Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Are iTunes movie downloads worth it?

M

matthuds

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 15, 2008
21
0
UK
I have never used iTunes to download a movie before and am considering this option now I have an iPad.

However as most movies on iTunes are the same price or often more then the DVD would be in the store. I want to know if I download a film onto my iPad, and subsequently decide I want to watch it on my TV, and connect my iPad to my TV or watch it on my MBP will it be the same quality as a DVD? Or am I best to do it in reverse and go to the hassle of buying the DVD and ripping it?

I dont mind paying a little more for the convenience, but if the quality is not as good as DVD is it really worth it?
 
matthuds said:
I have never used iTunes to download a movie before and am considering this option now I have an iPad.

However as most movies on iTunes are the same price or often more then the DVD would be in the store. I want to know if I download a film onto my iPad, and subsequently decide I want to watch it on my TV, and connect my iPad to my TV or watch it on my MBP will it be the same quality as a DVD? Or am I best to do it in reverse and go to the hassle of buying the DVD and ripping it?

I dont mind paying a little more for the convenience, but if the quality is not as good as DVD is it really worth it?
Click to expand...

I haven't bought movies directly to the iPad, but I have for AppleTV. I can tell you that to my eyes, the standard def movies on iTunes are slightly lower quality than DVD. But the Hi Def movies on iTunes are higher quality than DVD. So I go for the Hi Def version.
 
VTMac said:
I haven't bought movies directly to the iPad, but I have for AppleTV. I can tell you that to my eyes, the standard def movies on iTunes are slightly lower quality than DVD. But the Hi Def movies on iTunes are higher quality than DVD. So I go for the Hi Def version.
Click to expand...

And to add to that note, the hidef versions are lower quality than blu-ray discs.

So it all comes down to what quality you are looking for. Additionally, the audio of the hidef version will not match that of a blu-ray disc.
 
To me it's always nice having a physical copy to fall back on. Since you can decide the quality of the rip, I imagine anything you put on your IPad will be as good as what you can download from ITunes.
 
matthuds said:
I have never used iTunes to download a movie before and am considering this option now I have an iPad.

However as most movies on iTunes are the same price or often more then the DVD would be in the store. I want to know if I download a film onto my iPad, and subsequently decide I want to watch it on my TV, and connect my iPad to my TV or watch it on my MBP will it be the same quality as a DVD? Or am I best to do it in reverse and go to the hassle of buying the DVD and ripping it?

I dont mind paying a little more for the convenience, but if the quality is not as good as DVD is it really worth it?
Click to expand...

I try to buy Blu-rays with a digital copy included. I only rent movies directly from iTunes.
 
While DVD and BluRay will not sold in a few years, I still buy them so that while watching on a TV I have the best quality, then I make digital copies of the DVD with Handbrake.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back