HD movies on the way in iTunes
Got $20US and a hankering for lots and lots of pixels? iTunes has a deal for you: Apple announced earlier today that it is launching HD movie sales and rentals in the iTunes Store, beginning with a small selection of titles (Transporter 3, W. and more) and with a couple of big-ticket films up for pre-order: vamp-rom-teen thriller Twilight drops on 3/21 and James Bond in Quantum of Solace on 3/24. Sales will be $19.99US and rentals will cost $4.99.
Up until now, HD movies had to be
I'm continually impressed with the quality of streamed and purchased HD video that I play back from my previous-generation MacBook Pro over VGA to a flat-panel 720p TV -- it's not dramatically different from satellite or broadcast HD, at least to my verging-on-middle-aged eyes. The opportunity to buy or rent HD movies might make the Mac mini media center even more appealing.
Thanks to everyone who sent this in.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Rob Roark said 11:15PM on 3-19-2009
Hmm, I'm wondering if this will work like HD TV episodes, where you pay more, but get standard def file for iphone/iPod devices, and the HD file for Macs/AppleTVs. If so, I'm all for it, but if not then the little bit of quality improvement is outweighed by the ability to take it with me.
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Kento Ito said 12:04AM on 3-20-2009
I think it comes with two file. One HD file to playback on your Mac attached HDTV or Apple TV and one standard def file to sync with iPod or iPhone.
PJ said 11:33PM on 3-19-2009
According to the actual movie pre-orders in iTunes, 5.1 Dolby Digital is now encoded. Looks like the two in the press release (Bond and Twilight) are the first/only two to do that, though. At least, so far.
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Eric said 11:47PM on 3-19-2009
This is absurd; this is HD resolution but not the quality you expect. With this much data compression there are high amounts of noise and artifacts in the audio and video. Give me 480p with better compression rates.
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lanejasper69 said 12:36AM on 3-20-2009
Cool!!!!!!! this is pretty decent!!! another nice compliment to the home theater!!!
Party on Wayne, Rock on Garth!!!
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Rafe H. said 1:30AM on 3-20-2009
I hope we can upgrade our previous purchases a la iTunes Plus.
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Rafael Oliveira said 1:40AM on 3-20-2009
Unfortunately, if this goes like TV shows, you won't.
Unless Apple changes policy, but til now, you have to purchase everything again to be entitled to complement your SD with HD.
iGO said 2:02AM on 3-20-2009
Hmmm.... I think I'll buy W. Great Movie. Our last president was a real schmuck. A real person, mind you, .....just a real schmuck of a person, with Ton's of Power at his disposal since birth.
Anyway, I own the Blu-Ray which plays gorgeous on my PS3.
I'll buy the iTunes HD version, encode/rip a the best possible quality for the PS3 and compare to see what you really get.
I'll know then if buying the BD, with all the extra add-ons (paid $24.00 at Wal-Mart), is worth the extra 5 bucks. I'm sure it will be for me, but still cool to see the difference, for possible future purchases.
I'm never interested in portability or watching on my iMac.
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bejonline said 4:49AM on 3-20-2009
IGO,
How do you encode/rip an iTunes movie for you PS3?
B
balls said 2:19AM on 3-20-2009
Its nice that they finally let itunes users buy hd content, but hardly a snub to Blu-ray.
It's really Apple taking advantage of cosumers who don't know any better. We'll take any video, set the res at 720p, offer near DVD quality sound and call it HD, charge a premium for it, and all the geniuses will love it.
You can pay an extra $5 and you'll get much higher video quality and far superior audio with TrueHD/DTSHD.
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codeman38 said 10:12AM on 3-20-2009
Still doesn't encourage me to switch away from physical discs. At least not till iTunes actually starts offering more movies with captioning. (Is it just me, or is the number of captioned movies on iTunes *decreasing*?)
codeman38 said 10:13AM on 3-20-2009
Eep. My reply above was meant to be a top-level comment, not a reply. Anyway, I'm in agreement with your point because... well, yeah, at least Blu-Ray has subtitles!
Rob Roark said 2:57AM on 3-20-2009
The thing is, 720p is technically HD. And for a large number of people, the difference will be negligable between 720p and 1080p
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balls said 12:31PM on 3-20-2009
Yes you are right, 1080p really shines when you ahve a larger set, and a greater view distance.
However, there is a very noticeable, and appreciable difference between HD content from ITMS and Blu-ray.
Ed said 6:49AM on 3-20-2009
"Up until now, HD movies had to be purchased directly on the Apple TV"
HD movies were previously only available to rent through the AppleTV. This is the first time that they are available to purchase.
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Teddy said 8:15AM on 3-20-2009
It's pretty annoying that this service is not (yet) available in the rest of the world.
Hopefully this will change soon.
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William said 11:31AM on 3-20-2009
With Blu-ray prices between $15-25 these days, $20 for a "HD" download seems a little too expensive to me.
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mike k. said 12:35PM on 3-20-2009
Thank god for this feature now. It was absolutely crazy that i can plug my macbook pro into my hdtv, but i could not rent an HD movie off of it to put on the HD tv...
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balls said 12:37PM on 3-20-2009
I like the idea of being able to purchase content from a variety of stores, so I'm happy that ITMS allows this (though I wont participate). ATV makes it easy for people to rent/buy movies, which is pretty handy for my GF. If she has her friends over, and they want to watch a new movie, it saves them the hassle of going to lackluster, or it saves me the hassle of downloading it from usenet.
What gets my goat is that they insist of calling this HD, and will end up spreading lies and deceit about HD with their marketing. I don't want this to become the defacto HD format.
Don't get me wrong. I LOVE digital distribution. Physical media is old and outdated. However, I want the best. I want real HD content. I want the superior picture and audio quality that bluray offers. That is the real HD standard.
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required said 12:55PM on 3-20-2009
I too love digital distribution but I think a lot of issues need to be flushed out way before we embrace it with open arms. For example we shouldn't have to pay for storage and backup and if we end up having to do so, the product should cost a lot less to compensate for this. Also, I should have a lot more freedom with playback. What I hate about iTunes is that I have to use an Apple product to view content. This is different than the physical counterparts. In general I want more consumer rights, not less.