TV shows in HD on iTunes?

kotatsukotatsu
Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited January 2014
Here in the UK the iTunes store offers movies in high-def, but TV shows are in SD only. I had a quick scan of the US store and it seemed to be the same?



Does anyone know if this is likely to change any time soon? Many TV shows are filmed and aired in HD now, so the current download choice is bitorrent or nothing, which doesn't seem very beneficial to the TV studios...

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 2
    bbwibbwi Posts: 812member
    Well the issue I think is bandwidth and storage. Full HD video, even when compressed, will take up more space than SD. When Steve introduced AppleTV he touted that the movies begin playing almost instantly. If they were full 1080i/p most broadband connections would have to buffer quite a bit of the movie which would take a long while. Movies would cost more for the consumer; cost more for Apple to store and transfer, too.



    This probly doesn't answer your question and it's just my opinion but seems logical, no?
  • Reply 2 of 2
    kotatsukotatsu Posts: 1,010member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by bbwi View Post


    Well the issue I think is bandwidth and storage. Full HD video, even when compressed, will take up more space than SD. When Steve introduced AppleTV he touted that the movies begin playing almost instantly. If they were full 1080i/p most broadband connections would have to buffer quite a bit of the movie which would take a long while. Movies would cost more for the consumer; cost more for Apple to store and transfer, too.



    This probly doesn't answer your question and it's just my opinion but seems logical, no?



    Movies are offered in high-def though, so why not TV episodes? TV episodes are shorter than a movie too, so they'd be easier to download. Granted downloading a full season would of course be a significant amount of data.



    I live in the UK and my options to see a US show like Lost in HD are to a) pay Rupert Murdoch for his expensive satellite TV service, which I won't do as I think Murdoch is a fanatical morally brankrupt nut case, b) wait many months for the blu-ray release, or c) go to bittorent. Needless to say the third option is pretty popular.



    I'd like to be able to just go to iTunes, but alas the option for HD TV shows remains elusive.
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