'iTunes Movie Rental' Review

Skyuser

Ok so I updated to the latest iTunes and entered the store (US Store). They have a very small range of latest movies available. I picked Spiderman 3 cause it was the only one there that I hadn't seen even though I didn't really want to see it.
Once you click 'rent' a little warning comes up to verify you want to rent it and after clicking ok it's then moved to 'downloads'. I have a 2Mb connection so it took 2 hours to download. It then moved to the 'rented movies' section.
The quality is said to be "DVD quality" but DVD is slighter better. Plugged in my iPhone but I need a 1.1.3 update for it to recognise rented movies.

I think I'd use this service a lot more if I had 'Apple TV'. This offers HD Movies straight to the TV. But this is €299 which is too expensive. Otherwise is quite handy if you want a movie in just 2 hours for only $3.99 (€2.73).


P.s Movie was crap.

Heisenberg.

This post has been deleted.

Creamy Goodness

the new appleTV's that are being shipped with the new firmware to allow movie rental through appleTV will be reduced to €229. they will be available in 2 weeks.

aidan_walsh

The New York Times has an article today on hurdles that Apple will have to face in the EU, so it could be some time yet before we get them here.

johnp

Skyuser wrote: »

Ok so I updated to the latest iTunes and entered the store (US Store). They have a very small range of latest movies available. I picked Spiderman 3 cause it was the only one there that I hadn't seen even though I didn't really want to see it.
Once you click 'rent' a little warning comes up to verify you want to rent it and after clicking ok it's then moved to 'downloads'. I have a 2Mb connection so it took 2 hours to download. It then moved to the 'rented movies' section.
The quality is said to be "DVD quality" but DVD is slighter better. Plugged in my iPhone but I need a 1.1.3 update for it to recognise rented movies.

I think I'd use this service a lot more if I had 'Apple TV'. This offers HD Movies straight to the TV. But this is €299 which is too expensive. Otherwise is quite handy if you want a movie in just 2 hours for only $3.99 (€2.73).


P.s Movie was crap.

Interesting! How big (in MB) was the movie?

Skyuser

I used the store with US gift cards bought from ebay. If the Apple TV is €229 I think I might get it. The file size was 1.6Gb.

Skyuser

Cremo wrote: »

the new appleTV's that are being shipped with the new firmware to allow movie rental through appleTV will be reduced to €229. they will be available in 2 weeks.

I noticed the AppleTV on the US store are priced at $229 but the Irl Store still says €299

Memnoch

I strongly advise reading this article before spending any money.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/?p=511

Basically with current technology and especially current broadband internet speeds, HD movies over the internet are a lie. What you get is a very fake "watered down version" of HD. It still might be enough to kill the next generation of DVD technology because of a lack of awareness among consumers, but it's still crap

To sum up the article: HD movies downloaded over the internet are actually slightly worse quality than a NORMAL DVD watched on a HDTV. I know it sounds implausible but the article above explains it well.

AppleTV might be a good buy for all of its other features (including the streaming of you tube to ur tv set ) though the competition's product such as Archos TV does all that and more, the only problem with archos is it doesn't have the itunes/imovies archive and so you can't get the top content

Anyway the point of all this for me is, Digital downloads seem great, but I didn't buy a Full HD TV to watch internet crap that is less than DVD quality. If I want to do that I can just download onto my laptop for free and hook it up to the tv via VGA or whatever.

So until the techonlogy (and broadband connections in Ireland) improves, I'm gonna pass on Apple TV.

P.S. I just checked the Apple TV website and it basically confirms everything in the article.

Here are the "tech specs" as quoted from : http://www.apple.com/appletv/specs.html

Video formats supported
H.264 and protected H.264 (from iTunes Store): Up to 5 Mbps, Progressive Main Profile (CAVLC) with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps (maximum resolution: 1280 by 720 pixels at 24 fps, 960 by 540 pixels at 30 fps) in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats
iTunes Store purchased video: 320 by 240 pixels, 640 by 480 pixels, 720 by 480 pixels (anamorphic), or high-definition 720p
MPEG-4: Up to 3 Mbps, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps (maximum resolution: 720 by 432 pixels at 30 fps) in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats

So 1280 x 720 pixels is the quality at 24 FPS

Full HD is 1920 x 1080? No where near the same folks.

Ofc if you aren't looking for Full HD or have one of those "hd ready" tv's then this might not an issue for you.