iTunes enters into the HD DVD vs Blu-ray war with bigger sales
By Sean P. Aune
Could the high definition wars be adding a third combatant in the form of Apple?
While it’s become somewhat for a foregone conclusion that Blu-ray has won the high definition disc format war, it’s not as clear that physical media will end up winning the final fight. We discussed earlier this week that Apple could factor in to the war with their new HD downloads, but a recent article from Business Week makes the argument that Apple is in the fight already with just their general downloads.
At the Macworld keynote speech, Steve Jobs pointed out that in the 15-months since the iTunes Store included movies, they have moved 7 million downloads. In the 18-months since HD DVD and Blu-ray went head-to-head, the combine total of disc sales is 6 million.
So, why has Apple moved so many movies in that time period? Was it because people wanted them to be more portable? Instant gratification? Playing them on their TV via Apple TV? And now with HD videos available for the Apple TV, could there be a whole new fight on the hands of the Blu-ray camp? With consumers embracing standard definition downloads, there could be a whole new fight in the high definition camp.
Portability, multiple devices that people already own, a straight-forward concept that doesn’t require them to understand it; high definition physical media could be in for a bumpy ride fairly soon.
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January 19th, 2008
There is a world of difference between downloading a film and downloading a HD film.
I cant envisage any situation coming in the next 5-10years where it will be easier to download a HD film than just buying one on a disk. You can either spend a day downloading or just order it from Amazon and get a hard copy of it the next day. The hundreds of millions of people using DVD players will also find it far easier to just replace a DVD player with a HD player than to rig up a load of new technology.
It will definitely get more popular but it will not stop BluRay from becoming the next home media format. The company’s selling BluRay players will eventually just stop selling DVD players so anyone wanting one something to play DVDs on will be buying a BluRay player that also plays DVDs. In that situation they then may as well switch to buying BluRay disks and the changeover will be complete.
January 19th, 2008
This article, like many others are a big misconception.
See Here: http://www.epinions.com/content_5157331076
January 20th, 2008
There is a world of difference between HD recorded on physical media (e.g., Blu-Ray with a max video/audio data rate of 48Mbps) is vastly different than the speed available via iTunes (or any other) download service (max of 5Mbps to AppleTV, or about 1/2 the rate of a Std Def DVD!)
They can call it an HD download, but in reality, it’s a crap download.
January 20th, 2008
I agree with the posts above me. Not everyone wants to download movies and have the moves for a limited time frame. Having the physical movie is important to me because there are times when I can just pop in a good movie and relax with my girlfriend instead of jumping onto a computer and download it only to have it for 30 days. While I like the idea of downloading the movies, I still rather have physical media. There are so many factors involved. If my Blu-ray or DVD disk is scratched I can go and pick up a new disk for roughly $20-$30, if my hard drive fails, I lose EVERYTHING, not just 1 movie, by my entire collection. To me that is simply not worth it.
January 20th, 2008
Well, people saying that iTunes may be a contender now, and may emerge as a victor are completely retarded. how big is a typical HD movie download? i wont even say it, its HUGE. there are very few countries that actually have internet connections fast enough for people to download such massive files without waiting for days on end. even weeks (ive lived in India, its an amazing place, internet could be faster). as of today, its IMPOSSIBLE that iTunes will keep up higher sale numbers. Once Blu-Ray replaces DVD’s to a considerable extent, sales figures will be more than double.
January 21st, 2008
We have an interesting mix of optimism and pessimism. Apple is optimistic with iTunes and the commenters thus far are pessimistic. HD downloads are the future, there can be no doubt about that, the question is are we technologically ready yet? Can Apple deliver an HD movie on a typical 1 to 4 MIP home connection in a reasonable amount of time? Let’s see, I give them the benefit of doubt that they’ve tested and have a technology that they believe will work.
Eventually all video will be downloaded, but the question is when? Is Apple too far ahead of the game or not? I am happy Apple has taken the gamble, it looks like an interesting year. Remember, folks used to say MP3 players weren’t a good idea either…
January 22nd, 2008
There is a big difference between HD discs and iTunes HD. iTunes Supposed HD movies are only in 720P resolution as compared to the HD discs which are 1080P and there is a world of difference. I personally don’t even consider 720P to be High def it is more like enhanced def. So until they have 1080P available they are not even in the race. Plus the rental aspect is very expensive compared to rental packages of HD discs from Blockbuster or Netflix.
February 16th, 2008
Apple TV. Well I bought one and have been doing the requisite post web browsing about the product I just bought. I am on a 52″ samsung 1080p using HDMI. I connect the Apple TV (160gb) over a wireless G connection through a time warner cable modem.
What I am about to say might freak some of you out… the thing works. I was absolutely SHOCKED, I hit rent on an HD movie and within 5 minutes it said ready to watch. When I hit play, I think 5% had downloaded and once again I thought, “yeah right, lets watch it hiccup all night long” but sure enough, two hours later and the damn thing just worked.
The quality was excellent in 720p widescreen so I had some letterboxing at the bottom and top, no noticeable pixelazation. The hardware on the box supports 1080p and I have the AppleTV set on 1080p. The downloads only hit 720 but this, to me, appears to be a software limit, not a hardware one, so I would expect that once the SoftMedia vs. HardMedia war heats up we will see Jobs on stage with 1080p in big letters behind him.
This ain’t blu ray, but I paid less for the Apple TV than most blu ray players, I can store all my stuff on it, download TV shows, podcasts, and rent movies faster than I can drive to blockbuster.
This doesn’t mean I won’t eventually get a BluRay for the occasional awe inspiring viewing of “Planet Earth” but it does mean that my priorities have shifted. Instead of the Apple being a little play toy, the Blu Ray probably will be.
Oh yeah, my wife loves it too.
I don’t own any mac computers and I normally pray to the Vista gods 8(