iTunes 9 to Include Blu-ray Support and iPhone App Organization?

[RolandVet]

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=HD+DVD&x=0&y=0

You were saying? Oh, and look at that. 1/15th the price of a Blu-ray movie. HUH. Guess who's getting the better deal.

Planet Earth: The Complete Series [HD DVD] ~ David Attenborough (HD DVD - April 24, 2007)
68 Used & new from $19.92
This item has been discontinued by the manufacturer. (2,185)
DVD: See all 1,156 items

Read before you start claiming.
They would be lower in price than bluray seen as everyone wants to get rid of their cd's and 'no-body' wants them.

Face it... HD-DVD is dead

 

[Tallest Skil]

If history has taught us anything, the opposite of what you say on MR is what actually comes true.

I'm sick of people saying this. It's nothing but a lie. I'd like to know what you're basing this on.

Read before you start claiming.
They would be lower in price than bluray seen as everyone wants to get rid of their cd's and 'no-body' wants them.

Face it... HD-DVD is dead

So Porco was lying?

 

[ibosie]

Am I the only one bored of physical media? I want to download it, store it or trash it however I see fit, not hunt around for stupid discs taking up more physical space. Admittedly I still buy CDs but only because most downloads are lossy.

 

[Droid13]

My take:

iPhone app organisation?
Sensible, and probably necessary for those with larger numbers of apps (I personally only have 31 or 3 pages total).

Blu-Ray support on a Mac?
One way or another, for one purpose or another, it is coming to the platform.

Blu-Ray support on iTunes?
Questionable, unless there is some serious reassigning or amalgamation of roles between various bits of Apple software.

Physical media is dead or dying?
Absolutely not - there will always be a need for standalone read-only media for archival purposes if nothing else. Plus there is the added feeling of security knowing that, no matter what happens to your hard drive or internet connection, you have in your hands the movie you paid money for. That and we would need way faster internet connections - some areas I have been in are lucky to get more than about 30k connections on dial-up.

People not seeing the difference between HD and normal content?
Possible, depends on how controlled testing was and whether the same movie, screens, viewing distances were used and what those movies, screens and so on actually were. Regardless of all that, there remains the question of whether people feel any differences are worth paying for... time will tell.

The discussion about audio formats is beyond me - I can hear the difference between various levels of compression/sampling when it comes to things like drum cymbals, but at what point I can no longer tell the difference between one compression/sampling thing and another I have no idea. Will stay out of that one

 

[Povilas]

Why oh why add more bloat to iTunes? Glad to hear apps can finally be organized.

New features are bloat? iTunes needs a rewrite ASAP and that's it. Still I use iTunes everyday and my library is ~400 GB (Movies and TV Shows from iTunes for most part) and iTunes works great maybe starts not as fast as previaus versions, but fast enough. Maybe they are rewriting iTunes, because it doesn't make sense to rewrite almos all parts of the OS and leave iTunes as is.

 

[kornyboy]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7A400 Safari/528.16)

This is good to hear. I guess Apple will be doing away with the "DVD Player" app and start running everything through iTunes. This would make a lot of sense.

 

[sushi]

Can't wait for all the BR naysayers to keep up the "optical media" is dead BS.

Downloadable media is gaining in popularity quickly it seems. It's convenient and fast for those with the infrastructure.

Internet speeds are constantly improving. I pay about $25/month for my 50Mbps ADSL line. Ten years ago I was paying around $100/month for about 1Mbps ADSL line. Ten years from now, we will be working on high Mbps or even Giga at reasonable prices. Downloading movies is becoming the norm and will become more popular.

The improvement from VHS to DVD was phenomenal. The improvement from DVD to BluRay is not so dramatic. Sure it's better, but not like it was from VHS to DVD.

When you consider convenience, downloading makes sense. The price is reasonable.

I remember when the record lovers said that there was no way CDs were going to replace their beloved records. Then came the CD lovers who said that MP3s would never replace their beloved CDs. Look at where we are at today. Most folks are happy with music played on an iPod or similar device.

I would be willing to bet that the same will hold true for video. How long will it take, is the 64 dollar question. I bet it will happen sooner than most realize.

The internet is still the bottleneck for many of us.

But that will change in the future.

Face it... HD-DVD is dead

Yep, that's why the HD-DVD media is so cheap these days.

Just like the Amazon example above. They need to get rid of their stock of HD-DVD movies so they are reducing their prices.

I remember the day that Toshiba cancelled their support. Many folks that I knew were early adopters of HD-DVD. They were not happy at the news. Pissed would be a better term. They had invested (spent) large amount of funds on the players and media and now it was basically obsoleted in one day. Funny and sad at the same time.

Anyhow, I don't plan on getting BluRay unless it is standard equipment on new computer hardware that I purchase. I am happy with the SD content on iTMS for purchase and rental.

 

[Lixivial]

Sounds good except for as well as some form of social networking/media integration. I'm getting sick of these things.

So don't use them.

If there's a Twitter button I'm ditching iTunes.

Sure, there are a lot of things to complain about regarding iTunes, but optional social networking integration? That's seems rather superficial.

 

[sushi]

People not seeing the difference between HD and normal content?
Possible, depends on how controlled testing was and whether the same movie, screens, viewing distances were used and what those movies, screens and so on actually were. Regardless of all that, there remains the question of whether people feel any differences are worth paying for... time will tell.

I've seen Blu-Ray on equipment that I bet none of you can even imagine. Remember I am in Japan.

Yes, I've seen close to half million dollar systems. Was it good. Sure, no doubt about that.

However, it comes down to what you say in your last sentence above. When we moved from VHS to DVD there was a compelling reason to upgrade and spend the funds required.

This isn't the case with Blu-Ray. Even on top end systems that are available to the average consumer today, the difference is not that dramatic. Only those who are really interested in the relative improvement will purchase the equipment required to play and display a Blu-Ray video. Right now, with the economy and the cost of Blu-Ray membership (what it takes to set up your system and purchase the media) is too high for most folks to justify it at this time.

this probably means new iMac resolution will be bumped to 1920 x 1080.

Current iMac resolutions:

- 20-inch model: 1680 by 1050 pixels

- 24-inch models: 1920 by 1200 pixels

Even at the low end, we are almost there.

 

[yg17]

I'm sick of people saying this. It's nothing but a lie. I'd like to know what you're basing this on.

https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/7786939/

 

[AidenShaw]

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=HD+DVD&x=0&y=0

You were saying? Oh, and look at that. 1/15th the price of a Blu-ray movie. HUH. Guess who's getting the better deal.

So when apple introduces BR drives, what will you say then?

Read before you start claiming.
They would be lower in price than bluray seen as everyone wants to get rid of their cd's and 'no-body' wants them.

Face it... HD-DVD is dead

Yep, that's why the HD-DVD media is so cheap these days.

Just like the Amazon example above. They need to get rid of their stock of HD-DVD movies so they are reducing their prices.

I also don't see any *new* movies on that list of "bargain" HD-DVD movies....

i don't agree, alot of us will already be buying blu-rays and may want to watch them on their computer, or... laptop. so digital copy also isn't as good pic quality and can take up alot of hard drive space. so... just not my favorite thing. one thing to rent a movie, another to have to keep it on hard drives perpetually.

The "digital copy" is for your Igadgets.... Obviously, it would make more sense to play the BD movie directly on your laptop or desktop than to copy the "digital copy" to your hard drive.

Unless, of course, your computer comes from a company that refuses to put BD drives into its computers....

 

[Burai]

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=HD+DVD&x=0&y=0

You were saying? Oh, and look at that. 1/15th the price of a Blu-ray movie. HUH. Guess who's getting the better deal.

"This item has been discontinued by the manufacturer."

Although I have to say that I really don't get your point any more. Is it that all optical disc media is dead or is it that you're butt-hurt because you backed the wrong horse during the HD disc war and you're just angrily flailing around?

 

[yg17]

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=HD+DVD&x=0&y=0

You were saying? Oh, and look at that. 1/15th the price of a Blu-ray movie. HUH. Guess who's getting the better deal.

It's a great deal until your HD-DVD player eventually breaks and you can't buy a new one or get it repaired, and then you're stuck with a huge collection of movies you can't play.

Also, do me a favor and go to Amazon and try to find an HD-DVD copy of any Hollywood movie released in the past year. Good luck with that.

I'm guessing you were using Betamax well into the 90s, weren't you?

 

[rhett7660]

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=HD+DVD&x=0&y=0

You were saying? Oh, and look at that. 1/15th the price of a Blu-ray movie. HUH. Guess who's getting the better deal.

No **** they are a 1/15 of the price.... boy I bet you could of bought beta at that price too when VHS won the war. Good freaking god. Please go invest some more in a media that is no longer being supported. You deserve it.

Why don't you take a quick look at dvd sales and how they are you know not doing so well....... I will even give you a link to start you off with:

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/cemadvdsales.html

I mean, if you are pushing over a million units a month, that has to mean that optical media is dead.

Also, when was the last time you checked the united states for broadband numbers? Because there is nobody who still uses dial up. No way. Let alone dsl............

It's a great deal until your HD-DVD player eventually breaks and you can't buy a new one or get it repaired, and then you're stuck with a huge collection of movies you can't play.

Also, do me a favor and go to Amazon and try to find an HD-DVD copy of any Hollywood movie released in the past year. Good luck with that.

I'm guessing you were using Betamax well into the 90s, weren't you?

Exactly................

 

[edmundo]

Ah App organization from iTunes sounds way cool.

Now I only need the ability to transcode on sync to be expanded from Shuffles only to iPhones & al, ALAC on the phone takes waaaay too much room for the crappy DAC, headphones and speaker.

I personally have contributed to that number, and I'm praying that the audio CD format never disappears. I don't want my music to become lossy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FLAC
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Lossless

Just because CDs disappear doesn't mean lossless music does (and there's always a loss anyway, studios don't work in 16bit/44.1kHz, they're far more likely to work in 24bit/192kHz and there's the additional loss from the ADC if it's not digital music)

Face it... HD-DVD is dead

Not necessarily, it's going through a revival right now in China as CBHD/CH-DVD (the video codec and copy protection are different, but the media is the same), due to the far lower licensing rights to the tech.

The improvement from VHS to DVD was phenomenal. The improvement from DVD to BluRay is not so dramatic. Sure it's better, but not like it was from VHS to DVD.

Another thing DVD brought over VHS, which HD formats don't, is the practicality/ease of use: not having to rewind, being able to jump chapters, getting additional features (subtitles, multiple languages, alternate sound tracks e.g. audio commentary, …) or data streams (director's cut, making-up, deleted scenes, TV spots, …). Plus the quality of a DVD doesn't get worse over time (until the disk dies altogether).

 

[sushi]

I also don't see any *new* movies on that list of "bargain" HD-DVD movies....

I thought I was clear when I mentioned that Amazon reduced prices to eliminate their stock of HD-DVD movies.

Another thing DVD brought over VHS, which HD formats don't, is the practicality/ease of use: not having to rewind, being able to jump chapters, getting additional features (subtitles, multiple languages, alternate sound tracks e.g. audio commentary, …) or data streams (director's cut, making-up, deleted scenes, TV spots, …). Plus the quality of a DVD doesn't get worse over time (until the disk dies altogether).

Agree.

All very good points which promoted switching to the new format.

In the FWIW category, I've been renting a few movies from iTMS. Very convenient and good enough quality for me and my wife.

If I could rent any movie that I wanted at anytime I would definitely curb my purchases of DVDs and downloadable movies.

https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/7786939/

Nice reference.

Reminds me of day traders who always tell you that they make money. They never like to admit when they loose.

 

[Peace]

I'm still waiting for .iso support.

Why? What comes in .iso format you need access to on a Mac?

Not sure if you're referring to .iso in iTunes but Snow Leopard supports mounting .iso images and reading them and copying files from them.

 

[rdowns]

I'm sick of people saying this. It's nothing but a lie. I'd like to know what you're basing this on.

https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/7786939/

Of course, we have this too. And who could forget the soap opera that was you waiting for new Mac Pros and all that followed. Pretty epic thread.

Than again, maybe I'm just jealous of a 16 year old with a better computer than me.

 

[decksnap]

They should make an app where you could import music CDs and manage your library of audio with like playlists and stuff. Burn CDs, browse & search...

That would be a great idea.

Here's my thoughts:

Quicktime X should take over DVD and Blueray playback
Quicktime X should have something similar to the level of capabilities of Perian, built in from the get-go.
DVD Player should die.
A new fresh, clean music-only app should arise (see above)
Same deal for video

So in the end we've got separate catalog apps for photos, music, videos, contacts, and calendars, and of course the main store/syncing app SEPARATE.

 

[xbjllb]

Everyone, including hi end manufacturers know that nobody hears beyond 20k.

ONE trip to the dentist for an ultrasonic cleaning would completely convince you that EVERYBODY, including you, hears beyond 20k. Feels too.

In fact, there is NO better demonstration than an ultrasonic cleaning, and trying to reproduce it, in all its agony, at anything less than 192k.

It's dead. I truly don't know how you can't see this. Optical media is the bottleneck for the whole system. I never use my optical drives. Ever. There are far better ways to get data than spinning disks.

That's because no more than one other person, if that, WANTS your data.

Those of us, on the other hand, who need to distribute our data to a great number of people at the highest fidelity possible, need optical disks, and will for the foreseeable future.

To this day, you'd be hard pressed to find a single world class recording studio that doesn't have a DAT recorder, usually Panasonic. Which has been a completely "dead" format in the consumer world for almost two decades.

 

[coolfactor]

Whats are they doing snooping around MY source?

Haha, that's crafty!

 

[Target362]

I had a search, but couldn't find this town, is it somewhere in the States?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society

I also don't see any *new* movies on that list of "bargain" HD-DVD movies....

We stop selling HD-DVD a long time ago. All we have is a 8 foot asile for blue Ray (+ and a back wall filled with regluar DVDs. (walk in any Target and you'll know what I mean)

The "digital copy" is for your Igadgets.... Obviously, it would make more sense to play the BD movie directly on your laptop or desktop than to copy the "digital copy" to your hard drive.

Unless, of course, your computer comes from a company that refuses to put BD drives into its computers....

The digital Copy is a normal DVD. You enter the code on the paper that is in the case and it downloads automatically.

though the resolution is half ass in itunes, but it works.

and count me in for those who CAN tell the diference between 720p and 1080p/

 

[Ironduke]

bluray on anthing less then a 42" screen just isnt worth it, I would sooner apple made the Hard drive replaceable.

 

[mixel]

and count me in for those who CAN tell the diference between 720p and 1080p/

Frustrates me when people claim you can't tell the difference without a large screen. I only have a 32" screen and the difference between 720p and 1080p is obvious from my sofa metres away. Does everyone just have terrible eye-sight?

 

[xbjllb]

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=HD+DVD&x=0&y=0

You were saying? Oh, and look at that. 1/15th the price of a Blu-ray movie. HUH. Guess who's getting the better deal.

Want a real deal? Wait three weeks, and you can pick them out of the dumpsters at Fry's for free.

YOU should have remained neutral on this one, buying an LG player for example that played both, as I did. Then you'd discover how stupid the menu-less implementation of HD-DVD truly is compared to Blu-ray and how non-intuitive it is to access all the additional features, MANY of which still aren't available on HD-DVD but are on Blu-ray.

Frustrates me when people claim you can't tell the difference without a large screen. I only have a 32" screen and the difference between 720p and 1080p is obvious from my sofa metres away. Does everyone just have terrible eye-sight?

No, just various tangentially related agenda, from difficulty of piracy to sour grapes over picking the inferior format (HD-DVD) to some gamers' beef with Sony to complete total ignorance from never having compared Blu-ray on a 65" plasma with DVD.