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Finally! HD movies for purchase!

N

Number6

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 29, 2008
47
1
Finally Apple offers HD movies for purchase:

http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/19/apple-adds-hd-video-purchases-to-the-itunes-store/

In the comments over at engadget many people bitch about the $20 price tag but I just pre-ordered "Quantum of Solace" for 15 bucks. And being in Euroland this a great deal for a hi-def movie. Okay, it's not Blu-ray but I did not want to spend €20 on this movie anyway. This suits me just fine :)

Keep them coming, Apple...

Edit: Stupid me. Taking another look at the iTunes store I found out that I pre-ordered the SD version by mistake :eek:
Okay, so it is $20 after all. Still an okay deal for the convenience...
 
I wonder if older releases will be cheaper (like their other pricing models). $20 is not that bad compared to the price of newly released BR (closer to $30). 720P is fine in my book for saving $10 for the family room tv. When I finally get around to affording a home theatre, BR will be the way to go, however.

I do not yet understand why apple doesn't offer netflix like subscriptions. The studio's would have to be more concerned about physical media getting ripped (netflix) than the itunes DRM getting pirated. Whatever...still makes no sense to me...
 
cwazytech said:
I'm sorry. Let me clarify. I meant converting High Def Hollywood Movies. Like when we turned our DVD's to an iPod format.
Click to expand...

Can't be done. You'd need to boot into Windows and use AnyDVD HD to rip the files. Everything else involving the conversion to a single, contained movie file can be done in OS X now, though, with the advent of tsMuxerGUI for OS X (among other applications).
 
Tallest Skil said:
Can't be done. You'd need to boot into Windows and use AnyDVD HD to rip the files. Everything else involving the conversion to a single, contained movie file can be done in OS X now, though, with the advent of tsMuxerGUI for OS X (among other applications).
Click to expand...

Go on....
 
cwazytech said:
Go on....
Click to expand...

*slow smile*

There are tutorials. Nermal posted a very good one here about HD DVD ripping, but it is somewhat outdated by the fact that everything except the ripping itself can be done in OS X (about half of the tutorial is done in Windows).

Google searching will bring up mainly Windows-only tutorials, but there are now Mac-equivalent applications (all freeware, I believe) that will do the necessary conversions done by the Windows apps in said tutorials.

Just remember tsMuxerGUI and you'll be able to do everything you need to do in OS X.

Oh, have a LOT of disk space open.;)
 
Neat.

I won't buy any of the HD versions (they always look SD to me because of the compression), but at least now people can stop whining about not being able to buy the "HD" movies they rent.

Anyone download one yet? How big is the file size?
 
With AnyDVD HD you can RIP HD Movies (and SD DVD's) and at the same time remove the DRM, Right? Then you can use your favorite encoder to encode them and then import into iTunes if you want. This allows you to play your movies on any device.

Can you do the same for iTunes Movies. Both HD and SD?

I have already did this with my entire DVD Library (about 175 movies). I was considering buying new movies in HD (blue-ray) but it would better for me to simply buy the movies via iTunes (I understand not as good as full 1080p) and then remove the DRM. I don't like the idea of investing $20 per movie and then would be locked into iTunes for the playback.

BoulderBum said:
Neat.

I won't buy any of the HD versions (they always look SD to me because of the compression), but at least now people can stop whining about not being able to buy the "HD" movies they rent.

Anyone download one yet? How big is the file size?
Click to expand...

I am testing it out. I purchased Transporter 3 and the HD Version is 3gb and the iPhone/iPod version is 1.16gb (you get both for the $20). They are still download as I write this.
 
d21mike said:
I am testing it out. I purchased Transporter 3 and the HD Version is 3gb and the iPhone/iPod version is 1.16gb (you get both for the $20). They are still download as I write this.
Click to expand...

Thanks!

With the two copies, that sounds like it will start to eat up hard drive space quickly, but it's nice to have a version that will work with i-Devices.
 
I completed the download and watch Transporter 3 (HD) on my AppleTV and it looked good. My one complaint is that the Chapter Names were "Chapter 1 - nn" where when I create my own from DVD's I can tag them with the actual chapter names. I assume I could update them but since I paid $20 I would have thought they would have all of the Meta Data propertly done.

Too me if I could remove the DRM stuff it would be worth the $20 (over the normal $14 for the DVD) for the convenience and better quality. I do need the extra copy until my iPhone supports HD (if ever).
 
Tallest Skil said:
There are tutorials. Nermal posted a very good one here about HD DVD ripping, but it is somewhat outdated by the fact that everything except the ripping itself can be done in OS X (about half of the tutorial is done in Windows).
Click to expand...

Yeah, I've been meaning to update that one and add some BR-specific details to it too. But I've run into problems with one of my movies (Stargate region B) and want to figure that out first.
 
I wasted 19.99 on disaster movie, very dumb movie.. but I guess in the name of science right? I compared it to my 1080p mkv to 720p m4v via handbrake conversions. The picture quality was excellent. My conversions look great, but not as good as the itunes movie. Does anyone know what they use to encode their movies? I agree 19.99 is steep, but I'd rather have digital media than physical media. I hate having discs all over, people borrowing them, scratches and only one person being able to watch a movie at a time. Love my appletv and all my movies in one easy accessible menu.

Just hope they come out with better movies in Hi-def, star wars series would rock!

Mo
 
So.. what do you guys think this means for 1080p downloads? Will we see them by the end of the year or will this be the standard for the foreseeable future?
 
mohanman said:
I wasted 19.99 on disaster movie, very dumb movie.. but I guess in the name of science right? I compared it to my 1080p mkv to 720p m4v via handbrake conversions. The picture quality was excellent. My conversions look great, but not as good as the itunes movie. Does anyone know what they use to encode their movies? I agree 19.99 is steep, but I'd rather have digital media than physical media. I hate having discs all over, people borrowing them, scratches and only one person being able to watch a movie at a time. Love my appletv and all my movies in one easy accessible menu.

Just hope they come out with better movies in Hi-def, star wars series would rock!

Mo
Click to expand...

Apple stated two years ago at the Final Cut Studio 2 Keynote that they use Compressor 3 to encode everything for iTunes (although, it must be a different version that also allows Metadata Tagging).

I imagine Apple has a 1080p uncompressed version of the movie to start out with.

By now, they are likely using whatever is coming in Final Cut Studio 3 (likely Compressor 4), although this is purely my own speculation.
 
dmm219 said:
I wonder if older releases will be cheaper (like their other pricing models). $20 is not that bad compared to the price of newly released BR (closer to $30). 720P is fine in my book for saving $10 for the family room tv. When I finally get around to affording a home theatre, BR will be the way to go, however.

I do not yet understand why apple doesn't offer netflix like subscriptions. The studio's would have to be more concerned about physical media getting ripped (netflix) than the itunes DRM getting pirated. Whatever...still makes no sense to me...
Click to expand...

Where are you guys buying your blu-rays.There are so many legite websites that offer new releases from 18 to 22 dollars and some even offer free ship.

Then again I am not sure how many new releases need to bother with the higher quality video and sound. That is where the $12 dvd comes into play
 
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