I just read that Apple’s promise of 1,000 downloadable movie rentals via iTunes has finally been fulfilled. What’s more Apple got the studios to make some concessions to them giving iTunes a better deal for availability of new movies to own and to rent. Up till now all new movies sold on iTunes or rented via iTunes were offered for rent 30 days after the DVD release with some movies being available only for sale or only for rent. Now Apple is getting a same day as DVD release availability so new movies out on DVD will arrive on iTunes same day as the DVD arrives in stores. WalMart is obviously not going to be happy though.

Also the new movie for this week to be for rent at 99 cents is Saved (2004) by United Artists.

Sorry for the double post just wanted to add BBC America has joined US iTunes Store to sell episodes of their TV shows as downloads. Great shows like Robin Hood, and Torchwood are now on iTunes.

BBC is also on UK iTunes Store selling TV content.

Sorry for the triple post — until a response is posted to my existing posts won’t add anymore. Just wanted to say that with all this recent progress towards improving iTunes movie rental and purchasing service by getting more content sooner I only wish they would do something about the 24 hour limit that a rented movie once it begins playing must finish being played in 24 hours at which point the movie file expires. You know with iTunes movie rentals the movie is available for 30 days and if it isn’t watched at all within the 30 days it expires. Also if you start a movie and don’t finish in 24 hours (there are workarounds like leaving the movie open but pausing it and coming back next day etc but being able to close it and re-open next day should be possible. Movies should be able for up to 72 hours when rented via iTunes. No longer no less.

As for purchased movies, TV shows, music videos, audiobooks, and music I think they should all be DRM free in future and iTunes should move towards a point where only rented content has DRM.

It is good that iTunes is getting more and more content. As I’ve said, if they had everything I want to watch, I wouldn’t go anywhere else.

-Mike

Shows I have from iTunes (in case your interested in knowing) are:

1) Kyle XY Season 1 ABC Family
2) Kyle XY Season 2 ABC Family
3) The Tudors, Season 1 Showtime
4) The Revolution History Channel
5) Robin Hood series 1 BBC America
6) Robin Hood series 1 BBC America
7) Law & Order SVU season 1 NBC — bought it before NBC left

These in my opinion are some of the best shows on television. There are others out there just as good or even better (that I unfortunately didn’t likely get to watch) but these are the ones I did watch and enjoy.

Speaking of Robin Hood I read on http://www.tvshowsondvd.com news that BBC America is re-releasing Robin Hood series 1 on Blu Ray Disc this July — around the same time they release Robin Hood series 2 on DVD. Robin Hood series 1 was released on DVD last year.

Robin Hood series 2 is currently airing in the U.S. on BBC America having begun its premiere Saturday April 26th 2008 — two Saturdays ago.

Yes it is good that iTunes seems to be getting more content. If only NBC and USA network would return. Oh well its the loss of NBC Universal.

I am eagerly awaiting to buy my first High Definition television this coming up fall season August till October) and then an Apple TV with 160 GB hard drive to store all my media.

Oops I made a mistake when I posted the list of shows I bought on iTunes that I have been watching. Here is the revised list (I accidentally listed Robin Hood series 1 twice).

1) Kyle XY Season 1 ABC Family
2) Kyle XY Season 2 ABC Family
3) The Tudors, Season 1 Showtime
4) The Revolution History Channel
5) Robin Hood series 1 BBC America
6) Robin Hood series 2 BBC America
7) Law & Order SVU season 1 NBC — bought it before NBC left

You seem to watch a lot of high-brow educational type stuff.

Me, I just want my Lost, Battlestar Galactica, Two and a Half Men, and a few others.

-Mike

I never really saw any of those shows sometimes I wish I did see Lost or Battle Star Galactica — never heard of Two and a Half Men though. They all sound like good shows.

Speaking of The Tudors unfortunately I don’t have Showtime so the only way I have been able to see those episodes is by buying and downloading on iTunes, waiting for DVD releases to buy and/or downloading via a file sharing peer to peer network which the content industries call piracy and say is illegal and depends on who you ask some don’t think of it as illegal but others do. Yeah I do like educational programming somewhat — I like fictional drama, science fiction, etc.

I have been watching The Tudors Season 1 mainly through iTunes since I don’t have the DVD.

Comedy/family sitcoms like Growing Pains made in the 1980s by Warner Brothers I have also enjoyed. My family and I actually watched the entire Growing Pains series during the 1990s on Disney Channel. I now own Growing Pains season 1 on DVD — none of the later seasons are yet on DVD nor are they on iTunes.

Also again I would like to apologize for the double post.

Hey, don’t worry about the multiple posts… it’s not like there are a lot of other people commenting

Battelstar Galactica is one of the best shows on TV today. This season isn’t all that great yet, but I have a feeling it will get better. But to be sure, The miniseries through Season 3 were incredible.

Lost has its ups and downs, but overall it is a very intriguing show. But I have to say, it is best digested en masse. Watching 1 episode each week, it is easy to lose interest. But if you can bunch them up and watch them 3 or 4 at a time (or more, if you have the time), or at least bunch them up and watch 1 per day for a week, then the show is far better at holding interest.

Those other shows I mentioned are sitcoms. Two and a Half Men is hilarious, if you like irreverent humor.

-Mike

Thanks for the info. Maybe I’ll try watching Battlestar Galactica or Lost some time but I’ll have to start with the 1st season — I’ll probably just buy or rent the season 1 DVDs or buy on iTunes.

I just read some great news about NBC and iTunes but this only applies unfortunately to iTunes Store customers in the UK. Here goes, NBC Universal will return to selling downloads of their TV programming through iTunes Store but are thus far exclusively doing it in the UK and perhaps other European countries as Apple has adjusted its policies for pricing of TV programming on iTunes Store in European markets to allow some variable pricing (even the US iTunes Store has it to some extent I have seen some History Channel specials for $3.99 but most often other programming has fixed pricing of $1.99.) Hopefully, it will be a catalyst for NBC to eventually return to selling shows on the US iTunes Store. Here’s the source where I got this information: http://www.screendigest.com/online_services/intelligence/broadband/updates/bi-080508-sj1/view.html

“NBCU back on iTunes with variable pricing”
“published: 08-May-08
territories: UK
categories: Content deal”

Also here’s a critical article likely criticizing Apple iTunes FairPlay DRM for not benefiting record labels or artists and just helping Apple sell more iPods: http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=1814

“May 8th, 2008
iTunes FairPlay DRM - Protecting artists and labels, or helping Apple sell more iPods?
Posted by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes @ 5:02 am”

Thanks for the suggestion about not just watching 1 episode a week - I like that idea of watching 3 or 4 together.

Interesting blog about iTunes DRM. However, he doesn’t allow for any middle ground. In fact, he doesn’t even take a stance. But he does ask for readers to vote. However, the options are either that iTunes DRM is a necessary evil to protect artists, or it’s nothing more than a tool to lock people into iPods.

My opinion is that it’s some of both. Apple agrees to the DRM because a) they have to, and b) it allows them to lock users into using iTunes and iPods to play their iTunes-purchased content.

I think with DRM-free alternatives like Amazon, Apple will have to re-tune their ideas of what’s best.

-Mike

What are your thoughts though on NBC bringing its content to UK iTunes Store? Any hope this could set a precedent for them to return to US iTunes Store if in the US Apple agrees to let them have variable pricing (I’ve seen some History Channel specials for a while that cost $3.99 I don’t think NBC wanted to experiment with variable pricing as they claim to have slightly higher prices they wanted very high prices — at the time it made sense for fixed pricing if Apple is allowing it though in other iTunes Stores internationally now it does make sense for them to do so in US also.

Also not only are BBC America shows now on iTunes but HBO has joined the television selling as downloads phenomenon via iTunes and are offering variable pricing of their downloads. Unless NBC is going to insist on other things that are kind of silly like Apple checking that content copied to iPods is not pirated and blocking free content from being loaded on to iPods that is never going to happen. Apple has already done enough by offering these quote so called legal alternatives to receiving content in downloadable form.

What do you think of HBO now joining and any hope for NBC to return?

Interesting stuff - until reading this post I had heard mostly moaning and groaning about Apple TV. I presume, as your post suggests, that much of this could have occurred before the release of Take 2. Here’s a few thoughts I had in general after reading thisL

How good is the high-def quality? I’ve heard that it maxes out at 720p and that you pay $5 for the HD rentals versus $4 for standard. Is it good enough to justify the extra $1 and the multi-hour download?

How do you put your own movies on Apple TV? I’m guessing that anything you can get to H.264 is fair game? If so I would think (and I’ll bet you’re gonna barf when I say this) that decrypting Blu-Ray with AnyDVD HD and converting to H.264 would make the Apple TV one sweet Hi-Def video player. Can this be done?

Doesn’t the whole pay per purchase / pay per rental business model need to be tossed out the window? I’m sure your typical vendor loves it, and Apple has made a mint doing this with music, but your typical consumer should hate this whole idea. A few competitors, for instance Vongo, owned by Starz Entertainment, will let you download all you can eat for as little as $10 a month. And their content is much larger, although more dated. Now if only someone could marry that business model and expanded content with the slickness and polish of Apple, there really would be a video download revolution.

@manpan:

I thought it was Apple that didn’t want the pricing to be too variable, but NBC wanted it to be. Perhaps I am wrong, but I think they’re just seeing how it goes in a smaller market (UK) before arriving at a deal in the US.

Essentially, my thoughts are that I want it all to be available in iTunes. But then, I am an iTunes/AppleTV user, so that kind of goes without saying. But I am concerned about the variable pricing. Seems to me that all that stands between us and the wild wild west of studios setting the price is Apple. They put their foot down in the past and the recording industry blinked first. But NBC pulled their content when Apple told them that they couldn’t run iTunes, but that Apple would run the show. Now it looks like NBC is capitulating and realizing that having their content on iTunes is far better than not. I really hope they can come to an accord because NBC has a lot of great content. They own SciFi, don’t they? So Battlestar Galactica would come back to iTunes if and when NBC does.

As for non-iTunes sellers, I hope someone does a great job of setting it up and getting a lot of content. iTunes needs the competition. I honestly think that as the word gets out about Amazon’s non-DRM’ed music, iTunes will slowly start to lose that game. And then they’ll have to change their model (i.e. no DRM) to stay afloat.

I think Hulu was pretty good… but they need a good way of letting people watch TV and movies on their actual televisions. It would be nice if they could cut a deal with Apple to at least allow the Hulu content on the AppleTV, if not a whole deal to sell the content on iTunes.

Just a thought.

-Mike

@CW:

Yes, AppleTV with the Take Two upgrade is a far more viable product. It’s still not perfect, mind you, but it’s a lot better. I do wish they would make it a totally standalone product. For instance, I have not found a way to delete content on the AppleTV by itself. I have to delete it in iTunes on my Mac and then sync. Heck, my iPhone lets me delete content.

(Wow… Mac, AppleTV, iPhone… I just realized… I am SO Apple’s bitch, aren’t I?)

As for AppleTV’s high-def quality, well, I’ve only rented 1 HD movie so far (Netflix keeps me pretty satisfied) and I thought it was great. The AppleTV can run your HDTV at 720p or 1080i, but it seems that 720p looks a little better. The content is in 720p so running the TV at 1080i makes the upsampling look worse.

Now, if you ask me, 720p for movies is better than 1080i. There is more data in the stream (720 lines of info in each frame, as opposed to 1080i’s 540 interlaced lines per frame). As well, if there is any action in the movie, especially action that moves horizontally, 1080i really shows the interlacing far more than the 720p does. Essentially, until 1080p becomes the standard, I prefer 720p to 1080i.

I use Handbrake on a Mac to rip my own DVDs to h.264. Then I run them through MetaX to get the cover art and actors and other information. Then I just add it to iTunes and voila! As of the next sync, it will be on my AppleTV. Essentially, if you can get the video into iTunes, then you can get it to your AppleTV. There are some exceptions, but not many.

Sounds like you’re a Windows guy. There is a Handbrake for Windows, but it doesn’t crack the CSS. Check out AnyDVD and DVD43 for that.

Now, I do hope you won’t be doing any illegal ripping… only rip the stuff you own. Just my disclaimer

Your comments about pricing models is very astute. I do wish Apple would come out with subscription models. Right now, though, they don’t have enough competition to warrant making a change. That is unfortunate… someone please come out with a good competitor to iTunes… pleeeeeeeeeease!

In any case, it would be great if Apple would come out with an all-you-can-eat subscription. But more likely, the bandwidth needs of such a model would cripple them when it comes to movies and TV. A better possibility, and I would still be on board with this, is a tiered model like Netflix’s. Say, $5 a month gets you 2 movies a month, 1 at a time. $10 gets you 4 movies a month, 2 at a time. Etc. I really think that Apple could do so much better if they took Netflix’s pricing model to heart. And since they control the hardware (AppleTV) and software (iTunes) they can do a lot of great stuff and still keep it under control.

They should, of course, keep the a la carte pricing as well. Give the people a choice and they will do what’s best for themselves. But the point is, they will do it. For instance, if iTunes had a mass-downloads model, I would drop Netflix today and start sending that money to Apple. I know no one from Apple probably reads my blog, but if they do, take this to heart. Netflix is ruling the roost! But here’s a simple way to grab a bunch of that market!

As well, if they had a subscription model for TV shows too, well, they would get my DirecTV money as well. Apple, you listening? Here’s $80 a month if you can give me what DirecTV and Netflix give me.

And then as for the music stuff, I really think they need to come up with an all-you-can-eat model. Or maybe a tiered one there as well. Say, 20GB of whatever you want whenever you want for $20 a month. 10GB for $10. Etc. I like the tiered model here because some people already have their iPods somewhat full, so they can’t utilize the all-you-can-download model as much as others. But I think this would drive a lot more music sales too. If you can download whatever you want whenever you want, all you have to do is make room, well I would bet a lot of people would spend a lot of time in iTunes checking out new music. And if they like it, then they would probably buy the album or track so that they could keep it forever.

As well, allowing more content would probably drive people to buy bigger iPods, since their Shuffles just won’t hold everything.

Just some thoughts. I think Apple is in a grand position to experiment with all of this. They could even have beta programs where they would roll out the new plans to limited numbers of people to see how they do. Or even have limited time offers. They are in such a perfect place to really find out what works best. All it would take is convincing the studios to go for the experiments.

-Mike