iLounge

1

“Wider” just sounds so good…

Posted by Bad Beaver on September 1, 2006 at 9:16 AM (PST)

2

I will never buy a single movie from ituens at those prices.  EVER.  I’d rather pay retail and own the dvd, or be branded a thief and *steal* it.

That’s outrageous pricing for digital, DRM-laden, highly-compressed video.

Posted by stark23x on September 1, 2006 at 12:11 PM (PST)

3

Too expensive.  It’s as simple as that.  I will never purchase a movie on iTunes. 

This is very unfortunate.  I can’t wait to “hear” the dead silence when the prices are announced at the special media event.

Posted by m. sherman on September 1, 2006 at 12:21 PM (PST)

4

I’d consider it. Most new releases are around $20-25. You probably won’t get the equivalent to DVD extras.  If they are HD resolution, that would be worth it. I wouldn’t pay to watch high quality on a 3-4” screen, but lousy quality on a 32-60” HDTV screen.

Posted by will_bc on September 1, 2006 at 12:59 PM (PST)

5

They won’t be HD. Normal res would be pushing it already.
For movie downloads to take off, broadband needs to get faster. In the UK it’s a complete joke. I understand it’s not as bad in other countries. However, I’m sure I could walk down to my local blockbusters and rent a video in a fraction of the time it’d take to download. Mail-order is supposed to be quicker too.
Also, constantly downloading films would give a level of use similar to file-sharing levels, the kind of use most ISPs will cut you off for. Regardless of your download cap. Read the fair use policy; do any heavy downloading at peak times, they cut you off.
Until major ISPs change their stance on ‘fair use’, and speeds get higher, I don’t see apple coming into this area.

Posted by Liam on September 1, 2006 at 3:11 PM (PST)

6

“Too expensive.  It’s as simple as that.  I will never purchase a movie on iTunes.”

We heard the same thing about .99 songs and $1.99 TV shows, but they sell tons of ‘em.

Posted by The Raven in USA on September 1, 2006 at 3:35 PM (PST)

7

DVDs release at $19.99, and then often drop to $14.99 within 3-6 months.  After a year, they will be $9.99, and that means you can pick them up at Best Buy for “3 for $20” or “2 for $15”.
Good luck with that, Apple.

Posted by Galley in Greenville, SC on September 1, 2006 at 4:49 PM (PST)

8

“That’s outrageous pricing for digital, DRM-laden, highly-compressed video.”

But what if your assumptions are false? Nobody ever said that iTunes movies would be in the same format as the current TV shows and music videos…

I’ll personally wait until I have the official details to forge an opinion.

If the deal is good, I only hope the movies will be available in Canada…

Posted by Beruk on September 1, 2006 at 5:32 PM (PST)

9

It’s not that expensive, folks!

The main point is to be able to download a movie(s) to your iPod for portable viewing - not for home watching. As stated in this thread, HD would take waaaaaay too long at current speeds. The purpose of these movies is strictly for portable viewing, and will find success with people that take 1-2 hrs commuting by bus/train to work, campers, road trippers etc.

To have someone else rip a dvd in a format that is perfect/glitch-free for my iPod screen is well worth it. Time is money folks. It’s not worth my time/money to go through the hassle of setting up/ripping my own movies.

Posted by coldhard on September 1, 2006 at 7:23 PM (PST)

10

yeah good luck with that apple, i wont be buying any movies from itunes, i’d rather go and get the real thing.

Posted by Jesse on September 1, 2006 at 7:25 PM (PST)

11

Honestly, although I doubt I will personally buy too many movies at this price, I still think it will work for Apple.  In particular, I think the appeal here is going to be for people who do want to download and/or watch movies and don’t really know how or want to learn how to rip a DVD and convert it for watching in digital form on their iPod.  I imagine for a lot of potential video iPod owners, the convenience factor will be appealing.

Is it for everyone?  No, clearly not, but I think this works because it is not trivial for the average computer user to rip a DVD to their computer, convert it, etc.  It isn’t like buying a CD in a store and being able to really easily rip it to your computer. 

At that point though, the convenience factor comes into play too; I can say that I’ve bought plenty of albums on iTunes for full price even though the same CD could be bought on sale at the record store or through amazon.com.  There is an appeal to that sort of “instant satisfaction” I think.

For something that you would have for an unlimited time, $9.99 and $14.99 seem like somewhat reasonable price points (it seems like some of the movie download services out right now will charge $3.99 or even a bit more to have a movie and only be able to watch it for a day or two.).  From the talks of pricing of other competing movie download services, I also don’t think Apple’s pricing is going to be that far off from what other people are talking about (i.e. wal-mart apparently wants to use the same price point).

So yeah, again, probably not something I’d use a lot, and probably not something many people posting here would want, but I can definitely see it still being quite successful overall.

Posted by Zadillo on September 1, 2006 at 7:52 PM (PST)

12

Where in the world does everyone live?  Everyone is saying new DVD releases come out at $20-$25.  Here in Vegas, when the new DVDs come out on Tuesday, they are all $15.  They then go up to the $20 mark after the week ends.

That being said, do I pay $15 on iTunes for a highly-compressed new release that I can only play and will look good on my small iPod screen…

OR

Pay $15 for the actual DVD with all the extras, playable in my TV at home, my truck, and if I wanted to, rip it to my PC and transfer it to my iPod?

Hmmmmmm…

Posted by Sean on September 1, 2006 at 10:27 PM (PST)

13

I"ll prob buy some movies off of there. But I have this program called Podmaxx, Which transfers DVD’s to your computer in ipod format.

Posted by Joey on September 2, 2006 at 12:06 PM (PST)

14

I keep hoping that ITMS will have some kind of rental program. I don’t need to own movies, but I’d rent them for sure—same with audiobooks.

Posted by Jason Martin on September 2, 2006 at 1:00 PM (PST)

15

Or maybe DVD’s will start coming with an iPod Compressed version on it, or when the Blueray or HDDVD become popular and they have teh extra room for things like that.

I think that route would be best therefor there will be no need to use Apples downloading service of Movies.

Posted by frowc on September 2, 2006 at 6:47 PM (PST)

16

don’t really care about the movies….does anybody else smell a new real cool awesome swizz beats ipod?!?!  My 3rd gen just got a brushed steel look, and i am wanting an update…

Posted by jegero on September 2, 2006 at 8:18 PM (PST)

17

What no one seems to be addressing here is storage space.  It’s one thing to have 7,000 songs take up 20 Gig of your hard drive, but video takes up significantly more room.  Last I checked a terrabyte of storage is about $800 - figure that into the cost of downloading videos to watch on a 2.5 inch screen.

Posted by jess on September 2, 2006 at 8:27 PM (PST)

18

a terabyte is not that much. what you need to do is buy 2 500 gig or 4 250 gig externals, a little more tricky but it is 300 to 500 depending on the quality. for example i got a cheap 250 gb external for 80 bucks, but you get what u pay for. its crap but it works

Posted by killa on September 2, 2006 at 8:49 PM (PST)

19

Well, we won’t know anything until it happens.  Two things could happen, everybody here is correct and Apple will sell the movies at the quality assumed and the movies will simply be added to iTMS.  Or, Apple will do what makes Apple Apple, they’ll introduce an innovative technology that will make this feasible (or rather use existing tech in an innovative way) and will do the same thing for the purchasing experience.  The former maybe the way Apple goes just to get in the market, for them not to would be a huge blunder as M$ has turned it’s scopes on iPod+iTunes.  Apple has established a media user base (and a huge lead), now they need to keep it.  Ultimately I believe Apple will continue to do it better than M$, and Apple has learned from it’s past “arrogance”, with the Macintosh, in that they remain sensitive to market forces and overall user experience.  Apple intends to keep the lead, and from what has come out from M$ thus far, I think they’ll hold it.  One thing I find very interesting is that M$ is said to be already producing the Zune player and intend to “stuff” the marketing channels, yet Apple will be introducing it’s new player in mid-Sept. (speculating).  We’ve seen the Zune (so we’ve been led to believe) and as is it’s pretty weak looking, nobody knows what to expect from Apple, but more than likely Apple as designed a product that will surpass previous releases.  I’m looking forward to seeing the whole media player shootout play out, though I expect there to be some major turmoil in Redmond at the end of this.

Posted by slider on September 3, 2006 at 9:02 AM (PST)

20

At those prices and with likely restrictions, I’ll just continue to download the movies without DRM. In any event, unless the ‘new video iPod’ handles DivX/XviD, I’ll pass on it.

Tom

Posted by Thomas Davie on September 3, 2006 at 10:15 PM (PST)