Do you plan to download TV SHows?

[asif786]

i've been thinking about it..because:

first off - dvd's here are a lot more expensive compared to the states. when they're first released, season sets are around £40 ($70). compared to the $34 on itunes.

i know the quality isn't as good - but because i'm stupid i'd probably buy it on itunes AND on dvd too. why? because apple's encoding from some damned good originals..so while it may seem that the resolution is crappy, i'm sure they actually look very good. can anyone confirm? i'd rather apple do the hard work of encoding instead of me.

with regards to content..give it time. i bet by the end of the month we'll see lot's more shows. i think they should team up with NBC so we can see those friends classics (you can ALWAYS watch an episode of friends again )

i'm surprised they didn't strike a deal with the bbc though. kinda disappointing. seeing as the bbc aren't actually allowed to make a profit, us UK peeps maybe could've got some free d/loads

(and no, i'm not making any 'serious' purchases at the rip-off-britain price of £1.89. you've got to be kidding)

 

[asif786]

Ditto. I thought something was wrong. We will probably see a patch tomorrow, assuming we're not doing something wrong.

well, steve demo'd it in his presentation - so it seems like it's built in. perhaps they've turned it off for now while traffic is very high..

 

[bluebomberman]

well, steve demo'd it in his presentation - so it seems like it's built in. perhaps they've turned it off for now while traffic is very high..

Maybe the only reason it worked for him was because he was divine for a moment playing god with Photo Shoot...

 

[macbaseball]

well, steve demo'd it in his presentation - so it seems like it's built in. perhaps they've turned it off for now while traffic is very high..

Perhaps. I just went back and did the exact same thing as Steve in the demo, and it didn't work. I'm wondering if I need to check some box in preferences...

 

[pknz]

Well I possibly might if iTunes Store eventually makes its way to New Zealand...

 

[CyberDoberman]

What CPU do you have, and how long does it take for the ripping and encoding all together?

Ripping is slightly faster on my windows box (P4 2.8ghz 1Gig Ram) than my current PowerMac (Dual G5 2.7Ghz 2Gig Ram)...

I recently did a test... took about 10minutes 30seconds on the P4, about 11 Minutes even on the Mac.

So... thats part of my problem. I can "rip" an ENTIRE episode of LOST, if I wanted, in about 2 minutes... versus the 20 minutes it'll take to download it.

And I'm supposed to PAY FOR THAT? hehe nope... no thanks!

 

[Stampyhead]

I downloaded a couple episodes of "The Suite Life of Zack & Cody" (a kids show from the Disney Channel) for my niece and the quality seemed pretty good (the little bit of it I could stand to watch), even played full screen on my 17" Powerbook. I doubt these shows will ever make it to DVD so the iTMS is really the only way to get them.
One thing I haven't been able to figure out, however, is how to move the video files between computers after download. I tried to import the files themselves but iTunes would not recognize them. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[Dr. Dastardly]

I downloaded a couple episodes of "The Suite Life of Zack & Cody" (a kids show from the Disney Channel) for my niece and the quality seemed pretty good (the little bit of it I could stand to watch), even played full screen on my 17" Powerbook. I doubt these shows will ever make it to DVD so the iTMS is really the only way to get them.
One thing I haven't been able to figure out, however, is how to move the video files between computers after download. I tried to import the files themselves but iTunes would not recognize them. Anyone have any ideas?

Can you use the Powerbook to set up on your tv, that might give an impression on how they look on a normal setup.

 

[puckhead193]

the real question is when will family guy be available to download
I hope at MWSF they annouce more shows/companies like fox and NBC.... if i can watch law and order SVU on my ipod and family guy...that would be the life

 

[nutmac]

Unlike DVD, iTunes will have an episode to download the day after it aired on TV. And unlike DVD, you can download only the episode you liked/missed. If you are trying to collect an entire season, DVD is obviously the way to go, with superior audio and video quality, lower cost per episode, and often, a bit of extra contents. It's currently tedious (insert DVD, run MacTheRipper, run Toast) and time consuming to "rip" an H.264 file, however.

I am mostly bummed by 4x3 (320x240) aspect ratio on TV show contents. Lost and Desperate Housewives are shown on widescreen 16x9 (320x188) form factor and I want to see the whole thing.

 

[GFLPraxis]

Is it not illegal to crack the encryption on a DVD to rip it in some countries?

 

[MrSugar]

It's all about the sports.


If I could get NFL football games, pardon the interruption, hockey games, or sports center, I would definitely jump.

Oh, and if Fox "24" was available.

 

[Stampyhead]

Can you use the Powerbook to set up on your tv, that might give an impression on how they look on a normal setup.

I don't know, good question. I'll have to give it a try.

 

[ajkst1]

What do the episodes look like fullscreen on the iMac or on another machine? I'm not a quality freak, but I can tell when it looks like crap and when it doesn't. Anyone with experience care to share?

 

[jaw04005]

What CPU do you have, and how long does it take for the ripping and encoding all together?

I'm in the process of converting a 480 x 360 music video that is 4 minutes and 25 seconds in length to the new iPod video format. After a hour and half, QuickTime is showing that the conversion is only 60% complete. I'm using a PowerBook G4 1.33Ghz and 1.256GB ram.

h.264 takes FOREVER to encode!

I wonder if iTunes converts videos that you add to it automatically? Similar to Windows Media Player 10?

 

[MarkCollette]

Ripping is slightly faster on my windows box (P4 2.8ghz 1Gig Ram) than my current PowerMac (Dual G5 2.7Ghz 2Gig Ram)...

I recently did a test... took about 10minutes 30seconds on the P4, about 11 Minutes even on the Mac.

So... thats part of my problem. I can "rip" an ENTIRE episode of LOST, if I wanted, in about 2 minutes... versus the 20 minutes it'll take to download it.

And I'm supposed to PAY FOR THAT? hehe nope... no thanks!

But you didn't say how long it would take to encode to something like divx or H.264. I personally couldn't justify losing a gigabyte or so of disk space per episode. I usually download 350 MB divx TV episodes.

 

[MarkCollette]

I'm in the process of converting a 480 x 360 music video that is 4 minutes and 25 seconds in length to the new iPod video format. After a hour and half, QuickTime is showing that the conversion is only 60% complete. I'm using a PowerBook G4 1.33Ghz and 1.256GB ram.

h.264 takes FOREVER to encode!

I wonder if iTunes converts videos that you add to it automatically? Similar to Windows Media Player 10?

Ouch! I used ffmpegx to transcode TV episodes to divx, and it was faster on my G3 CPU !

 

[wordmunger]

No.

I have TiVo.

 

[0098386]

nope! not whilst they are free and legal *i think* to download recorded TV DivX bit torrents.
sure enough when/if it comes out on DVD the sites take the torrents down. fair play.

again no though. They're currently only offering shows I dont like. Not too keen on american TV.

 

[Chrispy]

Why is that a great price? 2usd an episode makes seasons over 50usd!!! And they would be free over the air?!? I'd rather them have included a tv tuner, so you could PVR them to the ipod.

A TV tuner would have been an AWESOME addition! I agree that $2 seems steep when you do the math. If only they sold classic shows like Cheers in 2 or 3 episode sets then I would be interested.

 

[Whyren]

(to the tune of Hawaii Five-O)

No-no-no-no no no, no-no no-no no...

Sorry. Not interest. I've only recently come around to wanting TV on DVD, and based on my lagging technology curve, it'll be some time before I'm interested in this.

 

[Stampyhead]

What do the episodes look like fullscreen on the iMac or on another machine? I'm not a quality freak, but I can tell when it looks like crap and when it doesn't. Anyone with experience care to share?

A little pixellated, but still watchable.

 

[wPod]

its like the old napster and itunes. . . when napster was out and music was free, i was downloading it then, when itunes came out and i was given a legal alterntative, i went with it. the quality and ease of use was much better and worth the price. as of now there are what, 2 shows up on itunes? and how many in other places? when shows i like, like simpsons, or family guy (come on fox, make a deal with apple soon!!!) then ill deffinetly buy them. man, if enough of the shows i watch come out (come on history channel, discovery channel and fox!!) then i would probably get rid of cable all together and stick with the basic networked shows. it would be much better than cable. i wouldnt have to deal with any subscription fees for cable or for a DVR so i could dl and watch whatever i wanted whenever i wanted (well, i assume after the show airs for the first time on TV) and for everything else on TV its just movies. . . and i only assume those will be next on iTunes, im just curous as to how they will deal with the large amount of time to dl. or will apple just give us really small quality movies until 5 years from now when broadband speeds are much much faster and then we can finally dl HD episodes.

 

[glennsan]

Download TV ???

At the moment I am not interested but see the advantages for those who are. When they are able to be burned to a DVD and viewed on a regular sized tv then I would be in line assuming the shows I wanted were there.

 

[joepunk]

I am not at the moment interested in downloading the TV shows via iTunes. Possibly in the future if they were larger resolution.