Has apple lost the digital download war?

[Dunk the Lunk]

UV is still so limited geographically, what takeover can we talk about here?

But so is iTunes. Even in the UK store, arguably Apple's second largest market, here are some examples of its limited role: no Game of Thrones or Boardwalk Empire. Large number of movies don't have extras including some recent Disney ones (e.g. the Lone Ranger) even though there are extras in the American versions. There are no extended versions of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and again no extras in the standard version. I'm sure there are many more examples. And the iTunes video store has been around far longer the UV, eight and two years respectively in the UK.

They haven't lost it at all. All UV is, is the movie studios attempting to prolong the life of optical media. While I agree that the quality of BD is higher than an iTunes HD download, on the average person's TV/Home Theater the difference is negligible at most. This means that for most people (who consider standard DVD to be outstanding) you have two competing platforms.

The studios created UV specifically to keep people out of iTunes. There are major advantages for them with the physical media model.

But this is the point, UV has been created to keep people away from iTunes. Over the next few years people will grow large UV collections at no (noticeable) additional cost, and most smart TVs and set-top boxes will have the format built in as standard. People will gradually forget to play their dvds/blu-rays, just using their (inferior) UV copies instead, and once VUDU/Flixster/Amazon (et al) start to offer direct UV purchases they will just download from these sources.

As far as I can see Apple has been outgunned by the studios despite offering superior video and audio quality, and extras. If Apple can offer 4k downloads ahead of everyone else it may make a difference but even here they are probably at the mercy of the studios.

Incidentally, I've just discovered a similar thread on the blu-ray.com forum: http://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=228357

 

[priitv8]

But so is iTunes. Even in the UK store, arguably Apple's second largest market, here are some examples of its limited role...

Sure, but at least here in Estonia, I can buy/rent movies (no TV Shows!) fom iTunes, but UV has only shown me a middle finger.
Indeed, UV is only available in United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, Ireland and Switzerland.
The list of countries with iTunes movies available is so long, that I won't be repeating it here. You can find it on Apple support page:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5085

 

[bearcatrp]

The movie studios watched what apple did to the music industry. More profits for apple than the artists. Apple's download service sucks when renting from them. Take way to long for the download. Plus, if the streaming service doesn't renew the contract with the studios, movies disappear. I prefer to rip what I want. Until the US gets off there arse and invest into higher speeds than what currently we have,(cough fiber cough) streaming will keep lagging.

 

[Smallville]

I've got movies tied up in both iTunes and UV. I like having downloaded files that I can share between my MacBook and iPad for viewing, rather than streaming.

But UV has got to come up with a better desktop app. Flixster just doesn't cut it. It's crap. Constantly crashes or gives error messages. Plus, it's SD in 2014. I've read in some Apple support discussions that if you complain to UV about the awful Flixster app, they'll give you an iTunes download code. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm going to. Tired of the Flixster desktop app.

 

[xraydoc]

When a disc comes with an iTunes copy, I'll use that. When a disc comes with a UV copy, I'll rip the disc and encode my own. Win-win situation.

Though lately, even if it comes with an iTunes copy, if it's not a high-def version, I'll rip the BluRay and make my own.

 

[Razeus]

It's one of the reasons I don't buy iTunes HD movies/TVshows (though I've purchased 3 in the last several years). The video quality is ok, I guess. I refuse to buy physical media anymore.

I don't see the point of buying movies as they are something I watch once. I learned this after my DVD craze in the 2000's. I had a massive collection. One day, I look at my shelves and asked myself what the heck am I doing? What's the point. There's very few movies I've watched more than once and fewer still I watch more than 3 times.

I rather just pay Netflix $8 a month and stream various things to watch. It's not that serious for me anymore and it's certainly cheaper than buying 3-4 $20 DVD's every week and takes WAY less room. What really ticked me off was the "remasters" when they cleaned up the video quality and I bought them again. Now they want Blu-Ray money. Now they want digital download money. No more. Stream it is for me. Red Box for the new stuff. Rip the stuff I want to keep.

I'll let you in on a little secrete. Apple does just enough to make it work and no more (ie iTunes Match). Alot of their services fail because they simple don't put constant time into them like Google does (Apple is better at designing hardware after all). It's seems ridiculous to me that they'll let people buy a movie, download BOTH the 1080p AND SD version, yet can't be bother to start offering ALAC for music downloads. 🙁

 

[i1280]

What do you use to rip
Them?