I think all this talk about adding movies to the iTMS is great. I would buy a few, before a long trip. But has everyone forgotten the "Mac Media Center" rumors? There's a little voice in the back of my mind that keeps tieing this whole "It's Showtime" announcement with the image of me, sitting smugly in front of my Apple Media Center goodness, while all my friends sit in awe.

Anyone else think there still might be a shot? It would be the left hand punch no one saw coming, and would be kind of true to Apple's MO.

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They could launch a new piece of software more suited to movies/tv episodes, or restructure iTunes quite a bit. They can't really use iMovie, iVideo sounds tacky, iMedia is a bit ugly... can't really think of any others. They could of course release Front Row for PC and make it incorporate iTunes and a video download system.

If they stick with iTunes, they could just call it the iTunes Store.

As it stands iTunes is very bad at handling video, so really something _has_ to be done about that.

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The one thing that puts me off buying movies is the fact that if the movie turns out to be really bad, you just paid $9.99 / $14.99 for it. With a DVD, you can at least sell it on eBay and recoup some of the cost back.

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Ed is correct, iTunes does need some major overhauls to serve as a good movie player. This would be much more exciting to me than a name change.

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Perhaps they are naming it "Showtime"... Notice how it is capitalized on the announcment?

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Unless they make it so that you can burn the movies to DVD, it will be worthless to me.

I for one wont pay $9.99 to watch a movie on an iPod (I don't even own a video iPod), nor will I pay extra money for an Airport to stream it to my TV. I just want to be able to make a DVD so that I can watch it from the couch or be able to take it to a friend's house.

Of course, this is all applicable only if Apple actually does bring out a Video Airport and movie downloads.

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Crunchgear had this post yesterday that appears to have some inside info about the list of movies:

http://crunchgear.com/2006/09/05/itunes-movie-list-revealed-hope-you-like-disney/

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Nathan,
Why do you need little plastic discs to hold the content when it's all on your harddrive?

Maybe instead of a streaming device all this can be done by connecting your iPod to your TV.

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iTMS can remain iTMS, but the iTunes Media Store instead. I think iTunes has too much value as a brand to change it now, and even with "tunes" in the name I think the iTunes brand has already morphed in many people's minds to include video as well as audio. Adding movies will only further that, and a media center or full-screen video iPod will really do it. Maybe the iTunes logo can change, though, to something less musical.

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They should just call it...

iTunes Store

Everybody is calling it 'iTunes' anyway. It's also 'Apple Store' and not something like 'Apple Hardware Store' so 'iTunes Media Store' would be silly (and way too Miscosoft).

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I'm still not sold on an a-la-carte model for movies. Music it's perfect for, short and infinitely replayable. Movies you watch once or twice and then forget about for long periods of time. I have shelves full of purchased DVDs I've watched a few times at most. I don't think this model is going to be as successful for movies.

That said, Apple has done pretty well with selling TV shows so we'll see.

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I just want to pay a little to watch a movie once. Basically a rental model but with the medium for delivery via the internet rather than a trip to blockbastar.ds

I don't want to pay the same price as a DVD and I don't need to pay more to burn to disc myself.

My mini is sitting under my HD tv just begging for this.

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Hi, I'm the owner of iPod Hub.

Thanks for the coverage. First let me start by saying the article about changes to the iTunes store has this week kind of confirmed yesterday with the news that Apple has trademarked iMovie (without an s) in Europe. That's why Julian wrote in the article that the news was from the 'Eastern Front'. His way of saying the news came from a reader in Germany even though the Eastern Front was quite a bit more east than that :D

The list of movies come via Claire who works as a production assistant in Los Angeles. Hardly difficult for her to find out I guess. I'm always thankful for the time she spends writing for us. I'm currently stationed in Asia and can't wait to get back home!

Thanks for the coverage TUAW.

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What I want... A true Apple home theater experience...iPod HD

A box similar in size to your typical VCR or DVD player(a form factor people are familiar with)
Comes standard with one big internal HD(second HD is optional)
Boots up almost instantly.
Front Row style interface controlled with simple Apple Remote.
The music on your computer(s) can sync with the iPod HD just like any other iPod
This also provides a backup functionality that can work with Time Machine.
When you purchase a song it downloads to your Mac/PC and then syncs to your iPod HD
From your couch you can watch movie previews and purchase movies which download directly to the iPod HD.
The iPod HD can also create a scaled down version to fit on an iPod video.

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hey 10., I think you'd be right if they were looking for a way to simply rework what they have to NOW include movies too. iTunes does have a lot of traction, and shoving "Media" in there does sound Microshitty.

but I have a question that raises a bigger possibility: how come we can't buy Apple hardware thru the ITMS? seems to me I'd buy more of everything Apple if the Apple Store were available in there (one click and all), and through it I could buy media, Macs, and more.

could this be their opportunity, now that the lawsuit w/Apple Corps is over (for this round anyway) to jump in and rename it the Apple Store? with one fell swoop, they could rebrand the whole frickin thing to better put iPods and Macs (their two halves) back under one umbrella...the Apple brand...where they belong!!!

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iMultimedia Synergy Xtreme Hub of Buying Stuff.

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I like the idea of a Media hub for the living room (or sitting room as we call it on this side of the pond). A couple things come to mind though- I don't know about you guys in the states with houses made of paper... I mean wood, but over here houses are built with brick- lots of brick. I know that in my house an 11g network just ain't gonna cut it for streaming HD or high quality h.264 content- so some sorta form of high quality caching or control over how files are copied across to the media server. Perhaps 11n but I don't know if it's too soon for Apple to jump on that bandwagon.

When it comes to the distro model for movies- I've been saying the same thing as 11 for a few years now (see blog http://blog.sheddan.co.uk/?p=113) ... people think- music.. movies, but they don't break down as easily as an album does- i think the real reason that Apple succeeded with the Itunes Music store is it's ability to let people pick and choose tracks- sure they sold a billion songs, I'd love to know as a percentage of this how many full albums were sold.... I doubt it's nowhere near.. as people (me included) just buy a track here a track there....

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