Comments on: iTunes And Alternate Endings

By: Blockbuster vs. AppleTV

Blockbuster vs. AppleTV — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 00:17:29 +0000

[...] the cost of an Apple TV. Nor is it about the added benefits of DVDs over digital downloads that Bob talked about a couple weeks ago (and take the time to watch the alternate ending of “I Am Legend” if you [...]

By: Blockbuster vs. AppleTV | The Apple Blog

Blockbuster vs. AppleTV | The Apple Blog — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 13:00:27 +0000

By: Artie MacStrawman

Artie MacStrawman — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 16:36:22 +0000

If you want extra features, get the DVD and quit whining.
k.thx.bye.

By: Honza

Honza — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 11:01:29 +0000

I don’t know about you, but in our region (read “Marketing Territory”) quite often when you rent a DVD from a brick and mortar store it’s a cut down version, marked ‘not for retail sale’ and has none or very few extras on it. Of course this is so that there’s still a glimmer of hope that you’ll buy the actual DVD.
Renting, from a store or online apart from the delivery method - there’s no difference. You have a less complete experience which you have to give back after a set time.

By: Michael

Michael — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 04:53:16 +0000

For Rentals, which I think is the future of the Apple TV and iTunes, I doubt we’ll ever see special features. I think that’s something that the studios would love to use as an incentive to make the DVD purchase.

I also don’t expect digital downloads to overtake the industry as fast as we in the tech world might like to think. Disks will be around for years to come for purchasing movies.

Rentals might go digital, but I don’t think that will be successful as a purchasable format….not now anyway.

By: undeadbydawn

undeadbydawn — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 01:04:32 +0000

Because Apple only sell what they are licensed to sell, perhaps? It is a puzzle.

It is, again, an effervescent example of execs just painfully refusing to get it right. Like the DRM examples we all know and hate, media distro is so *simple* to get right that it truly boggles the mind how hard they struggle to get it horribly wrong.

By: ShavenYak

ShavenYak — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 00:11:49 +0000

There is, not surprisingly, a file format that Apple could use to distribute downloadable movies that would enable them to pretty much match the DVD experience. Interactive menus, scene selection, extras, games, whatever. The surprising part about this better format that they aren’t using is that they invented it. Maybe you’ve heard of it, it’s called Quicktime.

That’s right, in a single .mov file they could be putting the movie, the outtakes, the alternate endings, all the studio extras, and menus that rival the DVD. But instead, they sell just a simple single audio/video stream in an MPEG-4 container. Why, Apple, why?

By: undeadbydawn

undeadbydawn — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 22:37:43 +0000

Incorrect, Sir: the alternative ending is utter crap, and serves only to reinforce how [yet again] badly Hollywood has re-written the source material.

Otherwise, yes: until I can download full dvd-style copies of films, forget it. Not interested. As long as I can find (and incidentally pay for. ish) full quality rips I see no point in paying for a poor quality corporate-sanctioned download.. that lasts 24 hours.
It’s a nice idea once again let down by executives completely failing to understand their target audience. Little wonder piracy is rife.
In closing, I still buy far more DVDs than I download, but dloading is becoming a major part of my film experience. My DVD collection was 1000+ until I ran out of space and sold most of them off.