Peoples' Thoughts On iTunes Movies/Tv Shows

[Irish_Tom]

Lo all,

I did a bit of research last night after I decided to purchase season 5 of Lost in HD. I probably should have done the research first.

Anyway, from what I can gather the HD content is 720p which is fine, I knew that before I bought it but the bitrate is below 5MB/s which is less than DVD bitrate.

Now, is this a bit like .mp3's from iTunes: day-to-day it's perfectly fine unless you're an audiophile-uber-geek that has to have the biggest numbers and the best stats or do people consider it a serious issue?

After watching the first episode I did notice that the image seemed quite noisy but this could be because I'm not used to HD content on my MBP. SD content probably doesn't show the noise because of the low resolution.
To be honest, the noise didn't really bother me, Lost is quite dark and they must have needed to use a high ISO when shooting, to get an adequate frame-rate. However, I did notice the occasional bit of tearing which is a bit off-putting and I would have thought my MBP could have coped better with it.

The other thing I have to ask is about movies in iTunes, it seems you can only get HD movies through AppleTV which is ridiculous. I can see why they do it, because no-one would buy an ATV if they could get HD movies on their computer, it's still a pain though.

I would quite happily buy a Mac Mini to use as an HTPC but not if I can't get HD films through it. I would buy an Apple TV but the storage isn't big enough and I certainly don't want to have to buy both to do the same job... it seems this whole area is in limbo with Apple at the moment and there isn't a conclusive answer.

I wonder if they will do an iTunesPlus type thing, where people who have bought SD content will eventually be able to upgrade it all to the HD version for a small fee... However, £10 for films like Rock 'N Rolla seems a bit steep if you then have to add on a couple of quid at a later date to get it in HD.

Sorry for the mad ramblings, this has just been on my mind. So what do you guys think?

Panzer

 

[Irish_Tom]

Despite my research last night, I managed to miss this little snippet from Mac rumors:

AppleInsider reports that Apple is developing an on-demand video service that would allow users to stream their purchased iTunes movies and TV shows from Apple's servers for playback on personal devices. The service, to be called "iTunes Replay", would eliminate the need for users to provide significant storage space for their libraries of purchased digital video.

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If this is true it might solve the issue of where to keep everything and having to have a computer with iTunes running to play the video content.

Panzer

 

[Irish_Tom]

Note that stream does not equal download.

Appreciated, but as long as you had a stable internet connection it would more or less be the same thing. On-demand streaming would be like having it on your computer without the storage issues.

As long as they didn't lose their records and everyone's purchase history got lost.

Panzer

 

[Irish_Tom]

Yeah, was pointing that out to the other guy.

Ah fair enough, sorry chap.

I did a little test with the old LOST last night. iTunes gives you the SD version when you buy the HD version so you can use it on iPhone/iPods etc, so I thought I'd try them both out.

Obviously when you play them in iTunes or Quicktime or what ever at 'Actual Size' you can see a physical difference. No surprise really because the resolution has changed. Anyway, at this size they both look pretty sharp because each is being displayed at it's native res.

However, when I changed to the 'fit to screen' mode at 1920x1200 on my 17" screen there's still not much in it. I'm sure that if I was watching it on a 42/50" screen there would be a huge difference but I don't currently own a TV so it's a bit of a moot point for me personally.

I just thought it was an interesting comparison.

As EVH says, if the HD content bit-rate was up to the level of Blu-Ray the file sizes would be enormous. I guess there's no perfect option at the minute but I'm starting to think that it's not worth worrying about/holding off for the situation to improve.

As with most things Apple, it seems that "buy it now and get the enjoyment/use out of it" is better than holding off for that "what if..." moment. I think the biggest drawback at the minute is the lack of HD movies on iTunes unless you have an ATV. I don't own a TV so just let me buy the HD movies!

Panzer

 

[Irish_Tom]

oops double post.