HD Movies Now For Sale in iTunes
Blu-ray took another today hit as Apple announced that it will be offering HD movies for sale (iTunes link), rather than just for rent. That means consumers can download HD quality movies directly into their iTunes library, for use on their computers or Apple TV, or TV-connected Mac mini, if you happen to be me. This probably explains why Blu-ray support hasn’t been forthcoming in recent hardware updates coming out of Cupertino.
Don’t get too excited, though; you don’t get much of a price break for giving up physical media. HD movies on iTunes cost $19.99, which, barring new releases, isn’t that much of a discount from Blu-ray prices. And the file sizes are likely enormous, so plan on either upgrading your internal or moving that iTunes library to an external drive in order to accommodate them.
Launch titles for the service include “Punisher: War Zone,” “Bangkok Dangerous,” and some movies that are actually worth buying, like “Transporter 3.” A number of pre-orders are also available, including the wildly popular teen vampire love story, “Twilight,” and the latest Bond installment, “Quantum of Solace.” The movie files will play no problem on your Apple mobile devices, too, although in standard definition.
I should point out that HD movie purchases are not yet available in the Canadian or UK stores (the only two international stores that I checked so far), and Apple hasn’t released details as to when they might be made available. Currently in the Canadian iTunes store, you can only buy HD TV shows using Apple TV, though the UK store has them available for computer and Apple TV users. I really hope they don’t plan on running the same scheme for HD movies here in Canada as they do for TV shows, because I refuse to be bullied into buying an Apple TV when we don’t have access to most major American network content.
Richard on March 20th, 2009 at 8:22 am
I swear you’ve been able to purchase a few HD movies before now.
Richard on March 20th, 2009 at 8:23 am
Edit: Ah yes Apple TV vs iTunes Store, I have to remember that there is a difference.
Andrew Bednarz on March 20th, 2009 at 8:31 am
Not yet available in the Australian store either.
Phil on March 20th, 2009 at 8:52 am
No mention of the sound though, do these come with HD sound quality too, 5.1, 7.1 what? If there is no HD sound then Blu-ray is still the better option. A movie without it’s not much better than standard def.
steven on March 20th, 2009 at 8:53 am
I’m waiting to see what upgrades they make to the apple tv.
Hopefully online storage that will allow you to stream your owned content from apple and not have to store it locally.
Weldon Dodd on March 20th, 2009 at 6:26 pm
I assume that these are essentially the same as the AppleTV HD Rentals which have been available for some time now (@Richard – that is what you were thinking of – HD rentals). Those have 5.1 surround sound. The video quality is decent, but still not as good as a disc on a good player.
freetvshow on March 21st, 2009 at 9:53 pm
I just love the idea of watching Quantum of Solace or any other movie on my iPhone 3G on the way to work, that’s awsome
Lynn LU on March 23rd, 2009 at 1:10 am
How can backup the movies I have bought from iTunes,and I want to burn these movies to DVD ,so I can watch them on TV.
chrisduncanaudio on March 26th, 2009 at 5:09 am
Phil: as far as audio format, yes, they do include 5.1 surround. However, I can’t find any info about the quality of the audio.
Me on March 27th, 2009 at 9:47 pm
Bluray will still be of higher quality of course.
The HD videos on itunes appear to be ~1.55gb, an impressive quality for a download service. A big step over what their standard videos.
I’m wondering, do their videos follow the itunes plus service? Or are they DRMed?
Matt on April 1st, 2009 at 6:46 pm
Now they need iTunes Plus to have an Apple Lossless option. I’d be willing to pay extra for it. I have to imagine artists, at least, would like that to be availabe. Neil Young would, for sure. :-)
Link: http://new.uk.music.yahoo.com/blogs/cmu_blog/3/is-neil-young-rightshould-we-really-be-celebrating-the-mp3/
Or google “neil young mp3 sound quality” if the link gets filtered.
-Matt
jim on May 13th, 2009 at 11:26 pm
Just so, you know the HD apple movies are in 720p and recorded in Dolby 5.1 compressed surround sound. Whereas Blu-Ray disks are 1080p video that is completely uncompressed and the audio is Dolby HD or DTS master audio, which is completely uncompressed up to 7.1, which provides the viewer with a far better home theatre experience.
hassan on July 17th, 2009 at 10:19 pm
thanks for this topic
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Jules on July 28th, 2009 at 8:17 pm
But at least you can’t scratch or damage the files, like the DVD (“just dropped a BD the other day and chipped it” Ooops!) 720p is just fine but they just need to be cheaper.