Blu-ray, Say Hello to iMovies, in HD

A

admin

Audioholics Robot
Staff member
After just finishing at CES with the apparent win over rival physical format HD DVD, Blu-ray will again be challenged for title home video successor to the DVD. The latest threat is from Apple's iTunes. Steve Jobs has opened Macworld 2008 with an announcement that iTunes has deals in place to rent movies from every major Hollywood studio and that rentals will be available in HD. Currently, iTunes already claims more than 7 million movie download sales, a number that exceeds sales of both physical HD formats.


Discuss "Blu-ray, Say Hello to iMovies, in HD" here. Read the article.
 
BMXTRIX

BMXTRIX

Audioholic Warlord
Downloads have always been the future, but the question is whether or not 'the future' is now, or still - the future.

Last time I checked, about 25% of the US population had broadband internet. This number is not even close to satisfying the general needs of the consumer. Throw in the fact that the US is the number one user of broadband Internet and it becomes clear that while AppleTV can hit a whole heck of a lot of people, it is still falling incredibly short of the potential market.

Then you throw in the basics: "You've got that movie! Great, bring it on over to my house..."

Oh wait - haven't figured that one out yet.

Hey! How about owning 50 movies! Doh! Hard drive full, no networkability, if you want more, you'll have to buy some more hardware... then configure it. Hard drive crash? No biggie - you're just out the hundreds, if not thousands, you may have spent on movies.

Wait - you can't own any of these already... they're just rentals.

Huh? Isn't this more like something to compete with Blockbuster and Netflix?

The technology may be here now, but it is most definitely limited and still has years to go before it will be mainstream.
 
GlocksRock

GlocksRock

Audioholic Spartan
I wonder if those HD downloads will contain a stereo audio track, or will it have some type of surround sound, either dolby 5.1 or some flavor of lossless.

You can rent movies in HD on xbox live, just buy points and redeem them for whatever movie or shows they have... I wonder how it compares to that? Those movies are in 5.1, but I don't think they offer lossless audio on those, but I've never downloaded one either.

Another downside to downloadable HD movies is that a full uncompressed HD movie will be close to 20 gigs or more, when people start downloading several of them, they will fill their drives up quick, unless we start seeing multple terrabyte drives real soon, and I don't see that becoming affordable right away.
 
F

fmw

Audioholic Ninja
I for one have zero interest in a $3.99 24 hour rental that would take me ages to download because broadband isn't available out here in the hinterlands. Too expensive. Too slow. No thanks. I agree that the future of video rentals is part of the future, not the present.
 
patnshan

patnshan

Senior Audioholic
I think download HD is not ready for prime time. I think all the issues BMX listed are valid. I am into renting movies, so it does sound like a good deal for me if it doesn't take an hour to download. I do have a 7 MB/s cable, so it may work. I am likely to try one to see what they are able to do already.

I have VGA + digital coax from my HTPC to my projector. I only have the built in Nvidia 6150 video card. I am wondering if one will need a new video card and such to handle this????

Pat
 
j_garcia

j_garcia

Audioholic Jedi
Even Jobs admits that the public has demonstrated that they still aren't ready for downloadable movies, HD or not. The technology is here, but will people go for it? If not, then it doesn't matter if they can DO it. All who have tried it thus far, including Apple, have failed, but times are changing...
 
A

AdrianMills

Full Audioholic
No disrespect but dissing physical HD formats is getting old and this smacks of trying a little too hard to do just that.

Physical media will be around for a long time yet and don't forget, the US is, relatively speaking, a pretty small potential market compared to the rest of the world; unless things have changed, the last time I tried to buy a BSG episode off of iTunes it barfed at copyright issues because I was in Europe.

This will be just another way to get hold movies, not the only way, and not even the major way for a while yet.
 
Soundman

Soundman

Audioholic Field Marshall
Downloads have always been the future, but the question is whether or not 'the future' is now, or still - the future.

Last time I checked, about 25% of the US population had broadband internet. This number is not even close to satisfying the general needs of the consumer. Throw in the fact that the US is the number one user of broadband Internet and it becomes clear that while AppleTV can hit a whole heck of a lot of people, it is still falling incredibly short of the potential market.

Then you throw in the basics: "You've got that movie! Great, bring it on over to my house..."

Oh wait - haven't figured that one out yet.

Hey! How about owning 50 movies! Doh! Hard drive full, no networkability, if you want more, you'll have to buy some more hardware... then configure it. Hard drive crash? No biggie - you're just out the hundreds, if not thousands, you may have spent on movies.

Wait - you can't own any of these already... they're just rentals.

Huh? Isn't this more like something to compete with Blockbuster and Netflix?

The technology may be here now, but it is most definitely limited and still has years to go before it will be mainstream.
My Friend, I believe you've hit the nail right on the head! I agree 100%! :D
 
Guiria

Guiria

Senior Audioholic
Not to mention new rental services like Redbox DVD rentals. With Wal-mart and Walgreens doing some tests on select markets Redbox has some serious distribution potential.

There are 3 redboxes within 2 sq miles of my home, and one near my work and I love the ease of use and the price.

Hopefully the company becomes profitable and will be around for a while because I'm a fan of the service.

Now if they would start renting Blu-ray for $1.00 that would be sweet.

Hard drive crashes and lack of mobility are two big red flags that sway me from wanting to download movies.
 
Soundman

Soundman

Audioholic Field Marshall
After just finishing at CES with the apparent win over rival physical format HD DVD, Blu-ray will again be challenged for title home video successor to the DVD. The latest threat is from Apple's iTunes. Steve Jobs has opened Macworld 2008 with an announcement that iTunes has deals in place to rent movies from every major Hollywood studio and that rentals will be available in HD. Currently, iTunes already claims more than 7 million movie download sales, a number that exceeds sales of both physical HD formats.


Discuss "Blu-ray, Say Hello to iMovies, in HD" here. Read the article.
This is not even a fair comparison. iMovies is a rental service, not a buy to own. The article is comparing Apples numbers to physical media sales. What they need to do is compare their numbers to the number of all DVD's, Blu-Ray discs, and HD-DVD's rented world wide. This would include all rentals from places such as Blockbuster, Netflix, etc. I beilieve the numbers would look alot different then. So, come on lets compare "apples to apples". Pardon the pun. :)
 
aberkowitz

aberkowitz

Audioholic Field Marshall
I think download HD is not ready for prime time. I think all the issues BMX listed are valid. I am into renting movies, so it does sound like a good deal for me if it doesn't take an hour to download. I do have a 7 MB/s cable, so it may work. I am likely to try one to see what they are able to do already.

I have VGA + digital coax from my HTPC to my projector. I only have the built in Nvidia 6150 video card. I am wondering if one will need a new video card and such to handle this????

Pat
Does your broadband support 7 MB/s?
 
BMXTRIX

BMXTRIX

Audioholic Warlord
Follow up:

Don't get me wrong, I think that HDDL has a huge potential in the rental market to replace Netflix/BB Online. Netflix has already started to embrace this with unlimited streaming downloads, but it can truly be taken to full integration...

Imagine being able to set up a queue on your TV for movies you want to see. You pick your resolution of choice (480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, or 1080p) and then you add movies. You pay more for more bandwidth (1080p) but the service is a flat fee, rent what you want scenario. No STREAMING! The players download in the background when you sleep. Instead of getting them in the mail, they just appear inside the box and you play them when you want to - for as long as you want! The big caveat is the standard Netflix/BB one - only 2 movies or 3 are available to you at any one time.

You can watch a 'rental' as many times as you want, for as long as you want, but when you want something new, you must 'return' the movie. Just one click, and it's returned. Then the new movie becomes available within 24 hours. The big perk is that the movie you want is ALWAYS available to you within that 24 hours. The other perk is that certain titles - like new releases, could actually download far ahead of the actual release. Give a person 100GB and they could store 5+ movies on their system, but only have access to two or three at any time. So, the rest sit there in the 'queue' for later viewing.

It all ties in with music and advertising and can work phenomenally if implemented correctly.

But, the $3.99 for limited viewing over a short time period? That's just insane. I own about 25 Blu-ray movies and I paid $15 or less for each one of them. They are mine - I can watch them as many (or as few) times as I want. With a 3 year old in the house, Ratatouille has been through its paces at least a dozen times already.

This technology could, eventually replace optical media - but it will require (REQUIRE!) a service that stores your order history and protects you against data loss. A fried hard drive = buy a new hard drive, then reload your collection. It requires networkability, and TVs with built in decoding for video streams via wi-fi. It requires portability... somehow.

It definitely is a cool concept, and I LIKE AppleTV. I've used it, and I could definitely see using it as a media server if the damn thing could see my DVD collection that's stored on my networked hard drives (it can't). But, I could use my PS3 just as easily... or an X-Box 360. In fact... I'm not sure why I would spend the money on an AppleTV when I do already have a PS3 that will likely be able to do most of it's functionality, play my Blu-ray movies, and games as well.

We'll get there guys, but not today... and I sure as heck wish this site would embrace HD optical discs instead of continuing to pretend they are SACD or DVD-A. It's video guys, and my smallest TV is 32" - not exactly an MP3 loving pocket display. HD is the buzzword.
 
Omega Supreme

Omega Supreme

Audioholic
imovies $3.99 - $2.99 plus a $1 surcharge? So your talking $4 to $5 dollars for a rental.

imovies: 3-4 rentals = $15 per month
netflix: 2 movies @ a time = about 20 rentals $15 per month + unlimited online

I have no doubt that people will rent and buy from imovies I just dont see how this is going to be the end of HD-DVD or Blu-ray. I agree that this will probably be the future but I belive it will be the "next" step in movie formats. For now I belive the format is Blu-ray and HD-dvd at least for another 10 years or so. I think once the tv & pc merge into one device and hard drives get bigger and cheaper and we have faster internet connections i belive then it will time for the next step. Im not sure why some people seem to want blu-ray and hd-dvd to fail but I just dont see how it can. Just my 2 cents.
 
K

kstich

Enthusiast
Unfortunately, I think that downloadable HD movies are a long way off in Canada. If it is anything like the music download services we will be years behind the US. I remember when Rhapsody and the like first came out; after a two years of waiting they offered a quarter of the songs for twice the price. At least with physical formats they have no reason not to sell/rent them here.

My system is waiting though... My computer has a DVI connection to my HDTV and the Quicktime HD movie trailers look fantastic.
 
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