Apple to Sell Movies on DVD Release Day, Confirmed - Gizmodo Comments

Apple to Sell Movies on DVD Release Day, Confirmed

SpenceMan01 — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:05:52 EDT

There's no way I'm paying the same for a DRM crippled, compressed and overall crappy version of a movie as what I can pay a couple buck more for the same thing on a tangible DVD.

Maybe Redbox has ruined me, but $5 for a video rental? Give me a break. With the high availability of freebie codes for Redbox means I pay nothing for movie rentals.

SpenceMan01

Apple to Sell Movies on DVD Release Day, Confirmed

xistez — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:01:00 EDT

Video killed the radio star? Well DRM killed the video download. How do I know Apple and iTunes are going to be around 10 years from now? I have plenty of DVDs that are almost that old. Microsoft suddenly decides to stop supporting Plays for Sure and now anyone who trusted Microsoft is screwed next time they want to upgrade their computer.

And if I buy HD movies from Apple and they're stuck on my Aple TV, what happens if my Apple TV dies? Sounds like I lose my collection of movies. I can't backup an Apple TV. Had drives die. I had a new western digital die on me last week.

xistez

Apple to Sell Movies on DVD Release Day, Confirmed

dle5 — Thu, 01 May 2008 13:23:24 EDT

I just checked and Cloverfield isn't available for rent. Neither is There Will Be Blood or AVP2. I want to see them but I don't want to own them. I consider it a half victory for Apple users.

dle5

Apple to Sell Movies on DVD Release Day, Confirmed

RetepNamenots — Thu, 01 May 2008 12:55:08 EDT

Sort it out so that people outside the US can get films at all, and I'll be happy. All the Apple TV here is a $400 (cheaper version) paperweight, which just plays HD trailers.

RetepNamenots

Apple to Sell Movies on DVD Release Day, Confirmed

cre8design — Thu, 01 May 2008 12:32:13 EDT

for some of you, if you can read. It says you can buy the movie for $15 and you own it, or rent it for 3.99 (new releases)

cre8design

Apple to Sell Movies on DVD Release Day, Confirmed

ara — Thu, 01 May 2008 11:59:15 EDT

@GeekyNerdGuy & baltwade: Uh, that sounds really bad. I was under impression the HD download rentals have about the same bitrate that DVD's do, making them better as codecs are more sophisticated.

@liveinvt: Press releases are huge bore to read anyways. : P

ara

Apple to Sell Movies on DVD Release Day, Confirmed

nobodyzhome — Thu, 01 May 2008 11:28:01 EDT

@WD40: Or people who can't spell tend.

nobodyzhome

Apple to Sell Movies on DVD Release Day, Confirmed

baltwade — Thu, 01 May 2008 11:17:46 EDT

@ara: Actually redman042 is right about the quality. But it's not just Apple, it's all the streaming content providers. There are several articles on the web that break down each service and show how much they compress and what their relative qualities are. Netflix has the lowest average bitrate and therefor quality, but they only do SD and not HD. Apple has the lowest bitrate and quality of all services that offer HD movies to the point that their HD movies actually have slightly less quality than a standard DVD.

baltwade

Apple to Sell Movies on DVD Release Day, Confirmed

GeekyNerdGuy — Thu, 01 May 2008 11:16:08 EDT

@ara: The quality of the SD Apple rentals are bad -- like seriously bad. I'm not picky about lossless audio or any of that, but you can see grain and artifacts from the compression all over the screen, and I don't even have a big TV. I tried it, and then I went right back to renting DVDs.

GeekyNerdGuy

Apple to Sell Movies on DVD Release Day, Confirmed

liveinvt — Thu, 01 May 2008 11:02:52 EDT

@ara: It's true I didn't read the press release. I was too busy putting a moment's worth of platitudes re: netflix into my comment box ;)

Something I do like about Netflix that I take advantage of is their ability to stream movies to your computer from their website in addition to the physical media mail rental. And now with laptop-video-out to my nice big HDTV, it's just about as good as getting the DVD itself.

I do give props to Apple for getting on the video-media-streaming-delivery product.

liveinvt

Apple to Sell Movies on DVD Release Day, Confirmed

ara — Thu, 01 May 2008 10:47:28 EDT

@liveinvt: If you read the press release there is info about rental fees. $5 for a new HD movies. So, compared to Netflix, same price, pros : potentially almost instant delivery, no physical media to return, cons : lower quality, no extras.

@redman042: "...Apple's offerings don't even match regular DVD quality. Their movies certainly wouldn't look good on my 106" projection screen."

So, you haven't even tried and just like to bash? And how a clip encoded to HD resolution with modern codec could not match DVD quality? Unless you are the kind of person who just can't enjoy a movie if you know the audio is not lossless, no matter if you are able to hear the difference or not.

ara

Apple to Sell Movies on DVD Release Day, Confirmed

fostina1 — Thu, 01 May 2008 10:33:09 EDT

@imTheKing: one of the local walmarts here in tennessee is talking about valet service. they are just trying to get it ok'd with corporate.

fostina1

Apple to Sell Movies on DVD Release Day, Confirmed

GeekyNerdGuy — Thu, 01 May 2008 10:31:09 EDT

@Galley: But my video card is HDCP compliant ...

GeekyNerdGuy

Apple to Sell Movies on DVD Release Day, Confirmed

Galley — Thu, 01 May 2008 10:26:16 EDT

@GeekyNerdGuy:

HDCP

Galley

Apple to Sell Movies on DVD Release Day, Confirmed

Monty — Thu, 01 May 2008 10:23:10 EDT

Mixed bag, I am afraid. Fifteen bucks is about ten bucks too much given the quality of product. Still, I have to give them kudos for even getting these studios to agree to it.

Monty

Apple to Sell Movies on DVD Release Day, Confirmed

ParJoe — Thu, 01 May 2008 10:21:52 EDT

@baltwade: Apparently Warner Bros. announced they're releasing dvds for on demand same day too....I don't know about other companys though.

gizmodo

ParJoe

Apple to Sell Movies on DVD Release Day, Confirmed

GeekyNerdGuy — Thu, 01 May 2008 10:10:44 EDT

@WD40: It depends on the city the Wal-Mart is located in. I've lived in tiny little towns where the Wal-Mart is the social meeting place for everyone from doctors to farmers, and everything is purchased there.

But yes, in a town like Houston, Wal-Marts are not where you're going to find anybody you want to talk 'puters with.

GeekyNerdGuy

Apple to Sell Movies on DVD Release Day, Confirmed

GeekyNerdGuy — Thu, 01 May 2008 10:07:43 EDT

How come they only sell HD movies through Apple TV? Watching the regular movies on iTunes on just my 32" sucks because I can see all the compression artifacts in the background.

There's no way I'll EVER in a million years buy an Apple TV, but if they gave me an option to rent or buy HD movies on iTunes, I'd at least try it.

GeekyNerdGuy

Apple to Sell Movies on DVD Release Day, Confirmed

uberfu — Thu, 01 May 2008 10:00:40 EDT

Did anyone else notice that Universal was on that list?

Even tho it's funny how NBC pulled it's content last fall after a temper-tantrum_ Does this mean that perhaps NBC content [Battlestar Galactica] might also find it's way back to the iTMS?

uberfu

Apple to Sell Movies on DVD Release Day, Confirmed

N@tedog — Thu, 01 May 2008 09:56:10 EDT

Now they need a 'Netflix' type subscription plan. $30 per month all you can eat.

N@tedog

Apple to Sell Movies on DVD Release Day, Confirmed

redman042 — Thu, 01 May 2008 09:53:45 EDT

Apple could offer every DVD made but that wouldn't make me happy given their image quality. I've got Netflix and Blu Ray, and Apple's offerings don't even match regular DVD quality. Their movies certainly wouldn't look good on my 106" projection screen. I'm sure Joe Consumer would be thrilled, but those of us ponying up for 1080p HDTVs will want better.

redman042

Apple to Sell Movies on DVD Release Day, Confirmed

imTheKing — Thu, 01 May 2008 09:50:44 EDT

@WD40: you mean ..... walmart caters to white trash??????? noooo wayyyy..... haha

imTheKing

Apple to Sell Movies on DVD Release Day, Confirmed

WD40 — Thu, 01 May 2008 09:47:24 EDT

This won't affect Walmart since the crowd that shops there is soooo not the "Apple" type crowd...you trend to find people that can't even spell the word computer much less own one.

WD40

Apple to Sell Movies on DVD Release Day, Confirmed

brodie123 — Thu, 01 May 2008 09:46:07 EDT

why pay that much for a compressed download when you can usually get the physical DVD release week from BB or wherever for $9.99?

Astonishing.

brodie123

Apple to Sell Movies on DVD Release Day, Confirmed

liveinvt — Thu, 01 May 2008 09:45:46 EDT

Why would I pay $15 to NOT own something that I can rent for netflix then send back? I don't understand people that have huge collections of DVDs - Is "Big Mommas House" and "Air Force One" really worth keeping around for 4-8 years until the format is worthless?

liveinvt

Apple to Sell Movies on DVD Release Day, Confirmed

guitarmunkey05 — Thu, 01 May 2008 09:38:07 EDT

OR... you download movies illegally in DVD quality a week before it comes out :)

guitarmunkey05

Apple to Sell Movies on DVD Release Day, Confirmed

kibets — Thu, 01 May 2008 09:37:03 EDT

$14.99 a movie are they smoking crack?

kibets

Apple to Sell Movies on DVD Release Day, Confirmed

Y2KGTP — Thu, 01 May 2008 09:17:33 EDT

Redbox > xvid works for me

Y2KGTP

Apple to Sell Movies on DVD Release Day, Confirmed

mdawg4624 — Thu, 01 May 2008 09:16:08 EDT

what about renting? can i rent same day yet? thats what i want!!

mdawg4624

Apple to Sell Movies on DVD Release Day, Confirmed

baltwade — Thu, 01 May 2008 09:14:02 EDT

I believe I just read something on Yahoo that said "Major Studios to release movies on iTunes and OnDemand on same day as DVD release."

Is this the same story, but from an iTunes perspective instead of the movie studios perspective?

I wonder if I go to Comcast's website will they have the news as "OnDemand now releases movies on DVD release day"?

baltwade

Apple to Sell Movies on DVD Release Day, Confirmed

Palestina — Thu, 01 May 2008 09:03:07 EDT

@bms: That's the hardest part.

Palestina

Apple to Sell Movies on DVD Release Day, Confirmed

bms — Thu, 01 May 2008 09:00:55 EDT

Now the studios need to make some descent flicks.

bms