Comments on: iTunes enters into the HD DVD vs Blu-ray war with bigger sales

By: JasonJ

JasonJ — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 07:38:12 +0000

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(

By: Rick T

Rick T — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 04:39:47 +0000

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.

By: Robert

Robert — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 14:50:18 +0000

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…

By: Bob

Bob — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 21:00:14 +0000

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.

By: scott

scott — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 20:32:26 +0000

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.

By: alphaman

alphaman — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 15:59:42 +0000

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.

By: superdynamite

superdynamite — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 04:15:54 +0000

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By: Igor

Igor — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 00:37:04 +0000

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.