News

Apple Adds Movies to iTunes [UPDATED]

Tuesday, September 12th, 2006 at 1:50 PM - by

Apple CEO Steve Jobs on Tuesday announced the addition of movies to the iTunes Music Store, with more than 75 titles available, including Pirates of the Caribbean, Cars, and other selections from Disney, where Mr. Jobs sits on the board of directors. Disney subsidiaries Touchstone, Miramax, and Pixar are also involved in the new arrangement.

Movies will be available the same day their DVD counterparts are released, and they will be priced at US$9.99 for older titles or $12.99 for new ones, with the cost for the latter going up to $14.99 after the first week. They'll be in 640 x 480 resolution, close to DVD quality and the same resolution now being used for TV shows sold at iTunes (they were previously 320 x 240).

They will also come with Dolby Surround audio. Mr. Jobs said that they should take 30 minutes to download over a broadband connection, with the ability to start watching them within the first minute.

"In less than one year we've grown from offering just five TV shows to offering over 220 TV shows, and we hope to do the same with movies," Mr. Jobs said in a press release. "iTunes is selling over one million videos a week, and we hope to match this with movies in less than a year."


Movies at iTunes

3:46 PM EST, 9/12/06: Updated with more information.

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Biff said:

member since 08 Apr 2004 with 1479 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Sep 12, 2006 2:00 pm

Wow! Lower than DVD resolution! Sweet!!!! Maybe 2007 is going to be the year of HD.

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stuartea said:

member since 08 Aug 2005 with 327 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Sep 12, 2006 2:22 pm

So, will these films be available outside the US? (unlike all the TV shows)

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gslusher said:

member since 13 Nov 2002 with 2088 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Sep 12, 2006 2:49 pm

Biff wrote:
Wow! Lower than DVD resolution! Sweet!!!! Maybe 2007 is going to be the year of HD.

Many fullscreen DVDs are at 640 x 480.

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Mikuro said:

member since 15 Jun 2002 with 457 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Sep 12, 2006 3:02 pm

DVD resolution is 720x480. Basically the same, just a slightly different aspect ratio. Since most NTSC TV is 4:3, 640x480 is what DVD resolution amounts to anyway.

Pretty much what I expected. Too expensive to justify the obvious downsides. Convenience alone doesn't cut it.

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Lavode said:

member since 03 Dec 2001 with 147 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Sep 12, 2006 3:11 pm

Have to admit, I'm not impressed by the movies. I would rather have a physical disc, which is more reliable, and rip it to my iPod. For the extra price, I get the additional features, higher quality, virtually indestructible format, and the ability to put it on my 'pod. I guess basically, it's price. If the movies were half the price they are offering during this promotional period, I would be interested.

What really gets me going is GAMES! Yee Ha!

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gslusher said:

member since 13 Nov 2002 with 2088 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Sep 12, 2006 3:35 pm

Mikuro wrote:
DVD resolution is 720x480. Basically the same, just a slightly different aspect ratio. Since most NTSC TV is 4:3, 640x480 is what DVD resolution amounts to anyway.

Pretty much what I expected. Too expensive to justify the obvious downsides. Convenience alone doesn't cut it.

Read what I wrote. I didn't say that "DVD resolution is 640 x 480," but, "Many fullscreen DVDs are at 640 x 480." They are. Check the boxes or play them in DVD Player. At least several hundred of the 2,000+ DVDS that I have are 640 x 480, including DVDs of TV shows and fullscreen movies.

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gslusher said:

member since 13 Nov 2002 with 2088 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Sep 12, 2006 3:46 pm

Lavode wrote:
Have to admit, I'm not impressed by the movies. I would rather have a physical disc, which is more reliable, and rip it to my iPod. For the extra price, I get the additional features, higher quality, virtually indestructible format, and the ability to put it on my 'pod. I guess basically, it's price. If the movies were half the price they are offering during this promotional period, I would be interested.

What really gets me going is GAMES! Yee Ha!

I generally agree, though it may not be legal to rip an encrypted/copy-protected DVD to your iPod (and it takes a couple of steps). Here are some prices at online discount stores:

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl is as low as $10.80 at Deep Discount DVD, with free shipping.

Cars is available for pre-order at $15.87 from Amazon.com, with free shipping.

Notice that there was no mention of the games in any of the articles.

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Biff said:

member since 08 Apr 2004 with 1479 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Sep 12, 2006 4:44 pm

I'll have the HD-DVD addon for my 360 long before the iTV comes out. I assume on the iTV is out the movies will become available in HD through iTunes for a higher cost. And once again physical media will beat downloading. But hey thats just me. I buy all my music on CD, but that hasn't stopped the iTMS from being a HUGE success.

Apple will also sell millions of these crappy 4:3 movies too. It's all good. Baby steps.

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