More HD movies hit iTunes' virtual shelves
Apple has added many new HD movie titles to iTunes, according to former TUAWian David Chartier's post for Macworld. David, who is an HD-aficionado, noticed that the iTunes Store just recently stocked both classic and new release HD movies, bringing the HD movie collection to nearly 300 titles.The new HD content is sold at a premium price (typically $20), and as far as we can tell that pricing stands regardless of whether or not the movies offer iTunes Extras. A few titles, mostly items that were already available on iTunes, sell for less -- such as Terminator 2 [iTunes link] for just $13.
Until now, Apple has offered some of its HD content as exclusive Apple TV rentals. Items could be rented from Apple TV units that were not available to rent from the normal iTunes Store. It's unclear at this time whether Apple will continue this policy of exclusive Apple TV rentals, or will expand the iTunes store-based rental system to match the Apple TV offerings.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
SydCanSam said 9:20AM on 11-12-2009
Also, as an added bonus I only realised this evening (Currently in Australia) - iTunes 9 can FINALLY output 5.1 surround out. Before this was limited to AppleTV and when the channel was selected in iTunes it was silent.
I was very happy to see this working.
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Andre said 9:50AM on 11-12-2009
And as an added bonus, if you have version 3.0 or later on your Apple TV, your content will be automatically erased at random times.
While watching your HD movie, your Apple TV may randomly freeze up on you.
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mikehild said 6:06PM on 11-12-2009
You do realize Apple released an update on the weekend to fix that? It was even mentioned on TUAW and everything, not to mention the emails from Apple to their ATV customers about it too.
Andre said 6:12PM on 11-12-2009
Yes, unfortunately it doesn't fix things.
While my content hasn't disappeared again (yet), I do see reports on Apple's forums that it is still happening. In my case, the unit is acting sluggish, and freezes up while navigating and trying to listen to or watch content.
3.0 and 3.0.1 are pathetic failures on Apple's part, and it is obvious that they have been released without proper testing.
I no longer trust the unit, and will not be using it to purchase any content, or to in any way depend on it until they properly fix it, and it again becomes stable.
I am not amused when I have to re-sync many gigabytes of content. It takes about 7 hours, not to mention the inconvenience of not having the content available when you are planning to watch something.
Apple has lost my confidence with this unit for now.
nittany4 said 4:49PM on 11-12-2009
My iTunes HD purchased content stopped working (playback on my mac) when I replaced my G5 tower with a Mac Pro. Both were/are connected to a 23" cinema display. Apparently HDCP handshake issues.
Crazy considering it's a $2300 mac connected to a $1000 monitor and legally purchased material. Perhaps they need my blood as well.
I'm out as far as buying HD material. At least all the HD purchases also included a SD version. What a joke.
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sebastian said 10:20AM on 11-12-2009
Well then we, Scandinavia, only need to be blessed with access to these movies.
Come on Apple, when the fuck do we get access ? How long are we gonna wait ?
If it's not Apple who is holding back then who is it ? Please tell me.
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Charli said 2:15PM on 11-12-2009
the studios. Apple can't post whatever they want when they want. the studios (and for TV the networks) say when.
and for whatever reason, the studios don't like your area.
also, this is part of why HD is only 720. they don't want DVD and Blu-ray sales to be cut. which is kind of stupid cause (assuming the file sizes were reasonable enough to be used) the costs of producing an HD itunes movie are no worse than mapping a disk. and you lose the cut of pressing, packaging the disks etc. you could probably knock a buck or two off the price and still make out on profits
Joanna D said 11:05AM on 11-12-2009
I don't really think it's fair to call these movies "HD". Yes, they're 1280x720, but they run at a lower bitrate than many SD TV channels and have ten times less data in every frame than a Blu Ray disc.
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Eric L said 11:14AM on 11-12-2009
would love to buy digital copies of HD movies but when will flicks in 1080P be available? or at least a guarantee to account holders that when the become available that we could purchase at a moderate amount.
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pax copia said 11:26AM on 11-12-2009
Too bad that they are not very HD. Blu-ray movies are what Apple needs to support. They have more content (including things like blu-ray live) have much better audio and video quality. Apple needs to wake up to this fact. I want to be able to watch the movies I rent at Netflix in transit but my MacBook Pro and its operating system still does not support this contemporary technology. It is sad having to use such antiquated hardware and software. To make matters worse, BD-R is only $2/25GB which is great. I create a lot of content on my Macs but for some asinine reason Apple does not want me to write to current technology and expects me to write to multiple DVD-Rs and/or CD-Rs.
On a side note, the videos and movies I rent and buy (download and stream) from the Playstation store are higher quality than the ones I have gotten from iTunes, in fact much of the HD content I stream from my instant queue at Netflix is better than the HD content at iTunes. Why is Apple so bad in this area? What is their problem?
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Camperton said 1:04PM on 11-13-2009
Agreed!
For those reasons these prices are way too high. I'd rather pay an extra 10 bucks and get 1080p with a super high bitrate, uncompressed sound and usually a bunch extras. Even DVD's are a better deal with higher bitrates and better sound.
Plus I can't take one of these movies over to a friends house, even on an iPod. Prices need to be lower or quality needs to be much higher.
Who's gonna pay such a high premium for lesser quality when free alternatives exist and there are cheaper options with much better quality?
Jordan said 11:26AM on 11-12-2009
F itunes and it's "hd" crap. Give us blu ray already
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codeman38 said 11:33AM on 11-12-2009
And of course, most of them still don't offer captions or subtitles.
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Galley said 12:45PM on 11-12-2009
From a screenshot I saw, "Up" is a 3.2GB download, and the extras are another 1.5GB. I'll stick with my 50GB Blu-ray Disc that also includes a copy of the film on DVD, and a Digital Copy. It was even cheaper, $16.49.
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Jordan said 1:24PM on 11-12-2009
go to amazon, add up, monsters inc, and cars on blu ray to ur cart. at checkout enter PIXARBLU and you'll get all 3 for $36. Hell of a deal compared to itunes crap.
Charli said 2:17PM on 11-12-2009
i believe what you are talking about is the HD v SD versions. NOT the HD + Extras.
DJ said 1:20PM on 11-12-2009
I am not a fanboy of blu-ray, and 720 video looks great for me, so I am very happy that Apple finally added more HD movies to iTunes. Now I hope more studios will join this (WB, Fox, Sony, Universal). Yes, SD of iTunes was too low video quality even on 13 inch macbook, which stopped me from getting anything andy SD content. Now, if apple was fair and arranged a deal to upgrade previously purchased SD content, it would be just awesome.
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Charli said 2:24PM on 11-12-2009
indeed. given that they do this 'buy the hd and you (at least for tv) get the SD also' it would be great if for the difference in price you could download only the missing HD copy
Yoshi1080 said 2:38PM on 11-12-2009
I love the iTunes Store: I use it to buy music, apps, and irregularly TV series. The SD quality is about on par with DVD (a bit softer but with less artifacts). Sometimes I even buy the HD versions.
But the movie offers are something I just don't get. I have to pay more than for a DVD to get the SD version, usually without any bonus content or languages/subtitles. The HD versions are even more absurd, delivering an image quality significantly below BD while costing the same or even more.
I understand that it's extremely convenient to just download movies and be able to access them from HDD rather than an external physical medium (although that takes up huge amounts of disk space). But considering the low image quality and high cost I can't imagine why anyone would still chose this over the more conventional, butter superior BD?
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