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iPod Free Resolution Upgrade for previously downloaded TV shows

M

Macdantheman07

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 24, 2004
39
0
NYC
I am kind of angry right now. I would like to see apple offer those who purchased tv shows and music videos at lower resolutions to upgrade them to the new, higher resolutions, for free.

That privilege would be incredible.
 
Macdantheman07 said:
I am kind of angry right now. I would like to see apple offer those who purchased tv shows and music videos at lower resolutions to upgrade them to the new, higher resolutions, for free.

That privilege would be incredible.
Click to expand...

Yeah, and I demand that someone replaces all my old VHS's with DVD's for free.
 
FleurDuMal said:
Yeah, and I demand that someone replaces all my old VHS's with DVD's for free.
Click to expand...


Touché...but its not happening..sorry thats not how it works!

(Not to say I wouldn't want it to)
 
I don't expect to have my vhs tapes turned into DVDs for free because that is simply not feasible on such a large scale and it would unfairly cost the movie studios millions of dollars.

What I am calling for costs nothing but internet bandwidth. There is no reason why free resolution upgrades can't be done.
 
Macdantheman07 said:
What I am calling for costs nothing but internet bandwidth. There is no reason why free resolution upgrades can't be done.
Click to expand...

You answered your own complaint. It costs. Internet bandwidth is not free.
 
I hate to say this here, but the day before the announcements, my HD crashed. The nice people at the iTMS told me i could re-download all my music/video... and now that i'm downloading, it's all the higher-res stuff.

I suppose this was the only upside to losing a hard drive.
 
i.Feature said:
You answered your own complaint. It costs. Internet bandwidth is not free.
Click to expand...

Seriously. Not only is it not free, it's expensive. People need to get over this idea that if it's digital, it's somehow less cost intensive than a physical copy...

I need to dig through my old TWiT collection - on one of them, they talked about how much it cost to host video casts that have more than a few hundred downloads... it was crazy. I mean, crazy.

It's not free, and you got... *exactly what you paid for*, *exactly what was advertised*, and it still *works just the same as it did yesterday*. It really is akin to asking for your VHS to be replaced with DVD's, or your V6 to be replaced with a V8 when it becomes available. None of it is free.

That said, if they *did* give us free upgrades, I'd be thrilled, and would re-download any show I've got again...
 
I think the one thing that Apple needs to keep in mind about video is that the files and storage requirements can be quite large. Amazon's unbox service, however flawed, keeps all your purchases in a "digital locker" from which you can supposedly re-download any purchase to another PC or even back to the first PC you bought it on.

Apple is taking some steps in the right direction with integrating a backup function in iTunes, but they do need to consider providing a more official "safety net" for the folks who pay their bills. Even if they charge enough to cover the cost per MB downloaded to redownload lost data I'd still be happier.

B
 
Considering how apple makes maybe $0.15 for each download of a $1.99 video, even at the newer higher resolution, there is no reason for them not to support the early adopters. This is not upgrading VHS to DVD, as those were 2 separate physical media. Someone who already has downloaded the file owns the license to that file, albeit with DRM restrictions. I don't have access to that file, so I can't make a full argument here, but I do believe that it should entitle me to be able to re-download the file without having to repay for that license. Now I'm not asking for a free download, just one that covers the cost of the bandwidth, say $0.10 or $0.15 per TV show. This debate will come back up whenever apple ups the bitrate of the audio files as well (read: when Zune Marketplace opens).
 
pdpfilms said:
I hate to say this here, but the day before the announcements, my HD crashed. The nice people at the iTMS told me i could re-download all my music/video... and now that i'm downloading, it's all the higher-res stuff.

I suppose this was the only upside to losing a hard drive.
Click to expand...

So, could we all just delete the files we have and redownload the higher res stuff?!
 
I dont know why there is so much hype about the increased resolution, apple are now using the baseline reduced complexity h.264 encoder instead of the baseline encoder, so yes the res is higher, but the detail isnt as good. It makes a difference in quality yes, but it doesnt seam like a huge difference to me.
 
Premium bandwidth costs $35 per Megabit when purchased in bulk like Apple would so

$35 = 1Mbps = 320GB = 327680MB

Lets say a 640x480 TV show is 700MB (has anyone downloaded one to confirm file size?)

327680 / 700 = 468

35 / 468 = 0.0747863248

So if the TV show was 700MB it would cost them $0.07 to let some one download it, if there were 1 million users to all re-download the episode it would cost Apple $74,786.32

I really don't see Apple offering free downloads, the cost adds up real fast
 
Macdantheman07 said:
I am kind of angry right now. I would like to see apple offer those who purchased tv shows and music videos at lower resolutions to upgrade them to the new, higher resolutions, for free.

That privilege would be incredible.
Click to expand...

Somehow i doubt that will happen. Thats like asking for a new iPod Nano because you bought the original. Or even a film on DVD because you bought in on VHS.
 
Macdantheman07 said:
I am kind of angry right now. I would like to see apple offer those who purchased tv shows and music videos at lower resolutions to upgrade them to the new, higher resolutions, for free.

That privilege would be incredible.
Click to expand...

Not being an Apple apologist, but you bought the tv shows at lower resolutions fair and square months ago. A month ago, the price was fair; now that the product is upgraded but at the same price, what makes you feel that Apple should be obligated to give you an upgrade? And even more so, why should it be free?

Digital products and physical products aren't completely different. I bought a PPC powerbook right before the intel switch; not even a year later, intel MBPs came out that were "5 times faster" than mine, and at a similar price. Do I deserve a free upgrade? Or any upgrade?

And as for free upgrades - bandwidth costs money, and I doubt that Apple is making much from iTMS. It took Apple years to break even on music, and I don't even know if they've broken even on videos and tv shows. The profit margins are very slim, and iTMS is meant to drive iPod sales for profit, not to be a standalone profit generator.

I would like to see an upgrade program, where you could pay maybe $0.25 per show or video to have it upgraded. But in all fairness, nice as that may be, there's no obligation for Apple to do that because you've bought your digital content, and it was a fair deal.
 
dextertangocci said:
For an episode of Prison Break, it is about 515MB.
Click to expand...

updated for 515MB file size
327680 / 515 = 636

35 / 636 = 0.0550314465

So if the TV show was 515MB it would cost Apple $0.06 to let someone download it, if there were 1 million users to all re-download the episode it would cost Apple $55,031.45
 
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