Will Apple make 1080p content available on iTunes?

[anthonymoody]

It occurred to me just now that if the engadget rumors prove true, it seems likely that Apple will make 1080p content available on iTunes. After all, between the ipad2's apparent new screen, and rumors of replaced hardware within an upcoming ATV 2 v2, Apple suddenly has a whole new rationale for supplying such content...

Thoughts?

 

[Apple...]

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Will it cost me extra?

 

[ovrlrd]

Things I have been wanting on iTunes since 2003:

1. Lossless Audio for Music downloads (with support for 24-bit) - This would officially kill the CD, and surpass it in terms of quality (24-bit).
2. 1080p Video for Movies and (certain) TV show downloads - Would be more competitive with Blu-ray, as long as they maintained a decent bitrate.

Both are absolutely possible with the technology Apple already offers though the products would need a little bit of software updating (or hardware in AppleTV), but they choose to not offer them for certain reasons.

The reasons are a combination of bandwidth and licensing I think. There are still some music labels who are against lossless (even though their music is all DRM free). There are still some licensing issues with movie downloads, and offering 1080p also makes it more difficult.

 

[Kainz]

Won't happen. Right now AppleTV units both v1 & 2 are dead slow for rentals, ad I'm not referring to the google dns issue either. 720p will remain the norm as it offers the best balance of HD visuals.

Can you tell the difference between 720p v 1080p? Most people cannot, they'd just want a bigger number to brag about for the most part.

The bandwidth alone for heavily compressed 1080p would be horrible, and even worse on the consumers end unless they have an ultra fast connection.

 

[OmegaRed1723]

Not to mention 1080p content absolutely crushing consumer data caps.

 

[Piggie]

Of course they will.

Eventually.

How long that is, who knows.

Saying it's too much data is silly. what would you of said in 2001 if someone spoke about downloading 4GB for a 720p film on your modem?

 

[PhazonUK]

1080p? I'm still waiting for 720p here in the UK...

 

[ssdeg7]

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Will it cost me extra?

It would be a scam if they charged extra

 

[ovrlrd]

Won't happen. Right now AppleTV units both v1 & 2 are dead slow for rentals, ad I'm not referring to the google dns issue either. 720p will remain the norm as it offers the best balance of HD visuals.

Can you tell the difference between 720p v 1080p? Most people cannot, they'd just want a bigger number to brag about for the most part.

The bandwidth alone for heavily compressed 1080p would be horrible, and even worse on the consumers end unless they have an ultra fast connection.

If you have a large enough TV it is rather easy to tell the difference between 1080p, especially at certain viewing distances.

 

[smithrh]

Not to mention 1080p content absolutely crushing consumer data caps.

+1

People forget (or don't know) how much more data is required for a bump in resolution that most folks won't even notice.

It's not necessarily a good tradeoff.

Having said that, yes, I'd like to see this but I would probably hardly ever use it.

 

[davwin]

I work in the Video industry and the current rumors getting around to us are that Apple will start offering 1080P this year. We've also heard that the price for HD movies should stay the same and that 1080P would only apply to new films being offered, no plans to upgrade the existing library. However, the content caps will supposedly be held to no higher than 6.5GB per file (movie) and the standard would be FBR. This would mean that most 1080P movies would have significant compression to them and likely only a lossy 5.1 soundtrack and that any/all extras that come with a movie via iTunes would be separate downloads, as Apple has started to do with SD and 720P movies already. Not that any of this is bad really: downloadable HD movies with generally better quality and higher resolution for the same price. But, it also means that no "videofile" will ever mistake an iTunes download for a Blu-ray.

For what its worth we've also heard that they would continue to use the same M4V wrapper, the same DRM, etc so take this rumor for what its worth.

 

[blackNBUK]

If you are attempting to fit a 1080p stream into roughly the same bitrate as a 720p stream then you are going to have to compress it a lot more. I wouldn't be surprised if the added compression artefacts from this are more noticeable than the higher resolution.

 

[MrWillie]

Since I don't buy anything from iTunes, except iPad apps, it's a non issue for me.

The real question should be "When will Apple TV support 1080P?"

Why? Rip your physical blue ray / hd DVD, or whatever the future brings us disks and stream them on your network.

 

[anthonymoody]

Won't happen. Right now AppleTV units both v1 & 2 are dead slow for rentals, ad I'm not referring to the google dns issue either. 720p will remain the norm as it offers the best balance of HD visuals.

Can you tell the difference between 720p v 1080p? Most people cannot, they'd just want a bigger number to brag about for the most part.

The bandwidth alone for heavily compressed 1080p would be horrible, and even worse on the consumers end unless they have an ultra fast connection.

ATV1&2 (along with the entire ios line of products) are due to be eol'd and replaced by dual core a5 models if you've following the rumors. They will have more than enough horsepower to drive 1080p content. A for bandwidth, it's constantly increasing as has been pointed out by others here.

And yes, i an easily tell the difference based on my screen size and seating distance. Easily.

Not to mention 1080p content absolutely crushing consumer data caps.

Not where i live.