iTunes 5 with Movies

[MacDuff]

So do you think there will be an iTunes Movie store in the next version of iTunes?

With the trailers and music videos in 4.5 it seems like the next obvious step to stay on top of the competition. What other upgrades should there be with version 5?

 

[Abstract]

I don't know about iTunes 5, but in iTunes 6, they should remove this movie feature and put it in iMovie where it belongs.

 

[JFreak]

iMovie is not a movie jukebox. it's a gateway drug to more powerful stuff [fc express, fc pro] and never meant to be anything else.

maybe iTunes needs a name change? would it become iMedia, or would iMovie become a movie jukebox and current iMovie change its name to iEdit or something? or would they drop the crappy iMovie altogether and offer fc express for less?

whatever the case, the current iMovie is not a movie jukebox but an editor. you know, a content creation software.

 

[dukemeiser]

They need an entirely new app for this, not iTunes. They could call it "iFlick"

 

[michaelrjohnson]

imho, movies would be misplaced if put in iTunes. that would mess everything up, besides the market for d/l movies is SO small that it would take a miracle for even apple to make a big market out of that. my bet is they will let this one slide by (for awhile)

 

[whfsdude]

Movies are still a long ways away. Now if Apple was smart they would sell them with a dvd interface or something so you can just burn to DVD and watch it on the tv. But that would be around 4 gigs to download. Not to mention some dvds are two disc now. hehe

 

[RBMaraman]

Steve likes to stick to his beliefs...

Steve already said that music is the focus of iTunes and the iPod, NOT movies. He also said that he doesn't think downloading movies will catch on like downloading music. I agree with him.We all know that Steve likes to stick to a position. He made it very clear he didn't like PDA's, so he scrapped the Newton and said Apple would never make another PDA. I don't see movie downloads part of Apple ever.

 

[davecuse]

I think that movie downloads could be great, but the bandwidth available vs. current compression just doesn't make it feasible. I personally wouldn't pay for a compressed movie that looks anything like what is currently available. If I could download a DVD quality flick in a reasonable amount of time I probably would, but that's not going to happen for a while.

 

[Le Big Mac]

So do you think there will be an iTunes Movie store in the next version of iTunes?

With the trailers and music videos in 4.5 it seems like the next obvious step to stay on top of the competition. What other upgrades should there be with version 5?

No. The trailers/videos aren't really suitable for watching on a large screen tv, which is what people would download movies for. Do you really want to rent/buy a DVD online only to have to watch it on your computer? And if you want full quality, few people have the bandwith at home to DL in a reasonable time.

 

[asif3]

Also, with Apple using Akamai for their content distribution, they would have to pay a lot of money for the bandwidth. I bet they're going to get a very high Akamai bill for the Music vids & trailers too - not as much as music tho.

 

[markjones05]

Netflix is planning to go online with movie downloads. I think it would be a good market for apple to get in

 

[wdlove]

Steve already said that music is the focus of iTunes and the iPod, NOT movies. He also said that he doesn't think downloading movies will catch on like downloading music. I agree with him. We all know that Steve likes to stick to a position. He made it very clear he didn't like PDA's, so he scrapped the Newton and said Apple would never make another PDA. I don't see movie downloads part of Apple ever.

Never say never. Since he said that he didn't think it would work, leaves open for future changes. With larger HD's and more broadband usage, I think that downloading movies is coming closer to reality.

 

[Abstract]

imho, movies would be misplaced if put in iTunes. that would mess everything up.....

yeah, that's what I meant. iTunes should never show movies. Something else would have to be created. Hopefully, Apple won't make a large clunky Windows Media Player equivalent to allow for both audio and movie playback. I really hate those, and would rather have distinct programs to perform each task.

And movie downloading is an inevitability, but it can't happen in the next 5 years. Too many things have to get better for this to be a reality, including a widely adopted internet connection that's faster than cable currently provides.

 

[mms]

Even with broadband becoming more common, downloading an entire movie would take way too long. Maybe letting people pay for music video downloads might be possible, since it is still tied in with music, and it's only a few minutes worth of video, which won't be too bad on broadband. Forget dialup, that would take forever.

 

[ingenious]

Even with broadband becoming more common, downloading an entire movie would take way too long. Maybe letting people pay for music video downloads might be possible, since it is still tied in with music, and it's only a few minutes worth of video, which won't be too bad on broadband. Forget dialup, that would take forever.

and in Kansas, I'm still stuck on dial up!

 

[chameeeleon]

They need an entirely new app for this, not iTunes. They could call it "iFlick"

Yeesh I hope not. It's wierd how something like "iMovie" can sound natural, but "iFlick" just sounds like one of those bad freeware apps that people just throw the "i" into to try to Mac-a-lize it. It just doesn't sound professional. My suggested name would be "BoxOffice" (in keeping with the new two-words-squashed-into-one thing that GarageBand started). And I agree this is a long way off, but hopefully at some point they'll be a "television" feature on par with the "radio" thing in iTunes. As someone without cable or a satellite dish, I'd love to see the big channels on the 'net.

 

[aswitcher]

So do you think there will be an iTunes Movie store in the next version of iTunes?

With the trailers and music videos in 4.5 it seems like the next obvious step to stay on top of the competition. What other upgrades should there be with version 5?

Well if the 4th gen ipod rumoured to appear has iphoto and even imovie options, it would make sense to properly intergrate things...

 

[Benjamin]

First lets remember that a movie uncompressed takes a good ~4GB average and a song takes ~ 50MB. Now lets compress them.. that movie becomes.. lets use the common divx of 1.3GB and a song becomes.. 5MB. now even with broadband that 1.3GB is going to take a lot longer then that 5MB song. the point of having the itms is so that it takes less time to get a song from the itms then it is to run to walmart and get the cd.

First.one, and plus the compression on the movie wouldn't be worth it if you can just go and get a good dvd quality version from walmart. that is the difference between compressing a movie and compression a song. last an online movie would have to be priced so low because of compression and make it seem a better deal then a 14 dollar dvd..

Second, lets remember why the itms was created. It wasn't created for selling music online. imo it was to sell ipods, which it is doing very well.

Third, protection, drm movie files, where it would be allowed to play etc. lets not even go there.

Forth, bandwidth.. that is a given.. i hope i don't have to explain that...

And last i believe steve even said that a movie ipod was pointless.

So imho there won't be full length movie downloads via and payable from the itms. Now would it be cool? yes of course but with current technology and bandwidth considerations pointless.

 

[BrianKonarsMac]

i think all songs bought off the iTMS should have their music videos attached in MPEG-4 (is anyone ever going to use this? or is it really garbage?) when applicable. that would be great, and would make far more sense since bands spend so much producing them just for MTV anyways.

 

[Awimoway]

If it becomes a music/movie hybrid, they should rename it iPlay.

But I don't think they will hybridize it. It would be weird and illogical to have your movies and music in the same organizer/player.

i think all songs bought off the iTMS should have their music videos attached in MPEG-4 (is anyone ever going to use this? or is it really garbage?) when applicable. that would be great, and would make far more sense since bands spend so much producing them just for MTV anyways.

Adding music videos to the store makes a lot of sense. And being able to download/buy the videos and keep them in iTunes would make sense, especially if, in iTunes, the song file and its video were integrated. They way this would work is that the audio would be a normal Playfair AAC file that is copied to your iPod. But when you play the song, the visualizer could show the song's video instead of swirling colors. Apple could charge a premium for those who want the enhanced, video-integrated song or they could be nice and offer it gratis. Downloading 3-minute compressed MTV-style videos would be a lot less taxing than a whole feature-length film or last night's Sopranos, and it would fit seamlessly into the iTunes we already know and love.

I honestly believe Apple may be moving toward this feature.

But adding movie trailer viewing to the store is idiotic. It has nothing to do with anything, and it smells of kitchen sink thinking that is beneath Apple—"if we're adding music videos, let's put the movie trailers up, too." The thinking behind it may be that it will attract the kiddies all the more, but I think it's just illogical and dorky. If I want to watch trailers I can find them just fine at apple.com/quicktime.

 

[Windowlicker]

iMovie is not a movie jukebox. it's a gateway drug to more powerful stuff [fc express, fc pro] and never meant to be anything else.

maybe iTunes needs a name change? would it become iMedia, or would iMovie become a movie jukebox and current iMovie change its name to iEdit or something? or would they drop the crappy iMovie altogether and offer fc express for less?

whatever the case, the current iMovie is not a movie jukebox but an editor. you know, a content creation software.

why couldn't we have QuickTime Movie Store (QTMS if you like) instead. I don't think all the stuff should be put into one app. look at mozilla for example. it's heavy ass hell and so will be iTunes eventually.

 

[JFreak]

i'm not interested in buying movies online for the time being, and i like to think that i'm not alone with my opinion. i'd rather buy or rent a dvd than spend any time downloading a file (that would most likely have some sort of drm in it if they are able to sell it) and have likely lower quality than dvd.

itms is feasible, i'm not ranting against it, but i like steve jobs don't see the movie store happening...

quicktime movie store mmh, well... doesn't sound half as sexy as itunes music store...

 

[Hes Nikke]

First lets remember that a movie uncompressed takes a good ~4GB average and a song takes ~ 50MB.

bzzz.

24 bits per pixel * 640 columns * 480 lines * 30 frames per second * 60 seconds in a minute is 13271040000 bits per minute or 1.54 Gibibyts per MINUTE of uncompressed video. without any audio. and that isn't even high definition.

the formula to figure out how the size of uncompressed audio is a little bit easier: 44100 samples per second (i don't remember the exact sample rate) * 16 bits per sample * 60 seconds in a minute is 42336000 bits per second or 5 Mebibytes per minute or 35 MiB for a 7 minute song.

Now lets compress them.. that movie becomes.. lets use the common divx of 1.3GB and a song becomes.. 5MB. now even with broadband that 1.3GB is going to take a lot longer then that 5MB song. the point of having the itms is so that it takes less time to get a song from the itms then it is to run to walmart and get the cd.

some of us were able to snatch 6mbps lines before SBC discontinued them.
it's quite easy to run out of HD space with that kind of bandwidth

First.one, and plus the compression on the movie wouldn't be worth it if you can just go and get a good dvd quality version from walmart. that is the difference between compressing a movie and compression a song. last an online movie would have to be priced so low because of compression and make it seem a better deal then a 14 dollar dvd..

by that logic, we should be paying less for DVD than we do for VHS, because DVD is compressed. sorry, the world doesn't work that way, if the quality is close to as good as or better than the previus standard, they can get away with charging more for the same content.

Second, lets remember why the itms was created. It wasn't created for selling music online. imo it was to sell ipods, which it is doing very well.

Apple DOES have those huge, wide cinima displays. maybe they want to push up sales of those (or wide screen iMacs!)

Third, protection, drm movie files, where it would be allowed to play etc. lets not even go there.

OK, we won't go there

Forth, bandwidth.. that is a given.. i hope i don't have to explain that...

it's only a given because companies like SBC are discontinuing their high speed lines!

And last i believe steve even said that a movie ipod was pointless.

again, i bring up the cinima display

So imho there won't be full length movie downloads via and payable from the itms. Now would it be cool? yes of course but with current technology and bandwidth considerations pointless.

to solve the bandwidth problems, apple could take advantage of bit torrent and come up with some alternate DRM scheame that allows them to do that. imagine, while iTunes is running, you're helping out apple with your idle bandwidth. it would also mean that the popular movies are already on your hard drive! (opt out of course, and limmit it to 10% of drive space for unpurchased vids)

 

[iJon]

i think akmai would cut apple a small deal simply cause apple specifically mentions akmai when they talk about itunes on campus now. they say click here to see what akmai can do for you or something along those lines.

iJon

 

[atari1356]

How about iTheater?