You can burn iTMS video files...

looks like I'm gonna keep using Bit Torrent! A damn shame.. if I could easily transfer them to DVD then I wouldn't have to download them illegally. Oh well.

There were 24 episodes of Lost last season. At $2 an episode that wouldhave caused the complete season through iTunes to sell for $48. At Amazon, however, the first season only costs $39. So, for $9 more you get lower quality resolution video and no extras. iTunes sells the first season for $34.99, not $48. The pricing scheme mirrors that of their music -- it'll cost you more to buy each song individually than the album as a whole. It will cost you more if you're doing the current season week by week, but is more convenient -- Season 1's DVD was released on 9/6, 2 weeks before Season 2 premiere. I think most people would rather being able to watch the show week after week via a download then wait until 3 months after the season ended for a DVD to come out. I will add that it is a little awkward to get to the past seasons of shows in iTMS. You have to go to the videos store page, click on the show which brings up this season. Then, up at the top, it will have the "Home Icon > TV Shows > Show Name > Show Name, Current Season" bar. Click on the first show name to see all available seasons. It would make more sense to me if the Videos page brought you to that page first, like clicking on an artist's name in the music store brings you to a listing of their albums, but I guess Apple didn't feel that way.

It's not really your file, per se. You've paid for the right to USE it. You've basically paid for usage rights, as defined by iTMS terms of service. Don't mistakenly think you own anything solid here - clicking the "I accept" button means you'gve signed the dotted line. Much like Apple doesn't own the songs it uses on it's Ads - just the rights to use them in a limited way.

#4, The first season is only $34.99 on the iTMS. It's like buying an album: they give you a discount.

It would be great to be able to burn to DVD, if for no other reason than to give people the warm fuzzies that they can strip the DRM if necessary. That's why I put up with iTMS DRM, because I know it's easy to circumvent if need be. (I've done this a few times to use iTMS purchased tracks as soundtracks for home movies in Final Cut Express.) Another (cynical) reason why Apple may not want to allow DVD burning is that this will be yet another reason to sell you a mac as a home media center. The fact that all of your purchased video is locked in their proprietary format will ensure that you keep buying their players.

I feel like this is an intermediate step for Apple, a way to get a first-gen (for them) video player out there, and develop their content-delivery systems at the same time. An analagous situation is fuel cell cars. You need the cars, and also the delivery system for the fuel (H2, or whatever). So, my view is that this is a stepping stone for the big A. Allows them to start marketing video content, work the kinks out of the system, and get a market going at the same time.

Apple has to sell low-resolution videos because high-resolution videos would cost an arm and a leg to serve in the quantities I'm sure they're hoping for. Re-encoding video from anything to DVD format DOES take forever, even with top-of-the-line hardware. I've seen simple 30 minute videos take 6 hours to get the quality I was looking for. If you want DVDs of TV shows, there are plenty available at your local Best Buy. I don't think the networks are going to kill off that revenue stream by offering high-quality downloads at a cheaper price. Be happy there's finally a video ipod!

@ #2: A few dollars more for the DVD release? Try a few dollars less. There were 24 episodes of Lost last season. At $2 an episode that wouldhave caused the complete season through iTunes to sell for $48. At Amazon, however, the first season only costs $39. So, for $9 more you get lower quality resolution video and no extras. Personally, I'll take the better resolution tivo-ed versions or bittorrent files of shows that I can watch for free over the airwaves anyway. I am curious though, are these shows available to other countries' iTunes stores where the shows have not aired yet? That is the one benifit I can see as this would help people that live outside the USA who wish to obtain these shows without having to wait for them to air.

I won't start hurting BitTorrent until the video quality is better.

They don't want their low-resolution files burned to a DVD? I really don't see the problem, especially when the legitimate high-resolution DVD release is only a few dollars more. Perhaps there can be a compromise, where the files can be burned to a VCD, which is playable on most DVD players anyway. I watched an episode of Lost on my 15" PowerBook last night at full-screen, and other than some occasional artifacting it was worthwhile, but it would be nice to be able to watch it on the TV without having to hook up a bunch of cables. If anything, the iTVS is going to hurt BitTorrent, as it's easier to pay $1.99 and download it from Apple than it is to find a reliable tracker and wait anywhere from hours to days for the download to complete.