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Brick and mortar stores could have sales stolen by Apple iTunes digital downloads

Although the vast majority of all sales of movies are done on DVD, likely at mass market locations such as Wal-Mart, there is a slowly growing population of those who are playing for digital downloads.

Such a phenomenon is becoming well established in the realm of music, where users of iTunes will pay 99 cents to download a song. Apple is now hoping to bring the same level of success it did to music over to movies.

Apple announced that new releases and catalog titles will be available on iTunes day-and-date with the DVD releases from 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Lionsgate, Image Entertainment and First Look Studios.

Movies purchased from iTunes can be viewed on an iPod with video, iPhone, Mac or PC or on a widescreen TV with Apple TV. New release movies will be priced at $14.99 and older catalog titles at $9.99. The iTunes Store current carries over 1,500 films at present.

Notable releases this week include American Gangster and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, which will join other recent movies Juno, Cloverfield, I Am Legend, There Will Be Blood and others.

“We’re thrilled to bring iTunes Store customers new films for purchase day-and-date with the DVD release,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes. “We think movie fans will love being able to buy their favorites from major and independent studios.”

Unlike Microsoft’s Xbox Live Marketplace service, which is allows only movie rentals, the iTunes Store presents movies for purchase as well as rental. Apple did not reveal any plans to offer high-definition movies for download, which is available on Microsoft’s service.

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Not bad deal
By mdogs444 on 5/2/2008 9:02:42 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
Movies purchased from iTunes can be viewed on an iPod with video, iPhone, Mac or PC or on a widescreen TV with Apple TV.

$14.99 is not bad for a new release movie. But I don't see anywhere on here mentioning the details of the download. Is it good forever? What kind of DRM is attached?

Personally, I dont own an imac, ipod, iphone, or anything else with an "i" in front....but this may not be bad if you have an HTPC hooked up via HDMI to a 720p/1080p HDTV.

But I'm not a fan of the DRM, and it doesn't say whether you can copy and transfer to other drives or burn to cd/dvd.




RE: Not bad deal
By RamarC on 5/2/2008 9:14:33 AM , Rating: 5
$14.99 ain't bad for a DVD with extra features and mpeg2 compression that i can play almost anywhere. but it's too expensive for an over-compressed downrezed version of the main movie only that's tied to two or three devices.


RE: Not bad deal
By FITCamaro on 5/2/2008 9:49:18 AM , Rating: 3
Exactly. Why would I want to pay the same for a download of lower quality as I would for the DVD? And then have said download be locked down with DRM. $9.99 for older movies isn't bad but typically you can get them on DVD for this price as well.

Apple you fail again. $9.99 for new releases and $4.99 for older movies and you might get some real business. And the downloads need to be 480p or possibly even upconverted 1080i which will happen on my DVD player but not through playback software.


RE: Not bad deal
By StevoLincolnite on 5/2/2008 10:05:50 AM , Rating: 1
Well for those who use these movies on a PC, it should be automatically up-converted anyway, ensuring everything is set-up correctly.
And most would watch these on there PC, or iPod, or EEEPC or something similar, which don't have stellar resolutions as it is.


RE: Not bad deal
By amanojaku on 5/2/2008 10:32:24 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
Well for those who use these movies on a PC, it should be automatically up-converted anyway, ensuring everything is set-up correctly.


Up-conversion won't add data (picture detail) that isn't there. An up-converted 320x240 video still looks like crap on any screen because there just aren't enough pixels. Interpolation fakes data, and faking it is bad. That's what I told her, anyway. :-p

quote:
And most would watch these on there PC, or iPod, or EEEPC or something similar, which don't have stellar resolutions as it is.


PC's have bad resolutions? How does that explain all the good looking games and movies in HD? There are three markets for this service: mobile users with crappy screens (iPods, etc...) mobile users with decent screens (laptops,) and stationary users with great screens (desktops.) Encoding a video resolution for each user type is not so difficult.


RE: Not bad deal
By StevoLincolnite on 5/3/2008 1:50:46 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
Up-conversion won't add data (picture detail) that isn't there. An up-converted 320x240 video still looks like crap on any screen because there just aren't enough pixels. Interpolation fakes data, and faking it is bad. That's what I told her, anyway. :-p


That is common knowledge that it will not add to the detail, but it can clean up some of the artifacts, which was a notable feature in the original Radeon 9xxx series of Graphics cards (The ones not based on the Radeon 8500).

quote:
PC's have bad resolutions? How does that explain all the good looking games and movies in HD? There are three markets for this service: mobile users with crappy screens (iPods, etc...) mobile users with decent screens (laptops,) and stationary users with great screens (desktops.) Encoding a video resolution for each user type is not so difficult.


Yes some PC's have bad resolutions if you use a Monochrome screen, however that was merely a typo on my behalf.


RE: Not bad deal
By Phynaz on 5/2/2008 1:48:27 PM , Rating: 2
Exactly. Why would I want to pay the same for a download of lower quality as I would for the CD? And then have said download be locked down with DRM.

Oh wait, iTunes is now the largest music retailer on the planet.

I don't think they are failing at much, really.


RE: Not bad deal
By kelmon on 5/3/2008 9:06:39 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
Exactly. Why would I want to pay the same for a download of lower quality as I would for the DVD?


One word: Convenience.

The DRM applied is obviously going to cause problems with using the media how you like in much the same way as the DRM on the DVD does. In some respects the DRM that Apple applies actually is less restrictive (movie can be watched on your computer, Apple TV or iPod without ripping and re-encoding) but then the DRM does also restrict in other ways (no burning to DVD in order to watch on a TV without an Apple TV). Whether or not this is a problem depends on what you already own.

Regardless, lower quality is often preferable as long as the quality is "good enough" (very subjective, of course) and it is now much easier to "get". Downloading instead of going to the shop is much faster and easier, plus moving it around, as noted earlier, can be a simpler process. Time will tell whether people find the iTunes Store method to be more convenient. As has been pointed out already, the audio quality of music downloaded from the iTunes Store is lower than that of a CD but it seems to be doing pretty well because it's convenient and the quality is "good enough". Perfectionists, of course, will hate this.


RE: Not bad deal
By jlips6 on 5/3/2008 10:58:41 AM , Rating: 2
people will buy this because they are too lazy to go to the store and buy a dvd. Therein lies the appeal.


RE: Not bad deal
By Lastfreethinker on 5/2/2008 9:51:45 AM , Rating: 2
I second your comments sir.


RE: Not bad deal
By BiffRapper on 5/2/2008 12:42:02 PM , Rating: 4
I have Netflix, I pay around 17.99 a month for unlimited DVD rentals and unlimited online movies.

Why on earth would I pay apple 14.99 for a single movie I might only watch a couple of times? I can watch 12+ (minimum) physical DVD's a month and however many more online (piped to my TV and home theater) for just slightly more than the price of a single movie.

This does not compute Apple.


RE: Not bad deal
By kelmon on 5/3/2008 9:10:38 AM , Rating: 2
It's the old "Rent or Own" debate. I honestly tend to agree with you that rental is probably best when it comes to video but others will disagree and they are the ones who will like this option. Others argue that renting music is also best but then I think they're freakin' nuts, so go figure. Personally, I'm twiddling my thumbs waiting for Apple to sort out an international service so that I can rent movies to an Apple TV since I'm too impatient for a mail-order service.


RE: Not bad deal
By aliasfox on 5/2/2008 10:51:58 AM , Rating: 2
I agree that the pricing is asinine (even worse terms for rentals), but I have a very strong feeling it's the studios/MPAA that's putting these restrictions on pricing/DRM - they seem to be deathly afraid of losing out on $15-20 DVD sales, and with HD content, they'll likely want to charge close to $30 to protect Blu-ray sales as well.

If the studios let Apple (and other online retailers) sell movies for $5-8 a download for "near" DVD quality movies, we'd likely see two things happening:

a) DVD sales will tank. People happily watch Divx (also generally lower quality than DVD) for free, $5 for the convenience of not having to wait for a torrent/instant streaming is worth it to a lot of people (including me)

b) Rentals will tank - Blockbuster charges $4 for a rental - if it costs $5 to buy it without having to get off the couch, it will take off.

c) The general public will buy/watch more, find out that Hollywood is full of schlock, and hopefully start demanding better storytelling (one can only hope). The last thing studios want is to be innovative in any sense of the word...

At the very least, yes, you can burn your movie downloads to disc, in addition to watching them on your computer/portable iDevice. Too bad, though, that the quality on a 46" TV is subpar...


RE: Not bad deal
By amanojaku on 5/2/2008 9:25:20 AM , Rating: 2
This sounds like a great idea and could improve over time. The two issues I have are a potential lack of HD content and the use of DRM. In this day and age HD content can be downloaded in a reasonable amount of time. If you can wait a week or a month for a torrent to seed you can wait a day or two for an HD download to complete. The article isn't definitive on whether or not HD will be available, but knowing Apple and its common response of "no plans" it won't be.

DRM... someone please kill it off already! I can take my VHS or DVD anywhere. Duplication systems can clone disks regardless of encryption (some can even preserve it!) So why limit me to playing my downloaded movie on an iPod or iTunes? I don't follow video trends, but I think DRM will most likely be the biggest roadblock to online adoption.


RE: Not bad deal
By 325hhee on 5/2/2008 9:33:36 AM , Rating: 2
I still don't get the purpose of watching a full movie on an Ipod or even a nano. I see it on the bus and subway all the time, and just don't get it, watching a movie like Transformers on that makes no sense to me. I'm all for larger screens and theater like sound, don't care for stereo sound on a 1" screen.


RE: Not bad deal
By mdogs444 on 5/2/2008 9:38:58 AM , Rating: 2
I agree. The only places I can see it being a viable option would be on a long distance flight or bus ride w/o electrical outlets to keep your laptop powered.


RE: Not bad deal
By FITCamaro on 5/2/2008 9:50:25 AM , Rating: 2
PSPs aren't too bad. But yeah an iPod or Nano sucks for video. An iPhone wouldn't be bad either, but you'll probably use your entire battery to watch a single film.


RE: Not bad deal
By kelmon on 5/3/2008 9:15:26 AM , Rating: 2
An iPod is pretty damned small and light so doesn't weigh you down when traveling. Sure, a bigger screen would be nice but they don't come without inconvenience and the iPod option is OK. I've not tried watching a film on one (mostly because there is no option to download outside the US) but it's fine for TV programs. Basically, it's better than nothing if you are happy enough to put up with the small screen.


RE: Not bad deal
By FITCamaro on 5/2/2008 9:51:51 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
If you can wait a week or a month for a torrent to seed you can wait a day or two for an HD download to complete.


Or spend the same amount of money at a store for the DVD in 2 minutes and watch it that night.


RE: Not bad deal
By amanojaku on 5/2/2008 10:22:54 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
Or spend the same amount of money at a store for the DVD in 2 minutes and watch it that night.


True. But I'm against buying physical media if other options are present. I'd keep a downloaded copy forever, but I'd sell or give away old tapes and discs just to reclaim space. I love my video jukebox (HTPC + NAS). :-)