updated iTunes but all the movies are still 720p? are they waiting till the new AppleTV is out before making it available?.
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1080p movies and TV shows now on iTunes???
- Thread starter Icaras
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No, first you have to go into the iTunes preferences, store settings, and select 1080p.
It is not "just" semantics I am sorry, trancoding required no only a powerful processor to do the job but required more bandwidth, so streaming over a busy network would be a problem, playing game or doing other activities on the same computer that is servings the file, would be a problem, that's why there is a HUGE HUGE diference.
There are very few 1080p films that I could see. None of the last few weeks of new release rentals were 1080p. In fact after about 10-15 minutes of checking I only found the Twilight boxed set in 1080p. Bizarrely if you browse to the individual Twilight films they are still only in 720p. Some TV series were in 1080p.
Maybe this will ramp up over the next week, ready for launch day?
Maybe this will ramp up over the next week, ready for launch day?
Where do you think the transcoding is done, on the host computer or the ATV2? There really isn't any debate that one can feed a 1080p video to the ATV2 and that the output is downscaled to 720. As far as the end-user is concerned it doesn't matter as long as one does not need to download two different HD versions.
If that's what you think is happening when you serve a 1080p file to an aTV2, then you're mistaken. The aTV2 is taking the 1080p and outputting it at 720p. I don't know what that's called, maybe downscaling.
Everything is happening on the aTV2, not the iTunes computer. I could be wrong, but I doubt it. My iTunes server is a lowly Pentium4 mobile chip. I seriously doubt it's converting 6 Mbps 1080p files to 720p files prior to sending it over my network.
The aTV2 is doing all of the lifting needed ... and I don't even think downscaling is that intensive. My TV can easily take a 720p signal and upscale it to 1080p. It can take a 480i/p signal and upconvert to 1080p. If I had a 720p TV, I'm sure it could take a 1080i signal and de-interlace and downscale to 720p without a sweat.
ft
Cool thanks, I did that but it still shows up as 720 option only when I'm searching movies? does this automatically download it as 1080p now?.
I had the same problem. Go into itunes, then store section, its there u set it to 1080p.
On another note, im really dissapointed in the bitrate. I mean, moneyball over 2 hour long moive, a little over 5gb? I was thinking more like 8-10GB to get proper bitrate, oh well.
Firstly, some movies still don't support 1080p. Make sure it does by looking at the movie details on the lefthand side (under the movie poster image). And setting that option in the preferences will now set 1080p as your default when you download anything, if it supports 1080p of course.
Did you go into the "Purchased" page to check your downloads?
Definitely
Why are we complaining about file size and bitrate when we haven't actually seen the end result? It's like complaining that the iPad and iPhone camera is only 5mp. All that matters is the end result--once you have your Apple TV3 and you say the movie looks like crap, THEN you've got something to complain about, eh!
Worked with movies for the better half of my life. And i can tell you this. Size matters (yes thats what she said)
My immortals movie (which i tried from itunes 10 min ago), had and avg off 5mb/s bitrate in 1080p. Thats low. Compare that to the immortals bluray with avgs in around 20mb/s.
You will loose quality.
But its not like im shocked. Bandwith costs money. And all the internet "hd" streaming sites, have always had "low" quality compared to bluray
Not even apple can defy the laws of compression for high res 1080p and bitrate.
But I am anxiously waiting to see the results as I am probably going to get the AT3 even though I have the AT2. Hope there is a difference in pic quality on my 64" plasma.
Mike
Yes the bitrate is quite low compared to blu ray but bear in mind not everyone has fiber optic connection to their homes. Apple needs to make sure even those people on medium speed internet can stream these movies smoothly. I think for the vast majority of people, stuttering would ruin the viewing experience far more than having a few macroblocks here and there.
I know they won't do this, but perhaps they could have higher bitrate files for folks who download to iTunes and stream from their own network. For folks that stream through iCloud, they could get a dynamic stream that senses what your connection speed is and serve up an appropriate bitrate. Most streaming video sites do this and even Apple does this with their Quicktime video streams of keynotes and stuff.
That way, everyone is happy.