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108 Comments
- crombenevolant, on 10/12/2007, -1/+23@onetruetweedle
You hit my biggest concern right on the head. For any serious collector you are quickly talking about terrabytes of data and terrabytes of backup.
And let's be honest, this really doesn't start becoming attractive till the quality is >dvd not less than. And then you have to figure out how to stream that much data real time which kills the wireless option.
I can buy a new DVD the opening week for about $14.99 from Best Buy, Circuit City, or Walmart. For me I don't see the value of having lesser quality, no extras, and no physical backup for $2 less. - sych0, on 10/12/2007, -14/+30Fyre - what did microsoft release today? Oh ya, patches.
- nroose, on 10/12/2007, -1/+16Steve Jobs is Disney's largest shareholder.
- robbh66, on 10/12/2007, -3/+16Exactly. Why not cough up the extra few bucks and get a DVD that I can play anywhere, rip, copy, etc as well as a medium that I dont lose when my HDD dies.
- electronicmaji, on 10/12/2007, -2/+13I think this is where most people forget that apple doesnt make stuff for the geeks and nerds it makes it for the common consumer. The common consumer doesnt have time to rip an dvd they dont even know what that is. they want their video fast now portable. simple as that.
- tacom8, on 10/12/2007, -3/+14I thought the iPod had tv out, with like a cable? Why not just use that to watch on your tv if you don't have a computer.
- teamparadox, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11Any word on video quality? Can we burn it to DVD? This article lacks the truly important details. I felt burned when I downloaded the TV shows on day1 only to find horrid quality, I dont feel like spending $15 on a movie the size of a postage stamp.
Now if Apple really wanted to make waves they would jack the price up $5 and start releasing HD content and blow Blu-Ray and HD-DVD out of the water. Then in a year they can make their own media format and let us burn them to disk for viewing in Apple set top box's or even stream them over our networks.... - i64X, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10No crap. I can put a DVD on my iPod via FREE software, which will let me choose the quality and compression settings for that screen, which will mean it'll use up less space on the device. PLUS I'll have the DVD to play in any DVD device, with full 5.1 audio that's not horribly compressed and limited to Dolby Pro Logic.
640x480 isn't bad, but it'd look like crap on my 50" HDTV, and Dolby Pro Logic with "phantom surround" is hardly a home theater experience when compared to full Dolby Digital 5.1.
Maybe if the movies were $5 for old ones and $7 for new ones, but not at the same price as DVDs. Circuit City or Best Buy always have new release specials for good movies that put them right around $15 when they first come out.
I know which I'd rather have. - whiskeymb, on 10/12/2007, -4/+13first off, awesome, almost DVD quality... now if I could just watch it on my TV, that'd be nice. I know the "iTV" is coming, but I wonder what took them so long. I don't have any laptops or machines, so does anybody know if you can burn these to DVDs?
either way, all this hype is killing me. Summa (joystiq) must be apple's protege. - armbar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7640 x 480 is pretty standard for torrented movies, but it's sort of crappy quality. It should look ok on a smaller screen, but it's going to suck on a larger screen or higher-resolution display.
If you're watching on your iPod or a portable player, 640 x 480 is crystal clear. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Convenient depending on the speed of your connection. I am willing to guess that I could drive down to a local movie store, or department store, buy the movie i want and be back home before a movie download via itunes would even finish.
- braeken, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8I just don't see why I would spend 13 dollars when I can get a real DVD for just a little bit more. It's convenient. That's for sure but I prefer the real DVD.
- Topher06, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8"I wonder how Steve convinced the fuddy-duddies at Disney to embrace new digital distribution..."
Are you serious?
Disney is whoring themselves out to every possible digital distribution mechanism that they can lay their hands on. I mean, they came out with an actual set top box that would stream exclusive Disney content through a proprietary wireless transmission network.
Also, consider that Pixar is Disney's wet dream and one of the only reasons why Disney is staying in business. Steve is on Disney's board of directors, so if Steve is going to ship movies to the masses through iTunes, Disney is on board. - kotatsu, on 10/12/2007, -5/+11Too bad it's US only. There is more to the world than the USA Apple...
- r2builder, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6You have no idea what you are talking about. If you put your iPod to "TV out" mode you can watch (and hear) any video through your TV.
It's how I watch diggnation every week.
Apple will try to sell you a fancy RGB lead, but a regular one will do - as long as you mix up the colors of the cables. Google it for more info. - dclowd9901, on 10/12/2007, -6/+11I wonder how Steve convinced the fuddy-duddies at Disney to embrace new digital distribution...
- joeyjojo, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6Yea, I agree. I mean, WHAT IS JOBS THINKING? Has the guy really ever had a profitable thought? I mean, really, what has he done? It's not like Apple and Pixar are succesful companies, right?
- mexter, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5I think that this will ultimately succeed, and it's a shame. This is just paying more for less, and will ultimately serve to drive the cost up for everything else.
- aaryn, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Well said, what sucks is that points like this one need to be repeated every single time an Apple story is posted though, it just never ends...
- nfxmedia, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5good point. digg may not be the ideal target audience.
- bluephoenix, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5maybe...but music was easier to envision because it didn't involve a TV or any form of video, and although ipods were/are expensive, at least you can carry around your entire collection of CD's with you, that was a huge selling point. You can't carry this set top around, I mean you can watch movies on your video ipod, but I don't know many people who do it that often. I just think maybe they should've waited a few more years until everything else caught up (TV technology, wireless, internet speeds, etc) I don't know....I just was expecting more I guess (I'm not even a mac fanboy either, I can only imagine the disappointment felt in that community)
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4... and keep the space on your hdd.
- chrisrim, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7Yea, I think I'd rather pay a few more dollars and get the actual DVD.
- solarisom, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I think you're totally lame.
The fact that we're still figuring out high volume, high depenability storage solutions, that the internet isn't ready to handle casually downloading a 1080p movie in a sensible amount of time, and that HDTV is only sitting in a small percentage of living rooms means you'll have to wait :-/ Think of this as a step forward.
And speaking of iTunes, it took a WHILE to download 7 today, looks like most people think iTunes doesn't suck. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5Space is cheap. There are already 1 TB hard drives scheduled to be released by the end of the year. Again, it's the connection speed that one would need to worry about. No matter how big your hard drive is or how fast Apple's servers may be able to push the data down to the customer, the choke point is the ISP. ISP's, in the states anyways, haven't quite improved their lines to the point that downloading entire (3-4 gb) movies is plausible. Streaming movies, yes. Definately. But the quality is lacking.
This is especially the case with consumers who tend to buy movies on the spur of the moment when they have nothing better to do. And lets be honest, that's probably what most movie buyers do. They may be shopping in a store for something else, then wander over to the movie section and just pick up something that will kill a little bit of time later on in the evening.
The average consumer (digg users aren't the average consumers) doesn't sit around and say "hmm, I'm bored, I'll download a movie that may take 3 or 4 hours (if you're lucky) to complete." More than likely they'll think about the time cost and go on to something else. That's not to say that there aren't those people who simply start the download and walk away, but instant gratification is #1 in today's world.
Then again, the iPod is in style right now so who knows. Maybe they'll be able to pull it off. I'll personally stick to torrents + brick and mortar stores until things get better. - zerodefect, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Ok 640x480 isn't bad. About the same as pirated content and .h264 so it's actually a bit better. Can someone answer me this though... The iPods video resolution max is 320x320 for .h264 and 480x480 for mpeg4. So are the new iPods more powerful and therefore the only way to play the new content or does the iPod get a lower res. version? If lower res. do I get both with the download or does iTunes convert (that could take a while)? If someone who has already D/led could give me the skinny that would be great.
- monkeybutler, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7In celebration to this incredible news I'm going to head out and buy these movies on DVD and watch it on my HDTV.
- joeyjojo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3""Path To 9/11" is going to be offered for download?"
I'm sure you can find it for a $1 in the bargain bins at Wal-Mart in a month's time. - Mutifus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2This is awesome, unless you live outside of the US. I live in the UK and yet again we're teased with something that they haven't released over here. First TV shows and now movies. Such a shame.
- bluephoenix, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5I don't think this will do well at all, I'm not trying to be pessimistic, but did they do their research? I applaud the attempt to break into this territory, but I just don't see the benefit. Also, they predict an average of a half hour download time per movie on broadband....no thanks....even if I were willing to shell out $300 for the set top box, I'm all set with going through all this trouble for the simple convenience of buying the movie from my chair. I'll stick to actually buying the DVD's (which is relatively cheap these days) or pirating the movie illegally and dealing with the sporatic downloads and quality fo the ripped files.
- Hickeroar, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3-12.99 for a movie
-a movie you can't burn to a DVD or watch on TV without a special ipod attachment
-a movie you can get for 13 bucks at walmart
-and have a hard copy
-which you can rip and burn and put on your ipod....
-and then watch on your tv through your funky little ipod tv attachment
-or just plug in the danged dvd - joeyjojo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I think that's what people said about iTunes and music. I wonder if iTunes ever took off with their music downloads?
- crombenevolant, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2There is talk that apple is going to set up a torrent network to help download these movies. If you allow your computer to be used (similar to warcraft or valve) they would give you credit towards future movies and music. That could get around all of the bandwidth issues.
- stmiller, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2It's b/c of copyright law. Actors/directors, etc have to get a cut of royalties. When a US product is sold/viewed overseas, the contracts and copyright law involved is VERY complex. Give the lawyers time.
- aekdbbop, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2id rather just have a netflix subscription for 9 bucks ...
- Swift2, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2First of all, the gossip was that iTunes was going to offer "Path to 9/11" for free, but they changed their minds when the reaction started. Same as Scholastic's response. Iger, reportedly, has started an investigation into how this right-wing crew got to make a movie that took him by surprise. It was started by Eisner, who wouldn't distribute "Farenheit 9/11" because "this is a family company, and why would we insult half of our audience?" felt quite differently when it came to turning this production over to some "Christianists" and a pal of Rush Limbaugh.
All they had for TV shows was Disney, too. The other studios decided, apparently, to go with Amazon, "PlaysforSure," and higher pricing. They'll come around once they see the sales.
I do think that without the "iTV", it's a much less compelling product.
And the price should definitely be lower for a product without distribution costs, and without the extras, or the ability to burn it to DVD -- and at less quality than a DVD.
Why isn't the "iTV" out sooner? My guess is the wireless networking. It's gotta be 802.11n, which is not ready yet. It was supposed to be ready. It's not. Hard to fault Apple on that. - dbr_onix, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2A small note, Valve isn't peer-to-peer, they have around 30+ content servers
- Ben - hhcv, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2How Crap! It isn't available in Australia! :P
- Antialias, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4so 20 movies.. that's about 30 gigs at the itunes movie file size. most drives today are at least 80 gigs. If it's a really big deal, just buy a firewire drive to hold your extra movies.
- askewed, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Would be nice if the store came up sometime soon...
- zerodefect, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I get a lot of the gripes people have. I was a bit disappointed myself, but a couple of points. You can burn a backup to DVD or external drive in case you loose the original. Any computer can plug into a TV and so can the iPod. A chord which only costs $20 accomplishes this. The iTV is cool because it moves all your content not just purchased *****. As someone who is familiar with Airport Express, Myth-TV and Mac-Mini for home theater setups, this is what I've been waiting for. Now if it had Tivo...
- teamparadox, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1then I guess I will just stick with dvd's. they are the same price and i dont think 640x480 will look good on my HDTV. Im sure sooner or later Apple will up the quality but for now its just not worth the asking price. People will buy them which will mean it will be later rather then sooner but honestly I can wait.
- roguescout, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2To quote Lewis Black:
"If New Zealand wants to be a part of OUR world... the people of New Zealand should hop off their island and push it a little closer."
Just kidding. ;) - crombenevolant, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@fantt
If you've got hundreds of movies and only can fit a few on a DVD it is not a very good backup system. You would be better off setting up RAID and just dupping all of your drives. But it still becomes a question of capacity. Guessing at the compression (tivo best quality, and media center best quality are both about 1 gig per 30 minutes), so you could easily be looking at only being able to put 250 movies on a tb. Then you would need another tb to back it up. - delvach, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Anybody notice the new 'skip count' field? Adds a nice way to adjust smart playlists.
- sycho, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1What is the aspect ratio of the movie? The original aspect ratio is 2.40:1.
- vudicarus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'm in the midst of downloading The Incredibles. The great thing is that I'm able to watch while downloading. 1.2 GB. The quality is great...but probably not quite like a DVD. I'm not a DVD movie buyer. I think buying the actual DVD is much better value. I do download TV shows though and a Colbert report I got today was very good, almost TV quality. The new iTunes features and organization's great (especially album view). That's my 2ยข.
- roxas, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1okay. now i want pokemon movies in there! AGH!
and of course fluke. - Protonz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Valve (The guys who make Half Life 2), have an online distribution system that works pretty good.
They have a pre-loading system where you can purchase the product before it comes out & download it. As soon as the release date hits, the files are decrypted and you start immediately. New release movies could eventually work this way.
Plus if I want an older game, I just click it and pay only like 20 bucks. A few hours later I have it. As opposed to when I was searching for Indigo Prophecy a few months ago. I went to every store (Best Buy/Futureshop, EB Games, Wal-Mart, etc). Took me about 2 hours to hit them all with no luck.
So I was left with the option of special ordering (2 week wait approx) it or pirating it (8 hour wait). Yeah... - jonabyte, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1All I really want is to be able to download movies and burn them to dvd and play them on my tv....and actually pay for the service. I know I can do it now via bittorrent without paying for it, but it would be nice if these guys would make it as easy to do this legally as it is illegally.
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