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iTunes Match for Movies/TV shows

Mad Mac Maniac

Mad Mac Maniac

macrumors 601
Original poster
Oct 4, 2007
4,802
2,109
A little bit of here and a little bit of there.
iTunes Match for Movies... Wouldn't that be an amazing feat for Apple to pull off? I'm sure it would be pretty difficult to get agreement from the studios, but if there were some way to upload all the movies that we have in iTunes to iCloud (using a matching technology for all movies already in the iTunes Store) so they could be immediately accessed anywhere, it would be fantastic.

The only annoying thing would be the necessity to burn all your movie collection onto iTunes... and then what about your VHS collection? A solution could involve the potential future Apple TV set (or currently ATV with some sort of adapter). It would be fantastic to simply plug your dvd/bluray/vhs player into the Apple TV which would then use its internet connection to scan the iTunes library and match the movie. It would still be a moderate hassle but I could see the process only taking under a minute for discs and maybe 5-10 minutes for a vhs (assuming it found a match). Certainly far simpler than burning everything to iTunes.

But even without the above solution, I still think it would be a great addition to iTunes match to be able to scan all your movies in your iTunes library. I know it would require a more sophisticated matching technique, but I'm sure it can be done. What do you think?
 
Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan

macrumors 6502a
May 31, 2011
603
17
The Universe
I have this issue, I have nearly 300 DVDs sitting there all great films and TV shows but it's a storage issue, and no desire to pay for them all over again given I've already bought them!

I'd love to be able to scan the bar code on them and have them linked to my Apple ID so they'd be available (if on iTunes) for streaming via Apple TV...at present my only option is to rip but even that's not ideal given how long it'd take.
 
J

Jamie0003

macrumors 65816
Apr 17, 2009
1,046
707
Norfolk, UK
This would never happen, as ripping a DVD or even looking into it that way is against copyright law. There is copy protection on DVDs for a reason, and this would be breaking the encryption on the DVD.

Also, there would be some movies that aren't available in iTunes, and Apple isn't going to let everyone have masses of storage for those movies to be uploaded to the cloud. It's different with songs as they are much smaller, but for movies they can be massive (5GB+).
 
ugp

ugp

macrumors 65816
Jan 7, 2008
1,223
4
Inverness, Florida
Vudu has already started a Match service that you pay $2 per Blu-ray for HD. DVDs are $2 for SD and $5 for a HD Upgrade as well. I don't see why Apple can't start something like this as well. I would gladly pay a small fee to have digital copies of all my Blu-rays since I have around 200 or so currently. A lot of which did come with a Digital Copy already but is only SD.
 
R

radiogoober

macrumors 6502a
Jun 7, 2011
972
1
Carl Sagan said:
I don't see why I should have to buy them again.
Click to expand...

When you bought the movie, you were not guaranteed or in any way promised that you would have future access to download the same movie from the internet. You are going to have to pay, in some way, for a match type service.

---

I've always wondered this with iTunes match: what if I just take a different .MP3 and rename it to a completely new song? Would that "trick" iTunes into thinking I already owned a new song?
 
J

Jamie0003

macrumors 65816
Apr 17, 2009
1,046
707
Norfolk, UK
radiogoober said:
When you bought the movie, you were not guaranteed or in any way promised that you would have future access to download the same movie from the internet. You are going to have to pay, in some way, for a match type service.

---

I've always wondered this with iTunes match: what if I just take a different .MP3 and rename it to a completely new song? Would that "trick" iTunes into thinking I already owned a new song?
Click to expand...

That wouldn't work because it uses Genius to detect the song itself rather than the tagging.
 
ftaok

ftaok

macrumors 603
Jan 23, 2002
6,486
1,571
East Coast
radiogoober said:
I've always wondered this with iTunes match: what if I just take a different .MP3 and rename it to a completely new song? Would that "trick" iTunes into thinking I already owned a new song?
Click to expand...
I don't think so. The way I understand how iTunes Match works is that "they" analyze the actual file and compare the actual audio to a database. If the audio waveforms match, then viola!
 
S

spacepower7

macrumors 68000
May 6, 2004
1,509
1
I thought I read somewhere that Walmart was doing this, but I think it was for Ultraviolet ( the movie studios' streaming service. ) You have to actually take your discs to Walmart thought.

If you think Apple retail stores are busy now, imagine what it would be like with everyone walking in with a pile of DVDs to trade in ;)
 
Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan

macrumors 6502a
May 31, 2011
603
17
The Universe
radiogoober said:
When you bought the movie, you were not guaranteed or in any way promised that you would have future access to download the same movie from the internet. You are going to have to pay, in some way, for a match type service.

---

I've always wondered this with iTunes match: what if I just take a different .MP3 and rename it to a completely new song? Would that "trick" iTunes into thinking I already owned a new song?
Click to expand...

Either that or rip the collection and add to iTunes.:p
 
C

Czicks

macrumors member
Jan 28, 2009
69
0
I would love this as well. I own over 300 DVDs and refuse to buy them all again. I wouldn't mind paying a few $s each to have them all permanently available as HD via Apple.

In the meanwhile, I'll just keep downloading my films.
 
D

DP812

macrumors regular
Aug 13, 2009
177
1
Japan
radiogoober said:
When you bought the movie, you were not guaranteed or in any way promised that you would have future access to download the same movie from the internet. You are going to have to pay, in some way, for a match type service.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry, but this is just pure greed on the part of the studios. It's one thing if you're upgrading from VHS to DVD or DVD to Blu-ray or even a standard-release DVD with limited features to a special edition DVD because they have more features, (sometimes) better quality and (sometimes) director's cuts.

But when you're talking about taking the exact same movie with the exact same quality and the exact same features and just putting it on your hard drive, why should that justify paying for it all over again? Why can I legally import CDs into iTunes but I can't do it with DVDs? It's a combination of greed and stupidity on the part of the studios.
 
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