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iTMS Monthly TV Show Subscriptions
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This is dumb. $20 for two shows for a month? Expensive.
And I'm I the only one who is NOT IMPRESSED with the quality of video from the iTMS? It looks like pixelated ****. Maybe when they make them available with at least 500 lines of horizontal resolution, I'll consider it. It's pretty sad (in a way) that I can dowload *better quality* rips of The Daily Show off of Bittorrent than what I can download legitimately on the iTMS. Full screen iTMS videos look completely awful (I have a 20" iMac) but full screen vids of the torrents I have downloaded are at least watchable.
When Apple offers HD quality downloads, I might consider $1.99 per episode. (Yes I know TDS isn't broadcast in HD yet, but other shows like CSI are). If it's not HD, what's the point? Most Macs made in the last 2 years can support HD playback (at least 720p, if not 1080i).
And I'm I the only one who is NOT IMPRESSED with the quality of video from the iTMS? It looks like pixelated ****. Maybe when they make them available with at least 500 lines of horizontal resolution, I'll consider it. It's pretty sad (in a way) that I can dowload *better quality* rips of The Daily Show off of Bittorrent than what I can download legitimately on the iTMS. Full screen iTMS videos look completely awful (I have a 20" iMac) but full screen vids of the torrents I have downloaded are at least watchable.
When Apple offers HD quality downloads, I might consider $1.99 per episode. (Yes I know TDS isn't broadcast in HD yet, but other shows like CSI are). If it's not HD, what's the point? Most Macs made in the last 2 years can support HD playback (at least 720p, if not 1080i).
Fits the daily show
The daily show is ideal for this model. I have a DVR and record it every night. If I don't get to watch it in the next few days after it airs, it is pretty stale. So owning those episodes won't matter much to networks.
There are, however, exceptional "point-in-time" episodes that I burn to DVD. The episode after Dick Cheney "shot a man in the face" was a real keeper. (If you haven't seen it, look for it.) I have watched it quite a few times since then, and it is hilarious.
The Colbert Report is a bit less focused on current events, but it still gets stale.
The daily show is ideal for this model. I have a DVR and record it every night. If I don't get to watch it in the next few days after it airs, it is pretty stale. So owning those episodes won't matter much to networks.
There are, however, exceptional "point-in-time" episodes that I burn to DVD. The episode after Dick Cheney "shot a man in the face" was a real keeper. (If you haven't seen it, look for it.) I have watched it quite a few times since then, and it is hilarious.
The Colbert Report is a bit less focused on current events, but it still gets stale.
Not bad actually. I'd use it to subscribe to Monk - if they offered it. I have NetFlix already and don't see switching to an analogous download model for movies unless there was significant price savings. But I could see myself cancelling my Satellite service altogether if I could get the few shows that I do watch for download instead.
It'll never happen but I wish...
It'll never happen but I wish... that HBO would start selling some of the stuff on iTunes. SOPRANOS would be so great but they'd never let the episodes go for $1.99 an episode... not while their charging $79.99 per 4-Disc box set of 13 episodes, which is terribly overpriced.
Fortunately, I just won an eBay auction of seasons 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5 for only $70.99!
It'll never happen but I wish... that HBO would start selling some of the stuff on iTunes. SOPRANOS would be so great but they'd never let the episodes go for $1.99 an episode... not while their charging $79.99 per 4-Disc box set of 13 episodes, which is terribly overpriced.
Fortunately, I just won an eBay auction of seasons 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5 for only $70.99!
I love this idea! If they begin to offer a subscription for all the shows they offer (well, current shows anyway) then I would be happy to take part in it. Of course only when they start offering the videos at higher resolutions. I'm not an HD fanboy, I just want better quality, even if it's 640x480 I'd be happy.
nebben123 said:
i think the key point there is bittorrent, which is illegal. i'm not playing moral police here i use(d) bittorrent to download things which i can't legally buy, including TDS. as soon as they're available in a legitimate format to buy i make sure i pay for it.
as for HD 1080i is absurd for 99% of the people, even you on your 20" iMac can't get a full 1080i video to play full screen. there's like a handful of sets that can play 1080p right now as well. not to mention that a 1080p version of TDS would clock in at nearly 2GB, an episode of CSI would be near 3.5GB. america's consumer broadband is way too slow at the moment to support that kind of bandwidth. it'd be in the neighborhood of 90 minutes to download a 22 minute show. way, way too long.
you also have to consider these clips are being sold to promote the adoption of ipods, not to watch on your computer. yes that's a nice side effect, but it's not the purpose of them. i doubt very highly you'd get more than 15-20 minutes of battery life trying to decode and play a 1080i stream on your ipod and asking the average consumer to "covert" just isn't going to happen.
i would certainly like to see an increase in quality, but it's not like any of the shows i watch require all that much resolution.
brett_x said:
I agree that a show like The Daily Show is probably the impetus for this pricing scheme because of its time-sensitive content. I do hold out hope that the pricing will extend to other shows that I don't mind rewatching. I do it now with syndicated sitcoms, and I would enjoy having them on demand.
I also think that the resolution of the shows has to gradually improve, without the price going up to keep things fresh. As much as I would like certain shows to be available from the iTMS, some, unfortunately, will be limited to other service providers that I will likely not frequent.
freeny said:
Hasn't anyone learned yet that it's never a good idea to say never? You'll most certainly, eventually, be wrong.
true.Essefgy said:
this is a subscription purchase (which is essentially a volume discount). napster is a rental agreement.
i think they should extend the volume discount model to iTMS:
i.e. a 25$ card is worth 30 (owned) songs.
63¢ a show is much more reasonable.
I dont' have cable nor satellite. But if I did The Daily Show with Jon Stewart would be the #1 show I would want to watch every day. The price is finally right.
I dont' have cable nor satellite. But if I did The Daily Show with Jon Stewart would be the #1 show I would want to watch every day. The price is finally right.
Give me broadcast quality and I'm there! Please, Apple?
Oh right! Apple is wasting a huge amount of money/bandwidth by not using the BitTorrent protocol to send movies. Why not? Give us much higher quality with much faster download speeds.
Oh right! Apple is wasting a huge amount of money/bandwidth by not using the BitTorrent protocol to send movies. Why not? Give us much higher quality with much faster download speeds.
comment:
but your interpretation of his/her words is wrong.
You are saying the same thing:
20$ = 2 shows = 32 episodes
replies:nebben123 said:
JonHimself said:
Multimedia said:
but your interpretation of his/her words is wrong.
You are saying the same thing:
20$ = 2 shows = 32 episodes
autrefois
macrumors 65816
Thank you MacRumors for posting this, don't know if I would have found out on my own. I'm downloading Colbert at this very moment! 
I've been EyeTVing good Colbert Reports and running out of space on my Power Mac. I see the episode online currently on the iTunes Music Store takes up less space than an episode recorded on EyeTV, plus there's no commercials to either edit out or fast-forward. I've been hoping that the Daily Show (or now the Colbert Report) would come out with DVDs of whole seasons, instead of just election specials/etc. Now I can get any future episodes on iTunes.
Very good point. I never thought of it that way before, but the multi-pass is actually more like a (traditional) subscription in that you keep old copies you've paid for, rather than the sort of model others have been proposing (pay per month and then lose access to old stuff you already have if you stop paying).
And it is great that it automatically downloads them. I know people will moan that the quality isn't good enough, but for this price and convenience, I'm sold.
I've been EyeTVing good Colbert Reports and running out of space on my Power Mac. I see the episode online currently on the iTunes Music Store takes up less space than an episode recorded on EyeTV, plus there's no commercials to either edit out or fast-forward. I've been hoping that the Daily Show (or now the Colbert Report) would come out with DVDs of whole seasons, instead of just election specials/etc. Now I can get any future episodes on iTunes.
clonenode said:
Very good point. I never thought of it that way before, but the multi-pass is actually more like a (traditional) subscription in that you keep old copies you've paid for, rather than the sort of model others have been proposing (pay per month and then lose access to old stuff you already have if you stop paying).
And it is great that it automatically downloads them. I know people will moan that the quality isn't good enough, but for this price and convenience, I'm sold.
TiVO RULES
Well, right now, Cable and Satellite are where you get the content, and it's pretty cheap if you consider all of the content that is available. But if you think about what you REALLY watch, I bet that you, just like me, are drastically over paying.
My DirecTV bill is $140 a month, which includes TiVO, HiDef and a bunch of premium cable channels. I did an audit on my family's viewing habits a couple of months ago, and I found that we simply weren't watching hardly any of the available content. Along with the stuff that we are watching, we are also paying for about 250 channels that we _never_ watch.
When Apple offers everything that I want to watch via iTunes (in HD quality), I bet I can knock that $140 a month down to maybe $75 a month and simply get rid of DirecTV (along with my DVD player) entirely. Add on $15/month for basic cable service to watch local TV channels and I'm still WAY ahead of the game.
Wigletbill said:
Well, right now, Cable and Satellite are where you get the content, and it's pretty cheap if you consider all of the content that is available. But if you think about what you REALLY watch, I bet that you, just like me, are drastically over paying.
My DirecTV bill is $140 a month, which includes TiVO, HiDef and a bunch of premium cable channels. I did an audit on my family's viewing habits a couple of months ago, and I found that we simply weren't watching hardly any of the available content. Along with the stuff that we are watching, we are also paying for about 250 channels that we _never_ watch.
When Apple offers everything that I want to watch via iTunes (in HD quality), I bet I can knock that $140 a month down to maybe $75 a month and simply get rid of DirecTV (along with my DVD player) entirely. Add on $15/month for basic cable service to watch local TV channels and I'm still WAY ahead of the game.
whooleytoo said:
Its the unfortunate world of the blackout, the big boys have a contract on most popular shows (heck most shows in general) that say it cannot be distributed in any means until the show is over. Just try watching MLB.TV sometime and see how that goes. Even thought I am over a 100 miles from Boston I cannot watch lives games that I have already paid for (Fortunately I like Houston and I'm outside their 'home' territory). Frustrating, but like the RIA the big guys are scared this internet thing is going to suck away all their money. The stick their heads in the sand and fail to embrace new technologies that in fact might entice more people to purchase their shows.
Chaszmyr said:
What is usually called a "subscription" in this business (Napster, or Yahoo music) is actually not a subscription, it is rental. This one, on the other hand, looks like a real subscription.
gnasher729 said:
Yeah I agree, we should probobly start suing Napster for false advertising
ok bad joke
This isn't a "subscription." It's just standard a pre-order. You can pre-order certain albums on iTunes and have them download when they're available.
I love how the press calls this Apple's "first step" to a subscription model, implying Apple has subscription plans in the first place. Stupid tech press.
I love how the press calls this Apple's "first step" to a subscription model, implying Apple has subscription plans in the first place. Stupid tech press.