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HBO Shows Now Available in HD on iTunes

JangoFett124 said:
Am I the only one still surprised and disappointed that Apple, a forward-thinking company, still charges a premium for HD?
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I don't know what Apple's contract w/ the content owners states, but do you? I am not being facetious, perhaps you have more explicit knowledge of the deals. I do know that content owners do generally demand a premium for HD content over SD. So this might just be one of those cases where Apple chooses not to pick a fight w/ content owners and let them have their way.

Also, to be fair to Apple, HD files are larger and there are bandwidth considerations. It does cost more for Apple to send and HD file to your device than the same title in SD.
 
$2.99 is at the upper end of what I'll pay for HD shows and thats too much it should be .99 SD and 1.99 HD

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I agree I'd rather wait till the Blu Ray drops I think I paid $60 for the complete Rome on Blu and $80 for all three seasons of Deadwood
 
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Good news for iTunes, I love HBO. Some shows though, like True Blood (seaon four is currently awesome BTW), I buy the Blu Rays because they look/sound so much better. Plus the iTunes pricing comes out to more than what I buy the BR box sets for.
 
Achiever said:
It blows my mind how content providers (i.e. the studios) continue to charge premiums for digital media over physical media when they are able to avoid all of the inherent costs of physical media (materials, production, transportation, labor, insurance, theft, etc.). I continue to refuse to buy digital content at the same price or at mark up, especially when I don't get to share it or use it as I want/need to and I don't get the numerous extra content provided on physical disk copies OR the HD quality of a Blu-Ray. Until then, I catch as much as I can on cable and buy physical disks when I really want to own something long term.

The saddest part of this is that I know, not so deep down, this is exactly the behavior the studios want. So short sighted.
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you still have the 30% going to apple which replaced the retail costs.

you have to pay the 24x7 high tech costs of things like electricity to host your files instead of doing a low tech thing like letting it sit on a retailer's shelf and not using up any energy. and i'm sure apple has double redundancy for everything as well the super precious metal support contracts that cost $1 million per year per person to sit onsite and make sure everything is OK
 
alent1234 said:
you still have the 30% going to apple which replaced the retail costs.

you have to pay the 24x7 high tech costs of things like electricity to host your files instead of doing a low tech thing like letting it sit on a retailer's shelf and not using up any energy. and i'm sure apple has double redundancy for everything as well the super precious metal support contracts that cost $1 million per year per person to sit onsite and make sure everything is OK
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Apple takes 30% on the App Store, not on iTunes. Their iTunes margins are often reported as being slim. The money for Apple is in selling the HARDWARE, not the content.

Electricity costs to Apple are FAR below the associated costs of physical media, plus the retail store and its pricing also need to account for its own overhead, including electricity. The retailer costs should be identical (or less for Apple). The production costs, all studio based, are where the cost savings should be easily found even with economies of scale.
 
jeff1977 said:
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Good news for iTunes, I love HBO. Some shows though, like True Blood (seaon four is currently awesome BTW), I buy the Blu Rays because they look/sound so much better. Plus the iTunes pricing comes out to more than what I buy the BR box sets for.
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I was looking at True Blood (on sale for $40 / season) and it's cheaper than Blu Ray on Amazon atm. I am torn between the box sets/higher quality and the convenience of iCloud streaming to the Apple TV.
 
Amazon.com had an amazing deal a couple years ago on the Rome Blu-Ray DVDs: $65 for the complete series.

This is why I'll still have physical media. Often, it's cheaper. Don't get me wrong, there's definitely a call for streaming media, but until the price comes DOWN ...
 
to the person surprised that Apple charges a "premium" for HD content....that is the same as my (Comcast) cable provider. They charge more for the HD package.
 
I'll replace a few shows with the HD versions. I've done it before with Lost and a few other series. Lost was first offered in SD and then after I believe the third season, the HD versions appeared.

Don't have a Blu-ray player or an HD TV so this is a good deal for me. :)
 
no "The Pacific" yet... ugh... missed the last 2 episodes due to a DERP in my DVR...
 
HD content from Apple and all the others are great. But what about the bandwidth limit Comcast, AT&T etc is putting on the consumers.

Wish Apple would get into the bandwidth business and put Comcast and AT&T out of business :rolleyes:
 
Will do good said:
HD content from Apple and all the others are great. But what about the bandwidth limit Comcast, AT&T etc is putting on the consumers.

Wish Apple would get into the bandwidth business and put Comcast and AT&T out of business :rolleyes:
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I've been with a provider that still advertises all you can eat internet. Last month, I downloaded 456GB. My Giganews account shows that much. My ISP hasn't complained once in 5 years.
 
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I am trying to catch up on breaking bad and realized it would cost me more than the price of a one month subscription to blockbuster (or Netflix) to buy 4 episodes on iTunes! I've already caught up on season 2 and my one month isn't up yet. It's just too expensive to get them on iTunes.
 
Achiever said:
Apple takes 30% on the App Store, not on iTunes. Their iTunes margins are often reported as being slim. The money for Apple is in selling the HARDWARE, not the content..
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Apple takes 30% from iTunes sales. In fact Apple takes 30% of any third-party content sold within the iTunes ecosystem, be that music, movies, books, apps, subscriptions, in-app purchases or anything in-between.
 
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