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Victim of the iTunes Store?

ntrigue

ntrigue

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jul 30, 2007
3,805
4
Could someone explain why I have spent hundreds on ITMS on $9.99 movies when...

a) They are what, 640i resolution?
b) Could purchase from Amazon, Overstock, etc for a fraction of the price?
c) Handbrake these 'cheaper' DVD's to 720p

Thanks for you input. I have been stockpiling all these purchases for my AppleTV/50" Plasma purchase next month. How awful are these downloads going to appear streamed to this TV?
 
The difference between 640i and 720p isn't going to be very dramatic, in all honesty, especially on a 50" set. I wouldn't sweat it.

What will really bake your noodle is when you finally break down and buy an HD-DVD or BluRay player and totally lose your taste for standard definition movies in any form.
 
artalliance said:
I beg to differ. We are talking interlaced SD vs. progressive HD here. Huge difference. Especially on a 50'' set where all the picture weaknesses will be much more noticeable.
Click to expand...

Well, a dvd is just going to be 480i. You can rip it to 720p if you want, but it's still a 480i source and definitely not "HD" I should have been more clear in my response that I was talking specifically about the OP's proposal (ripping DVDs).

You're correct that a true 720p source will look better than iTMS videos.
 
ntrigue said:
c) Handbrake these 'cheaper' DVD's to 720p
Click to expand...

It's hard to take you seriously when you say something like this. There's no reason to expand a 480p source in Handbrake to 720p. It suggests you're more concerned about arbitrary resolutions than actual picture quality.
 
ejbenjamin said:
It's hard to take you seriously when you say something like this. There's no reason to expand a 480p source in Handbrake to 720p. It suggests you're more concerned about arbitrary resolutions than actual picture quality.
Click to expand...

I apologize for my ignorance. I thought DVD through component was 720. HD-DVD or Blu-Ray is 1080. Meanwhile, ITMS movies are 640x320? How do the latter appear on a 50" screen through ATV? Good enough?

Re: Handbrake. Source said 720 x ? So I selected default and it was also 720 x ? Is this actually 480?
 
You're getting the horizontal and vertical mixed up. In video sizes you generally run off the the vertical (in DVD's case 576, or 480 in America).

And yes it is silly. I haven't, or won't buy a film from iTunes when I can just buy the DVD for cheaper and have both a digital and physical copy of my film.
 
So. In the US 480p is 720x480 progressive scan?

To the only rude post. We miscommunicated, I was using Handbrake to 'maintain' DVD quality. Where is that considered an uneducated decision?
 
I bought a ATV in May and its hooked up tp my 45 inch Sharp Aquos LCD via component cable. The image looks great, amazing really given the fact it was a movie downloaded from the ITMS. So i would dare say you will be pleasantly surprised at the quality. In my opinion it beats digital TV from DirectTV. As for the statement about once you bet Blue-ray - well thats another story :D
 
I took the time to illustrate my dilemma:

1)New Line Cinema is Handbrake DVD Quality - Results 1003x366

2)The second, The Prestige is iTMS purchase (Movie) - Results 640x272

3)The third, Closer is iTMS purchase (Music Video) - Results 640x480

How are these going to appear on a 50" 1080P Monitor?
 

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The premise of your thread is that somehow you have been victimized by iTMS.

That would be true only if you paid for something having been told it was one resolution, and were actually delivered a substandard resolution.

However, there's no victimization when you imagine you are getting something more than was offered, and then are disapponted that you got exactly what you paid for.

And it it beyond belief that you spent hundreds of dollars and only now are realizing that you're not getting extra-high resolutions.
 
The title was to draw more viewers. I don't have terribly hard feelings about the iTMS. After all is said and done I did save 1.5 hours of ripping and allocating description, artwork, titles to the movies. From here in I will be Handbraking as only now is my external display going to necessitate higher resolutions.

I have 29 iTMS Movies ($9.99-$14.99) and 34 iTMS Videos ($1.70-$1.99) so sure enough 'hundreds of dollars.'
 
ntrigue said:
So. In the US 480p is 720x480 progressive scan?

To the only rude post. We miscommunicated, I was using Handbrake to 'maintain' DVD quality. Where is that considered an uneducated decision?
Click to expand...

The uneducated part was that you felt you were tricked or in your words, victimized, by the iTMS. When in reality your ignorance of video resolution is what made you feel that way.
 
Just a few comments.

1. I have some iTS videos (the free stuff) and it looks OK on my 46" 1080p LCD when played through my Macbook. The videos and TV shows are typically 640x320 or so and when scaled up to 1920x1080 by the Macbook, it still looks OK.

2. Handbrake is a great application, however, many of the newer movies do not rip. I tried ripping The Transformers last week and it just doesn't work. NOTE - I do not have access to Mac the Ripper verision 3 and 2.6.6 doesn't rip. So if you like Sony movies, you're going to find it difficult to rip from DVD.
 
ntrigue said:
I took the time to illustrate my dilemma:

1)New Line Cinema is Handbrake DVD Quality - Results 1003x366

2)The second, The Prestige is iTMS purchase (Movie) - Results 640x272

3)The third, Closer is iTMS purchase (Music Video) - Results 640x480

How are these going to appear on a 50" 1080P Monitor?
Click to expand...

Personally, I'd think they'd look OK on a 50" 1080p plasma. Well, as long as you sit back about 8 to 10 feet. Of the three, I would bet that Closer would look the best, as long as you watch in OAR.

None of these will look better than the original DVD played from a decent DVD player. Nor will any of these look better than an HD channel, provided the bit-rate is decent. Finally, HD-DVD and/or BluRay would blow these out of the water.

ft
 
I would like to believe that when Apple upgrades iTS content (Macworld 2008?), they will offer content upgrades for a small fee, just like they did when they released the DRM free songs.

Keeps the "victims" happy.:)
 
Why didn't you stop at one???

ntrigue said:
Could someone explain why I have spent hundreds on ITMS on $9.99 movies when...

a) They are what, 640i resolution?
b) Could purchase from Amazon, Overstock, etc for a fraction of the price?
c) Handbrake these 'cheaper' DVD's to 720p

Thanks for you input. I have been stockpiling all these purchases for my AppleTV/50" Plasma purchase next month. How awful are these downloads going to appear streamed to this TV?
Click to expand...

Your post is really strange. You are asking US, why YOU purchased these things and blaming Apple. My question is WHY, you purchased them in the first place, if you could have got them cheaper at Amazon and WHY, if you knew about hand brake you didn't do this?


Firstly, I think you should have done some homework prior to your purchases (and this post). As you obviously have very little knowledge on encoding. 640i HD content is better quality content than DVD which is only SD and that being the case they won't be "awful" as you suggested.

I understand in part, I purchased a Stephen King Audio book form iTunes and the audio quality was nothing short of "crap" and the artwork looked like someone had scanned a postage stamp and to top it off, they didn't even separate the chapters, so all the books where sandwiched together into two parts.

After that I learnt my lesson and I don't use the iTunes store any more. But you seem to have kept making the same "mistake" time after time after time. I can only assume you weren't aware of the "lesser quality" of the movies.

I've posted on this many times this morning (can't sleep) but I'll say it again.

I think many people are getting caught up in "specs" rather than the actual visual quality of the media. It is simply not currently possible to download 1080i or 1080p content via the internet. The files are too big.
 
Mac the Ripper Access

ftaok said:
Just a few comments.

1. I have some iTS videos (the free stuff) and it looks OK on my 46" 1080p LCD when played through my Macbook. The videos and TV shows are typically 640x320 or so and when scaled up to 1920x1080 by the Macbook, it still looks OK.

2. Handbrake is a great application, however, many of the newer movies do not rip. I tried ripping The Transformers last week and it just doesn't work. NOTE - I do not have access to Mac the Ripper verision 3 and 2.6.6 doesn't rip. So if you like Sony movies, you're going to find it difficult to rip from DVD.
Click to expand...

Hey ftaok, just thought you might be interested to know that Mac the Ripper is free. Just download it. http://www.mactheripper.org/ for what it's worth, I've not had any issues with the latest version of Hand Brake ripping movies.
 
tronic72 said:
Hey ftaok, just thought you might be interested to know that Mac the Ripper is free. Just download it. http://www.mactheripper.org/ for what it's worth, I've not had any issues with the latest version of Hand Brake ripping movies.
Click to expand...

Yes. I know that MTR is free, however, the free link is version 2.6.6.

If you want the newer version (Version 3, with many beta builds), you need to donate to the project. Many of the newer DVDs do not rip with 2.6.6. This includes most Sony and Disney stuff. I recently tried Fantastic Four 2 and Blades of Glory. Both crashed.

Handbrake will generally not rip anything that MTR can't. In the case of Fantastic Four, I tried with Handbrake as well and it also failed.

Part of the problem may be that I'm using a Macbook. It's been suggested that the SuperDrives in the Macbooks (and also the mini) are a problem in trying to rip DVDs. I don't really know the whole story ...

ft
 
Nugget said:
What will really bake your noodle is when you finally break down and buy an HD-DVD or BluRay player and totally lose your taste for standard definition movies in any form.
Click to expand...

Seriously.... When watching standard DVDs the quality immediately jumps out at me now and they are upconverted. Beware buying a BluRay player if you are having issues with this.
 
ntrigue said:
Could someone explain why I have spent hundreds on ITMS on $9.99 movies when...

a) They are what, 640i resolution?
b) Could purchase from Amazon, Overstock, etc for a fraction of the price?
c) Handbrake these 'cheaper' DVD's to 720p

Thanks for you input. I have been stockpiling all these purchases for my AppleTV/50" Plasma purchase next month. How awful are these downloads going to appear streamed to this TV?
Click to expand...

Don't forget you can't burn them ;)

Or you couldn't...Has this changed?
 
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