new iTunes and iPods

    This could have some serious implications on the film industry, similarly to how their music stuff changed the music industry. I mean, have you seen those prices? Brand new DVD releases are $13 (about £6.50) and they come out at the same time as the DVDs themselves.

    Considering DVDs are more like triple that at least in shops here, well, need I go on?

    Quote from Thrik

    This could have some serious implications on the film industry, similarly to how their music stuff changed the music industry. I mean, have you seen those prices? Brand new DVD releases are $13 (about £6.50) and they come out at the same time as the DVDs themselves.Considering DVDs are more like triple that at least in shops here, well, need I go on?

    Damn, you guys get ripped off for movies. New releases in the states are around $25USD. Most DVDs are under $20. Unless you're buying a season of TV shows, then its anywhere from $35-$70.

    I think they should be happy about this. I'm sure they're making close to the same ammount on a downloaded movie as they do on a DVD sale. You cut out all the production costs, shipping costs, packaging costs and design, and probably production/editing of all of the 'extras'. Sure Apple has to pony up the cash for the server, but I don't think the cost per movie download will be anything close to the cost of production of a DVD.

    Also, the downloaded movies will likely be of lesser quality for faster downloads.. well here is a quote from their site:

    "When you download movies from iTunes, you get near DVD-quality, 640-by-480-pixel video(1) perfect for watching on your computer and positively brilliant for syncing to your iPod."

    I run at 1280x1024 on my monitor, so that is a quarter of the size... so to watch it at "near DVD quality" I'd be watching on the equivalent of a 8.5" monitor? And they don't even mention sound. I don't know about you, but when I'm watching a really good movie, sound is almost more important than video quality. I can deal with a little lack of sharpness, but if the audio is flat and static-y, man that gets annoying fast.

    I mean, I'm sure the quality isn't bad. But its not going to be widescreen tv DVD quality, at least not yet. I only buy movies I REALLY like, and I'd certainly pay double or triple to be able to watch them at the best quality on a TV, not on my monitor. Maybe if I have a hankering to watch Old School or some other cheap(as in not epic, cinematic, oscar worthy, etc) flick, I'd go with iTunes. If I want to watch Saving Private Ryan, anything Kubrick, American Beauty, American History X, The Usual Suspects, American Psycho, Shawshank Redemption, or others of that caliber or even close to it I'll spring for the DVD.

    But then again I'm sure most of you have a nicer computer setup than I do, so you may be more inclined to watch on your comp. For me, race car vids, game previews, and porn is all the video that plays on my comp.

    I don't think they're trying to replace DVDs, merely provide an alternative. If I was constantly traveling or in situations where I needed a good time killer, I would be on board iPod video so fast. But I don't realy have a need right now. I like my 4th Generation 40GB with photo capability. When it dies, I'll get one of the sexier new ones. 80GB does sound mighty appealing, though.

    A DvD is 720x480, so it is NEAR dvd quality... although resolution isn't the factor as much as compression I bet. The tv shows I saw off itunes before were more heavily compressed than I can really deal with.

    They need an HD ipod, and the internet to deliver it.

    I've had a 60 gig video ipod since January, and since I have been travelling a lot it is essential. It's really cool to just watch a show or a movie when waiting around in airports and such, or a waiting room. Plus 60 gigs is nice storage space for moving big files.

    A few points...

    1) Ripping my DVD collection has been easy. I use PQ DVD which cost me $15 but the compression isn't too bad and a 2 hour movie takes less than an hour to rip a highest quality. Not as good as using Handbrake on a Mac, but supposedly Handbrake will have a free windows version soon that is better than anything else on market. Oh, a 2 hour movie takes less than a gig of space.

    2) Watching those little movies on my iPod isn't bad, but outputting it to a TV (which is very easy) doesn't look as good of course, and I don't recommend that. sometimes it's okay for certain things, but in no way does my iPod replace my need for DVDs and my theatre system.

    3) I think buying movies under new iTunes plan isn't a bad idea, but not sure if i'll be doing that unless...(go to point 4)

    4) I'd really like to see the higher capacity iPods move away from miny hard drive technology and to super high capacity flash memory. supposedly there is this Korean company working on terrabyte sized flash memory systems smaller than iPod harddrives. Whether that's coming soon or not the point is this: eventually we'll have iPods with enough capacity to store movies in HD formats with little to no compression that can output to theatre systems, as well as have HD format screens on the iPods themselves with high enough resolution and enough screen real estate and a good interface...THEN I be glad to pack my DVDs in storage and never by physical media again and go 100% digital distribution. The hardware just isn't there...yet.

    5) Five years ago I was still buying CDs. Now i prefer to get all my music digitally, and yes I buy music online and I don't steal it. I'd be happy to pay for DVD content the same way.

    6) Games...yeah i'd be willing to play a game on my video iPod if something caught my interest, though i would like to be able to try for a couple days free before buying for get a free demo of the first level, sort of like on Xbox Live Arcade.

    Anyway, I foresee a bright futrue for Apple...

    Quote from Minotauro

    I can live without that.

    /agree

    Quote from Thrik

    This could have some serious implications on the film industry, similarly to how their music stuff changed the music industry.

    i, for one, would /much/ rather go to a theater to watch a movie than see it on some shitty-small screen.

    Erm, I was clearly talking about the post-cinema side of things for personal viewing. iTunes movies go up at the same time as the DVD releases, not the cinema releases.

    Obviously nothing compares to going to the cinema.

    Quote from Thrik

    Erm, I was clearly talking about the post-cinema side of things for personal viewing. iTunes movies go up at the same time as the DVD releases, not the cinema releases. Obviously nothing compares to going to the cinema.

    exactly. if i want a full movie experience...i go to the movies. if i want a solid home theatre experience, i'll load it up on my DVD system. I think a lof people here missinterpret the real intention of iTunes and most common use of video content offered. It's not intended to replace anything...it's really a supplement to offer new viewing opportunities not previously available. That said, you may have no use for watching movies on a tiny screen while waiting in an airport or sitting at 34,000 feet above Nebraska on your way to a client meeting in New York. So, video ipod isn't for you.

    Sorry for rant...just want to clear up the "itunes will destroy cinema" idea that has been indirectly sort of but not really alluded to here. iTunes is not going to disrupt the movie industry.

    Eventually, it or something similar will eliminate our need for wasteful DVDs, just like 8-tracks, cassettes, vynal, laser discs and every Sony format were all made obsolete for practical use (regardless of superiority of whatever)

    upgraded to itunes 7 here at work and now I can't work with Unreal3 and listen to music, so I had to revert back to 6.0.5. Oh well no videos for me.

    Quote from dissonance

    also, i don't really 'get' itunes. it's not all that useful to me; i'm not sure why.

    I wasn't really a fan of it, but since I got an ipod and am an mp3 whore/elitist I like how it can keep track of what I listened to, how much, how recently, and album art (which grew on me).

    Quote from Mojo

    I wasn't really a fan of it, but since I got an ipod and am an mp3 whore/elitist I like how it can keep track of what I listened to, how much, how recently, and album art (which grew on me).

    but you can do that with lots of services.are you using itunes for this simply because it came with the ipod and you had nothing berrer beforehand? no offense or anything, im just trying to understand.

    well i personally just like itunes for similar reasons to mojo, but also cause I like the ipod better than all the other devices out there. simple. it works. reliable.

    I like iTunes a lot. I've been a WinAmp fan since the beginning, and it took me a long time to accpt iTunes. I thought iTunes was too big on the screen and took up too much memory. I liked that I could get WinAmp down to a minimal space and memory footprint. What did it for me was that iTunes approaches your library as music, while WinAmp approaches it as files.

    You have to really look hard to see a file name in iTunes. It treats every files as a song and gives you that information in a well laid out and organized fashion (something WinAmp lacked for a very long time). WinAmp always seemed to be at the mercy of people's poor file labeling and id3 tagging. When I stick in a CD to iTunes, it will rip and file it away without me having to tell it where to put it or how to file it. It starts paying the songs as I rip. Same sort of reverse funcationality with burning. It just works, and it works in a way that I appreciate and my sister can still understand. WinAmp just no longer does it for me. While I still appreciate it's simplicity, it just seems like it lacks refinement. It's great for playing files, but it doesn't do it for me when it comes to overal library management.

    And don't get me started on the clusterfuck that is Media Player. If any of you use Media Player to manage your library, you deserve for your computer to catch fire.

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