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Buy HD movies on iTunes?

P

pablol

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 23, 2003
54
0
Berlin
Hi-

I'm wondering when/if Apple will make movies available for sale in HD. I know you can rent them in HD on Apple TV, but if you buy they aren't in HD. My biggest grip with my Apple TV is that you hook it up to a nice, big HD TV and then the movies you buy aren't HD. But I don't wanna get into Blu-Ray as I like the convenience of just clicking on what I want and not having to store discs. Is there any reason why Apple couldn't do this now? What are they waiting for?
 
I find this hugely frustrating. I would buy movies on my Apple TV if they were in HD. I only rent HD. It seems so stupid to buy DVDs now. I only have a 42" 720p plasma, but that's really fine for me. I don't want Blu-Ray, I would be satisfied with HD from iTunes.
 
Correct me if I'm wrong...

Movies purchased on ATV are 480i and movies/shows rented as HD are 720p?

Does anyone know why Apple won't allow purchase of DVD quality movies?
 
American bandwidth isn't up to the job yet. Nor is storage capacity, generally.

Currently, HD movies on iTunes are low-bitrate 720P. I've got 8mbps cable internet and a 40' 1080P tv and these do pretty well, but not everyone has this speed internet or the big tv to make the difference. We all know his Steveness likes uniform options, so he probably traded off file size, bit-rate, required connection speed and average tv for the widest possible audience.

To download and enjoy a blu-ray quality movie I'd need way faster internet even if my tv is capable. Since the US lags so far behind the rest of the world in 'net speed (and now comcast and others have instituted pathetically small bandwidth caps) it doesn't make sense to send such a huge file across the 'net.

Particularly since we can't all afford 12TB RAID arrays to store our pruchases, even assuming we could transport them.
 
NightStorm said:
No, studios.

Why not continue with your super-HD theory regarding Bluray and apply that to iTunes video content? :confused:
Click to expand...

Oh, I expect 1080p content in iTunes FAR before Super Hi-Vision becomes standard for DISKS.

My dissertation there is to explain when we'll see Blu-ray in Macs, not anything about iTunes in particular.

I'll bet we see 1080p iTunes content when the Apple TV can handle it, or 2011-12.
 
mrrory said:
I find this hugely frustrating. I would buy movies on my Apple TV if they were in HD. I only rent HD. It seems so stupid to buy DVDs now. I only have a 42" 720p plasma, but that's really fine for me. I don't want Blu-Ray, I would be satisfied with HD from iTunes.
Click to expand...

The reason we can't buy HD movies from the iTunes Store yet is because the movie studios and other content owners won't let Apple sell it. I seriously doubt Apple doesn't want to sell HD movies, since they are currently selling HD TV shows. But until the movie studios and the MPAA get their collective heads out of their collective backsides and stop shaking in their boots about non-existent "piracy" we are not going to be able to purchase HD movies online.

I would hazard a guess, though, that Apple is constantly bringing up the subject with the studios. As it stands right now, by not allowing HD purchases online they are essentially leaving good money on the table. Not a whole lot, for sure, but there is money to be made through online purchases of HD content.

Regards,
Michael
 
Tallest Skil said:
I'll bet we see 1080p iTunes content when the Apple TV can handle it, or 2011-12.
Click to expand...

I hope you are right, but the cynic in me has to agree with Thanatoast. The US simply doesn't have the broadband bandwidth (or penetration in some areas), even in the most urban of urban areas, to make downloading 1080p movies even remotely feasible.

Right now a 45 minute TV episode encoded at 720p is a little over 1 GB. And that takes over 2 hours for me to download on my 3 Mbps DSL. A 1080p movie would take me days to download. I think it's just not feasible to hope for 1080p video for the foreseeable future.

Regards,
Michael
 
There has been evidence in the iTunes Store that they are at least working on the framework for selling HD movies in the iTunes store... a week or two ago Iron Man was shown available for purchase with a HD logo to the left of the price.
 
ntrigue said:
Movies purchased on ATV are 480i and movies/shows rented as HD are 720p?

Does anyone know why Apple won't allow purchase of DVD quality movies?
Click to expand...

The purchases are 480p, and any movie now brought to iTunes is encoded using a newer Anamorphic encoding method. It is DVD quality.
 
NightStorm said:
There has been evidence in the iTunes Store that they are at least working on the framework for selling HD movies in the iTunes store... a week or two ago Iron Man was shown available for purchase with a HD logo to the left of the price.
Click to expand...

Yea. I can vouche for this. I saw it. (It was posted on AppleTV Junkie). I'm not sure if anybody actually tied to DL it or not. It was there for a couple of hours and then removed.

Apple has been doing stuff like this under the radar alot. Another example is they are now offereing 1.99 HD rentals in their 99c special of the week...no announcements or anything. Its just there.

I have a feeling we'll be seeing HD purchases soon.
 
dmm219 said:
Yea. I can vouche for this. I saw it. (It was posted on AppleTV Junkie). I'm not sure if anybody actually tied to DL it or not. It was there for a couple of hours and then removed.

Apple has been doing stuff like this under the radar alot. Another example is they are now offereing 1.99 HD rentals in their 99c special of the week...no announcements or anything. Its just there.

I have a feeling we'll be seeing HD purchases soon.
Click to expand...

It was reported that the download was the SD version already available.
 
zedsdead said:
The purchases are 480p, and any movie now brought to iTunes is encoded using a newer Anamorphic encoding method. It is DVD quality.
Click to expand...

Does that mean that movies purchased before a certain date were encoded with a less-than DVD quality method and only newer ones are DVD quality? My guess is Apple will eventually offer HD downloads, but they will be 720p or DVD quality, and you'll have to pay to upgrade your existing library just like iTunes to iTunes Plus. I actually would be satisfied with DVD quality on iTunes as some movies you don't really need Blu-Ray quality... I mean do you really need to see Office Space, for example, in 1080i? But a movie like the Dark Knight is a must.
 
pablol said:
Does that mean that movies purchased before a certain date were encoded with a less-than DVD quality method and only newer ones are DVD quality? My guess is Apple will eventually offer HD downloads, but they will be 720p or DVD quality, and you'll have to pay to upgrade your existing library just like iTunes to iTunes Plus. I actually would be satisfied with DVD quality on iTunes as some movies you don't really need Blu-Ray quality... I mean do you really need to see Office Space, for example, in 1080i? But a movie like the Dark Knight is a must.
Click to expand...

Pablol..... 480p is the current standard for DVD quality. The upconversion DVD players upconvert the content to 540p. 720p is considered high definition. 1080p is just another step up in high definition. It can be argued for hours upon hours if 1080p is worth it over 720p.

So yes, the Apple TV already provides you with DVD quality movies. I don't know if they do 720p.

Oh and 1080i (i stands for interlaced) is relatively speaking the same as 720p.
 
OCraised said:
Pablol..... 480p is the current standard for DVD quality. The upconversion DVD players upconvert the content to 540p. 720p is considered high definition. 1080p is just another step up in high definition. It can be argued for hours upon hours if 1080p is worth it over 720p.

So yes, the Apple TV already provides you with DVD quality movies. I don't know if they do 720p.

Oh and 1080i (i stands for interlaced) is relatively speaking the same as 720p.
Click to expand...
DVD's are 720. The connection between the player and the TV, usually an RCA cable (Red, Yellow, White) is only 480. If you hook your DVD player to your TV with HDMI you can get a 720 picture with no up-conversion or 1080 with up-conversion. iTunes HD is the same 720 as a DVD but with a lower bitrate, thus a somewhat less crisp picture.
 
Thanatoast said:
DVD's are 720. The connection between the player and the TV, usually an RCA cable (Red, Yellow, White) is only 480. If you hook your DVD player to your TV with HDMI you can get a 720 picture with no up-conversion or 1080 with up-conversion. iTunes HD is the same 720 as a DVD but with a lower bitrate, thus a somewhat less crisp picture.
Click to expand...

US DVDs are 720x480 .. hence 480p. Not 720. 720 is the first step of HD.

Here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD#DVD-Video
and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_TV#Standard_Display_Resolutions

for details.
 
pablol said:
Does that mean that movies purchased before a certain date were encoded with a less-than DVD quality method and only newer ones are DVD quality?
Click to expand...

Yes. The Anamorphic Encoding began for Movies when the rentals were announced in January of 2008. They began encoding TV Shows in Anamorphic once HD purchases became available this past september.

Previously, all widescreen was encoded at 640x480. With Anamorphic, they display 853x480 (assuming the source is 16x9...the 480 changes depending on aspect ratio).

Fullscreen is still 640x480.
 
Winnterpeg said:
I'm looking forward to purchasing HD movies. It will be great to have a legal, convenient source of HD movies for the Apple Tv! ;)
Click to expand...

When talking about backups of disk media, the laws are actually in conflict with one another.

It is legal for you to make backups of all of your disks, say, on your computer's hard drive.

The method used to do the backing up circumvents the DRM of the disk in many instances, making it less... legal to do.

BUT, that's not to say that you can't just rip a legally-purchased HD DVD or BD to your hard drive, convert the 1080p movie to an MP4, and then port it to your Apple TV to play.

Wait, port as a 720p movie to play on the Apple TV and keep the 1080p version to watch on your computer until the new Apple TV comes out.
 
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