and otherwise streams all content. Alternatively, Apple could make the 1080p content available for streaming only if a user's connection is determined to be fast enough to support the bandwidth.

Article Link: Apple to Debut 'HD+' 1080p iTunes Movie Services Later This Year?
 

res1233

macrumors 65816
Dec 8, 2008
1,127
0
Brooklyn, NY
That would be nice... There are virtually no devices that can't play 1080p video at this point. It's silly to still be at 720.
 

chrmjenkins

macrumors 603
Oct 29, 2007
5,325
158
MD
It's not HD+. 1080P has been part of the HD standard for over a decade. Don't make it look like you're lagging digital content is somehow now better, you've only just now caught up to the competition.
 

macnisse

macrumors 6502
Jun 26, 2010
395
1
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; sv-se) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

Finally! :)
 

RobQuads

macrumors regular
Jul 11, 2010
234
48
lol @ "HD+"

More like at last we now have "HD-" an upgrade from "HD--" we had before.

Still a mile away from the 30/40Mbps that you get on BluRays
 

portishead

macrumors 65816
Apr 4, 2007
1,114
2
los angeles
That's around 7GB for a 90 minute feature. Not too bad. I've held off on the Apple TV with only 720p support. I'll consider it when it can support at least 1080p.
 

Darien Red Sox

macrumors regular
Dec 13, 2010
216
7
CT, USA
Can the US's infrastructure handle everyone downloading or streaming HD video? Compared to other places in the world our internet is 2nd rate. The new bandwidth restrictions many ISPs are placing on there customers will also add challenges and expenses for people.
 

Chaos215bar2

macrumors regular
Jan 11, 2004
207
524
It's not HD+. 1080P has been part of the HD standard for over a decade. Don't make it look like you're lagging digital content is somehow now better, you've only just now caught up to the competition.

What competition? Who (aside from torrent sites) currently offers 1080p movies for streaming or download?
 

swagi

macrumors 6502a
Sep 6, 2007
905
123
Well...too bad...

...my viewing habits are perfectly satisfied with PSN and Zune marketplace, which both offer 1080p for years.

A Blu-Ray-equipped Mini could change the deal...but will never see the light of day. :cool:

So no Mac in my livingroom.
 

DCstewieG

macrumors regular
Jun 30, 2008
105
275
U.S.A.
And what about sound? I don't think we're getting TrueHD or DTS-HD any time soon. For people who care about this sort of thing, round pieces of plastic have a few more years without any real competition (besides piracy of course, good job studios).
 

Consultant

macrumors G5
Jun 27, 2007
13,314
34
That would be nice but bandwidth and storage requirements of 1080p content is just huge
 

supremedesigner

macrumors 65816
Dec 9, 2005
1,070
907
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

Hope they will add closed captions, too. The only thing Apple cared about is the mass audiences than the small percentage of disability people.
 

416049

macrumors 68000
Mar 14, 2010
1,844
2
I want the Movie store in Scandinavia first :mad:, it is crazy Scandinavia is one of the parts of the world with very high internet connection speed yet we still can't stream movies (legally)
 

portishead

macrumors 65816
Apr 4, 2007
1,114
2
los angeles
Still a mile away from the 30/40Mbps that you get on BluRays

with a good quality encode, you can easily compress a Blu-ray title to 10-15Mbps with little quality loss depending on the size of your television. I'm going to throw a statistic out of my ass and say 98% of people wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Again, the key is good quality encode.

That's not to say Blu-ray is overkill or bloated. It's great quality, but it can still be compressed further with negligible quality loss.
 

Piggie

macrumors G3
Feb 23, 2010
9,107
3,969
I assume 1080p downloads will be free to those people who have already paid for the 720p version of the same movie?

Given that some of them now are the same price to download in 720p as they are to actually buy a physical BluRay disc. They can't ask for a further payment can they ?
 

res1233

macrumors 65816
Dec 8, 2008
1,127
0
Brooklyn, NY
Goodbye hard drive space.

I'm of the opinion that movies should be streamed. Personally, I tend to watch a movie once, then maybe watch it again a few months later. It doesn't seem so advantageous to have a local copy, and like you said, we'd run out of space since movies can easily be gigabytes each at 1080p. Then there's the issue of downloading over 3G... One movie per month?...
 

Darien Red Sox

macrumors regular
Dec 13, 2010
216
7
CT, USA
That would be nice but bandwidth and storage requirements of 1080p content is just huge

I know my DSL connection could not handle it:(, I would need to pay a lot more for a faster DSL connection. Cable is not an option for me because it tops out at about 2MBs in my neighborhood.
 

Eidorian

macrumors Penryn
Mar 23, 2005
29,190
386
Indianapolis
I'm of the opinion that movies should be streamed. Personally, I tend to watch a movie once, then maybe watch it again a few months later. It doesn't seem so advantageous to have a local copy, and like you said, we'd run out of space since movies can easily be gigabytes each at 1080p.
If I am going to watch a movie once. I would rather get it for free.

I have not purchased video media in ages since I am only going to watch it once anyways.
 

FroMann

macrumors 6502
Mar 26, 2011
322
0
North Carolina, USA.
I'll just stick with my DVDs and Blu-Rays. Its nice to buy a movie on iTunes and not have any ADs when starting up the movie, but to have your movie locked to only Apple Devices sounds like a pain.
 
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