Are HBO Series in HD? Bandwidth question

[elwaylite]

Im looking at getting the new AppleTv, as a supplement to my TiVoHD XL that I used to Amazon VOD tv shows. HBO and other pay channels would be the big reason, and the fact Apple has very good network support, better than Amazon.

Two questions:

1) Are the shows like True Blood in HD on the AppleTV? (iTunes only appears to have SD)

2) What bandwidth speed do I need to stream the 720p TV shows to the new AppleTV? I currently have 3mbps DSL, which hits about 2.6-2.8 on Speedtest.net.

Thanks.

 

[spinnerlys]

I don't know about the HBO shows, but your bandwidth might be a bit low for immediate streaming. It may have to pre-load the episode, as a 720P video most likely has a data rate of 6 Mbit/s.

 

[elwaylite]

I don't know about the HBO shows, but your bandwidth might be a bit low for immediate streaming. It may have to pre-load the episode, as a 720P video most likely has a data rate of 6 Mbit/s.

Does the new AppleTV have a way to "preload". I thought it was stream only?

 

[G42X500macguy]

Hope this helps

HBO does not provide for HD on their On-Demand (at least on my cable system.) This contrasts with Starz and Sho which do.

I wouldn't be surprised if they only allow SD available for stream, however don't take this as a conclusive answer on the topic.

 

[elwaylite]

Man, that would stink. I was really hoping I could get Premium channel series in HD on the ATV.

 

[waw74]

If you're running iTunes 10, it should show if HD is available. can't see it being different on other devices, it's the same on iPhone 4, which should see the HD if it was there.

Also you mention true blood, season 3 just ended last night (12 episodes), and if you look, none of that season is available yet in the store, and 1&2 don't seem to be available for rental, only purchase.


Itunes HD is about 4Mb/s. (link) although i'm only assuming that this holds true on the rental end as well, as these numbers are from a couple years ago

there is some preloading (buffering) happeing, not sure how much it can handle though.
if you remember from the announcement, he hit the button, it went back to the menu, then 5-10 second later it popped up saying that the show was ready to watch.
if your connection is really 3/4 the bandwidth of the media, you'd need to buffer a little more than 1/3 of the show before you can start the show without catching up to the download. so close to 15 minutes.

 

[Bufordt]

I have the last two seasons 1 and 2 of True Blood from Itunes. SD only. No HD

 

[elwaylite]

I have the last two seasons 1 and 2 of True Blood from Itunes. SD only. No HD

HBO sucks. They overcharge for their package price, then they want $2 for a SD version.

 

[elwaylite]

If you're running iTunes 10, it should show if HD is available. can't see it being different on other devices, it's the same on iPhone 4, which should see the HD if it was there.

Also you mention true blood, season 3 just ended last night (12 episodes), and if you look, none of that season is available yet in the store, and 1&2 don't seem to be available for rental, only purchase.


Itunes HD is about 4Mb/s. (link) although i'm only assuming that this holds true on the rental end as well, as these numbers are from a couple years ago

there is some preloading (buffering) happeing, not sure how much it can handle though.
if you remember from the announcement, he hit the button, it went back to the menu, then 5-10 second later it popped up saying that the show was ready to watch.
if your connection is really 3/4 the bandwidth of the media, you'd need to buffer a little more than 1/3 of the show before you can start the show without catching up to the download. so close to 15 minutes.

Ah, maybe it has some RAM or something that it uses buffer, instead of a HDD.

 

[Bufordt]

HBO sucks. They overcharge for their package price, then they want $2 for a SD version.

That would be 2.99. They charge 2.99 for SD. I have no idea what they charge for HD. They don't offer that on itunes.

But there again we are cable free at this house. I only buy what I want to watch. What ever that may be.

 

[elwaylite]

at $3 for SD, I can pay the monthly charge for HBO and come out the same, and get mulitple channels on Directv, I just hate too. Or I can wait the year and watch them on blu-ray from Nflix. These studios need to quite being like the Record Industry and realize there is VOD people willing to pay for decent stuff.

 

[OptyCT]

at $3 for SD, I can pay the monthly charge for HBO and come out the same, and get mulitple channels on Directv, I just hate too. Or I can wait the year and watch them on blu-ray from Nflix. These studios need to quite being like the Record Industry and realize there is VOD people willing to pay for decent stuff.

I think that's the entire point. HBO would rather have you subscribe, as opposed to just purchasing episodes on iTunes. Their whole revenue generation system is based off of how many subscribers they have at a given time.

 

[elwaylite]

Yepp, and what they get, is what they had. Me renting the discs from BB Online and paying little for them. Plus I get BR quality.

 

[jason221]

That would be 2.99. They charge 2.99 for SD. I have no idea what they charge for HD. They don't offer that on itunes.

But there again we are cable free at this house. I only buy what I want to watch. What ever that may be.

Well, The Sopranos and True Blood are $2.99 per SD episode, but two other classic HBO shows - The Wire and Six Feet Under - are $1.99 per episode. Who knows how they decide their pricing points...

 

[125037]

Netlfix states that you need a 6mb connection to stream their HD.

 

[elwaylite]

Just wanted to revisit, as Im close to cord cutting. Are HBO series like Game of Thrones for rental on Apple TV in HD?

If not, I dont think I need an Apple TV with already having Amazon VOD.

Unless, Apple TV has CBS HD stuff for rental??

Can I get current NCIS, CSI, Mentalist, etc... episodes in HD off Apple TV? Amazon does not carry CBS HD either.

 

[peterjcat]

ATV2 only has TV show rentals, not purchases, and only from ABC and Fox among the major networks. No HBO, no CBS, no NBC.

 

[elwaylite]

ATV2 only has TV show rentals, not purchases, and only from ABC and Fox among the major networks. No HBO, no CBS, no NBC.

That sucks on CBS. I saw it in Itunes, so i guess you can only buy it from itunes not rent it from ATV. Stupid...

 

[bohbot16]

Just wanted to revisit, as Im close to cord cutting. Are HBO series like Game of Thrones for rental on Apple TV in HD?

Game of Thrones is not available. HBO wants you to subscribe via your cable company.

 

[Sparky9292]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8H7 Safari/6533.18.5)

Just wanted to revisit, as Im close to cord cutting. Are HBO series like Game of Thrones for rental on Apple TV in HD?

Game of Thrones is not available. HBO wants you to subscribe via your cable company.

It's available in SD and HD at many other places than iTunes.

You just need mkvtools to re-encode the audio for appletv.

In episode five, we finally get some ass-kicking.

 

[elwaylite]

ATV2 only has TV show rentals, not purchases, and only from ABC and Fox among the major networks. No HBO, no CBS, no NBC.

I wonder why ATV2 doesnt offer a CBS tv show rental for $2.99. Seems dumb...

 

[bohbot16]

I wonder why ATV2 doesnt offer a CBS tv show rental for $2.99. Seems dumb...

Why $2.99? The other networks are $0.99 to rent an episode.

 

[elwaylite]

Why $2.99? The other networks are $0.99 to rent an episode.

Im just saying, at $2.99 for a purchase in SD, why they justify not offering a rental for $2.99.


On another note, does the ATV2 vary HD quality as a movie rental plays, or does it just buffer enough to get ahead so you get the best quality all the time? As opposed to Nflix, Vudu and Amazon that vary quality in real time.

I just got my ATV2 in and am pretty impressed with the HD movie PQ on a 64" plasma.

Thanks.

 

[peterjcat]

Im just saying, at $2.99 for a purchase in SD, why they justify not offering a rental for $2.99.


On another note, does the ATV2 vary HD quality as a movie rental plays, or does it just buffer enough to get ahead so you get the best quality all the time? As opposed to Nflix, Vudu and Amazon that vary quality in real time.

I just got my ATV2 in and am pretty impressed with the HD movie PQ on a 64" plasma.

Thanks.

iTunes movies have a set bitrate, so they buffer long enough to ensure you get the maximum quality -- they don't adapt like Netflix (including Netflix on ATV2) does.

 

[elwaylite]

iTunes movies have a set bitrate, so they buffer long enough to ensure you get the maximum quality -- they don't adapt like Netflix (including Netflix on ATV2) does.

Thanks, thats a good thing IMO. I watched A good bit of Revenge of the Fallen was impressed with both the sound and video, if it werent for 3D and me having to buy those on blu, I might would use ATV2 for all my HD movies.

I was wondering why it had 8gigs of storage space