Apple Announces Release of HD Movie Sales and Rentals via iTunes

[bacaramac]

This is how they show up in iTunes

There are 2 different files on your computer, 1 for HD and 1 for SD, but there's only one entry on iTunes and you can pick if you want to watch HD or SD, if you sync the movie with an iPod or iPhone it automatically syncs the SD version

Opps, sorry Apple. You have done well. I am all for downloading HD movies now. Woohoo.

 

[pablol]

So how much to upgrade existing movies?

Man is this deja-vu or what? First we had to pay to upgrade our iTunes music to iTunes Plus... now I've got 30 something movies I've bought on iTunes, so anyone know how much they're going to charge to upgrade to HD?

Honestly, I bought a blu-ray player a few weeks ago and probably won't bother with downloads because the picture is phenomenal on blu-ray, and I agree with others who have posted - why feed my 1080p TV with 720p downloads when I can get a MUCH better picture with Blu-Ray for a few dollars more than Apple charges, and not have to use all this HD space (and back it up to another drive in case something happens?). And for those who don't know, most Blu-Ray discs are region-free... check here to see the list: http://bluray.liesinc.net/index.php?region=a

I really hope this wasn't the kiss of death to see blu-ray drives in Apple laptops.

 

[MasterNile]

Again, with this having been made a reality, Apple will not offer Blu-ray until movies are distributed in Super Hi-Vision on disks.

Do you mean Blu Ray players or Blu Ray support?

 

[MasterNile]

Man is this deja-vu or what? First we had to pay to upgrade our iTunes music to iTunes Plus... now I've got 30 something movies I've bought on iTunes, so anyone know how much they're going to charge to upgrade to HD?

Honestly, I bought a blu-ray player a few weeks ago and probably won't bother with downloads because the picture is phenomenal on blu-ray, and I agree with others who have posted - why feed my 1080p TV with 720p downloads when I can get a MUCH better picture with Blu-Ray for a few dollars more than Apple charges, and not have to use all this HD space (and back it up to another drive in case something happens?).

I really hope this wasn't the kiss of death to see blu-ray drives in Apple laptops.

AFAIK there is no option to upgrade SD movies/shows to HD yet.

 

[DakotaGuy]

1080p over the internet is not ready yet, bandwidth isn't there. A couple more years and maybe we will get it. Want 1080p? Get a PS3 and rent at Blockbuster.

720p is more than enough on anything less than 50''.

When 1080p comes for download it will end up being a highly compressed encode and it will probably still be stuck with legacy DD 5.1 sound.

Almost every new HDTV over 37" is a 1080p model. When you play 720p material on it the TV has to up-convert everything to the native resolution of the screen. This results in a loss of picture quality.

 

[Tallest Skil]

Do you mean Blu Ray players or Blu Ray support?

Both.

Blu-ray will be the format on which Super Hi-Vision is distributed, as 400GB and 1TB disks will be going into production within the next few years.

There is no possible way that U.S. broadband infrastructure would be able to keep up with Super Hi-Vision filesizes, so around 2015, when 1080p downloads become feasible for everyone, Super Hi-Vision movies will start to be released on Blu-ray disks.

Apple will either have to have Blu-ray support at this time or... just keep ignoring it.

 

[MasterNile]

Both.

Blu-ray will be the format on which Super Hi-Vision is distributed, as 400GB and 1TB disks will be going into production within the next few years.

There is no possible way that U.S. broadband infrastructure would be able to keep up with Super Hi-Vision filesizes, so around 2015, when 1080p downloads become feasible for everyone, Super Hi-Vision movies will start to be released on Blu-ray disks.

Apple will either have to have Blu-ray support at this time or... just keep ignoring it.

I'm really hoping for Blu Ray support in Snow Leopard. Do not crush my hopes and dreams Tallest Skil, they're all I have

 

[bilbo--baggins]

Pretty much. Good riddance.

NOW if they add it, it will be no sooner than 2015, as I have said.

I agree - except it would be nice to have larger capacity discs for backup. Backing up to dozens of DVD's is just impractical.

I suppose the medium to long term future is solid state drives, and until they come down in price, hard drives - for storage and for backup.

There cannot be a decent (long term) future for blue-ray. Downloads for software purchase and media is the future.

Eventually even local storage is going to be pointless.

What annoys me about the iTunes Movies is that they remove some movies from being available to rent. I would much rather pay $5 to rent a movie now, and pay $5 in 10 years time to watch it again, even if it means I end up paying more in the long run. For most movies I'd be happy to never buy - but on the assumption that I can rent whenever I want.

 

[seedster2]

LOL - quality at that level should never be more than half the price of a DVD ...

I can buy many new release blu-ray movies for twenty bucks... let alone rent them cheaper... all with REAL image quality and REAL sound quality

couldnt agree more.

I have been monitoring BR price drops via avsforum and rarely spend $20/movie on amazon.

Many think this is a great deal but it's merely wishful excitement. TV is dead

 

[dizzy13]

When 1080p comes for download it will end up being a highly compressed encode and it will probably still be stuck with legacy DD 5.1 sound.

Almost every new HDTV over 37" is a 1080p model. When you play 720p material on it the TV has to up-convert everything to the native resolution of the screen. This results in a loss of picture quality.

Yeah, this is how I think Dish Network does their VOD 1080p "bluray quality"

 

[Cynicalone]

The only Movie that seems to be Available today that I might consider d/ling is W. That comes out to 5.14GB for both the SD and HD version. Even on my 15 to 20Mbps connection that's going to take a minute or two.

 

[kerryn]

Bluray is better

My blockbuster bluray rental subscription is cheaper and better quality - why does continue to think that Bluray is a non starter, when in fact it is vastly better than what they are currently offering?

 

[badNameErr]

Blu-ray will be the format on which Super Hi-Vision is distributed, as 400GB and 1TB disks will be going into production within the next few years.

Got a source for that? I haven't heard any studios express interest in support for higher quality than (1080p) Blu-ray.

 

[shneady]

Plus, once you download, you can now "give" the file to family friends, and vice versa. That's awesome. You can't do that with your BD unless it's constantly on borrow status. I think that's a great feature of downloading off itunes... just more of my 2c... I know I'm a newb here, oh well

 

[Porco]

Again, with this having been made a reality, Apple will not offer Blu-ray until movies are distributed in Super Hi-Vision on disks.

I think and hope you're wrong, and you're entitled to your opinion, but please stop acting like you know, unless you do know, in which case please prove it.

http://www.apple.com/feedback/

Oh, already been there and told them before today make no mistake.

 

[dashiel]

I'm waiting for the Apple TV update when Apple switches from 720p to 1080p before I waste my money on these.

I'm not paying an HD "upgrade" price.

You haven't been owning them. Cut the smugness.

1080p downloads aren't really worth it over 720p, they'd have to compress the picture so much that you'd be better off with a less compressed 720p picture. think of it this way: you could create a 640x480 JPEG at 80% compression and get a pretty high quality image. to get the same file size on an 800x600 you might have to compress at 60% or lower. so you'll have a higher resolution of a lower quality image. besides any screen less than 50" the difference between 1080p vs 720p is miniscule.

Oh yeah. BTW, blu-ray, you have just now become antiquated!!! It's just a matter of time before you're truly obsolete

not all 1080p pictures are created equal, all video is compressed using a few of different codecs: mpeg-2, avc, vc-1, the latter two are more recent and more efficient than mpeg-2. ultimately though when you're having to compress an image you want to use the least amount possible with 50gb blu-rays it's entirely possible to have movies that play over 20mbps, that's simply unfeasible over today's broadband infrastructure (docsis 3.0 is a step in the right direction, but nowhere near good enough and nowhere near prevalent enough to be considered a near-term solution).

then there's blu-ray's ability to use dolby true-hd/dts master-hd audio codecs for lossless audio decoding that would add another couple of gigabytes of data. and that doesn't account for extras - which i personally don't care about, but a lot of people do.

nope for the foreseeable future blu-ray is the only way to get the best possible picture/sound available. i'll rent hd movies on itunes and throw them up on my projector, but for anything that i really like or that deserves the best quality it'll be blu-ray for me.

once our broadband pipes are big enough to handle a 4K minimum picture resolution disc based delivery will be superior to downloads, and considering disc's can't handle that resolution yet (for full length movies) discs will be around for a while. aimed at a smaller and smaller enthusiast market, but laser discs did a nice little business in the 70's, 80's and 90's while the masses were consuming the vastly inferior vhs.

 

[MasterNile]

Plus, once you download, you can now "give" the file to family friends, and vice versa. That's awesome. You can't do that with your BD unless it's constantly on borrow status. I think that's a great feature of downloading off itunes... just more of my 2c... I know I'm a newb here, oh well

Actually to play the movie on someone else's computer they have to be authorized on your iTunes account, and you can only have 5 people authorized to one account, with Blu Ray you can rip it and copy the file however much you want, so you've got it completely backwards.

 

[pablol]

Plus, once you download, you can now "give" the file to family friends, and vice versa. That's awesome. You can't do that with your BD unless it's constantly on borrow status. I think that's a great feature of downloading off itunes... just more of my 2c... I know I'm a newb here, oh well

You can't "give" the file to anyone... it's DRM protected and only works on Macs authorized with your iTunes account. Not awesome at all.

 

[nemaslov]

I'm sorry for for less than twenty bucks I could own the DVD and take it with my anywhere and use it on any TV or computer! And if I tire of it I could sell or trade it at a used store.

 

[Goona]

blu-ray is just a stop gap, what Apple is doing is the future, we just need more bandwith and better quality to 1080p.

 

[Tallest Skil]

Got a source for that? I haven't heard any studios express interest in support for higher quality than (1080p) Blu-ray.

Of course they aren't now. No one has televisions higher than 1080p outside of Japan. This will change.

I think and hope you're wrong, and you're entitled to your opinion, but please stop acting like you know, unless you do know, in which case please prove it.

Five minutes of research into Super Hi-Vision would show that I am completely on the right track.

 

[Porco]

blu-ray is just a stop gap, what Apple is doing is the future, we just need more bandwith and better quality to 1080p.

yeah but VHS was a stop gap, DVD was a stop gap... but the difference is that we could actually use them. Until the internet is up to it HD movie downloads are only feasible to people lucky enough to have the best internet connections and unfussy enough to not care about the lower quality levels.

 

[pkoury]

This is absolutely hilarious. I was just trying to figure out what I was going to do for renting HD movies with the new Mac Mini serving as a media center. I guess that issue is resolved now.

 

[MasterNile]

I don't understand how people are saying Blu Ray is dead, or HD downloads are dead, both the storage space on optical disks will increase and the speed of internet connections will increase, both will be around until someone makes a huge break through....like maybe 'the grid'?

 

[Goona]

yeah but VHS was a stop gap, DVD was a stop gap... but the difference is that we could actually use them. Until the internet is up to it HD movie downloads are only feasible to people lucky enough to have the best internet connections and unfussy enough to not care about the lower quality levels.

Judging by how DVD is still outselling Blu-ray, by a wide margin, people are okay with DVD quality.