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Apple to Debut 'HD+' 1080p iTunes Movie Services Later This Year?

lol, calling it 'HD+' would be like calling brass 'gold+' because it isn't tin anymore.

Still, 1080p at the same quality as their 720p stuff (with an appropriately higher bitrate) would be good as an option for those who want it.

I'll be sticking with Blu-ray thanks.

I do find this rumour odd when they still don't even offer lossless iTunes music. I'm a film nut, but I'm sure serious music fans would pay extra for truly CD quality (or better) files.

RobQuads said:
Maybe the US isn't up to it but it doesn't stop other countries. Much of europe have this capability.

I have a 50Mbps to my house which is readily availble to much of the UK (this has now already been surpassed by a 100Mbps service at the top end)
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Nice for you, but I'm in the UK too and there are plenty of places that still struggle to get past a couple of Mbps. I think using words like "much" and "many" in such a way is disingenuous when talking about the UK.
 
Chaos215bar2 said:
What competition? Who (aside from torrent sites) currently offers 1080p movies for streaming or download?
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VUDU streams 1080p easily with very little if any buffering time. It would appear that apples servers or delivery system is not as good. Walmart bought Vudu for a reason. I am a huge apple fan boy, own an AT2, but I must say, Vudu kicks the crap out of netflix or itunes. I've used it on a PS3 over Wifi and it still didn't buffer and I could scan it like a DVD. I'm just saying, it woke me up big time to how behind itunes is even as the market leader. :confused:
 
fluffylion said:
competition is anyone that sells the same or similar product as you.
there are 2 two types. direct and indirect
therefore blu-ray which everyone is referring to, when you can stop and wipe your lips clean, is competition, and provides a much higher quality product.

this "streaming" service just plain sucks with low quality video for this day and age. I am all for digital content, but not when it is poorer quality.
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Blu-Ray vs a streaming service are completely different things. The closest competitor to this is Vudu but it has a fairly small library of titles.
 
I find statements essentially saying that 720p is 'good enough" so why bother? a bit strange.

It is better, and any advance in accessible technology is desirable, don't you think? And it is not as though you would be required to use it.

Of course, for me in Australia, where the local content right distributors increases the cost of itunes media to unreasonable levels to protect their established markets; the "value" the rights holders apparently add (that's sarcasm btw); and ISPs have download limits, I will probably stick to sd downloads just to keep costs under control.

I might have 30mb/s, but with a 100gb/month limit, I won't be downloading 1080p movies too often.
 
This rumor could support the rumor of an iPad 2 with a Retina Display in September.

The September event could show the iPad 2 RD, an Apple TV 3 with 1080p (or a software update that unlocks 1080p functionality in the Apple TV 2) and 1080p rentals and purchases in iTunes.
 
Small White Car said:
My "search" has been what I call "Using Netflix."

It's nice that they're adding titles but I have not come across any as I use Netflix so I consider that more theoretical than practical. Once I start encountering 1080p on Netflix I'll start counting them.

At any rate, I find it all a bit pointless. I would much rather have a higher-bitrate 720p file thath looks sharp than a squishy 1080p file at a lower bitrate. It remains to be seen what Apple would be providing.
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You're ****ing pathetic.
 
Are they really going to offer SD, HD and HD+ options? My guess is they'll use adaptive streaming so the quality depends on which ATV you have - ATV and ATV2 get 720p. The A5-powered ATV3 will be able to stream 1080p, but the exact resolution depends on your bandwidth - which happens seamlessly in the background - so you just select "HD" and get the best quality your ATV and bandwidth can support.

It's like downloads/streaming will become the new CD. Yes, the bit-rate will only be 1/3 of a BluRay, but how many people will really notice? And the sound will likely remain as Dolby Digital 5.1 but while 5.1 setups became quite cheap quite quickly, I can't see TruHD/DTS-MA setups going into a lot of homes. In other words, downloads should become the mass-market format whilst BluRay aims for the high end. However, the slow take-up of BluRay (and hence tumbling prices) coupled with the inevitable moneygrab for the digital DRM'd option will delay this for several years.
 
What's going on Apple?

Steve isn't going to introduce Blur-ray, but Apple will get 1080p movies in ITunes?

There is no different other than one being on Physical disk, while the other is digital media.

He made a big fuss about Macs not going there, then we see this.

Still.....I'd order to close with a good comment :). 1080p is still better overall, but it won't make me update my ATV 2.
 
Small White Car said:
Ha ha. I'm with you.

I love all the "Apple is late to 1080p!" comments that don't mention who beat them.

Netflix? Hulu? Seriously, who?

Surely people aren't comparing physical disks and pirate-sites to an official movie streaming service. I mean, that would just be stupid, right?

So I'm still curious who, exactly, has beaten Apple to 1080p streaming. So many snarky comments here, so few answers to that question!
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MICROSOFT AND SONY DID! Come on, you really should now that PSN via the PS3 and Zune Marketplace via XBox360 both offer 1080p downloads and streaming rentals.

Oh - sorry if I spilled the Kool-Aid.
 
bandwidth

So a lot of people are commenting on the lack of high-speed connections available. I'm curious as to what people have access to, because here, bandwidth has become dirt cheap.

50 Mbps down / 5 Mbps up is about $80 a month. Add netflix and hulu plus streaming, and we're still under $100 a month, which i *think* is way less than the average HD cable bill.

Certainly in rural areas, bandwidth will be lower. But are we still really far away from most people having access to affordable fat pipes?
 
they should use "HD-"

Apple should rename the 720p crap to "HD-", and use "HD" for the 1080p - assuming that it's 10-20 Mbps so that the "HD" label is justified.
 
Who cares?!

since AppleTV2 the viewable selection has been reduced to a laughably small amount. It's annoying that now if I want to buy a tv series (like from HBO or Show time) I can no longer do it through my tv. Instead I have to go on my computer and buy through iTunes then stream to my tv. It's annoying to have to do that and frankly apple and everyone else are losing money because it's no harder for me to find what I want.

The AppleTV1 let me buy shows...why the step back in functionality? Why not let me "buy" the show and just keep it on iCloud so I can get to it from the AppleTV2?

Come'on Apple and studios...step it up.
 
Apple needs to be more aggressive with itunes Movie. I do not want to rental movies. I want unlimited offering like Netflix does. The problem is netflix streaming option sucks balls. They have very very few selections.

Those Blu-ray and DVD days are over. People are going to move into streaming.

iOS devices are number one devices for being used on Netflix and other movie sites, but people are not downloading from itunes store. They are watching it on Netflix and youtube. Get the netflix, apple. You are freaking 300 billion dollars company. Netflix is not.

Apple needs to do something get these movie studios to sign up for unlimited movie streaming service with apple. No rentals... Stop charging us by per movie. No. Leave it as an option, but people want unlimited.

God knows why netflix stock is almost 300 dollars. That company does absolutely nothing but movies. That stock is ridiculously expensive. Those investors are going to be lost.
 
Xtremehkr said:
Bye bye Blu Ray, this is pretty much the nail in the coffin for Blu Ray and Apple.

It should be the beginning of the end for Blu Ray as a whole since the price of a new release in 1080P on iTunes should be substantially cheaper than any Blu Ray disks I've seen for sale.

It can't be too much longer before optical drives start being phased out.
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Wake me up, when iTunes offers 5.1 and 7.1 lossless PCM audio in different languages on their HD-rentals.

And actually - I rent 3 Blus for 7 bucks. Signature titles, just released, with a typical "HD"-rental fee of 5 bucks on PSN or Zune. Therefore - yeah - BluRay all the way for rentals. :cool:
 
Darien Red Sox said:
Can the US's infrastructure handle everyone downloading or streaming HD video? Compared to other places in the world our internet is 2nd rate. The new bandwidth restrictions many ISPs are placing on there customers will also add challenges and expenses for people.
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Why not VUDUU and ZUNE are doing it right now quite well instant streaming and no buffering. Apple should be able to do this without buffering and downloads with the developers and cash they have to throw at it.

VUDUU's HDX is spot on blu-ray as far as I am concerned as I have both discs and the service and they look identical though I am sure they are not.
 
tk421 said:
And not to nitpick, but there are six major movie studios: Disney, Universal, Warner Bros., Paramount, Fox, and Sony.
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I DO want to nitpick. They said "three of the five LARGEST studios" (emphasis added), NOT "Major".

So your comment is irrelevant. The five largest studios are the five largest studios, it doesn't matter who is sixth.
 
cpucrash0 said:
Here's one. http://www.vudu.com/

It's owned by Walmart.
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And Vudu streams the best quality 1080p you can get. Minimal buffering, DD+ with minimal compression artifacts.

Ditching the hardware and just becoming a service was the best move they made. Vudu is appearing on more and more devices to the point where AppleTV is going to be confined to a box of it's own that nobody wants.

If your TV has multiple services built-in that give you 1080p streaming video on demand, why would you buy a separate box just to do the same thing?
 
AidenShaw said:
I'd be happy enough with Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD Master Audio for lossless (compressed, but lossless) 8 channel 24-bit 96 kHz sound. Please, lossless 8 channel 24-bit 96 kHz - please.

Unless Apple thinks that we all listen to our movies with those craptacular Apple earbuds....
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I listen through my TV speakers and the number of times I need subtitles watching a Hollywood movie is...disgusting. Let's have decent sound for TV speakers before we move on to 7.1 whatever! :) Or record it better in the first place... :cool:
 
Wirelessly posted (Iphone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

So my experience has been that apple's 720p streaming looks better than either Netflix or xbox streaming. A quick look around the web seemed to show that Netflix streams between 2-5 Mb/s and the xbox 360 doesn't even claim to be capable of pushing resolutions over 720p. MS has been running around saying 1080 all over the place and not mentioning it's 1080i. From what I can tell, the only service actually claiming to beat apple's streaming of 5 Mb/s is vudu, but I've never used it which is why I'm saying apple's is the best streaming content I've seen.

People are becoming such suckers for tech specs they seem to be forgetting the most important test, actually using the device/service and seeing real world results. While I love streaming Netflix and YouTube, I've personally yet to see either look as good as apple's service.
 
BC2009 said:
...What we really need is the iCloud re-download of video content so we don't necessarily have to store all that video on our personal hard drives along with backups of it -- just keep our backups in the cloud.
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Hear hear.

Hope I don't have to buy a new Apple TV to use it though. Actually, I probably wouldn't bother, I don't find it easy to tell the difference between 720 and 1080 anyway.

Apple should buy whatever technology the OnLive people invented, the lack of bufferring while maintaining high video quality on that service is amazing! Something like that would help mitigte the problem of ISP data caps and slow connections.

And (I say this a lot, I apologise!) OnLive for AppleTV!
...and Apps.
 
MrSmith said:
I listen through my TV speakers and the number of times I need subtitles watching a Hollywood movie is...disgusting. Let's have decent sound for TV speakers before we move on to 7.1 whatever! :) Or record it better in the first place... :cool:
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You listen to your built-in TV speakers? And you're disappointed at the poor sound quality?

I have a rather modest 52" home theatre setup - and the 6.1 audio system represented about 60% of the cost - the high end TV was only 40%. The speakers built into the $3.6K TV are disabled. They might be OK, but I've never used them.
 
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