Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, iTS
Will iTunes Plus also allow you to upgrade videos?
Right now, iTunes Plus allows you to upgrade tracks and music videos. So what about TV shows or movies? If Apple started offering High Definition versions, would you upgrade your existing library? After all, it's got to look good on your new Apple TV, right? Or do you think you're already paying a premium price for iTunes content? And you're not even getting the director's commentaries! Let us know what you think of a possible iTunes Plus Video offering in the following poll and in the comments.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
marcosmalo said 6:14PM on 6-06-2007
Not going to happen until consumer broadband speeds go up.
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Francis said 6:33PM on 6-06-2007
I think it's stupid when people would casually turn around and say 'Yeah, 1GB movie wouldn't be too much' - Not all of us are on Mega speed cable connections.
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John Hawley said 6:33PM on 6-06-2007
this poll seems to make me want to lean no
cant i just say yes
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DrWho said 6:50PM on 6-06-2007
Most of mine are TV shows and I've watched them and am unlikely to watch them again so no, but I would buy HD versions of the next season....
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Donald Burr said 6:35PM on 6-06-2007
This is a difficult question for me, and I'm afraid I'm gonna have to go with a strong "maybe."
I don't mind paying extra to upgrade my videos. Heck, I'd even go a bit more than a buck a movie; maybe a buck for TV shows, and anywhere from $2-5 for movies. I'm willing to pay for better quality.
What I am concerned about, tho, is how BIG these files will be. All of these other video services (Xbox Live marketplace, Unbox, etc.) are acting as though everybody has a nice phat pipe going to their house. Unfortunately this is NOT the case. There are still tons of people who don't have very much choice or availability in bandwidth providers. My DSL, for example, only does 768/128, and I know plenty of other folks who can get only 512 or maybe evey 384. Bah, cable is better anyway. Not so fast bub. Yeah, cable providers advertise these hugely insane download speeds, and you may actually even *get* those speeds... IF nobody else in your cable segment/neighborhood is abusing it, IF the cable provider is not throttling bandwidth (as so many of them are these days), IF you don't have nasty overuse charges, IF the planets are aligned just so, or IF the moon is just that perfect shade of blue. I've heard so many complaints from cable-using friends that I have lost count.
And yes I DO know what I'm talking about. I've got an Xbox360 and I hit up Xbox Live marketplace rather frequently. Movies usually take me anywhere from 6 hours to over half a DAY to download. Even iTunes files (the current 640x480 non-high-def ones) take an absurdly long time to fetch. No, I'm not asking them to do the impossible, I KNOW that you can't have HD files that can download in 5 minutes... but 4-6+ hours is a bit absurd.
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yakov chodosh said 6:38PM on 6-06-2007
if itunes were to use a bittorrent type system, downloads would be fast.
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mentalsticks said 6:39PM on 6-06-2007
*sigh* the world is so unfair. I've got this beautiful 6mpbs connection but here in the Netherlands there isn't any video content whatsoever in the iTMS... not even music videos...
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Chris said 6:53PM on 6-06-2007
Right now living in the UK, I have no bloody content to upgrade! C'Mon Apple! Impatient, irritated limeys at your door, is not something you want.
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rob Buijs said 7:05PM on 6-06-2007
I'd pay a € to upgrade my ipod games to work on itv.
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Vijay said 7:16PM on 6-06-2007
I would upgrade if the total cost of the HD Download is 14.99 or below. (That is upto $5 upgrade price for 9.99 movies, and 3 bucks for 12.99 movies).
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VoxMatt said 7:30PM on 6-06-2007
I find myself siding with many of the commenters. HD files will be HUGE, but, outside that fact, I would definitely pay as much as $5 more for HD movies and maybe as much as $10.
I am SO sick of digging through DVD boxes just to find the DVD's in some other DVD's box. Or putting in one of my favorite DVDs and finding it scratched up. Not only would I pay for a way to bring myself into the HD world WITHOUT buying a new player, but I'd pay for the convenience of a digital instead of physical library. The current iTunes movie store is crippled because it doesn't even live up to DVD quality, much less HD quality.
But back to the size thing... a while ago I read a column about using the networked Apple TVs as a sort of defacto torrent seeding mechanism. With all the potential duplicate copies of filed stored on these networked mini-computers, why not use them for networked distribution? Maybe even pre-cache partial movies automatically to the Apple TV drive in anticipation of a user's purchase? (that last one won't happen) But most importantly Apple needs to allow users to download movie copies multiple times to the same account. Even if I get the bandwidth to download these suckers, I'm going to run out of room eventually; why not allow me to use the files Apple already has? Or even stream purchased movies from Apple?
Sorry, this got long...
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dogarms said 8:20PM on 6-06-2007
In Australia, our biggest issue is the AMOUNT we can download, not the speed at which we can download it.
I have a 10Gb cap plan, so I would never buy a movie off the iTunes Store in Australia. This is simply because it would cost me ~$20 to buy it from iTunes, and then a quarter of my monthly broadband allowance ($60p/m, so roughly $15) to actually recieve it. Why do that when I could go down the store and get it on DVD and not waste my bandwidth allowance?
Australia won't be ready for online media distribution in any form until they sort out their telecommunications industry. The first step is UNCAPPING OUR FREAKING PLANS.
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mike said 10:42PM on 6-06-2007
Can't get videos... dont care one way or the other, theres no or very little video content in the EU so dont care...
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bradah said 9:02PM on 6-06-2007
Speaking of video........ I was watching TV today and noticed that a new Pixar movie will be release on June 29..... hmmmmmmmmm. :-)
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Will said 9:45PM on 6-06-2007
It already does. Atleast for music videos. I was prompted to upgrade a music video that I purchased a while back. And I did. It is definitely bigger pixel-wise but the actually quality of the video is pretty much the same.
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Eugene said 2:50AM on 6-08-2007
Hell, I'd be happy to just have videos in the first place over here in Australia...
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