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fluff

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 2, 2008
61
3
So I can spend $12-$16 to buy a movie I might watch once or twice, or I can just rent movies off of the Apple TV and come out way ahead, with a heck of a lot more movies to choose from....Anybody have the same thoughts?
 

Microsaft

macrumors member
Aug 22, 2010
38
0
Duesseldorf, Germany
Depends what "buying" means to you.
When buying a disc, you can sell it later on...

When I wanna rent a movie from iTunes I gotta pay EUR 4,- for an HD Version of the Movie = just 720p, no DTS HD Audio, most of the times without original langauge.

A BluRay is about EUR 10-18 (Amazon).

Renting a BluRay-Disc from the shop next door is EUR 1.85 for me (a day).



Goodbye iTunes....
 

Hellhammer

Moderator emeritus
Dec 10, 2008
22,164
582
Finland
Video rental shops have existed for decades. I have never bought movies, I have picked them up from a rental shop. Nowadays I can also rent them through internet and the price is about the same. However, streaming cannot beat Blu-Ray in quality.

BTW, I'm just ripping a season of Sopranos to my Mac as we speak. Rented it for 4€. Basically, by renting the physical copy, you can watch it whenever and as many times as you want. I can even make copies of it
 

thetruth1985

macrumors 6502
Sep 17, 2010
371
4
Well it depends...What if you pay $4.99 to rent iron man 2 and then in 2 weeks, you have company that comes over and wants to watch it? You could always rent it again but then that would already be 10 bucks you have spent. This is what has me torn about purchasing the new apple tv. I already have 2 ps3s and blu rays have really dropped in price. I encoded a blu ray rip of kill bill yesterday and it took 13 hours to finish but it does look good on my old apple tv lol.
 

jsbaugh

macrumors 6502
Jun 19, 2009
276
0
I agree with you and the same goes for TV shows. I keep hearing people complain about not owning it and only renting it. Who gives a crap? Most people watch a TV show once and thats it. The odds of someone rewatching a show over and over is slim to none. If you love a series that much then buy the box set when it comes out.
 

bosox2009

macrumors member
Sep 25, 2009
45
0
Depends what "buying" means to you.
When buying a disc, you can sell it later on...

When I wanna rent a movie from iTunes I gotta pay EUR 4,- for an HD Version of the Movie = just 720p, no DTS HD Audio, most of the times without original langauge.

A BluRay is about EUR 10-18 (Amazon).

Renting a BluRay-Disc from the shop next door is EUR 1.85 for me (a day).



Goodbye iTunes....

The shop next door doesn't have what I want at that exact moment. And the blu Ray disc has a gash in it... Hello iTunes
 

Microsaft

macrumors member
Aug 22, 2010
38
0
Duesseldorf, Germany
The shop next door doesn't have what I want at that exact moment.

Thats indeed a problem. Guess whats another one: The iTunes Store outside of the US.
And there is no Hulu, Netflix, Amazon movie rental ...
That's why video rental shops are up to date over here.


And if the store doesn't have what i want i'll try another time instead of paying more than twice the price via iTunes. Apple is selling less quality without any features for premium prices.
 

tpg

macrumors regular
Mar 19, 2010
228
4
Video rental shops have existed for decades. I have never bought movies, I have picked them up from a rental shop. Nowadays I can also rent them through internet and the price is about the same. However, streaming cannot beat Blu-Ray in quality.

BTW, I'm just ripping a season of Sopranos to my Mac as we speak. Rented it for 4€. Basically, by renting the physical copy, you can watch it whenever and as many times as you want. I can even make copies of it

I'm pretty sure that ripping rented discs would be illegal though :)
 

dagomike

macrumors 65816
Jun 22, 2007
1,451
1
I don't buy movies regardless. Not enough time to watch movies even once.

I think the real question is renting disks vs streaming. Personally BD has a lot of advantages over similarly priced HD rentals. And then Netflix is a way better deal overall.

TV is better, although I'd love to have ad-supported iTunes content from the cable channels.
 

spice weasel

macrumors 65816
Jul 25, 2003
1,255
9
When the day comes when I can have instant streaming access to high picture and audio quality to pretty much any movie then I will ditch buying movies (and for a reasonable price). In that case, the streaming service essentially becomes my movie collection. Netflix is slowly getting there, but there is still a lot of work to be done on fleshing out their streaming collection and offering 5.1 (or 7.1 for that matter) audio and blu-ray quality HD.

Until then, I'll still buy the occasional movie on blu-ray. Although since subscribing to Netflix several years ago, the number of movies I've purchased on disc has dropped drastically. I am one of those people, however, who enjoys watching some movies several times.

When the LOTR extended version trilogy comes out on blu-ray, I will definitely be purchasing it.
 

mstrze

macrumors 68000
Nov 6, 2009
1,915
0
I agree with you and the same goes for TV shows. I keep hearing people complain about not owning it and only renting it. Who gives a crap? Most people watch a TV show once and thats it. The odds of someone rewatching a show over and over is slim to none. If you love a series that much then buy the box set when it comes out.

If you love a series THAT much...what's the problem with buying it through ATV/iTunes? Prob if you love it that much you will want to rip in into iTunes anyway. This let's you skip that step. AND you have your series months before it's released on disc.

You start off saying how stupid it is to buy, then recommend some people buy a show. :confused:

For me actually...someone who doesn't own a BR player...it makes a lot more sense to me to buy loved shows like "the Office" or "Glee" because I can get them in HD right away. I can't get HD quality from the DVD boxed set.

And, I certainly HAVE watched some shows over and over..."Arrested Development", "Freaks and Geeks" and "LOST" are three shows that come immediately to mind. You may not, others certainly do. Being able to buy on the ATV, like I do now, would have been nice. Now I have to handle that (when I upgrade) on iTunes.
 

Travisimo

macrumors 6502a
Dec 22, 2009
991
226
Advantages of owning a Bluray over streaming services:

1) Video and sound quality is significantly higher. Bitrate is higher. Lossless audio. Higher resolution. For people who care about the quality of the movies they watch, this is probably the most significant difference, and until Broadband speeds and penetration is significantly higher, this will remain an advantage for quite some time.

2) Special features. Most Blurays come with special features like audio commentaries that are not normally available over streaming services. You may only watch the special features once, but it does add value to the product and makes the extra cost more bearable.

3) Repeated viewings. There are a good number of movies that I watch at least twice. And even if I don't personally, someone else in my family may or I might even loan it to a friend or family member to watch. TV shows, I rarely watch more than once so I can definitely see this as more an advantage for streaming. But not so much for movies, IMO.

4) Collecting. Some people really like to collect physical media. There is something satisfying about seeing a collection of movies in your display cabinet. And sometimes, you discover that you have some rare gems in your collection that aren't available anymore.

Though I am certainly taking more advantage of streaming media these days, I would hate to see physical media disappear. More than anything, it helps the content producers save money that they don't pass on to the customer. It also helps them keep control so that you can't share your media with anyone else. Instead of giving your physical disc to someone else, they would have to rent or buy it themselves. This is exactly what they want. They don't want you to OWN anything, they only want you to own a temporary LICENSE.
 
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