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Apple to Offer Seasons Pass for TV Shows
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macintel4me said:
I watch very little TV. Most of what I do watch are network shows (The Office, Scrubs, The Simpsons, the occasional Law & Order). The Daily Show, and to a lesser extent The Colbert Report, are the only cable shows I watch regularly. The only reason I haven't cancelled already is the World Cup and Tour de France this summer. But I may cancel and then re-subscribe for a month or two.
I can't cancel Comcast entirely because they do my Internet. So practically I would keep the "most very basic" package that is just broadcast stations and The Weather Channel (or whatever that package is). The difference between that and the TV package I have now, though, is a lot more than the $9.99 I'd spend a month downloading The Daily Show mulit-pass. I save money and still get to watch Jon Stewart. Win-win for me.
________________________Thanatoast said:
Obviously, this guy doesn't know the splendor he is missing by watching your favorite TV show on a large screen HD whether it be plasma or LCoS or LCD the huge increase in clarity and definition is well worth the price I paid IMHO.
I still use an old CRT TV too--I only know one person who doesn't in fact. There's a huge market of people like us 
In fact, I watched the first season of Galactica on VHS the day after my friends taped it. VHS, which people use to tape shows every day, is equivalent to about 240x480 (it doesn't use pixels, but the poor horizontal detail is equivalent to having really wide pixels like that).
In fact, I watched the first season of Galactica on VHS the day after my friends taped it. VHS, which people use to tape shows every day, is equivalent to about 240x480 (it doesn't use pixels, but the poor horizontal detail is equivalent to having really wide pixels like that).
I would think that if Apple's goal is to really move some of their media (photos, music, videos, etc) into the living room (not the dorm room) then I think higher res is required. Maybe Apple's movie service will have higher resolution quality, including the entire season for TV shows like Netflix. Just a thought.
nagromme said:I still use an old CRT TV too--I only know one person who doesn't in fact. There's a huge market of people like us
Me too. HD sets look great, but they're still way too expensive. And, I continue to be unimpressed with the amount of true (and quality) HD programming. My 27" CRT will be fine for years to come. And by then the new DVD format wars should be over, most broadcast content will be HD, and sets will be reasonably priced. Of course, also by then, I'll probably be watching even less TV than I do now.
Thanatoast said:
SERIOUSLY.
We all enjoyed crappy broadcast programming 10 years ago just as much as we enjoy HD quality shows now. It's not really THAT big a deal.
I disagree, I would hate to watch my Redskins in standard defination now. Without high-def I might as well go ahead and be a Cowboys fan....lol.beverson said:
beverson said:
'Most people' as defined how?
Most people (dare I say all people) over at AVSForum are clearly NOT satisfied with SD (Standard Definition) video (or audio) quality.
I'd also be willing to bet that more Mac users have adopted HDTV than Windows users. As a percentage of the respective market shares obviously. Mac users as a whole have more disposable income and tend to gravitate towards quality.
Dave
macintel4me said:
True, sports generally do look better in HD ESPN in particular seems to work really hard to produce quality HD programming. And I wish I could have seen some of the Olympics in HD. A lot of hardcore sports fans probably get HD sets just for that reason. I don't watch enough sports to justify it.
DaveGee said:
"Most people" as in over 50% of the American population. Maybe even 50% of adults in that group. (I'm not familiar with SD/HD outside of the States.)
And it's no surprise that AVSForum folks are not satisfied with compressed audio or video. They must be audiophiles or videophiles if they bother to frequent the boards. However, lots and lots and lots and lots of people buy compressed audio from iTunes every day and seem very pleased with it. Most of those same people probably don't give a damn whether they're watching HD or SD television. As for Mac users, maybe there's a higher penetration of HDTV buyers on this board, but as with iPods and iTunes Music downloads, most revenue is coming from Windows users who don't seem to mind compressed audio and video.
My overall point is just that so many people complain about the quality of iTunes downloads, yet the target audience doesn't care. Apple knows this. So right now, there's no point in spending the extra money on fatter pipes and more servers (and passing that cost onto the consumer). Most consumers, for that matter, don't have the huge hard drives that would be needed to store all of their media in HD video and lossless audio formats. Someday, Apple will probably provide those things, when the market necessitates and the technology makes it practical. By that time, there will also likely be some new bleeding edge video/audio format, and video/audiophiles will still be whining.
macintel4me said:
Hey watch it, I am a Cowboys fan...
Well my folks have a 50" lcd projection HD tv, but are too cheap to get the satellite with HD content and we actually have no over the air HD broadcasts available here. So I have, as of yet, found a need to upgrade my 27" CRT that I have had for ten years.
Now when I watch DVDs at the folks and then come home and try to watch them on my tv, that is a different story...
Final Steps
I had a feeling something like this was forthcoming after the "Multi-pass" structure was introduced. For me, the only things lacking are higher resolution and a wider variety of content before all the television I watch (outside of live sporting events) is a la carte--and I dare say those two things are eventualities.
When I think about it, Cable at around $50 a month equates to something like a season and a half of one show priced at $34.99. With the first show down and money left over from the $50+ I would have spent, the next payment goes to buy two other shows. It's only a matter of time before the amount of monthly payments exceeds the number of shows I watch. I think it's brilliant.
I had a feeling something like this was forthcoming after the "Multi-pass" structure was introduced. For me, the only things lacking are higher resolution and a wider variety of content before all the television I watch (outside of live sporting events) is a la carte--and I dare say those two things are eventualities.
When I think about it, Cable at around $50 a month equates to something like a season and a half of one show priced at $34.99. With the first show down and money left over from the $50+ I would have spent, the next payment goes to buy two other shows. It's only a matter of time before the amount of monthly payments exceeds the number of shows I watch. I think it's brilliant.
macintel4me said:
Dorm room is still a pretty nice market, though. I'd say a significant portion, perhaps the majority, of digital music and video files reside on hard drives in dorm rooms or apartments, etc. for that age range. Also, a lot of us without living rooms and HDTV sets (but with lots of digital media and ipods) don't have cable, either.
So if the early adopter market for this technology doesn't have the gear to tell the difference, and the technology is in its early stages.... sounds good to me.
As for the topic of the actual thread instead of the inevitable resolution wars- hope apple keeps it simple enough, it's amazing how much gets misinterpreted out there (ipods only work with itms (as opposed to WMA based stores) has often been interpreted as ipods don't work with mp3, you have to buy music in a DRM'd format to use it at all). Still gonna vote it positive though, as a discount is always a good thing.
the system is now in place, i just bought a multipass for the colbert report. 16 eps for $9.99.
edit: its also in widescreen! not even the broadcast version is widescreen.
edit: its also in widescreen! not even the broadcast version is widescreen.
whenpaulsparks said:
Widesrceen, really? Hmm, very cool! Is the quality/resouition any better or the same?
Multi-Pass working?
Has anyone actually bought a multi-pass and gotten it to work (beyond the initial episode)? I purchased one for both The Daily Show and the Colbert Report, and while I received emails that new episodes were available and would be downloaded automatically as soon as I "sign into iTunes," that doesn't actually happen. And if I try manually adding the new episodes to my cart, the iTMS wants to charge me for them. Am I doing something wrong (can't imagine what -- I've tried clicking on my iTMS "account" button, and quitting and relaunching iTunes several times), or is the multi-pass system flat-out broken?
Has anyone actually bought a multi-pass and gotten it to work (beyond the initial episode)? I purchased one for both The Daily Show and the Colbert Report, and while I received emails that new episodes were available and would be downloaded automatically as soon as I "sign into iTunes," that doesn't actually happen. And if I try manually adding the new episodes to my cart, the iTMS wants to charge me for them. Am I doing something wrong (can't imagine what -- I've tried clicking on my iTMS "account" button, and quitting and relaunching iTunes several times), or is the multi-pass system flat-out broken?
Thad said:
I haven't purchased a multi-pass yet, but my first suggestion would be to "Check for Purchases...", which is in the Advanced menu in iTunes. My impression is that multi-pass shows would download automatically like podcasts, but that doesn't seem to be happening for you. On the other hand, are you sure the new episode isn't already in your iTunes Videos library?