Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Films on the UK iTunes Store

Movies

This is excellent news! The price to buy the movies are a little too high, especially comparing them to the price of movies on DVD and the extras you get on DVD. The rental prices are okay, but I think £2.50 is a little too much for old titles. Even £2 would be okay for old titles. I certainly am planning to rent some titles soon, not sure about buying any, though
 
DrAtheist said:
£7 to buy a library title? Or head over to play.com and get it for £5 or less on DVD. I know which I prefer.
£3.49 and £2.49 also seem a little too high for rentals. I might give it a go, but a starting price of £1.49 would get a lot more people through the door.
Click to expand...

They are charging roughly the same as Virgin Media Cable TV.

On Virgin, rentals range from £2.00 - £3.50 with HD films costing up to £4.50.
 
OllyW said:
They are charging roughly the same as Virgin Media Cable TV.

On Virgin, rentals range from £2.00 - £3.50 with HD films costing up to £4.50.
Click to expand...

Virgin Media is not exactly "pro consumer" though.
If apple want people to buy into the apple tv hardware, they've got to have a very strong, low rental price. Virgin media customers already have the set top box. This doesn't compete.
 
Who would seriously consider buying this? it's an absolute ripoff, especially when the only sane reason would be to keep a digital copy on your laptop so you can watch in say a hotel room / on a plane, but NO you can't get HD titles on anything but a Apple Tv.

Totally useless, like others have said, goto Play.com buy it for cheaper, free shipping, usually comes the next day / Rip it to Laptop. Job done!
 
In a time when the cheapest Mac with a screen would cost you £700, people are complaining about a £2.49 film?

Its a fair price. Get over it.
 
Project said:
In a time when the cheapest Mac with a screen would cost you £700, people are complaining about a £2.49 film?

Its a fair price. Get over it.
Click to expand...

If the people see it as too expensive, especially in comparison to alternatives, it's not fair, it's not a good market price, it's just a high price. A digital film rental is entirely intangable and a very throwaway purchase by its nature, therefore the price needs to be fairly throwaway too.£2.49 seems too high, psychologically, whereas £1.99 would probbaly go down very well. Remember there is a £200 (still as we don't get the benefits of the price cut that the US got) outlay before you rent your first film!
 
garybUK said:
Totally useless, like others have said, goto Play.com buy it for cheaper, free shipping, usually comes the next day / Rip it to Laptop. Job done!
Click to expand...


It's a consumer-friendly impulse purchase at less the cost of a pint. There's definitely a place for it, especially as many people wouldn't even know where to start with ripping DVDs.

The service doesn't appeal to me, only because the present list of titles isn't really my cup of tea. If I'm spontaneously in the mood to rent a movie, it's either something like this or a short walk to the nearest branch of PrimeTime where they have a larger range, but it's £3.50 per disc per night.

So I don't see it as a rip-off. No-one is compelled to use the service and it's a valid option for many people on convenience grounds alone.
 
£2.50-£3.50 for rental seems good to me. £4.50 for HiDef seems a bit high though.

A shame that Virgin will STM* those of us downloading legal content because they cannot be bothered to invest in their infrastructure, but would rather treat customers like criminals.

*traffic management means you get 1/4 speed for 5 hours if you go over their set 'limits'.
 
Now, finally there seems a valid point to purchasing the :apple:TV in the UK!

More that just a little tempted now, may get one in a week or so and tempted to get tinkering with upgrading the HDD.
 
i think it's bad how in the US it costs $1 more for HD rentals, whereas in the UK it costs £1... with exchange rates as they are $1 = £0.50, but not only that on the iTunes store, which started when exchange rates were more favourable towards the dollar (if that's the right way to put it...), US 99cents itunes downloads were 79pence in the UK.... so why has apple suddenly made their exchange rate worse for brits, when in actual fact they have gotten better?
 
Not bad if you compare it with BT Vision; rentals are £1.99 to £3.49(?) and you only have 24 hours to watch them.

£7 to buy seems reasonable enough for a new title... yes you can get cheaper titles on DVD, but not the latest releases. The crucial factor will be DRM though; I would be happy to pay £7 if the movie is mine, and I can play it on MythTV but if its iTunes only then its going to be more cost effective to buy a DVD and rip it.

I'll certainly be checking it out when I get home. I have just entered the Mac world with a mini a couple of months back with will probably end up as a media centre so this could be quite handy for me.
 
Does anyone know the resolution of purchases? You get a choice of SD or HD when renting, but no choice when purchasing? If all purchases are HD that 6.99-10.99 price suddenly looks a lot better. But if HD is :apple:TV only, then I guess not?
 
"Customers have up to 30 days to start watching it, and once a movie has been started customers have 48 hours to finish it — or watch it multiple times."

Bit confused by this explanation:

Is there a limit to how many devices you can upload the film onto and watch it within the 30 day period?

For example, can I load it on to an iphone, a couple of ipods and aTV and finish within 48 hours when I watch it on each device?

Can I watch it 'multiple times' on each device?
 
reclusivemonkey said:
Not bad if you compare it with BT Vision; rentals are £1.99 to £3.49(?) and you only have 24 hours to watch them.

£7 to buy seems reasonable enough for a new title... yes you can get cheaper titles on DVD, but not the latest releases. The crucial factor will be DRM though; I would be happy to pay £7 if the movie is mine, and I can play it on MythTV but if its iTunes only then its going to be more cost effective to buy a DVD and rip it.

I'll certainly be checking it out when I get home. I have just entered the Mac world with a mini a couple of months back with will probably end up as a media centre so this could be quite handy for me.
Click to expand...

£7 for library titles - £11 for new releases!

Also, using your mini as a media centre would mean no HD (only available through aTV)

And they will be DRM'ed I would think!
 
The Grood said:
"Customers have up to 30 days to start watching it, and once a movie has been started customers have 48 hours to finish it — or watch it multiple times."

Bit confused by this explanation:

Is there a limit to how many devices you can upload the film onto and watch it within the 30 day period?

For example, can I load it on to an iphone, a couple of ipods and aTV and finish within 48 hours when I watch it on each device?

Can I watch it 'multiple times' on each device?
Click to expand...

You can have it on multiple devices, but only one at a time. You move it from one device to another in iTunes. Once you have started watching you can watch it as often as you like until it expires.
 
garybUK said:
Who would seriously consider buying this? it's an absolute ripoff, especially when the only sane reason would be to keep a digital copy on your laptop so you can watch in say a hotel room / on a plane, but NO you can't get HD titles on anything but a Apple Tv.

Totally useless, like others have said, goto Play.com buy it for cheaper, free shipping, usually comes the next day / Rip it to Laptop. Job done!
Click to expand...

No, not totally useless but you're making the same mistake that many, many others do and assuming that us geeks are the only audience for something like this. It's the mass market that will decide whether this takes off and they're not going to be ripping DVD's. It's people like my parents who rent probably three or four films a month through Sky Box Office at rates higher than this. It's people who want the conveience of a digital media library without the pain (and time) invlolved in ripping physical media. It's people who make impulse choices of 'lets watch a movie tonight' and don't want the headache of getting down to a rental shop. It's people who already have an iPod / iPhone that can play movies and want a nice simple method of taking TV shows or films with them on the go.

Don't get me wrong, Apple have a long way to go with the service and the hardware yet but they might just be on the right lines. A central library on the home computer (disk space these days being so cheap and easy to add this isn't the problem it was even a year ago) distributed by low-cost boxes throughout the home with those boxes also giving access to live content in the form of podcasts, you tube etc and allowing individual users to select and purchase new media and have it sync'd with the central server which in turn allows portable devices access to that content.

All of this has been available to the geeks of the world (I include myself in their number) for several years depending on the effort you wanted to put in. What Apple's trying to do is deliver the same service without the pain. Convenience and design in exchange for slightly higher costs. Worked for MP3's with the iPod and iTunes, let's see if it works for movies too.
 
DrAtheist said:
You can have it on multiple devices, but only one at a time. You move it from one device to another in iTunes. Once you have started watching you can watch it as often as you like until it expires.
Click to expand...

Yeah I think it stays on you ipod etc. So theoretically you could have it on your ipod for more than 48 hours, the expiration only gets updated when you have your ipod open again in itunes, ie when you charge it.

My question is say you had two macs, each with a different itunes account. Could I rent films on 1 account, then using something like ipod rip to get whatever is on my ipod onto the other mac?
Just curious. :) dvd purchases online still come out on top in my view.
 
I will use the rental service.

I use my 17" iMac as my TV (using eyeTV).

Works perfectly for me to rent movies instead of going to blockbuster. I am sure that new releases are more than £3.49 at BB. Also you cant return your iTunes rental late and have pay the fine!

I will be dissapointed if we dont see a price drop on the :apple:tv immediatley as they got in the states with the into of movie rentals.
 
DrAtheist said:
If the people see it as too expensive, especially in comparison to alternatives, it's not fair, it's not a good market price, it's just a high price.
Click to expand...

It's all relative. Who are "the people"? A few people on a Mac forum? I just asked my mum if she would pay £2.50 to rent a film - you have 30 days to watch it and then 2 days once you press play. She said yes, as thats the price she would spend at the local Blockbuster. And she would pay 3x that to watch it once at a cinema.

So run it past me again how this isn't a fair price? Is it the cheapest you can get a film for? Probably not. But its far from the most expensive way to watch the film.

A digital film rental is entirely intangable and a very throwaway purchase by its nature, therefore the price needs to be fairly throwaway too.
Click to expand...


And what about the actors, directors, post production staff, marketing, sales etc that a film studio needs to pay? Are they not allowed to make a profit? Or Apple for the maintainence of the infrastructure of iTunes, and the people who develop the software and the coders working on the store. Or the testers. Don't forget the 17.5% that goes to the Chancellor too.

People don't seem to have a problem paying £150 for Aperture yet that can be downloaded... it should be a throwaway price, right?

How much do you think a DVD costs anyway? About 10p. Call it 50p for the box too. You aren't paying for the cost of the DVD box when you buy a film. You are paying for the cost of the film and the hope of the film company to make a profit on it. .

£2.49 seems too high, psychologically, whereas £1.99 would probbaly go down very well.
Click to expand...

And if it was £1.99 people would be saying it should be 99p. Such is the nature of moaning on the interwebs.


Remember there is a £200 (still as we don't get the benefits of the price cut that the US got) outlay before you rent your first film!
Click to expand...

No there isn't. You don't have to buy an Apple TV to rent a film.
 
I am currently a virgin broadband customer and rent through there - it is really a good thing and I have rented approx one a month

I think this will be the more popular choice, rent a film in either HD or SD and if you like it alot buy it on blu-ray and if you like it a bit dvd and if you dont like it? you've only spent £2.50 so happy days!

I dont have an :apple:tv yet but if there is a price drop when this gets fully annmounced, can I get a WWDC anyone?!?!?, then I will love on one!

I have also thought about getting one for my mum and putting all her films and music on it and keeping it easy for her to navigate, they are simple and really effective machines

D:apple:
 
Project said:
It's all relative. Who are "the people"? A few people on a Mac forum? I just asked my mum if she would pay £2.50 to rent a film - you have 30 days to watch it and then 2 days once you press play. She said yes, as thats the price she would spend at the local Blockbuster. And she would pay 3x that to watch it once at a cinema.

And what about the actors, directors, post production staff, marketing, sales etc that a film studio needs to pay? Are they not allowed to make a profit? Or Apple for the maintainence of the infrastructure of iTunes, and the people who develop the software and the coders working on the store. Or the testers. Don't forget the 17.5% that goes to the Chancellor too.

People don't seem to have a problem paying £150 for Aperture yet that can be downloaded... it should be a throwaway price, right?

No there isn't. You don't have to buy an Apple TV to rent a film.
Click to expand...

I said the price point seems too high for me to casually rent from, I would probably rent a few films at that price, but for only a little bit less I'd probably rent a lot more.

Don't make me cry for film studios like they are struggling to break even.

Does apeture expire these days? After 30 days? That's got to suck.

I need to buy an apple TV to get hi def, & not mess about with cables to get a film from my laptop to my TV. Otherwise I'm trying to watch a film on a 13" laptop screen with my family rather than on the 37" telly.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back