iTunes HD movie file sizes increase lately?

[Rob9874]

I have the digital copies of my son's blu-rays, and they were always 1 to 1.5GB in size. This Christmas, he got new ones - Monsters University, Despicable Me 2, Planes - and they're all around 4GB. I used to be able to fit about 3 movies on his 16GB iPad with his apps. Now I can only fit one of the new movies. Has something changed in the last year or two?

 

[Nermal]

The smaller files would've been SD. HD movies have always been several GB.

 

[Rob9874]

Wow, I hadn't noticed. Guess I just assumed digital copies from blu-rays would be HD. Now I have another thought - any way to downgrade the new ones to SD, to fit more on his iPad? 🙂

 

[Pyromonkey83]

Wow, I hadn't noticed. Guess I just assumed digital copies from blu-rays would be HD. Now I have another thought - any way to downgrade the new ones to SD, to fit more on his iPad? 🙂

In terms of "trading" the HD version for the SD version on iTunes, no, I don't believe this is possible.

I've never tried to do it with iTunes downloads, so I'm unsure if the DRM will get in the way, but you could always encode it yourself with Handbrake. With this you could even end up with smaller file sizes than iTunes SD ones and never be able to tell the difference on a screen as small as an iPad.

 

[cardsdoc]

In terms of "trading" the HD version for the SD version on iTunes, no, I don't believe this is possible.

I've never tried to do it with iTunes downloads, so I'm unsure if the DRM will get in the way, but you could always encode it yourself with Handbrake. With this you could even end up with smaller file sizes than iTunes SD ones and never be able to tell the difference on a screen as small as an iPad.

Handbrake can NOT convert iTunes DRM video.
You CAN download SD version in iTunes (instructions from Apple):
1) Make sure you have the latest version of iTunes installed on your computer.
2) Open iTunes on your computer.
3) From the Store menu, choose Store > Sign In, and then enter your Apple ID and password.
4) Navigate to your Purchased page. Find it by clicking Movies or TV Shows from the top navigation bar in the iTunes Store, and then click Purchased from "QUICK LINKS" in the iTunes Store.
5) Choose the appropriate video type: Movies or TV Shows.
6) In the lower-right corner of the screen, deselect the box next to "Download HD When Available."
7) Search for the desired video and click the download button.
8) This should download the standard definition version to your computer so you can sync to your device.

 

[niteflyr]

Wow, I hadn't noticed. Guess I just assumed digital copies from blu-rays would be HD. Now I have another thought - any way to downgrade the new ones to SD, to fit more on his iPad? 🙂

When you go to iTunes to sync movies to iPad, on the summary tab page there is an option "prefer standard definition videos" check box. This will sync SD version to iPad. I noticed when I buy an HD video from iTunes store it downloads both HD and SD versions into iTunes.

 

[ftaok]

In terms of "trading" the HD version for the SD version on iTunes, no, I don't believe this is possible.

I've never tried to do it with iTunes downloads, so I'm unsure if the DRM will get in the way, but you could always encode it yourself with Handbrake. With this you could even end up with smaller file sizes than iTunes SD ones and never be able to tell the difference on a screen as small as an iPad.

There's a preference in iTunes for selecting whether you download in HD or SD. Also, I think there's a checkbox that allows you to download both the HD and SD versions. Then on the iPad, sync the SD ones.

 

[Nermal]

I noticed when I buy an HD video from iTunes store it downloads both HD and SD versions into iTunes.

While I've seen that happen in the past, I don't believe that the current version of iTunes does that anymore (and I don't see a preference for it, although there could be one in the Store itself rather than in the iTunes app).