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Lionsgate Adding iTunes Digital Copy on DVD and Blu-ray Discs

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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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Lionsgate announced that they are working with Apple to provide iTunes Digital Copies on select DVD and Blu-ray releases.
Just like movies purchased from the iTunes Store, an iTunes Digital Copy can effortlessly be transferred to iTunes and then viewed on a PC or Mac, iPod with video, iPhone or on widescreen television with Apple TV.
Click to expand...
The first Liongate DVD/Blu-ray disc to include an iTunes Digital Copy will be Rambo due for release on May 27th. Fox was the first to start including iTunes digital copies on their DVDs.

The process of copying the movie to iTunes involves entering a unique code into iTunes. The movie is then transferred to iTunes, allowing you to sync the movie with your iPod, iPhone or Apple TV. Each DVD (unique code) will allow digital transfer to only one iTunes library.



Article Link
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2008/03/10/lionsgate-adding-itunes-digital-copy-on-dvd-and-blu-ray-discs/
I really like this idea.

<sarcasm>
<surprised>
I haven't seen much news of it over here, though.
</surprised>
</sarcasm>

:rolleyes:
 
Good news.

Anybody know how big these digital copies are? It would seem pointless to copy a DVD if it was 4GB. You barely get one movie on an iPhone.
 
Sheesh, finally! I can have some "fair use" with my purchased movies?? :) It's SUCH a pain to rip my DVD's, having a digital copy to import into my Library would be most welcomed!
 
entropy1980 said:
Interesting that Blu-Ray is mentioned considering no Macs currently ship with a Blu-Ray drive... could this be changing soon? This may be a hint....
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Are you serious? A hint? This is not a hint. They go on to say that sony has been talking to apple, and if that's not hint enough they say that maybe apple will adopt the blu-ray drive.
 
tringo said:
Good news.

Anybody know how big these digital copies are? It would seem pointless to copy a DVD if it was 4GB. You barely get one movie on an iPhone.
Click to expand...

I have a similar, but opposite, concern: as an AppleTV owner, I don't want a low-rez copy that will look great on an iPod but crappy on my HDTV. For Blu-Ray this won't be a problem. But for DVD, I can't see how they will fit the full movie and an iTunes mp4 copy that will be of high enough quality for my tastes. HB encodes at 2500 kbps and AAC+AC3 weigh in at over 2 gigs (sometimes well over) for most movies.

Maybe if studios did away with all of the worthless "extras" they include on DVDs, there would be enough room for high quality iTunes copies.
 
Does anyone knows how is the quality of these copies in comparison to the quality of a standard DVD? Would be nice to extract these for loading into :apple:TV but only is the quality is the same as what you get from non-HD Apple purchases and Rentals.

Not concerned with HD at this time, but as close as DVD quality as possible for it to have value at my household.

Too bad that unlike music you can not copy to 5 computers (that belong to you) and to unlimited iPods/iPhones, but we are making progress I guess.
 
entropy1980 said:
By hint I meant that it's coming sooner rather than later.
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That was my first thought too. It has to mean that Apple will be announcing Blu Ray options in their Mac Pros soon.... but then again there are PC's out there already that have Blu Ray drives....

I just pray that Apple sticks to their guns and wants to include the more expensive "SuperDrive" Blu Ray drives instead of the "Play Only" Blu Ray drives that are more affordable.
 
entropy1980 said:
Interesting that Blu-Ray is mentioned considering no Macs currently ship with a Blu-Ray drive... could this be changing soon? This may be a hint....
Click to expand...

Maybe, but it has to be included on Blu-ray disks because there are PC users that have Blu-ray drives. Blu-ray is neither Mac or PC.
 
spice weasel said:
Maybe if studios did away with all of the worthless "extras" they include on DVDs, there would be enough room for high quality iTunes copies.
Click to expand...

I like the extras on DVDs. Maybe studios can have 2 versions of DVDs: just the movie and then the movie + extras for a bit more. Plus, if I'm going to pay the same price for a movie on iTunes as a DVD, I want it to be of the same quality & have all the extras, too. I have a few of the Star Trek movies & have noticed that they have cut scenes from the iTunes version which sucks. Like in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, they totally cut out the punk on the bus scene. That's the best scene in the whole movie! Come on Apple, give us the same stuff we get on the DVDs!
 
tringo said:
Good news.

Anybody know how big these digital copies are? It would seem pointless to copy a DVD if it was 4GB. You barely get one movie on an iPhone.
Click to expand...

Same as the videos on the iTunes Store....

entropy1980 said:
Interesting that Blu-Ray is mentioned considering no Macs currently ship with a Blu-Ray drive... could this be changing soon? This may be a hint....
Click to expand...

For Blu-ray, you would put it in a PS3, and see the files, copy the files to a USB drive, then place on your Mac or PC...
 
This may be fine for watching on an iphone, but i won't be interested in general for home-theater purposes if the files are no better than the SD movie quality on AppleTV.
 
I'll get excited once Apple realizes they have a market in other places then just the US and start doing deals accordingly...
 
You guys are overthinking the digital copy on blu-ray issue. They'll probably just include a bonus DVD in the case whose sole purpose is for the digital copy. This is what Fox does for their digital copies on blu-ray, and it gets around the messy requirements of requiring either a blu-ray drive on your PC or a PS3 (and then doing a messy transfer process).
 
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