Disney: 125,000 iTunes Movies Sold In 1 Week

[CrackedButter]

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.

1) Thanks for reminding me, i forgot that fact.
2) But you'll happily have a RAID array and plug THAT into your iBook?
3) Yeah you said, a RAID array... a sort of external HD, but in an array.
4) If you take your iBook on the road with you, then how are the other people in your house going to access the movies and other media via iTV if its stored on your "RAID array" which requires a host computer to be of any use?

You have high expectations for Apple then? Its going to be some RAID array!

 

[bommai]

1) Thanks for reminding me, i forgot that fact.
2) But you'll happily have a RAID array and plug THAT into your iBook?
3) Yeah you said, a RAID array... a sort of external HD, but in an array.
4) If you take your iBook on the road with you, then how are the other people in your house going to access the movies and other media via iTV if its stored on your "RAID array" which requires a host computer to be of any use?

You have high expectations for Apple then? Its going to be some RAID array!

Rather than a RAID, what they need is a foolproof NAS (Network-attached storage). A NAS is basically a special purpose computer that has a network port (wired/wireless) as well as internal/external storage through USB/SATA/eSATA. For example D-Link makes a NAS that is compatible with uPnP as well as Bonjour. This box has space for an internal hard drive (ATA) as well as USB2 for external HDs. It has 802.11g wireless as well as ethernet port. You just connect is as another network device in your home and then you can dump your media into it from your PC/Mac. So, for people with laptops, you can buy your media or RIP them into the NAS and then iTV can use it. This can work well for people with laptops. iTV should be able to work off of a NAS rather than a PC/Mac.

The current versions of NAS may not be foolproof (Apple quality standards) and therefore this is a companion product that Apple could produce for home media storage. Another advantage of the NAS is that it can be near where iTV is rather than the computer since the bandwidth requirements for iTV are more important than for the computer. You don't want glitches while playing back media. So, you could live with downloading the media from online into NAS directly (through a slower wireless connection). Then have the NAS connected through wired ethernet to iTV.

Hope this makes sense!!

 

[KennyMN]

iMovies on your TV - EASY!

Is everyone forgetting about the "special" dock kit Apple sells with "yellow" and S-video as well as audio out jacks on it, and a nice little remote AND another charger and sync cable? With the old 320x240 shows, it was barely watchable, lots of artifacts and about like fair quality VCR tape. With the new 640 x 480, the output is VERY watchable, not quite as good as DVD but better than my DirecTV digital signal. And, this little bundle of usefulness costs $99 and is available NOW. I have used one since about Christmas of last year, and it works pretty well. You DON'T have to wait for the iTV or confine your viewing to the computer screen or an ipod.

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APP...re.woa/wo/2.RSLID?mco=E868E117&nplm=MA242LL/A

 

[MacVault]

...How do they check their email when you take the notebook on the road?

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.

They don't care about email. They just want to watch the movies I buy from iTunes, etc.

As for where iTunes puts it's content... the original poster had a good point - how to have the content synched between the external/networked storage device and the local machine, for example an laptop, so when one is on the road they can have access to the content on their storage server at home, although limited by the laptops available hard drive space, etc.

 

[CrackedButter]

Rather than a RAID, what they need is a foolproof NAS (Network-attached storage). A NAS is basically a special purpose computer that has a network port (wired/wireless) as well as internal/external storage through USB/SATA/eSATA. For example D-Link makes a NAS that is compatible with uPnP as well as Bonjour. This box has space for an internal hard drive (ATA) as well as USB2 for external HDs. It has 802.11g wireless as well as ethernet port. You just connect is as another network device in your home and then you can dump your media into it from your PC/Mac. So, for people with laptops, you can buy your media or RIP them into the NAS and then iTV can use it. This can work well for people with laptops. iTV should be able to work off of a NAS rather than a PC/Mac.

The current versions of NAS may not be foolproof (Apple quality standards) and therefore this is a companion product that Apple could produce for home media storage. Another advantage of the NAS is that it can be near where iTV is rather than the computer since the bandwidth requirements for iTV are more important than for the computer. You don't want glitches while playing back media. So, you could live with downloading the media from online into NAS directly (through a slower wireless connection). Then have the NAS connected through wired ethernet to iTV.

Hope this makes sense!!

Makes sense to me but you should be informing the other guy.

 

[Ugg]

You do know that all this talk of Wal-Mart only applies to the US? They mean nothing out in the rest of the world, which is where Apple is taking this service.

Wal-Mart of big, but they are not that big.

Apple can still make a lot of money with Disney for the moment, they have the hearts of minds of children everywhere and parents are inclined sometimes to do things for their children, including downloading movies.

Then there is art house movies and independent movie companies which probably never see the light of day in a Wal-Mart store. There is to much going on that could be stopped by Wal-Mart.

Sucks to be them but they are not exactly the nicest company around.

Have you heard of ASDA in the UK? They're also big in Canada and huge in Mexico. walmart's impact on global shopping habits is much greater than what happens in the USA. Its vendors, in this case the movie studios will be influenced by its largest customer, no matter what country they want to sell in. Also, if you'll remember, the mishmash of laws regulating music sales in the UK, Canada, Australia, Japan and the EU meant that it took forever for Apple to work out a deal.

Since I could mostly care less about American movies and prefer to rent as opposed to buying, I doubt the iTMoS will get much business from me now. But just as Apple encouraged the independent labels to sell via iTMS, I'm sure the independent studios will also be selling there too. They will be the true benefactors of online sales. Netflix is very picky about what movies it stocks due to the bricks and mortar expense associated with their business. For Apple to stock a movie costs them virtually nothing. I can't wait until I can get access to movies from around the world instead of just insipid Hollywood crap.

 

[dsnort]

I can't wait until I can get access to movies from around the world instead of just insipid Hollywood crap.

And a hearty Amen and hell yeah for that!

 

[Ugg]

I think the big problem with rentals is that Netflix has it wrapped up right now. You can get a ton of movies for a monthly fee, and I don't see any way an online service can compete with that, at least not without losing money on it.

If you know your best effort won't compare well to Netflix, does it really make sense to try and do it anyway? Or is it smarter just to stay out of such a cutthroat marketplace?

Netflix is great, but it's not ideal. They offer too few foreign movies. The wait times for new releases can be phenomenal and some movies that they should be stocking, they aren't.

The only real future for online movies is by renting them. I'd pay up to $3 per rental but have no desire to keep a movie. If I want to watch it again, I'll rent it again.

 

[Ugg]

I thought TV shows in iTunes won't be a hit, why would any one need to pay $1.99 for the stuff, that is already available in cable, sat, Tivo, DVD's, Block buster, feely on the air in SDTV/HDTV, etc.. and all viewable on big screen TV.

I don't have cable and have no desire to get it. But for the roughly $50 a month that cable costs, I can buy 20 televsion shows on the iTMS, to me that's a good deal. Why spend money every month for something I'd rarely if ever use?

 

[kasei]

This is great news. I guess the more we buy the faster we will see other studios with better movies. I guess I will take the plung and buy a movie today.

 

[BornAgainMac]

I was disappointed that only Disney signed up so I bought a ton of movies in the last week. Hopefully that got the attention of the other studios and sign up too. I really like the idea of downloading musics and I think HD movies will be a killer next year. Hopefully hard drives will continue to go down in price.

Most of the movies I purchased I didn't plan to purchase in DVD format. I looked at the trailer and liked it so I bought it. It is the convenience that sold me. This is revenue the studio would never receive before now.

 

[JGowan]

this moel apple is using is fine, but 2 things need to happen, 1, much teh same as netflix, they should send you a blank dvd with case for each order, and secondly, like the music, all cover art should be given as well. it should be burnable, I would pay 9.99 for movie with the convinience of download, for this proce, even with the less quality if I could burn my own dvd, put it in any dvd player and watch it. but I want all teh artwork as well, so i can FEEL my dvd library growing,
andreas

It's a simple equation, really,...

Netflix account + $5.99 Used DVDs = comes with Plastic Box, Free Shipping and Original Artwork!

 

[dongmin]

I think this is a result of people testing out the service. You can't possibly quantify how successful this will be until it's been around long enough for the "newness" to wear off and for real-world usage to begin.

125,000 downloads really isn't that big of a number. Especially considering the mass media coverage of the announcement and the vast number of people using iTunes.

The jury is still way out.

Ah, but you forget that Apple, so far, only has one of the three pieces in places. The software is there but the hardware and content (sorry 75 does not a 'store' make) is still in development. Once the "true video iPod" and iTV becomes available, I'm betting that you'll see a spike in movie sales.

 

[JGowan]

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

Considering that they sold "010101010's", I think an extra $50M is extraordinary. Apple ripped 75 DVDs, made a few web pages and boom... $1M in 7 days! I don't know what you're talking about... you're thinking small... $50M/YR is JUST THE BEGINNING.

 

[minnesotamacman]

I bought a movie (Good Will Hunting) to try out the whole shabang and see the quality for myself. The 1.5Gb download took 6+ hours on my crappy adelphia cable modem (it feels slower every day, what am I paying 50 bucks a month for again?). I was satisfied with the image quality on my 20" Dell widescreen, but sitting at my desk to watch a movie instead of my couch isn't the movie experience I'm going for. Sadly, I probably won't be buying another iTunes movie.

Not that anyone cares.

Your right, we might not care... But, get an iPod, then hook the iPod to the
TV using the dock with S-Video connection. Looks awesome, and most cannot
tell the difference between it and a DVD.

 

[lord patton]

As for where iTunes puts it's content... the original poster had a good point - how to have the content synched between the external/networked storage device and the local machine, for example a laptop

Oh God yes this is what I want.

I've read where iTunes 7 supports multiple libraries, but it's not the solution we're waiting for.

I want to rip a CD onto my powerbook and have iTunes sync it with a master library on a partition of my external drive next time I hook it up. Right now, I'd have to remember to copy the new files onto the external... no good—I want it to be automatic and just work (Apple has spoiled me).

 

[twoff]

For iTV, you need a computer with a large HD, a home network, a TV with HDMI or component video input and an iTV.

Not so fast!!!!!

Are you sure you will need all of that?

Home network? Perhaps, but iTV may connect directly to your cable/DSL modem.
TV with HDMI/Component inputs? Probably.
A computer with a large HD? Assuming the intent is to stream purchased movies from your computer, sure.

But what if that isn't the real purpose? Imagine an iTV directly connected to the internet, offering access via your TV to:

Internet radio
Internet television
Audio/Video Podcasts
Internet games
Pay per view

... and if you do happen to have that home network, access to your own media content.

No 'productivity' applications, pure entertainment. No worries about backups. No worries about anti-virus.

An entertainment appliance.

Better yet, an entertainment appliance that plays well in a world where more and more people, not just the professionals, are providing content.

The internet today is full of wonderful, bizarre, informative, dull, sick, funny, sad and entertaining things, that require some effort to find. It's a constant battle to stay on top of the latest sites, find the coolest links, etc.

What if iTV is really about taking the work out of that?

Not about making it easier to bring Hollywood into your home, but the world?

 

[Anonymous Freak]

I wonder if these people are buying one to "test it out" or are buying multiple movies.

Well, I bought one "to test it out" (as I've done with each iT[nee M]S intro.)

But I also bought a couple TV shows that I had wanted before, but didn't want at 320x240. The 640x480 version of the Babylon 5 Pilot looks just as good as my DVD copy. (And it's nice, because it's the as-originally-aired version, not the TNT give-plot-away-early edit.) The CG looks a little worse, but that's because it was worse. (They re-did some of the CG for the TNT version.)

 

[Anonymous Freak]

Oh God yes this is what I want.

I've read where iTunes 7 supports multiple libraries, but it's not the solution we're waiting for.

I want to rip a CD onto my powerbook and have iTunes sync it with a master library on a partition of my external drive next time I hook it up. Right now, I'd have to remember to copy the new files onto the external... no good—I want it to be automatic and just work (Apple has spoiled me).

It's called 'rsync', and it's one of the BSD utilities built into OS X.

If you either have a really small library, or money to burn (on .Mac and the storage upgrade; but even then, only up to 4 GB,) you could use .Mac as your library storage, and just have Automatic iDisk sync turned on.

edit: I know I saw something about how to trick your computer into thinking another computer on your network is the .Mac server, which would let you use all of the current .Mac functions hosted locally; this would work great for an 'iDisk-hosted' library. As long as you don't ever connect to a different internet connection, and it tries to sync with the real iDisk.

 

[HiRez]

Considering that they sold "010101010's", I think an extra $50M is extraordinary. Apple ripped 75 DVDs, made a few web pages and boom... $1M in 7 days! I don't know what you're talking about... you're thinking small... $50M/YR is JUST THE BEGINNING.

I agree, consider that the Disney's cut of the $50 million is almost pure profit for them (very little overhead). They don't even have to pay bandwidth and infrastructure costs out of that, Apple does. More available movies and more people using the service can only mean bigger numbers. I've got some major issues with Apple's movie download service, and for now I won't be using it, but nonetheless I think the numbers will be even larger than Disney is projecting.

If somebody tells you "I'm going to start sending you some extra cash every month, you don't need to do anything to get it, just cash the checks", are you going to complain whether the amount is $50 million or $500 million?

 

[twoodcc]

well i must say that i'm very impressed with the success so far. maybe we'll start seeing more movies

 

[EricNau]

I downloaded 1 movie (FlightPlan) to test the system out, but I won't be buying anymore until it is at least DVD quality (640 x 272 isn't close enough).

It's bad enough buying a movie without a case, hardcopy, or any bonus features, but to top it off, it isn't even DVD quality... and for that I pay $10?

Why is Apple always cutting corners? They get so close to great things, but not close enough.

 

[HiRez]

Why is Apple always cutting corners? They get so close to great things, but not close enough.

I sadly kind of agree with this sentiment, and I love your avatar icon!

 

[outlier]

Ahh, and thus we see the wonderful conflict....

... between you, the uber-eager-Apple-poster -- and -- the guy-who-represents-the-other-90%-of-Apple's-revenue.

Yes, while *every* *single* *one* of Apple's bread-and-butter customers aspires to be like you, the truth is, (s)he's not -- instead you'll find her/him getting by on her/his basic broadband + CRT TV + non-Home-Theatre System +local Best Buy and Blockbuster.

Apple relies on the pioneers (that would be you) to take the arrows, but on the 90%+ of follow-on homesteaders to get the land (and generate the revenue).

But, speaking as I am as one of "you," that's the way it should be in any Cult!

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..

 

[stagi]

Is everyone forgetting about the "special" dock kit Apple sells with "yellow" and S-video as well as audio out jacks on it, and a nice little remote AND another charger and sync cable? With the old 320x240 shows, it was barely watchable, lots of artifacts and about like fair quality VCR tape. With the new 640 x 480, the output is VERY watchable, not quite as good as DVD but better than my DirecTV digital signal. And, this little bundle of usefulness costs $99 and is available NOW. I have used one since about Christmas of last year, and it works pretty well. You DON'T have to wait for the iTV or confine your viewing to the computer screen or an ipod.

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APP...re.woa/wo/2.RSLID?mco=E868E117&nplm=MA242LL/A

Or I have been using my regular dock with a seperate monster cable I bought.
With the new Res. I think it looks awesome. The only bummer is the battery life on my 30GB video ipod.