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Disney: 125,000 iTunes Movies Sold In 1 Week

kresh said:
I don't think Apple is aiming for the uber-geek with $25k worth of home entertainment equipment. IMHO, they will never be able to compete in that market.

I think they are reaching for the average joe blow that has a servicable $400 TV that he bought at Wal-mart, and maybe, just maybe, has a stereo hooked up to it. The average Joe doesn't care, and can't tell, that it's Dolby Surround and not Dolby Digital.
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I disagree. The average Joe is not the customer for iTV. Average Joe might buy a $40 DVD player from Walmart to hook up to a $200 TV. Remember, the iTV is meant for a HDTV. In fact you cannot even easily hook it up to a non-HDTV. It has only HDMI and component video outputs. These outputs are found only on HDTVs. Granted the price of HDTV is coming down pretty fast. You can buy a CRT based HDTV for under $500 now. However, I still standby my assertion that iTV will be bought by people that have computers with a large enough hard drive and a home network. This is a little bit more complicated than just owning an iPod and buying tunes off of iTS. For iPod, you need one computer connected to internet and an iPod. For iTV, you need a computer with a large HD, a home network, a TV with HDMI or component video input and an iTV.

Dolby Digital / 5.1 discrete tracks need to be worked out soon!!
 
kresh said:
I don't think Apple is aiming for the uber-geek with $25k worth of home entertainment equipment. IMHO, they will never be able to compete in that market.

I think they are reaching for the average joe blow that has a servicable $400 TV that he bought at Wal-mart, and maybe, just maybe, has a stereo hooked up to it. The average Joe doesn't care, and can't tell, that it's Dolby Surround and not Dolby Digital.
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I disagree. Dolby Digital is no longer reserved for rich über-geeks. Many "regular Joes" have a Dolby Digital setup now, and you can get a Dolby Digital receiver (all 5 normal channels powered) for under $100.
 
Fukui said:
Frame size is bigger but its also interlaced, so in truth its 720x240 every other frame, once its deinterlaced, the picture can get close to the original, but not as good as pure progressive scan.
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Erm... that is wrong. All major Hollywood DVDs are encoded as progressive full frames at 23.976fps. The interlacing you are seeing is the result of adding pulldown frames to pad it out to 29.97 interlaced for NTSC. And since they are encoded anamorphically, it uses the full 720x480 and depending on your output display, either gets letterboxed or stretched wide on a real 16:9 HDTV.

Are iTS movies letterboxed? If so, then the quality of iTS movies is closer to 640x360.
 
Storage?

As I stated in a few posts up I'm not that happy with the pricing of the iTunes Movies, but, if I were to buy any I would quickly run into a huge problem - STORAGE! I have an iBook with 60 GB drive and it's almost full from other stuff.

Apple should come out with a home storage network server with RAID, etc.
 
spicyapple said:
Erm... that is wrong. All major Hollywood DVDs are encoded as progressive full frames at 23.976fps. The interlacing you are seeing is the result of adding pulldown frames to pad it out to 29.97 interlaced for NTSC. And since they are encoded anamorphically, it uses the full 720x480 and depending on your output display, either gets letterboxed or stretched wide on a real 16:9 HDTV.

Are iTS movies letterboxed? If so, then the quality of iTS movies is closer to 640x360.
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Yea, I see. I wouldn't be surprised if they were letterboxed... I would rather wait till a tv show comes out "widescreen" and see for myself for 1.99 then 9.99 and be dissapointed...

Hopefully, over time, the quality will get better. It seems to me, apple is matching video quality of the downloads exactly to what the iPod can handle... so maybe it all depends on the iPod getting a better screen and processor...
 
HiRez said:
I disagree. Dolby Digital is no longer reserved for rich über-geeks. Many "regular Joes" have a Dolby Digital setup now, and you can get a Dolby Digital receiver (all 5 normal channels powered) for under $100.
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I think you have to draw a distinction between uber-geeks, also, and people who know what they like but who are not necessarily technophiles. The latter market has always been a core market to Apple. What I mean by that is that I don't think that the cost of the collateral equipment would stop Apple -- say only offering support for nicer TVs -- but I do think complexity could potentially stop them.

Even in this thread, it's clear that the switch from the relatively contained hardware world of Apple Macs and iPods to the TV world is going to be very complicated and confusing to a lot of people. While we're at our Macs, we have the luxury of "It Just Works." With all the different audio and video standards and so on in the TV world, it's not so simple at all.
 
Love it but not for everyone...

I too would love the collection/library to increase, but for me, the cost of a DVD is virtually the same. It is not like music where you can buy one track off an album.I have a fairly high end system with a 50" HD Plasma, and just got the 80GB iPod which for me is only for music. I love to take a whole collection on the road with me. 20,000 songs!!!.

I also have a pretty good size DVD collection and the quality and lack of limitations for me to play that DVD ....ANYWHERE is worth a few more bucks. The music I already play at home from my iMac and backup hard drives and even though not the same quality as a CD. it is great for background music or parties.

I also live in a fairly big City (San Francisco) with one of the best record stores in the World: Amobea Music, where I can trade or sell the CDs or DVDs that I don't want. They have the most extensive collection of new and used DVDs of anywhere I know.

So say I buy a turkey or simply tired of a film, I can sell it for maybe 3 or 4 bucks or better yet TRADE it for store credit of about 4-6 bucks. That ends up being cheaper than I would pay via any online source abut then I would end up getting a new film for a net cost of under ten bucks. Sometimes even less. If I tire of a download...there is no way I can trade up..
 
brepublican said:
This is a great start for Apple and should help sway studios that are still on the fence. Doesnt mean I'm biting though, only thing that'll get me to seriously think of buying a movie would be nothing less than a 720 x 480 reso. I might get impulsive if there are more offerings. Maybe.

I think Apple should seriously consider offering rentals too. Its dumb not to try it out :)
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While I think rentals would probably create a lot of headache for apple, I am in complete agreement with HD movies on iTMS. I have yet to even buy a single song from the itunes store, but you can be assured that as soon as HD movies and TV shows are available, coupled with the iTV device, I will be buying those right away. Offering at least 720p would make me very happy, and I would be a definite repeat customer.
 
It seems to me, apple is matching video quality of the downloads exactly to what the iPod can handle...
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This seems logical now, so can we expect better movies after ture video iPods.
 
spicyapple said:
Are iTS movies letterboxed? If so, then the quality of iTS movies is closer to 640x360.
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As I understand, yes, this is the case. They maintain the width at 640 and crop vertically for the aspect.
 
I think that this is a good thing. Hopefully, it will convince other studios to join the iTS for distribution. And on top of that, Apple can sell high(er) definition movies.
 
bommai said:
The average Joe is not the customer for iTV. Average Joe might buy a $40 DVD player from Walmart to hook up to a $200 TV. Remember, the iTV is meant for a HDTV. In fact you cannot even easily hook it up to a non-HDTV. It has only HDMI and component video outputs. These outputs are found only on HDTVs.
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Actually, my old sony 27" CRT was a standard def TV and it had component inputs, and that was 5 years ago. Coupled with my sony progressive scan DVD player with component outputs, and was able to watch proper anamorphic video on my standard def TV. At that time that was the main selling point for me getting that TV. Searching around just now, I found quite a few standard def TV's that have component inputs.

Of course, I have an HDTV now, but for what it was, that 27" was a great tv with component inputs.
 
milo said:
He quoted that number on a 5M connection...is that what you have?
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Pfff, who knows. The quality of our local DSL service has gone to crap lately. I would have thought in theory I should be getting 3M, but in reality, it's been pretty slow lately. It doesn't help that the DSL company I'm with now is one that I was dumped with because the one I had originally subscribed to went out of business. I would switch, but I'm not hearing very good things from neighbors with other companies...

But my point is that Steve talked about 30-minute downloads as if to say that this is what your average user can expect. Sure, some of you can do that. But those of us with crappy DSL/cable (or even.. gasp! dialup!) are not in a place yet where large movie downloads are convenient.
 
MacVault said:
As I stated in a few posts up I'm not that happy with the pricing of the iTunes Movies, but, if I were to buy any I would quickly run into a huge problem - STORAGE! I have an iBook with 60 GB drive and it's almost full from other stuff.

Apple should come out with a home storage network server with RAID, etc.
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Err, buy an external HD or upgrade your iBook HD!

I have a 1Ghz iBook with a 80GB HD (upgraded it myself) and 2 160GB firewire HD's so what was your point?
 
CrackedButter said:
Err, buy an external HD or upgrade your iBook HD!

I have a 1Ghz iBook with a 80GB HD (upgraded it myself) and 2 160GB firewire HD's so what was your point?
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My point is...

1) The Movies take up huge amounts of storage space.
2) I hate having to always plug external drives into my iBook.
3) We need redundancy for storing these movies we buy. An "external HD" just won't cut it.
4) If I want to take my iBook on the road with me, then how are the other people in my house going to access the Movies and other media via iTV if it's stored on my iBook or some "external HD" which requires a host computer to be of any use.
 
kresh said:
I don't think Apple is aiming for the uber-geek with $25k worth of home entertainment equipment. IMHO, they will never be able to compete in that market.

I think they are reaching for the average joe blow that has a servicable $400 TV that he bought at Wal-mart, and maybe, just maybe, has a stereo hooked up to it. The average Joe doesn't care, and can't tell, that it's Dolby Surround and not Dolby Digital.
Click to expand...

you don't need 25k of equipment to notice the difference between dolby surround and dolby digital. contrary to what was posted before, you CAN hear the difference on a $200 htib system. even my half deaf dad has noticed the difference, especially if the soundtrack uses a lot of directional audio. the first time i had my family to my house (at the time my home audio system wasn't that great, but still good) to watch a movie with 5.1 surround they were jumping all over at bullets whizzing over their shoulder from behind. it was neat to watch people who would be considered "joe sixpack" enjoying good A/V. it's amazing how many people underestimate what the average joe has or cares about these days when it comes to home entertainment.
 
MacVault said:
My point is...

1) The Movies take up huge amounts of storage space.
2) I hate having to always plug external drives into my iBook.
3) We need redundancy for storing these movies we buy. An "external HD" just won't cut it.
4) If I want to take my iBook on the road with me, then how are the other people in my house going to access the Movies and other media via iTV if it's stored on my iBook or some "external HD" which requires a host computer to be of any use.
Click to expand...

I think the major problem with external hardrives, is that iTunes will organises all your content into the Music folder. I just bought a 300GB drive and would love to place all my movies in their, but at the same time I want my music on my Mac (not the external). Apple really needs to address the storage features in iTunes, as movies are large files.
 
Really?

supermacdesign said:
Studios are scrambling and re-evaluating there offers right now to get on board.
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I would like to see the break down. Who is buying, how many are the buying each, what are they buying? Seems to good to be true. I am skeptical. May just be a one shot thing, due to curiosity or hype. Let's see how the do their 2nd week.
 
MacVault said:
As I stated in a few posts up I'm not that happy with the pricing of the iTunes Movies, but, if I were to buy any I would quickly run into a huge problem - STORAGE! I have an iBook with 60 GB drive and it's almost full from other stuff.

Apple should come out with a home storage network server with RAID, etc.
Click to expand...

that's my hold back right now. i just don't have space for movies on my powerbook, and putting them on external media wouldn't make sense, at that point i could just toss a dvd or two in my backpack.
 
mkrishnan said:
Looking at some financials, I think Disney sells on the order of 100M DVD units per quarter, which comes out to about 7-10M units per week? 125k units through the online channel in one week isn't so bad. :) If they hit their $50M revenue target, that means they will see sales on the order of 1% of total home video sales? That's a fair start.
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And undoubtedly a better margin. I have not seen any concrete numbers, but I had read an article months ago speculating that a studio's margin on digitally distributed movies would be about twice the margin it receives on DVDs.

Plus, for catalog sales, the is almost NO marginal cost; the films just sit on a server until someone buys them.
 
balamw said:
FWIW $50M/year is ~0.2% of Disney's revenue (they made ~$30B/year for the past few years). Definitely not chicken feed, but not earth shattering either.

B
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That's revenue not profit, their profit was $5 billion in 2005 so $50M is about 1% of that, remember that the money from iTunes is practically all profit as their are no real costs for Disney (other than giving Apple a few video files which probably costs $100 000 a year maximum.)
 
notjustjay said:
But my point is that Steve talked about 30-minute downloads as if to say that this is what your average user can expect.
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Absolutely not. He said 30 minutes on a fast connection, pointing out SPECIFICALLY what speed connection is needed for that. If you interpreted it as "average users" will get that speed, you just weren't listening.

MacVault said:
If I want to take my iBook on the road with me, then how are the other people in my house going to access the Movies and other media via iTV if it's stored on my iBook or some "external HD" which requires a host computer to be of any use.
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How do they check their email when you take the notebook on the road?

DeSnousa said:
I think the major problem with external hardrives, is that iTunes will organises all your content into the Music folder. I just bought a 300GB drive and would love to place all my movies in their, but at the same time I want my music on my Mac (not the external). Apple really needs to address the storage features in iTunes, as movies are large files.
Click to expand...

iTunes places content into that folder when you download or rip. But you can put content anywhere, just drag it into iTunes from the new location. I'd like to see them support multiple folders in the future, but you can certainly use content without having it in the folder already.
 
Eraserhead said:
That's revenue not profit, their profit was $5 billion in 2005 so $50M is about 1% of that, remember that the money from iTunes is practically all profit as their are no real costs for Disney (other than giving Apple a few video files which probably costs $100 000 a year maximum.)
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Yes, but from the original Article.

In addition, Iger said the company expects over $50 million in revenue over the first year of the program.
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You're right that they probably make better margins on this revenue, but it ain't pure profit.

B
 
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