The Dark Knight Rises, did you buy the Blu-ray or 1080p iTunes ?

[gmanist1000]

Originally Posted by bonbmdxman

I purchased the movie from iTunes in 1080p. I have been purchasing all of my movies from iTunes since they incorporated movies in iCloud. It's so convenient to have all of my movies available on all my devices. Plus, I like having no clutter with the physical blu-rays. I can just power up the apple tv and click on what i want to watch. The resolution of the 1080p iTunes movies is great in my opinion too!

This is exactly what I did. I feel the same way too.

[Che Castro]

How come you can't stream the movies you buy from iTunes on the ipad or iPhone like you can on the Apple TV

On the ipad you have to download the 5.5gb file

Is that a licensing issue with apple and the studios ?

[Michael CM1]

Originally Posted by Che Castro

How come you can't stream the movies you buy from iTunes on the ipad or iPhone like you can on the Apple TV

On the ipad you have to download the 5.5gb file

Is that a licensing issue with apple and the studios ?

I'm assuming its just something that hasn't been added to iOS yet. It was a requirement on TV since it doesn't allow you to really use the storage it has. This would also be a nice feature for the music app. Sounds like a good version update for iOS and iCloud.

[atandon]

Originally Posted by Che Castro

How come you can't stream the movies you buy from iTunes on the ipad or iPhone like you can on the Apple TV

On the ipad you have to download the 5.5gb file

Is that a licensing issue with apple and the studios ?

Probably to get us to buy an ipad with more storage
Its pretty silly that streaming from the cloud is not supported

[SDAVE]

Buy the BD, then get a "copy" online somewhere so I don't have to spend time ripping stuff. Yes, this is not legal, but I think it's fine if I purchased the BD and got a file online (at least morally).

[musicpenguy]

Originally Posted by atandon

Probably to get us to buy an ipad with more storage
Its pretty silly that streaming from the cloud is not supported

Be patient - I'd put a bet that its coming in iOS 7 - the Mac just got streaming support - they will play catchup to iOS next year - nothing to do with storage etc.

[benhollberg]

Originally Posted by Roy Hobbs

Does the iTunes version of Dark Knight Rises switch aspect ratio during the IMAX scenes like the blu-ray?

The Ultraviolet(Flixster) version doesn't and it's annoying

iTunes version of The Dark Knight Rises does not show IMAX scenes in IMAX aspect ratio and it is terrible.

[JAT]

Originally Posted by Che Castro

How come you can't stream the movies you buy from iTunes on the ipad or iPhone like you can on the Apple TV

On the ipad you have to download the 5.5gb file

Is that a licensing issue with apple and the studios ?

This is accurate? Purchased movies are not available streaming? I'm streaming a ripped movie right now. Never purchased one from iTunes.

[musicpenguy]

Purchased video content - movies and TV shows are streamable to iTunes and the Apple TV - I'd expect iPhone/iPad streaming will come with iOS 7.

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Originally Posted by benhollberg

iTunes version of The Dark Knight Rises does not show IMAX scenes in IMAX aspect ratio and it is terrible.

The other two Dark Knight films do show the IMAX scenes in the proper aspect ratio - you must be watching the HD version though SD versions won't show IMAX scenes as IMAX

[morty192]

In the end i bought the blu ray and ripped the movies...stupid UV!

[IronManFan]

Originally Posted by Che Castro

I found some examples

iTunes 1080p is on the left
Bluray is on the right

Image


Image


http://arstechnica.com/apple/guides/...y-shootout.ars

If I love a movie I get both the Blu-Ray and the iTunes (probably not the most cost-efficient method, but certainly the most time-efficient). I've compared the two at length, and I'd be curious to see the arstechnica test run with iTunes piped through a Darbee Darblet. Those extra little details and areas of contrast are really pumped up. For those of you going discless and want the best possible image, it's a pretty cool gadget

[k1121j]

Originally Posted by Omne666

So let's summarise...

Option 1
Buy from iTunes, wait a few minutes, press play.

Option 2
Buy BR (from store or online) wait for delivery or trip home, RIP it to mkv, have plex on the system or jail broken ATV2, press play.

Option 3
Buy BR (from store or online) wait for delivery, RIP it to mkv, handbrake it, press play.

Gee...I wonder which is easier?

I understand we have audiophiles here, old school own the disc people, potential licence issues down the track with pure digital files, but aren't we forgetting something?

Apples mantra " it just works"?

Apples all ways been about ease of use, ease of access, just plain ease. Perfect no, but always getting better.

I don't own a B&O for sound, my TV isn't a $20k vision nirvana device. Unless they are, your not getting the full benefits of everything by goingi BR then ripping, no matter how good the rip. My wife doesn't sit there and go 'wish we had dts or a better tv'.

Ease of use and an enjoyable experience.

With the iTunes store and an ATV, Apple delivers.

Sorry people, but I just can't see myself fretting over how good my RIPs are, or which jail brake is the best. I just want to watch the movie.As long as these days it's HD, I'm reasonably happy. I use to be happy with DVDs.

Buy the thing through iTunes, and enjoy the experience! If you watch it 2 times or more, your ahead of the game.

.......... What he said ^^^^^^^^

[luffytubby]

I greatly disliked this film. In fact I hate it. Is it as bad as Spider-Man 3? Not quite.
I wish I had saved my money and watched Looper instead. That probably has been one of the few redeeming good cinema experiences I've seen this year. That, Raid: Redemption and Skyfall.

[Revertion]

I'm having trouble ripping this movie via Handbrake.

I typically just rip these to iTunes because I am not a fan of Ultraviolet, but I use the preset iPad setting on Handbrake. When I pop the DVD in, I get 3 different titles, one being (2h44m) while the others are around 8m and 3m each. When it's done encoding, I go to play it in iTunes and the movie starts at the beginning of the airplane scene (avoiding spoilers) and is incredibly choppy and doesn't play right.

Is there something I'm doing wrong, does anyone have experience ripping the DVD that comes with the bluray in this fashion?

[Scarpad]

Originally Posted by BigStrip

Same here. Makemkv and handbrake. With my quad core mac mini it would take about 4-6 hrs a movie. With my new retina 15 it's dropped to about 2-3 hrs. I bought a lg external USB superblu for about $100 off newegg. And plex is the easiest and best media server and interface by far!

2-3 hours are you just ripping or encoding too? I rip a blue ray in about 20-30 min on my Imac I5, and about another 1 and 30 to encode it to 720p, 1080p would be a little longer

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Have to admit I'm kinda ambivilent to physical media these days, I was big into buying blu rays have about 500+, but I went to Walmart not to long ago and even thou they have the cheap bins of blu rays now and the disks with 3 movies on them , I can't get excited anymore over them. I mostly rip all my movies and encode them for my plex server, I don't mind not even having the copy. I have'nt picked up Dark knight Rises yet, its the only one of the trilogy I don't own yet, and i'm not sure I will.

[Aries326]

Neither. I bought Batman Rises then downloaded the 1080p version. Easier than trying to rip it myself.

[JoeBlow74]

I purchased Prometheus Blu-ray last night and downloaded the digital copy from iTunes just as an experiment. When I play the digital download through my AppleTV, I get Dolby Digital 5.1 bitstream only. The picture, on the other hand, is standard definition at best. I them played the Blu-ray disk in my player and WOW!! The difference was night and day on my 65in plasma. I got full DTS Master Audio along with razor sharp HD picture. Until the studio's can produce a digital download that meets the HD audio/video that a disk can produce, I do not plan to purchase any kind of movie from any sort of download service. I purchase Blu-ray for a reason.

[musicpenguy]

Originally Posted by JoeBlow74

I purchased Prometheus Blu-ray last night and downloaded the digital copy from iTunes just as an experiment. When I play the digital download through my AppleTV, I get Dolby Digital 5.1 bitstream only. The picture, on the other hand, is standard definition at best. I them played the Blu-ray disk in my player and WOW!! The difference was night and day on my 65in plasma. I got full DTS Master Audio along with razor sharp HD picture. Until the studio's can produce a digital download that meets the HD audio/video that a disk can produce, I do not plan to purchase any kind of movie from any sort of download service. I purchase Blu-ray for a reason.

Are you sure the Digital Download was an HD download? - I thought Prometheus only came with the SD version ...

[TrackZ]

So today over lunch, 2 friends and I did some A/B and blind testing. I had the following version of Dark Knight Rises:

1. iTunes HD
2. Blu-ray
3. Blu-ray ripped via MakeMKV and encoded with Handbrake and played through iTunes (high profile setting, RF 18, same as source FPS with constant framerate, strict anamorphic, no cropping, DTS track encoded to 5.1 AC3 at 640kbps)

Both iTunes versions were played from my MacBook Air iTunes homeshare to an ATV3. The BD played on a PS3. TV is a 47" Sony LCD/LED with a 5.1 setup. Decent quality floor standing L/R speakers with matching center and surrounds. Mid-range Denon receiver. Everything was HDMI of course. The iTunes copies played their AC3 audio and the BD bitstreamed the DTSHD track.

I set up the blind test so we played the first several minutes of the movie, up until they blow the tail end off the plane. I played the BD first, then the iTunes HD, then the BD encode. Both of them placed the iTunes HD copy dead last in video and audio quality, especially audio. There was significant dynamic range missing in that 384kbps AC3 track. Bane's voice, other voices, music details, effects pop were all noted as being weaker. My one friend who is a musician commented on hearing additional instruments in the background music in the BD that he didn't note in the iTunes HD.

After the blind test we jumped around a doing A/B comparisons. Chapter 7 was a good one as Lucius and Talia walk inside and then ride the elevator down. This was a good one to compare because it was 2.35:1 in both the iTunes version and BD. Watch this scene and look to the right side of the image where the floor mat is. In the BD, the area of the floor gets dark, but keeps detail all the way down. You can make out the floor mat all the way. In the iTunes HD though, you lose all the detail in the floor. It turns into muddy blackness.

The Handbrake encode in both video and audio was much closer to the BD than to the iTunes copy. One friend noted that he'd be happy with the encoded quality, but the iTunes copy was just too low fidelity to make reasonable sense having spent money to create a good quality HT set up.

We didn't get into discussion on the merits of convenience of access or cost relative to the quality levels we observed.

I think we are going to run the same test with Jaws next week.

From what I saw and for what I plan to install for a HT in my new house, I think it pretty much seals the deal to stick with BD rips playing from a NAS to a streamer box like a PCH/Dune/etc and use the AppleTV for non-major film watching (TV shows, documentaries, etc). Given how soft and less detailed the image was on a 47" screen, it will only look more so on a 70" - 90". I also plan to spend more on audio than my friend has which should also bring out even more tangible detail.

In the end though, no one thought the iTunes HD version was bad. It was just not as good, and very tangibly so. If that was all you watched, you might even get used to it really. For me, I'll sit there watching a movie knowing that the presentation is a few steps down and that would bother me.

Also in summary, the BD Handbrake encode stacked up very closely to the BD. There were some differences still noticable in audio and video (that chapter 7 elevator ride showed it) though. Still, if you're going to take the steps to buy the disc and rip it, you may as well just rip to MKV and keep the full quality, unless you really need to compress for space and don't want to mess with a box outside of the AppleTV. But then you have to deal with having a computer running to serve an iTunes home share and take on other complexities. If you encode with these settings too, you get a file size for most movies that's not really portable. It's really a higher end encode for at home viewing. The DKR encode was 8.4GB, for example including a 256kbps 2ch AAC track with the 640kbps 5.1 AC3.

I need to dwell on this a little more. I'm growing convinced that between iTunes and BD for me, iTunes loses for the system I plan to integrate this winter. Regarding the question of BD 1:1 via PCH or BD encoded on AppleTV, I'm still weighing those pros and cons.

[TrackZ]

I should also add that we tried adjusting volume when playing the iTunes HD copy as that AC3 track plays quieter than the others did. All 3 of us agreed, after trying that for a bit, changing volume did not compensate fully for the lack of dynamic range or clarity in the iTunes HD version versus DTSHD or even the 640k encoded AC3 track.

[Avatar74]

Originally Posted by TrackZ

I should also add that we tried adjusting volume when playing the iTunes HD copy as that AC3 track plays quieter than the others did. All 3 of us agreed, after trying that for a bit, changing volume did not compensate fully for the lack of dynamic range or clarity in the iTunes HD version versus DTSHD or even the 640k encoded AC3 track.

What AC3 lacks in dynamic range (a 24 bit uncompressed stream is going to have far more dynamic range... not because it's uncompressed but because 24 bit wordlengths have 2^8 times more samples per quantization interval per channel than 16 bit wordlengths) it has nothing to do with DTS vs. Dolby, it's just math at that point) it makes up for with metadata parameters for dynamic range control (DRC) and dialogue normalization (dialnorm).

I find DTS mixes to be far too uncontrollable because there's neither dynamic range control nor dialogue normalization. That and Dolby Laboratories has a more stringent standard for using the Dolby seal. All AC3 content has to be mastered to -27dBFS Leq(A) (A-weighted average loudness). That's significantly lower than your typical DTS mix, which significantly *increases* dynamic range, think of the distance from the average sound to the peak (0dBFS)... that creates more overhead with less data.

As the listener, you've got a volume knob for that reason. This is why people think vinyl sounds better even when it doesn't. Vinyl has a terrible dynamic range compared to CD (about 80dB for the former, 96.7dB for the latter, each +3dB representing a doubling of wave power as its a logarithmic scale)... the truth is that vinyl sucks but many of the recordings of the 1960s and 1970s were mastered to much lower average loudness levels than recordings today which completely lack nuance and finesse, and are frequently mastered to levels nearing peak.

I've got a pretty good ear, and a few mastering credits to my name, as well as a trademark license agreement with Dolby Labs... but I generally just buy the iTunes 1080p because the difference is negligible but outweighed massively by the convenience of purchasing and streaming from the cloud.

I just don't care enough about that extra pixel or that extra quantization interval that my ears would only hear if I were really, really paying attention. But my time means a lot to me, so convenience of not having to go brave the idiots at Best Buy? Worth a lot.

[adam044]

Umm the Internet

[charlituna]

Originally Posted by Fernandez21

You can get the combo pack on amazon for $18.99 right now. It includes the blu-ray version, DVD, and ultra violet. And then you can always rip the DVD or blu ray and load it into iTunes. Never tried ultra violet though.

I tried ultraviolet, hated it. Very thankful I got my brothers the Harry Potter films while they were still doing iTunes. I just wish Warner's would release the 'Creating' docus on iTunes. Same with the scads of lord of the Rings stuff

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Originally Posted by JoeBlow74

I purchased Prometheus Blu-ray last night and downloaded the digital copy from iTunes just as an experiment. When I play the digital download through my AppleTV, I get Dolby Digital 5.1 bitstream only. The picture, on the other hand, is standard definition at best.

That's cause those copies are SD. No studio does HD digital copy freebies. Makes me wish Apple would do a movies upgrade like they did with iTunes Plus

[Porco]

The Blu-ray, I prefer a superior viewing and listening experience that doesn't take up GBs of disk space, use GBs of downloading and costs less money. Amazon Prime means I can get physical copies of movies within 24 hours if I want, so the 'convnience' barely makes any difference. I mean really the only difference to me is that I don't slow down my internet connection for a while after purchasing.

But fair play to anyone who finds iTunes movies so convenient they don't care about the disadvantages. I just hope all options are around until downloads are of the same quality as Blu-ray, or better.

Also, reading all the posts in this thread as being in Bane's voice is amusing

[Nightarchaon]

i went with the iTunes version because the BluRays no longer contain an iTune code, but instead that stupid "ultraviolet" code that i have no interest in using.

Voting with my wallet here, only buying BluRay if it comes with an iTune code for the digital copy.

Ill pick the bluray up months down the line for bargain basement prices