iPod How Lame is it that you Can't Put iTMS Videos on DVD?

[TheSpaz]

I'm kinda sick of only having iTunes purchased videos on my computer or iPod only. Why aren't we allowed to burn these videos to DVD? We can burn iTunes music to CD so what is the difference with video? I'm sick of all this DRM content. Here's a couple of ideas I had for stripping iTMS video DRM.

1. Somehow stream an iTMS video from one networked computer to another and then saving the streamed file as some sort of lossless format and then encoding it onto a DVD.

2. Copy the iTMS video to your iPod, and use a device like EyeTV 250 to capture the playing video as an S-Video source (sort of like importing a VHS tape).... but, with this method, you lose a lot of the fine quality of the iTMS videos.

Also, how the heck does Apple get the quality THAT sharp and still be able to play it on the iPod? I've tried using VisualHub to encode a video using the same bitrate as an iTMS video as well as turning on 2-pass and it still comes out looking compressed. Apple certainly has some other encoder that they use that gives the moving objects and the still objects the same fine detail and look. It's close to DVD quality really... I can't figure it out! If anyone has any suggestions about this, that would be great too.

Anyone else have ideas for getting iTunes shows/movies onto DVD (being playable on a DVD player of course... I know I can archive the videos on a DVD as data files).

 

[calculus]

1. Play video on mac screen

2. Film with video camera - if possible get some people's heads in the way

3. Import footage into iMovie

4. Burn to DVD

 

[Mac-Addict]

Thats the whole point of TV to get the media you've bought off itunes on your tv.

 

[mrgreen4242]

Thats the whole point of TV to get the media you've bought off itunes on your tv.

And what a great solution it is!

Buy $25 DVD player, buy DVDs for $8-20 easch, or rent them for $1-4 each...
OR
Buy $300 player, buy movies from iTMS that are less than DVD quality (no widescreen, no 5.1, slightly less resolution, no special features) for $10-15 each, and no rental option.

The OP is right, the iTMS movie/TV show sales model is fundamentally flawed.

 

[Manzana]

it's totally freakin' lame.

another big lame-o goes to the fact that you can't import other video codecs into iTunes to play on your iPod or through iTV.

 

[TheSpaz]

Is there a way to stream iTMS files to another Mac without quality loss?

The thing is... I whole heartedly agree on paying for things legally and I do not like those who get everything for free on the internet. I do not want to do this to share these videos with other people but, what is so wrong about wanting to store these TV shows on DVD so that I don't HAVE to have them taking up computer storage space? Then, if I felt like it, I could pop the DVD in and enjoy my favorite show rather than finding my iPod, deleting things to make room for videos, then copying the videos from my computer to the iPod, then connecting my iPod to my VCR with a special cable and then using the cheesy under-featured remote to control my lame viewing experience. Also, what if I don't wanna spend $299 on a device that is pretty much a bigger iPod that stays connected to your TV. Also, where the heck do you get this HD content that the iTV supports... and when you DO get the HD content, you gotta watch it on an HDTV to get the most out of the format. It'd be better off to watch the media on your computer screen at this point because my computer screen is HD and my TV is not.

 

[hexoffender]

Well -- in this case Google-fu is with me:

http://askbobrankin.com/convert_itunes_videos_to_mpeg.html

 

[TheSpaz]

A side note:

Last year I downloaded all of the episodes of The Office, Season 2 from iTMS. Some of them were very small (320x240) and some of them were standard TV definition. Having the 2 sizes was very lame and then they were still copy protected.

Then the following fall, Season 2 was released on DVD, so I bought it! Just to have the show at full quality and on DVD was worth buying it. So I basically paid for a crappy version just to watch the day after it aired and then I bought the DVD so that I could have something that would last and that is not DRM protected. DOUBLE LAME! I'll probably end up doing the same thing with Season 3...ugh.

Well -- in this case Google-fu is with me:

http://askbobrankin.com/convert_itunes_videos_to_mpeg.html

http://www.tunebite.com/en/tunebite/index.html?affiliate=4bab3cc1bcc4c787083711f5895e5a5e

So I guess TuneBite is where it's at! Sucks that you gotta pay for it though. I have a Mac Pro so maybe this software will run under parallels... something worth trying I guess. I guess this changes the "There's no possible way to convert iTMS to standard non-protected mpeg4." statement.

Why isn't there a Mac equivalent for this?

 

[failsafe1]

http://www.tunebite.com/en/tunebite/index.html?affiliate=4bab3cc1bcc4c787083711f5895e5a5e

So I guess TuneBite is where it's at! Sucks that you gotta pay for it though. I have a Mac Pro so maybe this software will run under parallels... something worth trying I guess. I guess this changes the "There's no possible way to convert iTMS to standard non-protected mpeg4." statement.

Why isn't there a Mac equivalent for this?

Would a screen capture utility like Ambrosia Snap Pro X be equal to TuneBite?

 

[TheSpaz]

Would a screen capture utility like Ambrosia Snap Pro X be equal to TuneBite?

Hmm... I didn't think of that. Can Snap X Pro capture sound too? Also, how fast of a framerate can it capture?

 

[failsafe1]

Hmm... I didn't think of that. Can Snap X Pro capture sound too? Also, how fast of a framerate can it capture?

The Ambrosia page says complete with digital audio.

 

[balamw]

Also, how the heck does Apple get the quality THAT sharp and still be able to play it on the iPod?

Just like with music they probably start from different source material than you can. Rather than compress video already with lots of MPEG-2 artifacts adding their own MPEG-4 artifacts they can start from uncompressed sources and will always get better results.

This is the part I don't get from all the people who think it would be great to burn iTMS video to DVD. Due to the need to transcode heavily compressed MPEG-4 to MPEG-2 you will inherently introduce tons of compression artifacts, and it'll take a long time. Music is different since it can be decoded to an uncompressed format without new artifacts and done so fast.

So why not just get the best possible result and just connect your Mac or iPod to the TV if you don't want TV. Or just skip the store and buy DVDs.

B

 

[TheSpaz]

I just noticed a downside to the snapz workaround. You have to pick a framerate at which the movie is recorded at. You can pick 29 or 30 but, you can't pick 29.97 which means the synchronization will be slightly off making duplicate frames every few seconds instead of 1of each frame.

The Ambrosia page says complete with digital audio.

WOW! It worked! I got 30fps and sound and NO loss of quality whatsoever! NICE! Finally, there's a work around for Mac users! Yippy! I'm excited now.

 

[Meatball]

bought the DVD so that I could have something that would last and that is not DRM protected.

DVDs have copy protection on them to (CSS Content scrambling system) but it's very easy to remove, VERY easy