Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Apple Compromising On iTunes Movie Terms?

This has FAIL written all over it.

1) I don't want to pay $10+ for something I can only play on my laptop. Someone wants to borrow the movie that I "bought" like they can with my DVDs now? No luck.

2) Renting for more than $1/day is not going to work. Right now I can get a DVD from Red box for $1.

Sorry Apple, but video DRM is why I'm not buying to Blu-ray or HD-DVD. I don't need more media that is restricted.
 
compromises are going to be made. they have to. otherwise it won't work.

the key though, is getting them perfected so that it still works for the consumer in the end.
 
So I wonder what happens if you just change the time on your computer. Granted it isn't a pretty workaround, but it would let you watch longer than 24 hours.

Personally I prefer the netflix like model. The one thing I could see myself doing is taking advantage of this if I was traveling or didn't have a movie and wanted to watch one. Maybe putting it on my iPhone for a plane ride or something. I've tried the streaming video from netflix but the movies they offer are b-grade garbage.
 
dmelgar said:
Online rentals should be cheaper, not more expensive. There's no physical media, no store, no people to pay, no mail. But they insist on trying to choke money out of customers when they finally offer what customers want.
Click to expand...
I agree with your post. Good work. This last sentence is quite right, but in the minds of the Hollywood executive is that iTunes is the "Convenience Store" of the Internet. "Why should I pay $5 for a gallon of milk at the corner store when I could drive into town and get it for $3…?" Well… convenience of course. You want to get there, get the milk and get back to your cereal. It's the same here. EXCEPT there are a lot of alternatives for movies these days. Wal-Mart is selling some fairly decent (albeit reasonably old) DVDs for just $5 that I have seen on iTunes for $9.99 to buy. Netflix and Blockbuster sends the discs right to your home. Speaking of Blockbuster… they don't charge late fees anymore so you can rent a movie and keep it for up to a month before deciding to buy it or return it. Netflix lets you keep the movie indefinitely as long as you're paying their monthly fee. And as some point out: there's REDBOX for a $1. Apple can't put this on their store at $3.99 for 24HRs -- that might've flown about 3 years ago, but not today.

Of course, Newsweek doesn't have all the answers. "Sources say" and "The Buzz is heavy" and "Possible pricing" all boomarang back to the fact that they don't really know. They're selling papers and ad space so I take this article with a grain of salt.
 
Before I buy an online movie...

Before I buy an online movie I have to get the following:
  • The same content as the DVD including all of the special features.
  • Must be the HD version.
  • I MUST be able to re-download them any time I want so if I loose the file I can get it back without paying for it again.
  • Must be priced less that the B&M stores sell the physical DVD for.

Until then I'll by my DVD and rip them with Handbrake.
 
timon said:
Before I buy an online movie I have to get the following:


[*]The same content as the DVD including all of the special features.


That's a possibility



[*]Must be the HD version.


Why? Do you have a HD Player ?



[*]I MUST be able to re-download them any time I want so if I loose the file I can get it back without paying for it again.



If you lose a movie you bought you have to buy another one.



[*]Must be priced less that the B&M stores sell the physical DVD for.


A HD movie has better quality than DVD. Moot point.



Until then I'll by my DVD and rip them with Handbrake.
Click to expand...


You're still not getting HD video.
 
sfhc21 said:
Agreed. I hope the keynote attendees "boo" and "hiss" once this is announced.
Click to expand...

I'd love to see what steve does if that happened. I love it when he pauses expecting applause and it doesn't quite happen, just a smattering of applause - sounds like a load of nudists sitting down on a bench together!
 
Peace said:
If you lose a movie you bought you have to buy another one.
You're still not getting HD video.
Click to expand...

Totally different.

First it's much easier to loose a file on your hard drive than a physical DVD.

Second you may not have room on your hard drive for all of the movies so you should always be able to re-download what you OWN. I could accept a $0.25 fee to re-download just to pay for the bandwidth use but that's it. Apple should do the same for music. Since much less bandwidth is used I'd say $0.05 would be about right.

HD is not the issue as you should be able to get either if it's available
 
Even if its 24 hours from the time you start watching it, thats not enough. If start a movie at 5:00 and stop at 6:00, I have to finish that movie by 5 the next day or its gone. That's still not going to work for the masses.

I dont understand why the studios want to kill digital downloads and they obviously do. This isn't an Apple issue, its the studios refusing to budge the the physical medium.
 
stealthboy said:
This has FAIL written all over it.

1) I don't want to pay $10+ for something I can only play on my laptop. Someone wants to borrow the movie that I "bought" like they can with my DVDs now? No luck.

2) Renting for more than $1/day is not going to work. Right now I can get a DVD from Red box for $1.
Click to expand...

This probably won't be big at these prices, but at least apple can get the deals set up with studios and get the ball rolling.

Then when the studios see they're not selling/renting many titles at those prices, they'll feel some pressure to set them more reasonably. Until proven otherwise, the studios will continue to live in their fantasy that people are willing to pay that much for their content.

I think both the buying and renting have the potential to do well in the future, it's just the matter of finding the optimal quality/features versus price. People will go for a lower resolution and less features if the price is low enough. And people may be willing to pay more if the quality is high enough and features are included. The first step is getting the content and setting up the store. Once that is established, pricing can always change in the future, and it likely will if the studios see sales/rentals going down and piracy going up.

Xenious said:
So I wonder what happens if you just change the time on your computer. Granted it isn't a pretty workaround, but it would let you watch longer than 24 hours.
Click to expand...

Time/date based copy protection has been around for years, generally you can't get around it that easily.
 
ks-man said:
Because you first need to pay $300 just to be able to watch it on your tv.
Click to expand...
Well, I believe around here Comcast just increased the price to $5 a movie. Besides, Comcast does not provide pay per view unless you already pay for a substantial monthly subscription. If you have just the basic cable, that's not enough. Of course if you already want to pay that amount for other reasons, it may not matter, but I don't want to spend another $20 or $40 a month just for the privilege to pay another $5 per movie.
 
Just another instance of old media living in fear of a new paradigm. When so many other companies are happy to take it in the pooper from the studios, Apple didn't really have a choice. With luck, the studios will see that this isn't going to work and will decide that lowering prices is the only option. I won't say that i sympathize with them, but I understand their fear. To them, digital= piracy.
 
Yvan256 said:
Knowing Apple, I would think they asked for the following:
- the 24 hours limit doesn't apply until you've seen the movie once, for those "I have to stop watching the movie" moments.
Click to expand...

This will never happen as all you have to do is pause and rewind the movie before you reach the end.
 
This is great news. More movie selection. No more war with the film studios? excellent news.

also, ppv's on a 24 hr window? excellent! my bet is people will be able to download movies, but have a week or two to activate the 24 hour window to view it. so it is a win-win scenario.

glad they are making progress. now only if they would play ball with the record labels.
 
I can only imagine 100 people have said this already, but why would I spend $4 on a rental when I get almost 20 DVDs a month from Netflix for $17, plus 17 hours of instant viewing on Crap Explorer in Parallels?

Have an unlimited rental subscription for $19.99 that includes iPhone/iPod playback, and I'm there. Otherwise, I will continue to ignore Apple's sad foray into digital distribution of movies.
 
guzhogi said:
I've found quite a few movies & TV shows where they're missing quite a few scenes from the DVD. (...) Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (...) In the DVD version, there's a really great scene (probably the best scene in the whole movie) where Kirk & Spock are on a bus w/ a punk rocker type & Spock gives him the Vulcan nerve pinch. That whole scene is missing in the iTunes version.
Click to expand...

I'm guessing that that may be missing because it has an obscene gesture in it. I don't agree with that kind of pandering to people who don't have a thick skin, but that's my guess. Do definitely take it up with them though.

For those that haven't seen the movie, without explaining the Trek-specific stuff, two guys riding on a bus wind up sitting next to a teenaged punk rocker with crazy makeup, blaring stereo, etc. etc. They ask him to turn it off, he turns it up instead. They ask again. He flips them off. The two guys look at each other with annoyed expressions. One of the guys responds by knocking the punk out cold. The punk falls facefirst onto his radio, hitting the stop button on the tape (anyone remember those?) in the process. The rest of the bus passengers applaud. Cut to next scene.
 
Argh, these idiotic greedy movie studios. If they're not screwing over their writers, they're screwing over their customers. And shooting themselves in the foot.

This had so much potential to blow the doors off online movie distribution, and all the movie studios are doing is just encouraging people to use torrents instead. $2.99 max, and a week to watch it, at full HD/surround sound if you want it. That would be the way to go.
 
tba03 said:
14.99 for a compressed to death crappy hollywood movie??
a DVD costs that and at least in's not a lossy file

720x480 is far from HD, it only SD, HD is 1920x1080 60fps, that means in h264 about 2,2 GB/42 minutes
Click to expand...
Yes, I'm well aware that 720x480 is far from HD. I was pointing out the fact that a HD file (1280x720 or higher is considered HD) would not be compatible with the current iPod/iPhone products, requiring users to choose between two files, or Apple somehow making the larger resolution files compatible.
 
Xenious said:
The one thing I could see myself doing is taking advantage of this if I was traveling or didn't have a movie and wanted to watch one. Maybe putting it on my iPhone for a plane ride or something. I've tried the streaming video from netflix but the movies they offer are b-grade garbage.
Click to expand...

Yeah. It looks like this will be an option if you want to rent a movie to watch on your commute, or while traveling. But why oh why not $1.99, or $2.99.

It's hard to see them making a big inroads with home video viewing. Although they will be a presence, I have to admit. Even at this lackluster price, it's easier than getting off your butt and going to Blockbuster, or waiting a couple days for Netflix. Potentially they could offer a larger selection than a physical store, too. And I guess with all the iTunes installations out there, they'll instantly have greater visibility and market penetration than everyone else.

But it could have been so much more than this...
 
How much did Circuit City price their DivX movie rentals (unrelated to DivX compression AFAIK) for back in the day? Wasn't if $3.99 for 24 hours after you broke the seal? It was a miserable failure back then and in won't be any better if Apple tries it.
 
timon said:
Before I buy an online movie I have to get the following:
  • The same content as the DVD including all of the special features.
  • Must be the HD version.
  • I MUST be able to re-download them any time I want so if I loose the file I can get it back without paying for it again.
  • Must be priced less that the B&M stores sell the physical DVD for.

Until then I'll by my DVD and rip them with Handbrake.
Click to expand...
Why must it be the HD version, when the process you just stated is clearly not in HD (i.e. its sourced from a DVD)?

I agree with your other points, but I really don't understand why everyone says "DVD is fine" when talking about HD-DVD/Bluray, but complain when digital downloads aren't in HD (especially 1080p, as the majority of HDTVs currently in homes cannot display this). If upconverting DVDs is fine, what would be wrong with having the AppleTV (or similar device) upconvert a 480p file?
 
tba03 said:
14.99 for a compressed to death crappy hollywood movie??
a DVD costs that and at least in's not a lossy file

720x480 is far from HD, it only SD, HD is 1920x1080 60fps, that means in h264 about 2,2 GB/42 minutes
Click to expand...

Actually HD is considered anything that has 720 vertical lines of resolution or more. HD not not just 1920x1080 60fps. I would imagine however even 720p/1080i content would still make quite large file sizes.
 
danny_w said:
How much did Circuit City price their DivX movie rentals (unrelated to DivX compression AFAIK) for back in the day? Wasn't if $3.99 for 24 hours after you broke the seal? It was a miserable failure back then and in won't be any better if Apple tries it.
Click to expand...

That got you practically nothing you don't get by going to blockbuster. You still had to go to Circuit City to buy the thing. There aren't as many CCs as Blockbuster's so you probably had to drive farther. Plus CC is a giant store with a huge parking lot, so you probably had to walk 2 football fields just to get to the movies.

By contrast, Apple's offering a seamless operation you can access from the comfort of your own home -- hopefully using just your apple remote.

But I definitely agree with people who say 30 hours would be better -- that way if you don't finish watching on one night you can finish the next night.

I also like the idea of the 24 hours starting when you *finish* watching the first time.

I imagine Apple will offer something like paying an extra buck for a week rental. That might allay some concerns.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back