Apple Movie Store Details? Disney Movies First?

[MacRumors]

http://www.macrumors.com/images/macrumorsthreadlogo.gif

With the new Mac mini and iMac updates released today, it appears Apple will focus on their Movie initiative during their September 12th media event. Variety provides some details of the upcoming announcement.

As reported elsewhere, Variety expects Apple to provide movies for $9.99/download for older movies and $14.99 for new releases. This price range is reportedly a concession to movie studios who want variable pricing. Apple has long been a proponent of a one-price model. As a result, only Disney is said to be definitely on board with the initial launch with the other studios potentially joining in the next year.

In contrast, Amazon is also launching a movie store later this week, and they are expected to have all major movie studios signed on. Amazon's pricing will be in line with current movie download services ($9.99-$19.99).

An Associated Press report offers a similar perspective on the ongoing negotiations between Apple and the movie studios:

...substantial disagreements between studios and Apple remain to be resolved and Apple's movie service could launch with a limited number of films, according to two studio executives who asked to remain anonymous because talks were still ongoing.

[gugy]

Bring It On!

But hopefully these are a better resolution than the current TV show on Itunes. It should be at least DVD quality, If not these price model will bomb IMHO.

[jholzner]

Does anyone else think that Apple really really needs a rental model for the movie store? I'm against it with music but it's not the same a movies. I don't want my harddrive full of these things. I would be nice to rent one for much less, watch it and delete it. I don't see it being very successful if it is for purchase only.

[Keebler]

it will be interesting to see the technology behind this...what size of movies, types of movies, quality of..etc..etc.. and will it be frickin' available in any country other than just the us of a....

last poster had a good point...files need to be of high quality for this price range. that means that 14.99 USD will be about 18 CDN..i would go to the theatre for that price.

BUT, i will add that regardless of the features, this is an exciting and interesting time in the evolution of entertainment. isn't it just nuts to think we can dload movies to our house and watch them at our leisure? just think of that. WOW!

cheers,
keebler

[EricNau]

For 10 to 15 bucks these videos better be a higher quality than their current videos in the iTunes Music Store.


I was hoping they'd be releasing a Mac Media Center to compliment this movie service, but after today's iMac update that seems unlikely (the 24" iMac would have been the perfect all-in-one media mac).


As for Disney and Apple, who would have thought!

[macOSX-tastic]

this surely is good news. but i wont be watching movies on my current 'pod...the window is too small. all this being dependent on wether or not it's gonna be available in the UK. it's a real bummer not to be able to download TV shows i love like you americans can!

S

[gugy]

I like the rental idea for movies, but it seems Steve is not very excite about that model.
Anyway, I still have hope for the Event next week a piece of hardware will come along with the Movie Store.
Either the Ipod Video, Airport Video or the Media Center.

[HecubusPro]

Personally, I wouldn't want to DL a large movie file without the option of being able to burn it to DVD so I can have that tangible hard copy that makes me feel safe and warm. Then I wouldn't have a problem deleting it off of my hard drive.

I could be wrong, but I don't see them dealing with rentals. Most people still don't have fast enough connections to warrant downloading a big movie file when they can just have it delivered to their door via Netflix or they can head down to their local Blockbuster and have it right away. Same goes for purchases. I like having the retail box. It just makes me a little bit happier. Now, if they offered HD downloads, I'd definitely be interested in that, even if it is a super big file.

[kasei]

High quality and the ability to burn them is at the top of my list. I would also like to see a reduction of time it takes for a movie to go from the big screen to my laptop screen.

If Apple and the Entertainment Indudstry are able to do that, they will have a hit on their hands.

[Anawrahta]

can they just announce the new MBPs already??

who cares about the movie store....OooH wow~! $10 movies, you can go to best buy and get a physical copy for just a little bit more. I sure hope this service will let you burn the movies to dvd otherwise it's dead to me.

[aegisdesign]

It costs me nothing to walk into town (about 10 minutes) or bike (5) and pick up a DVD at the municipal library for £1.50. Occasionally I'll copy it to my hard disk if I didn't have the time I thought I would have to watch it and watch it later, then delete it.

Unlike music, you rarely watch a movie twice. Why buy or store these on your hard disk for longer than it takes to view it?

I've not bought a movie since 1995 on VHS. It's was just kind of silly having them litter up your shelves then and your hard disk now.

[Kingsly]

Makes sense. Steve is, after all, a major player at Disney.

My guess: Disney and Lions gate now, more in a month or so.

It would be nice to have a streaming service, in which you pay for a netflix type price model and are allowed to stream movies on demand.... talk about bandwidth charges!!

[Abstract]

For that price, it better not be a rental. You should be allowed to keep it, and delete it whenever you wish. You can delete it after you watch it, but I wouldn't pay $10 or $15 to watch it once or twice.

[nagromme]

Originally Posted by jholzner

Does anyone else think that Apple really really needs a rental model for the movie store? I'm against it with music but it's not the same a movies. I don't want my harddrive full of these things. I would be nice to rent one for much less, watch it and delete it. I don't see it being very successful if it is for purchase only.

Yes. I want rentals. I almost never want to see the same movie again, so I won't want to store it.

Rentals are what I would use. At a sufficiently low price, of course. $2 for close to DVD quality would be OK. (I'm less picky about rental quality than purchase quality.)

[nosen]

Originally Posted by gugy

But hopefully these are a better resolution than the current TV show on Itunes. It should be at least DVD quality, If not these price model will bomb IMHO.

agreed, although I don't think I'd ever pay more than $9.99... I'd rather just buy the DVD.

[sisyphus]

I know they want to sell and that it is probably easier to manage, but I would rather rent than buy. I have bought a total of 4 DVDs. So few movies are worth owning. Some are actually worth renting.

[Flowbee]

Originally Posted by nagromme

Yes. I want rentals. I almost never want to see the same movie again, so I won't want to store it.

Rentals are what I would use. At a sufficiently low price, of course. $2 for close to DVD quality would be OK. (I'm less picky about rental quality than purchase quality.)

I'm with you on that one. A decent rental download or on-demand service is the only thing that will get me to give up Netflix. I'm just not buying any more movies. In fact, I'm currently selling my DVD collection.

[boxandrew]

Originally Posted by nagromme

Yes. I want rentals. I almost never want to see the same movie again, so I won't want to store it.

Rentals are what I would use. At a sufficiently low price, of course. $2 for close to DVD quality would be OK. (I'm less picky about rental quality than purchase quality.)

Seems a lot of people are agreeing with this. If they don't have a netflix style rental model then I can't see myself using the movie store at all. If they do have rentals, then I'll say bye-bye to netflix the same day.

Having read all the rumours, I'm not holding out much hope...

[balamw]

Originally Posted by HecubusPro

Personally, I wouldn't want to DL a large movie file without the option of being able to burn it to DVD so I can have that tangible hard copy that makes me feel safe and warm. Then I wouldn't have a problem deleting it off of my hard drive.

What's stopping you from doing that now?

I know I have all of my iTMS video backed up to data DVDs...

I know I won't be spending $10-$15 for anything less than DVD quality though, so I hope there's either a rental model or at least 480p.

B

[Multimedia]

I'll Have To See It To Believe It. I can't believe the quality will compare with a physical DVD.

[Mac Fly (film)]

http://static.flickr.com/83/236356043_7d795c3fe0_o.jpg & http://www.wpc-fr.net/images/article...ixar/pixar.jpg

Guys, you've got to start somewhere. The TV show thing started with disney, and look at it now!!

(not in Europe yet, grumble grumble)

[ddrueckhammer]

I am with the rental bandwagon. I would pay up to $4.99 to rent a movie that deleted itself after a certain period of time from the first play. Also, I could care less about how long it takes to download because if they implemented a queue ala Netflix then the next one could just download. It should still be faster and more convenient than Netflix. I would even be happy if they used Bit torrent technology to help subsidize their bandwidth costs. Until there is a model like, this I won't give up Netflix and there is no way that I want to buy movies online unless they are under $9.99 and are at least DVD quality and burnable to a disk. It just isn't worth it without physical media. As it is, there are already tons of people who rent and burn movies with impunity so distributing content electronically might be a great way to get some money from those people because they would be able to have a DRM that limits the number of burns, as well as, watermarking to stop unauthorized distribution.

[Arcady]

A Netflix subscription and a spindle of DVD-R discs is cheaper then one new movie from Apple.

Sorry, not interested.

[powerbook911]

The quality needs to be *at least* DVD quality. Of course, with H264 they could do this in smaller file size than traditional DVDs.

However, I somehow doubt they'll do the smart thing and have it DVD quality. We could only hope. If they did, I'd probably buy a handful of movies (3 or 4) before the year ended, if they got some more studios.

[Sport73]

The most important insight from all of these 'rumors' is that Apple MUST have something more to discuss on Tuesday than simply the release of the Movie Store. With Amazon trumping Apple on content and major questions outstanding about quality and DRM, it would be a big mistake to hold a major press event just for that.

Clearly, the new iPod AND a media streaming/center device is on tap, otherwise this event will go on record as the biggest flop in Apple SE history.