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You have $500 for movies. iTunes or buy Blu-ray drive, movies, and rip yourself?

K

Kendo

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Apr 4, 2011
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If you won $500 solely for movies, would you buy them on iTunes or buy a Blu-ray drive and a lot of movies and rip them yourself?

I want to take advantage of the Retina display and load my iPad with 1080p movies. I am not sure if I should just buy them directly from iTunes which would be much easier, or burn them myself.

Is it a pain in the butt to rip them yourself? From what I understand, I could rip them from the Blu-ray discs and encode them using Handbrake overnight.
 
Depending on the speed of your computer. I have a 2.6 quad core i7 and it takes me about 6-7 hours from ripping to encoding for a 2 hour bluray. I like doing it myself but If I had an old dual core and it took a day for 1 movie I probably wouldn't bother.
 
iTunes is so much simpler, the quality difference between the two will be barely if at all noticeable for the majority of users.
 
Kendo said:
If you won $500 solely for movies, would you buy them on iTunes or buy a Blu-ray drive and a lot of movies and rip them yourself?

I want to take advantage of the Retina display and load my iPad with 1080p movies. I am not sure if I should just buy them directly from iTunes which would be much easier, or burn them myself.

Is it a pain in the butt to rip them yourself? From what I understand, I could rip them from the Blu-ray discs and encode them using Handbrake overnight.
Click to expand...

It's a bit of a pain to rip, especially if the movie has subtitles (have to go thru a lot of steps to preserve the subtitles off blu-ray rips). Plus the cost of the drive, MakeMVK and/or any other software you may need.

Buying 1080p off iTunes is easy, but you have to manually go back and download the 720p versions if you need to also play your movie on a gen. 1 or gen. 2 AppleTV, iPhone or iPad touch.
 
CrAkD said:
Depending on the speed of your computer. I have a 2.6 quad core i7 and it takes me about 6-7 hours from ripping to encoding for a 2 hour bluray. I like doing it myself but If I had an old dual core and it took a day for 1 movie I probably wouldn't bother.
Click to expand...

I had no idea that ripping one Blu-ray takes that long! :eek:

iTunes it is!
 
xraydoc said:
It's a bit of a pain to rip, especially if the movie has subtitles (have to go thru a lot of steps to preserve the subtitles off blu-ray rips). Plus the cost of the drive, MakeMVK and/or any other software you may need.

Buying 1080p off iTunes is easy, but you have to manually go back and download the 720p versions if you need to also play your movie on a gen. 1 or gen. 2 AppleTV, iPhone or iPad touch.
Click to expand...

Yeah but iTunes aren't selling hd copies for $5-7 like best buy, Walmart are selling blurays. All hd movies are overpriced on iTunes except maybe new releases.
 
CrAkD said:
Yeah but iTunes aren't selling hd copies for $5-7 like best buy, Walmart are selling blurays. All hd movies are overpriced on iTunes except maybe new releases.
Click to expand...

Agreed. I usually start one ripping in the morning before work and finish it up when I get home. As long as I don't go on a huge Blu ray shopping spree, one a day is fine for me...

Oh.. but to answer the original question (which would involve a shopping spree), I would buy the new releases I wanted from iTunes and older movies on blu ray to get the most for the money.
 
CrAkD said:
Yeah but iTunes aren't selling hd copies for $5-7 like best buy, Walmart are selling blurays. All hd movies are overpriced on iTunes except maybe new releases.
Click to expand...
Exactly, and the OPs $500 will buy him a lot less content since digital media never is cheaper than physical for some reason. so as much as I'd like to go all digital then it's just too expensive.

My preference is to just buy a bluray that comes with a digital copy. For first viewing I'll watch the BD but for subsequent viewing then the lesser quality digital copy is good enough. Hopefully one day apple allows us to upgrade those to HD.
 
We are Apple. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated...

It depends how much you value your time and the convenience. Sure, iTunes is very convenient, but I can find sooooo many movies in my local MovieStop in Blue ray very cheap (used). Some of the prices for iTunes movies are ridiculous. Up to now I would buy DVDs (usually around $5) and rip them myself. With HD that may be a little more time consuming. I bought the Godfather Trilogy from iTunes for $18. So sometimes deals can be found. But having the option of buying physical media cheaper and coverting it is good.

So to answer your question, both. :D
 
There will be little to no difference between the itunes ripped version and your home ripped version when viewing on an iPad. However, when viewed on a large HDTV, you will be able to notice a difference. This is assuming you use HQ settings when doing the home rips.

I am still in favor of physical discs for superior sound and video quality. If you have a HQ home set up, you might as well use it to full potential
 
If you are just doing it for ripping you might as well go with iTunes.

Unless you rip full quality MKV's then you are going to lose quality in the conversion meaning it will be on par with iTunes. And with MKV's you will be taking up all the space on your iPad very quickly.

Of course, with the Blu-ray's then you have the full quality version for your TV. And can control what format/quality rips you get. But then it also costs your time.

So iTunes for connivence, Blu-ray for quality/options.
 
urkel said:
My preference is to just buy a bluray that comes with a digital copy. For first viewing I'll watch the BD but for subsequent viewing then the lesser quality digital copy is good enough. Hopefully one day apple allows us to upgrade those to HD.
Click to expand...

I do the same... especially now that Apple will match digital copies to iCloud movies for streaming. Having the Blu-Ray media gives me the best picture and sound when I want it, and the streaming versions enable my kids to watch on TV or their iOS gear while traveling without scratching up the original disc. That latter is especially important for limited release Disney movies.

New release Blu-Ray discs are typically on-sale for $23-$25 representing a $3-$5 premium over the iTunes HD price. The physical disc is worth $3-$5 to me, and one can always rip the HD version of the movie from the disc if you have the time and inclination.

Sam
 
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