Anyone making the move to purchase movies in iTunes from ripping blu rays?

[pedz]

Now that apple has made a few key improvements on their purchase model they are very closely to an ideal situation for me:
- library in the cloud, can access from anywhere.
- can access different resolutions based on the device.
- supports 1080p.

Only concern is DRM. The idea that once I buy the movie I am married to apple for life to watch it doesn't thrill me (what if ultraviolet is successful?), but the rest of it is so ideal that for the first time I am considering making the move to buying movies in iTunes and no longer ripping them. What would be perfect would be for them to do what Walmart is doing and let you get digital copies for already owned movies.

Assuming the HBO deal is worked out so all studios work with the cloud is anyone else considering making the move from buying disks to buying in iTunes?

 

[heliocentric]

Only being able to play content on apple devices is a problem that would put me off. I mean even though I only have Apple products now who knows what the future will bring...

One problem with making bluray rips is that they are encoded at 24p (mostly) which atv cant output as far as I know.

 

[darster]

No intentions of buying movies from itunes. I can buy BR movies cheaper from Amazon.

 

[atandon]

Only being able to play content on apple devices is a problem that would put me off. I mean even though I only have Apple products now who knows what the future will bring...

Ditto. Though I got to admit that the whole ripping exercise can become very arduous after some time

 

[eliehass]

I think I'm going to switch to buying from iTunes now instead of getting blu-rays. I'm ok with the drm, being as I only really use apple devices. I wouldn't be surprised if they removed the drm at some point though, like they did with their music.

I'm just really impressed at the quality apple managed to have in their 1080p especially considering the file size. I know that it's not as good as blu-ray, but for my purposes it's good enough, and iCloud just makes it better.

 

[atandon]

I think I'm going to switch to buying from iTunes now instead of getting blu-rays. I'm ok with the drm, being as I only really use apple devices. I wouldn't be surprised if they removed the drm at some point though, like they did with their music.

I'm just really impressed at the quality apple managed to have in their 1080p especially considering the file size. I know that it's not as good as blu-ray, but for my purposes it's good enough, and iCloud just makes it better.

Good points. I am also tempted.
The other thing I noticed is that typically their AC3 track sounds much better than my DTS converted AC3 track. Which kind of makes sense.

 

[eliehass]

The only shows or movies that I'm willing to buy from iTunes are the ones that have 1080p and closed captions. I'm really hoping they roll those two out to more content.

 

[CrAkD]

Im just starting to rip blurays. I don't think ill ever buy from itunes. their prices are too high especially for tv shows. But i am kind of taken aback by how much longer blurays take then dvds. I could do a dvd in about an hour or so. My first bluray is taking about 5 hours to encode. however these are just my settings hopefully when handbrake releases an official preset it trim the time down a bit. or ill def have to get a new mac pro rather then an imac.

 

[WebHead]

The only two factors putting me off are DRM and price. I'm hoping the studios eventually realise that DRM-free plus cheap is the only way to compete with DRM-free plus free!

 

[Mike Valmike]

One problem with making bluray rips is that they are encoded at 24p (mostly) which atv cant output as far as I know.

ATV can output them. The iTMS 1080p movies are 24fps too. Any movie filmed at 24fps is going to be encoded at 24fps, because that's how many frames there are. What ATV does (and anything that has to output to 30fps) is interpolate the framerate, doubling every sixth frame. To the human eye, the difference is very subtle, so much so that in some genres of movie (comedy, drama, etc) it is all but unnoticeable. In other genres, especially action or sci-fi, you can definitely tell and it will annoy you by just looking... wrong.

For interlaced sources it's even weirder -- instead of interpolating the framerate with doubling, they do a telecine between the interlaced frames to "create" a new frame every sixth.

In any case, a $45 blu-ray player can correctly switch framerates as necessary when the destination device supports it. (For example, 120hz TVs are great because 120 is a multiple of both 30 and 24, so both framerates can be shown natively.) If a cheap junk Chinese BR drive can do this, why can't Apple and its supposedly best hardware out there?

 

[MagnumJoe]

No intentions of buying movies from itunes. I can buy BR movies cheaper from Amazon.

How are they cheaper on Amazon? When I looked at the HD movies they are the same price as iTunes. I'm a prime member, did I miss something?

 

[MattG]

I think I'm going to switch to buying from iTunes now instead of getting blu-rays. I'm ok with the drm, being as I only really use apple devices. I wouldn't be surprised if they removed the drm at some point though, like they did with their music.

I'm just really impressed at the quality apple managed to have in their 1080p especially considering the file size. I know that it's not as good as blu-ray, but for my purposes it's good enough, and iCloud just makes it better.

This about sums it up for me. Don't really care about the DRM, and I too figure eventually it'll go away, just like with the music. Quality may not be exactly the same, but for me the convenience makes it worth it.

 

[darster]

How are they cheaper on Amazon? When I looked at the HD movies they are the same price as iTunes. I'm a prime member, did I miss something?

You can find specials all the time. One example, Star Trek Wrath of Khan $1 less on amazon. Plenty of others that are $1 to $2 less. New releases are close in price, but anything out more than 1 year is usually cheaper on Amazon.

 

[Michael CM1]

I think I'm going to switch to buying from iTunes now instead of getting blu-rays. I'm ok with the drm, being as I only really use apple devices. I wouldn't be surprised if they removed the drm at some point though, like they did with their music.

I'm just really impressed at the quality apple managed to have in their 1080p especially considering the file size. I know that it's not as good as blu-ray, but for my purposes it's good enough, and iCloud just makes it better.

Don't be so sure about removing DRM. That was done with music because CDs had no DRM, and therefore you could rip them on almost any computer. DVDs and BDs have DRM, so it will take a cold day in hell before Hollywood lets go of that.

 

[thatoneguy82]

Now that apple has made a few key improvements on their purchase model they are very closely to an ideal situation for me:
- library in the cloud, can access from anywhere.
- can access different resolutions based on the device.
- supports 1080p.

Only concern is DRM. The idea that once I buy the movie I am married to apple for life to watch it doesn't thrill me (what if ultraviolet is successful?), but the rest of it is so ideal that for the first time I am considering making the move to buying movies in iTunes and no longer ripping them. What would be perfect would be for them to do what Walmart is doing and let you get digital copies for already owned movies.

Assuming the HBO deal is worked out so all studios work with the cloud is anyone else considering making the move from buying disks to buying in iTunes?

What would be great (if it's already not in place) is if Apple would allow to buy/own the movie after viewing, less the rental price. Basically similar to the Complete My Album, TV Season. I love that feature since I'm not sure about the TV show but I don't want to commit to it. At least that 2.99 that I paid is going towards the 39.99 TV season. With the movies, rental is usually 4.99 and after viewing, the movie can be owned for whatever the current price is, less 4.99. If this is the case, I'd definitely switch. It's more like a "try it before you buy" scenario.

The only shows or movies that I'm willing to buy from iTunes are the ones that have 1080p and closed captions. I'm really hoping they roll those two out to more content.

Yes! I wish every single content that plays on the ATV has CC, even the one on Netflix. It's annoying on how it's only available on certain content.

 

[heliocentric]

ATV can output them. The iTMS 1080p movies are 24fps too. Any movie filmed at 24fps is going to be encoded at 24fps, because that's how many frames there are. What ATV does (and anything that has to output to 30fps) is interpolate the framerate, doubling every sixth frame. To the human eye, the difference is very subtle, so much so that in some genres of movie (comedy, drama, etc) it is all but unnoticeable. In other genres, especially action or sci-fi, you can definitely tell and it will annoy you by just looking... wrong.

For interlaced sources it's even weirder -- instead of interpolating the framerate with doubling, they do a telecine between the interlaced frames to "create" a new frame every sixth.

In any case, a $45 blu-ray player can correctly switch framerates as necessary when the destination device supports it. (For example, 120hz TVs are great because 120 is a multiple of both 30 and 24, so both framerates can be shown natively.) If a cheap junk Chinese BR drive can do this, why can't Apple and its supposedly best hardware out there?

As far as I know yes the ATV will play the 24p content but at the wrong refresh rate so it makes things look "juddery" especially during panning scenes. I was always under the impression that HD films were on itunes where encoded at 30p.

My TV can do 24p and switched to that whenever I played a bluray through my old PS3 but the ATV was just locked to whatever refresh rate you set it too (which in my case is 50hz being in the UK).

I read all these posts about people making their own bluray encodes which is great but I wonder if other people have noticed this problem or maybe it just doesn't bother them?

 

[pedz]

The only two factors putting me off are DRM and price. I'm hoping the studios eventually realise that DRM-free plus cheap is the only way to compete with DRM-free plus free!

Agree, those are the two items that give me reservations (DRM/price). In general I think the pricing is similar to amazon and others. But as others have mentioned, amazon often has deals, and for older movies they sometimes have pretty significant discounts, which I rarely see from apple.

I think Apple may have hit the sweet spot and could see some real growth in movie sales. Key is for them to have a complete selection so I can buy any movie at 1080p. Find it very strange that some movies are available to rent only. I can understand a movie being purchase only, but I can't imagine the licensing issue that would cause a movie to be rental only.

 

[NightStorm]

I've gone back and forth on this for quite some time. Honestly, the DRM doesn't bother me too much, but the quality of the end product does. With my personal Bluray encodes, I get to have some control over the output; this allows me to do "tricks" like custom anamorphic to get a little bit more visual quality out of my 720p encodes. However, it also means that I am compressing an already compressed video track, and typically transcoding audio from DTS to AC3. The iTunes copy starts with a much higher quality source for both tracks and they aren't having to transcode between lossy formats.

I guess I need to make up my mind soon; The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo comes out on Tuesday and I'm going to buy it one way or another. One benefit to encoding my own Blurays is that I have the opportunity to purchase titles not yet released on iTunes (or in the states)... just picked up two Studio Ghibli films, Arrietty and Laputa: Castle in the Sky from the UK and had no problems getting them into iTunes.

Bottom line, I think if my iPad 2 was able to play iTunes 1080p content, I think I would be more inclined to switch over to buying the majority of my movie content from iTunes.

 

[pedz]

I've gone back and forth on this for quite some time. Honestly, the DRM doesn't bother me too much, but the quality of the end product does. With my personal Bluray encodes, I get to have some control over the output; this allows me to do "tricks" like custom anamorphic to get a little bit more visual quality out of my 720p encodes. However, it also means that I am compressing an already compressed video track, and typically transcoding audio from DTS to AC3. The iTunes copy starts with a much higher quality source for both tracks and they aren't having to transcode between lossy formats.

I guess I need to make up my mind soon; The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo comes out on Tuesday and I'm going to buy it one way or another. One benefit to encoding my own Blurays is that I have the opportunity to purchase titles not yet released on iTunes (or in the states)... just picked up two Studio Ghibli films, Arrietty and Laputa: Castle in the Sky from the UK and had no problems getting them into iTunes.

Bottom line, I think if my iPad 2 was able to play iTunes 1080p content, I think I would be more inclined to switch over to buying the majority of my movie content from iTunes.

If a motivating factor is being able to play 1080p on your iPad 2 then you have to plan for the future and assume you will eventually have an iPad that can play 1080p. Assuming that wouldn't it make sense to start building the library now? Plus, the great thing is you can download 720p versions for now until that day comes. I think the ability to download different resolutions is very powerful and people may underestimate the benefit of it. Without that you either have to keep re-enconding as formats change or encode at the highest quality and forego some devices that can't handle it.

 

[eliehass]

As far as pricing and amazon sales is concerned, I know that iTunes often has sales on TV series. They will almost always be offering certain season s of a show at a discount, and they feature a different show every week (called the TV Show of the Week) which is offered at discount. So it's not as if iTunes isn't offering sales as well.

I also like the fact that iTunes usually offers the pilots of new series for free when the series first comes out, so you can try it out before committing to purchase.

 

[WebHead]

I guess you could start buying from iTunes in the hope that one day you'll be able to re-download all your purchases DRM-free, if and when they ditch it.

 

[Moonjumper]

I would consider swapping to iTunes for the films where I'm not expecting the image quality to not be so important, such as comedies, etc. But those are the films I wait to buy until they are cheaper, something that probably won't happen on iTunes. So the final answer is probably not.

 

[Dhelsdon]

DRM can be removed, I've done it with a movie on iTunes before.. Mind you I am not even taking into consideration the loss of quality by doing so.

I followed this guide on windows, and heres one for us Mac folk. I was using a cracked version of the program to test and it worked good. I didn't notice any difference playing the two side by side but I'm not the most quality oriented person when it comes to video quality.

[MOD NOTE]
No links to guides or software for DRM Removal.

 

[NightStorm]

Completely forgot another feature that would push me over to buying movies almost exclusively through iTunes -- iTunes Extras support on the AppleTV and iPad! At this point they are completely an afterthought as I cannot see myself sitting in front of my computer to interact with these.

This would also give me reason to restart my work on creating "homegrown" ones for some of my favorite movies.

 

[eliehass]

Completely forgot another feature that would push me over to buying movies almost exclusively through iTunes -- iTunes Extras support on the AppleTV and iPad! At this point they are completely an afterthought as I cannot see myself sitting in front of my computer to interact with these.

This would also give me reason to restart my work on creating "homegrown" ones for some of my favorite movies.

You can make your own iTunes extras files? I would love to do that!