I bought a couple of ITMS movies recently when I was staying in New York on business. I could have watched a movie on the hotel's Pay TV for $9.99, or buy it and play it on my Mac Book Pro as often as I want, also for $9.99. The hotel had free broadband, which helped of course, but I was very happy with my purchase, and the quality was great - certainly comparable to watching a DVD on a laptop.
I bought a couple of ITMS movies recently when I was staying in New York on business. I could have watched a movie on the hotel's Pay TV for $9.99, or buy it and play it on my Mac Book Pro as often as I want, also for $9.99. The hotel had free broadband, which helped of course, but I was very happy with my purchase, and the quality was great - certainly comparable to watching a DVD on a laptop.
-Rolf
Now THAT'S good usage and a situation where iTMS is useful.
...I bought Cars.... I'll curl up into a fetal position and watch it later...
Hey, it's kinda nice. You'll enjoy it. No need fetal position, cuddle or spoon with someone or a cushion and let the magic of Pixar wash over you. Seriously. Just chill with it, it'll be fine.
Why not ask your girlfriend to save your seat, take a 15 minute walk across the parking lot and to the supermarket down the street where you can buy a 20-ouncer for $1.30 or if you don't mind it's not cold, $.99 will buy a giant 64-oz bottle - you can drain the whole thing as you walk back?
Or is it easier just to roll your eyes and pay $6 for a medium?
We don't always buy the best value or pay the lowest price - but it's ALWAYS better to have more choices. It is better to have 100 choices where you can reject 99 of them instead of having 1 choice. Don't hate having a choice.
Also, how much is your actual time worth - driving from your house to a store, paying (cash or credit - you calculating the full interest?), and then driving home - how much gas you using? A typical Walmart buyer who buys a DVD spends $78 so that means by leaving the house you might've spent (in addition to the DVD) another $65 dollars you didn't intend to spend today or perhaps ever spend (honey, this mop takes 10 D batteries and it spins!) so before you narrowly define what is a good deal - make sure you're not spending $65 to save $3 dollars ...
Also, how much is your actual time worth - driving from your house to a store, paying (cash or credit - you calculating the full interest?), and then driving home - how much gas you using? A typical Walmart buyer who buys a DVD spends $78 so that means by leaving the house you might've spent (in addition to the DVD) another $65 dollars you didn't intend to spend today or perhaps ever spend (honey, this mop takes 10 D batteries and it spins!) so before you narrowly define what is a good deal - make sure you're not spending $65 to save $3 dollars ...
Exactly! Because iTunes has that built in mechanism that doesn't allow you to purchase anything other than specifically what you went there to purchase in the first place.
I'm one of the 5 Millions. I noticed that BestBuy carried a special edition of the DVD gift set (with 4 toy cars and a free 3D poster) for $29.99 (before tax). That's the one I bought.
5 million copies of Cars, wow! I'm so glad I logged in to preschoolnews.com today.
How about some computer enthusiast headlines?
Hella funny... but if you are vaguely serious I think you're not seeing the relevance of a best-selling Disney movie which happens to be on iTunes Movies alongside the 2(?) Pirates movies. Bring on Fox [Star Wars etc], Paramount [Mission Impossible, Star Trek etc], and WB [Matrix etc] !!!!
...Wow! I'm so glad I logged in to preschoolnews.com today.
How about some computer enthusiast headlines?
You need to go to Tomshardware and Anandtech to see things like "Seagate 7200rpm bests Western Digital 7200rpm by 0.5 seconds!!! W00000t!!!" Now *that's* something to get enthusiastic about...
I think it really puts the iTunes deal into perspective.... 500,000 downloads of 75 films over a two month period isn't all that much when you consider that the same studio (Disney) sells 5 million copies of just ONE film in two days. Ah well, it's a start I suppose...
OK so it puts the fledgling Movie service in it's place but surely the 5 million copies will take longer to reach the actual customers than 2 days? Isn't this just Disney fulfilling the pre-orders, and an effect of that supplychain model? It's like saying ABCs sold 12 million TV shows via iTunes in one minute because that's all it took to load onto the servers & the rest is just supplychain lag.
Oh well - no iTunes Store in NZ yet so it's all academic to me.
But ferchrissakes, don't tell me this is a good deal, because from my POV it ain't. There's no "debate" possible about the inferior video quality. It's an inferior video - plain and simple.
Its actually not that plain and simple. The quality of video is determined by several factors, with pixel count only being one and not really the most crucial.
Quality vs value is pretty much what people believe it is. The quality of the DVD you believe to be acceptable is far inferior in comparison to the source it came from.
The value of the digital movie is that it is not trapped on a physical medium. It can be easily moved from device to device.
Its actually not that plain and simple. The quality of video is determined by several factors, with pixel count only being one and not really the most crucial.
Quality vs value is pretty much what people believe it is. The quality of the DVD you believe to be acceptable is far inferior in comparison to the source it came from.
The value of the digital movie is that it is not trapped on a physical medium. It can be easily moved from device to device.
Just to pick up a dead thread, but what the hell, --- the quality of DVD and MPEG2 the way it is made, mastered off the film, particularly anamorphic DVD, is definitely better than iTunes Movies. I notice that DVD playback scales very very well on most PC and Mac computers...
I suspect iTunes Movies are just recompressed off DVD sources, but this may be quite a spurious comment.
But yes, portability, movement and flexibility of iTunes Movies, not having to carry your discs around, these make iTunes Movies worthwhile....
What kills me is watching stuff on iTunes, there is a lot of non-vsync (visual "screen tearing") going on. Particularly on slower machines, and this happens sometimes with Quicktime Player as well, again, usually with slower machines.
Admittedly, on most Macs released in the past year, and on decent PC systems, Quicktime Player playback of 720p H.264 trailers is generally superb.
I would not be building any collection of DVDs or iTunes Movies at this stage, I'm aiming for 1280x720p HDTV H.264 content. Or skip that and jump straight up to 1920x1080p HDTV - on a sweet 1920 x 1200 (WUXGA) screen
Yes it's not just about pixel count. Color detail and vibrancy is very important, notice VLC playback of xvids off TV shows are just not that bright as movie trailers mastered off high-def sources - the 720p and 1080p Quicktime Trailers are really nice, bright, vivid, and would look good on decent plasmas and, decent LCDs (I can't take the pixelation and low contrast of even "super contrast" LCD HDTVs)... Also as H.264 hardware-accelerated multipass encoding gets better, even slight "blockiness" will be a thing of the past.
Comments
-Rolf
I bought a couple of ITMS movies recently when I was staying in New York on business. I could have watched a movie on the hotel's Pay TV for $9.99, or buy it and play it on my Mac Book Pro as often as I want, also for $9.99. The hotel had free broadband, which helped of course, but I was very happy with my purchase, and the quality was great - certainly comparable to watching a DVD on a laptop.
-Rolf
Now THAT'S good usage and a situation where iTMS is useful.
...I bought Cars.... I'll curl up into a fetal position and watch it later...
Hey, it's kinda nice. You'll enjoy it. No need fetal position, cuddle or spoon with someone or a cushion and let the magic of Pixar wash over you. Seriously. Just chill with it, it'll be fine.
The DVD retails for $19.99.
$$$ in the bank for Disney. But sometimes the price is well worth the laughs and smiles.
Why not ask your girlfriend to save your seat, take a 15 minute walk across the parking lot and to the supermarket down the street where you can buy a 20-ouncer for $1.30 or if you don't mind it's not cold, $.99 will buy a giant 64-oz bottle - you can drain the whole thing as you walk back?
Or is it easier just to roll your eyes and pay $6 for a medium?
We don't always buy the best value or pay the lowest price - but it's ALWAYS better to have more choices. It is better to have 100 choices where you can reject 99 of them instead of having 1 choice. Don't hate having a choice.
Also, how much is your actual time worth - driving from your house to a store, paying (cash or credit - you calculating the full interest?), and then driving home - how much gas you using? A typical Walmart buyer who buys a DVD spends $78 so that means by leaving the house you might've spent (in addition to the DVD) another $65 dollars you didn't intend to spend today or perhaps ever spend (honey, this mop takes 10 D batteries and it spins!) so before you narrowly define what is a good deal - make sure you're not spending $65 to save $3 dollars ...
Nice post and true to all points.
Choice is good for all of us.
Also, how much is your actual time worth - driving from your house to a store, paying (cash or credit - you calculating the full interest?), and then driving home - how much gas you using? A typical Walmart buyer who buys a DVD spends $78 so that means by leaving the house you might've spent (in addition to the DVD) another $65 dollars you didn't intend to spend today or perhaps ever spend (honey, this mop takes 10 D batteries and it spins!) so before you narrowly define what is a good deal - make sure you're not spending $65 to save $3 dollars ...
Exactly! Because iTunes has that built in mechanism that doesn't allow you to purchase anything other than specifically what you went there to purchase in the first place.
...Last Generation of Dual PowerMac G4 and iBook G4 user...
Fan of Hilary Duff and Michelle Branch....4 toy cars and a free 3D poster...
Heh. 8) Just the combination of stuff mentioned in your post and signature is, while possibly idiosyncratic, kinda not... But kinda is.
Ignore me, continue........ 8)
How about some computer enthusiast headlines?
5 million copies of Cars, wow! I'm so glad I logged in to preschoolnews.com today.
How about some computer enthusiast headlines?
...Wow! I'm so glad I logged in to preschoolnews.com today.
How about some computer enthusiast headlines?
You need to go to Tomshardware and Anandtech to see things like "Seagate 7200rpm bests Western Digital 7200rpm by 0.5 seconds!!! W00000t!!!" Now *that's* something to get enthusiastic about...
I think it really puts the iTunes deal into perspective.... 500,000 downloads of 75 films over a two month period isn't all that much when you consider that the same studio (Disney) sells 5 million copies of just ONE film in two days. Ah well, it's a start I suppose...
OK so it puts the fledgling Movie service in it's place but surely the 5 million copies will take longer to reach the actual customers than 2 days? Isn't this just Disney fulfilling the pre-orders, and an effect of that supplychain model? It's like saying ABCs sold 12 million TV shows via iTunes in one minute because that's all it took to load onto the servers & the rest is just supplychain lag.
Oh well - no iTunes Store in NZ yet so it's all academic to me.
McD
...Oh well - no iTunes Store in NZ yet so it's all academic to me...McD
I didn't know Kiwis had Macs...
(Australia-NewZealand is like a USA-Canada thing. Except the Kiwis can kick our asses in Rugby... *Some* of the time
But ferchrissakes, don't tell me this is a good deal, because from my POV it ain't. There's no "debate" possible about the inferior video quality. It's an inferior video - plain and simple.
Its actually not that plain and simple. The quality of video is determined by several factors, with pixel count only being one and not really the most crucial.
Quality vs value is pretty much what people believe it is. The quality of the DVD you believe to be acceptable is far inferior in comparison to the source it came from.
The value of the digital movie is that it is not trapped on a physical medium. It can be easily moved from device to device.
Its actually not that plain and simple. The quality of video is determined by several factors, with pixel count only being one and not really the most crucial.
Quality vs value is pretty much what people believe it is. The quality of the DVD you believe to be acceptable is far inferior in comparison to the source it came from.
The value of the digital movie is that it is not trapped on a physical medium. It can be easily moved from device to device.
Just to pick up a dead thread, but what the hell, --- the quality of DVD and MPEG2 the way it is made, mastered off the film, particularly anamorphic DVD, is definitely better than iTunes Movies. I notice that DVD playback scales very very well on most PC and Mac computers...
I suspect iTunes Movies are just recompressed off DVD sources, but this may be quite a spurious comment.
But yes, portability, movement and flexibility of iTunes Movies, not having to carry your discs around, these make iTunes Movies worthwhile....
What kills me is watching stuff on iTunes, there is a lot of non-vsync (visual "screen tearing") going on. Particularly on slower machines, and this happens sometimes with Quicktime Player as well, again, usually with slower machines.
I would not be building any collection of DVDs or iTunes Movies at this stage, I'm aiming for 1280x720p HDTV H.264 content. Or skip that and jump straight up to 1920x1080p HDTV - on a sweet 1920 x 1200 (WUXGA) screen
Yes it's not just about pixel count. Color detail and vibrancy is very important, notice VLC playback of xvids off TV shows are just not that bright as movie trailers mastered off high-def sources - the 720p and 1080p Quicktime Trailers are really nice, bright, vivid, and would look good on decent plasmas and, decent LCDs (I can't take the pixelation and low contrast of even "super contrast" LCD HDTVs)... Also as H.264 hardware-accelerated multipass encoding gets better, even slight "blockiness" will be a thing of the past.