To get to the Report a Problem page in iTunes, click your email address and login to your account. Next, click Purchase History and near the bottom of that page there will be a button called Report a Problem.
I hope this helps.
Additionally, I believe Apple includes a "Report a Problem" link beneath
each item listed on the receipts they email you after you purchase something.
That's not much of an "explanation". Who makes QuickTime? Apple. Yes, they'd need to add an ac3 plugin to QuickTime, that could decode and down-mix to stereo for people without surround-sound systems, or output the unaltered ac3 bitstream through the optical port for those that do.
This is not hard for a company like Apple. So it's simple - add surround sound to the iTunes files, and update the AppleTV and QuickTime to properly support said sound.
I completely agree. However, if the movies had a 5.1 surround sound track that was merely streamed to the Apple TV for it to output as a digital stream via the HDMI connector to a Home Cinema sound decoder that would be great. The Apple TV would merely need to cope with having a regular stereo track as well for those that weren't set up to process 5.1 surround sound.
I work for a movie rental company, who signed a deal with apple months ago. The details of this are above me but i do know both companies are relying on this to improve sales a great deal. My company in particular, which has been losing money due to competition such as netflix, is hoping this deal will save them.
I was actually hoping Apple would work with Netflix and do a subscription model.
iPod maximum resolution at this stage is 640x480 pixels. Yes some DVDs use anamorphic but when converted to iPod H.264 the converter (iSquint, Handbrake, etc.) AFAIK de-anamorphoses it so that it is all square pixels. That means the maximum horizontal resolution will always be 640x480 for iPod video.
"Apple doesn't have to pick 720p/1080i/1080p to claim better than DVD quality.
It's curious that they are already bending the definition of HD by hosting
(852x480p) video in their QuickTime "HD Gallery"."
Yeah, Apple is definitely bending the definition of HD. 852x480p is very roughly the resolution of DVD de-anamorphosed, depending on original aspect ratio of the movie (as in more related to 16:9, 1.8-something:1) ...
Gaffe: The "iTunes" video rental store would do widescreen material at
3 mbps (or better) if it were 852x480 extended definition, or 5 mbps at 960x540,
matching the AppleTV encoder rates.
Either way, vanilla DSL subscriptions at 1.5 mbps would be stretched thin
for rentals, an immediate gratification business except for Netflix customers.
If going beyond 640 by x pixels, iTunes rental/purchase stuff, Apple may well start offering 852x480p downloads, and claim this as "high definition". Otherwise next step is true 1280x720p (it may be black-bar-ed for 2.35:1 movies, I don't know).
960x540 is interesting, but it seems from a marketing point of view neither here nor there, not 480p nor "720p" for Apple to boast about.
HDMI/HDCP is not so relevant for AppleTV I feel, because AppleTV will take the square pixel H.264 at whatever relevant resolution and conform the output to 480p, 720p, 1080i, etc. on the HDMI or component output.
But yes, 1080p is beyond the reach of AppleTV at this stage. I truly want AppleTV to just do 1080p as soon as possible...!! grrr
...Either way, vanilla DSL subscriptions at 1.5 mbps would be stretched thin for rentals, an immediate gratification business except for Netflix customers.
I'll throw something controversial out there: bandwidth woes may be eased slightly if the rentals move through the network through [propietary drm'ed encrypted etc etc] P2P between AppleTV units. I'm sure there are already rumours of this flying around.
I was actually hoping Apple would work with Netflix and do a subscription model.
So you work for Blockbuster eh?
The major studios seem to be trying to get out of iTunes, so as to avoid giving Apple too much power. Maybe Apple had to do a deal with blockbuster to get access to the movies behind the backs of the studios (i.e. maybe the studios already gave blockbuster the rights to online rental for all of their movies, and would not grant the same to Apple).
The major studios seem to be trying to get out of iTunes, so as to avoid giving Apple too much power. Maybe Apple had to do a deal with blockbuster to get access to the movies behind the backs of the studios (i.e. maybe the studios already gave blockbuster the rights to online rental for all of their movies, and would not grant the same to Apple).
So blockbuster rents their movies through Apple TV? If the distributors are unwilling to give Apple clearance to rent, then i guess thats a viable option. Especially if there are no restrictions on how Blockbuster can deliver those videos. Netflix already has a crappy service which lets you view your movies online. The bitrate is pretty bad from what folks say.
If blockbuster can make a deal to distribute via AppleTV, that would be interesting to alot of folks. Especially if they could do a subscription, like 10 movies a month for 19.99 or something. And if they were 720p, that would be pretty damn good. I think I would even consider that. I have an Xbox360 and I never use it to rent 720p content simply because i don't want to set up another account. At iTMS i already have an account.
But darn! The Apple TV is still too expensive and too limited in its feature set. I at least need a codec update to process 5.1.
Agreed, which is why I think DVD quality is likely-- most people will consider that a good value proposition, if the downloads look at least as good as what you get from Blockbuster, and particularly if they look as good as what you get from Blockbuster played back on a progressive output DVD player onto a 720p set.
Even better .... no scratched DVD that you need to take back and get another.
Comments
What deal would that be? Or is it a secret?
More importantly, why in the world would Apple sign a deal with a flailing rental company when they regularly deal directly with the distributors?
Name recognition. Like that Starbucks thing . . .
Sandman,
To get to the Report a Problem page in iTunes, click your email address and login to your account. Next, click Purchase History and near the bottom of that page there will be a button called Report a Problem.
I hope this helps.
Additionally, I believe Apple includes a "Report a Problem" link beneath
each item listed on the receipts they email you after you purchase something.
That's not much of an "explanation". Who makes QuickTime? Apple. Yes, they'd need to add an ac3 plugin to QuickTime, that could decode and down-mix to stereo for people without surround-sound systems, or output the unaltered ac3 bitstream through the optical port for those that do.
This is not hard for a company like Apple. So it's simple - add surround sound to the iTunes files, and update the AppleTV and QuickTime to properly support said sound.
I completely agree. However, if the movies had a 5.1 surround sound track that was merely streamed to the Apple TV for it to output as a digital stream via the HDMI connector to a Home Cinema sound decoder that would be great. The Apple TV would merely need to cope with having a regular stereo track as well for those that weren't set up to process 5.1 surround sound.
I work for a movie rental company, who signed a deal with apple months ago. The details of this are above me but i do know both companies are relying on this to improve sales a great deal. My company in particular, which has been losing money due to competition such as netflix, is hoping this deal will save them.
I was actually hoping Apple would work with Netflix and do a subscription model.
So you work for Blockbuster eh?
It's curious that they are already bending the definition of HD by hosting
(852x480p) video in their QuickTime "HD Gallery".
Also, 960x540 can be used, in correspondence with the Image Constraint Token (ICT)
rules -- see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_Constraint_Token
Conveniently, this is the max for 30fps material using the AppleTV encoder settings,
as well as that transcoded for over-the-air material captured by Elgato boxen.
With Itunes hosting widescreen material at (effectively) 640x360 at 1.5mbps,
even sub-720p stuff at 960x540 (encoder rate 3.0mbps) will look much better
in comparison, with Apple preserving "better than DVD quality" claims.
P.S. I can't imagine Apple resorting to old-world tricks like anamorphic stretching
piled atop non-square pixels -- the digital world is destined to leave that ghetto.
3 mbps (or better) if it were 852x480 extended definition, or 5 mbps at 960x540,
matching the AppleTV encoder rates.
Either way, vanilla DSL subscriptions at 1.5 mbps would be stretched thin
for rentals, an immediate gratification business except for Netflix customers.
"Apple doesn't have to pick 720p/1080i/1080p to claim better than DVD quality.
It's curious that they are already bending the definition of HD by hosting
(852x480p) video in their QuickTime "HD Gallery"."
Yeah, Apple is definitely bending the definition of HD. 852x480p is very roughly the resolution of DVD de-anamorphosed, depending on original aspect ratio of the movie (as in more related to 16:9, 1.8-something:1) ...
Gaffe: The "iTunes" video rental store would do widescreen material at
3 mbps (or better) if it were 852x480 extended definition, or 5 mbps at 960x540,
matching the AppleTV encoder rates.
Either way, vanilla DSL subscriptions at 1.5 mbps would be stretched thin
for rentals, an immediate gratification business except for Netflix customers.
If going beyond 640 by x pixels, iTunes rental/purchase stuff, Apple may well start offering 852x480p downloads, and claim this as "high definition". Otherwise next step is true 1280x720p (it may be black-bar-ed for 2.35:1 movies, I don't know).
960x540 is interesting, but it seems from a marketing point of view neither here nor there, not 480p nor "720p" for Apple to boast about.
HDMI/HDCP is not so relevant for AppleTV I feel, because AppleTV will take the square pixel H.264 at whatever relevant resolution and conform the output to 480p, 720p, 1080i, etc. on the HDMI or component output.
But yes, 1080p is beyond the reach of AppleTV at this stage. I truly want AppleTV to just do 1080p as soon as possible...!! grrr
...Either way, vanilla DSL subscriptions at 1.5 mbps would be stretched thin for rentals, an immediate gratification business except for Netflix customers.
I'll throw something controversial out there: bandwidth woes may be eased slightly if the rentals move through the network through [propietary drm'ed encrypted etc etc] P2P between AppleTV units.
I was actually hoping Apple would work with Netflix and do a subscription model.
So you work for Blockbuster eh?
The major studios seem to be trying to get out of iTunes, so as to avoid giving Apple too much power. Maybe Apple had to do a deal with blockbuster to get access to the movies behind the backs of the studios (i.e. maybe the studios already gave blockbuster the rights to online rental for all of their movies, and would not grant the same to Apple).
The major studios seem to be trying to get out of iTunes, so as to avoid giving Apple too much power. Maybe Apple had to do a deal with blockbuster to get access to the movies behind the backs of the studios (i.e. maybe the studios already gave blockbuster the rights to online rental for all of their movies, and would not grant the same to Apple).
So blockbuster rents their movies through Apple TV? If the distributors are unwilling to give Apple clearance to rent, then i guess thats a viable option. Especially if there are no restrictions on how Blockbuster can deliver those videos. Netflix already has a crappy service which lets you view your movies online. The bitrate is pretty bad from what folks say.
If blockbuster can make a deal to distribute via AppleTV, that would be interesting to alot of folks. Especially if they could do a subscription, like 10 movies a month for 19.99 or something. And if they were 720p, that would be pretty damn good. I think I would even consider that. I have an Xbox360 and I never use it to rent 720p content simply because i don't want to set up another account. At iTMS i already have an account.
But darn! The Apple TV is still too expensive and too limited in its feature set. I at least need a codec update to process 5.1.
So... what exactly was the problem with iTunes? Wait to update, or no biggie?
There was a hack people were using to make free ringtones, post update it "suddenly" won't work...
Agreed, which is why I think DVD quality is likely-- most people will consider that a good value proposition, if the downloads look at least as good as what you get from Blockbuster, and particularly if they look as good as what you get from Blockbuster played back on a progressive output DVD player onto a 720p set.
Even better .... no scratched DVD that you need to take back and get another.
True. However, I read on the AppleTV discussion forums that neither the Apple TV box, or Quicktime are capable of decoding multi-channel audio.
But that would likely just take a software update to fix. The box does have optical out.
So you'll start buying a bunch of Blu-Ray movies after October 30th? That's when Spidey 3 and the first two films hit Blu-Ray.
I think that would change rather quickly if iTunes begins renting movies. Steve talked about how he sees TV as the DVD player for the 21st century..
Movie rentals directly from your couch via TV is the one thing that could make that happen.
Good point, I think.
Strictly from a European point of view I believe this is the only way to go
regarding Apple and its TV.
I saw the TV in person several times. I was pretty much tempted to buy one
just for Apple's sake.
to Europeans. (aside sharing the music and photo libraries, which is something you're
really don't need another device for.)
However I believe the proposed Rental Store will be a rule changer
(at least in Europe).
Assuming there is an Apple *Movie* strategie in Europe, this movie rental store
will be a part of Apples masterplan. Looking forward how it pays off.
TV was just a planting.
My2cents.