This seems to be the start of the way things will go in the movie rental business.

At the moment it is pretty expensive and only available in the US

For $US3.99 you can download HD movies (only to appletv) and only 720p with 5:1 sound

http://www.apple.com/appletv/rentals.html

A big thing for them is that they have most of the studios signed up.

Similar to Xbox offering you can keep the download for 30 days but it expires 24 hours after the first viewing.

It's a long way off 1080p but it will start to impact the take up of Optical HD

Only good if you live in the US.. I may have considered one if I could access the itunes TV and movie stores.

Yeah.

And I can't say I like the rental model. I'd much prefer something netflix like. Pay a monthly fee that allows you to download x number of things per month.

I have to admit I'm curious how good it will turn out to look. I wonder what bitrate Apple is likely to use.

5mg

I would love to see somebody offer something like that in Australia. The whole on demand/video download thing seems to be one area where we are literally years behind the US.

We still don't have TV shows via iTunes, but I think that is more tied up with the
tv stations having their fingers in the cable tv pie.

I guess it's about propping up the local industry and filling the studios coffers. No local networks would pay top dollar for first release shows that are available for download or on DVD. Our FTA would be filled with cheap to make reality TV, local soaps and old reruns. Hang about!

Wouldn’t it make sense for our networks to buy the over the air and online distribution rights? That way they can show the program first then release it on their website with ads or on itunes (or something similar) as a paid download. I know it’s not as easy as that but surely they can work something out, at the moment they are all (ie both the local networks and the US production companies) missing out on the revenue that could be making on online distribution.

I assume that's the very reason why tv shows aren't available locally through services like iTunes and Xbox Marketplace. Just as the local companies dragged their feet with music, I assume they are doing so with TV and film.

5 Mbps bitrate - that's similar to DVDs, so about 4 to 5 GB per movie? It this comes to Australia, who's going to pay for the bandwidth? If the bandwidth is not free and unlimited, then it's not worth bothering at all. Assuming ISPs take up the cost, can they actually afford to do this, and won't the infrastructure collapse if everybody is dowloading 4/5 GB of movies all the time?

Well I could manage it OK with my current ISP assuming my rental pattern stayed the same as my current Quickflix one, which is around 7-10 discs a month. Admittedly it would use up most of my allowance, assuming I didn't time all the actual downloads to off-peak time periods.

And looking over the rentals available, my biggest complaint with the SD content is that at least some of it is in fullscreen rather than widescreen.

I think from what I have read that the files come in a bit smaller because they are H.264, just had a look on the iTunes US store, SD versions (640 X 420) are 1gig to 1.5gig, ,
could not see any HD movies yet, think the start date is in two weeks also could not find anything on the file size.

I seem to remember seems somewhere yesterday the 5Gig size for a typical HD movie being mentioned..

The HD movies will only have a 5.1 track, so you can forget about lossless audio. I'd also bet you'll be getting all movies at exactly 16:9 as per movies on HDTV - goodbye 2.35:1. I'll stick with BD and (for the moment) HD DVD.

Probably 95% of the people on here would want to keep with the superior picture and sound from the exisiting HD optical formats, but as a growing mass market take up, this will start to eat up a market share.

Just watch the part of the keynote for the movie rentals, the interface is very slick, especially on the appletv
a lot easier than the current downloads available from Netflix, Amazon, Blockbuster etc, you don't even need a
PC\Mac if you just use the appletv.

So far the US market has been the driving force in the HD format market, and this another valid player,
and unlike HD and BD they have all the major studios signed up.

It won't be long until unlimited broadband can be had for around $50 a month, and this sort of thing will get rolled
out around europe and asia (hopefully we will get included) later this year.

Some ISPs (eg iiNet/OzEmail) already have unmetered downloads from the Australian iTunes store; like you say, I'd assume that this would have to be rolled out to more ISPs before movie rentals can take off. I'm sure it'll start small because (1) people still prefer to watch movies on their TVs and (2) not that many people have the ability to play downloads on their TVs easily yet, and by the time it becomes mainstream we should all have Kevin Rudd's super-broadband, right?

Though there is TiVo which offers downloads via Amazon. And whilst I haven't seen it, TiVo does have a decent rep for its user interface. I'm not sure what the quality or catalogue is like though.

Of course. That and 1080p isn't going to happen with any download service anytime soon aside from XStreamHD, assuming the service gets off the ground this year.

And I don't think it matters that much...though I do wish Apple would go with DDPlus rather than old DD.

That's true about the folks who post here but that average person of the MP3 generation will thing downloaded movies in less than the best PQ and audio will be normal as no doubt they will play these HD movies on an Ipod and in a few years this will be the norm for video standard just like MPe3 has for audio..

Yep they also mentioned they have just reached 4 billion song downloads,
and christmas day was a record having 20 million songs downloaded in one day.

The iPod generation and their parents are a huge market.

For compressed music on portable devices - not really HT is it.

they will download 480i mono sound clips to their phone, not 1080p HD sound movies.

But what ever their version of DVD quality with 5:1 is, it would be quite watchable on most sub 50" tv's
and it would interesting to see the quality and bitrate of the 720p

People in Oz are already downloading because they have a US iTunes account:

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-repli...amp;p=-1#bottom

AppleTV update is now available and iLounge have done a good comparison with pictures from Die Hard 4.0

While it is still only 720p a lot of people would be more than happy to view this on their Plasmas or LCDs

http://ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comm...the-comparison/

We still need better broadband plans for this to become viable...come on Kevin 07 pull it out mate,
but this is going to be a big competitor in the niche HD market

They tried http://www.reeltime.tv, and went bust http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story...368-643,00.html, with our current broadband pricing model limiting downloads I don't see how this model can succeed.

I wonder about that. I mean I seem to recall numerous articles about how Australians were amongst the highest per capita downloaders of TV and film illegally through bit-torrent.

Is anyone else here sick of 720 being misrepresented as HD? I mean it goes SD -> HD. It should be called Mid Dedinition or Medium Definition.. Eg:

SD = Legacy resolutions (480 or 576)
MD = 720
HD = 1080

The difference from 720 to 1080 is way bigger than the difference from 576 to 720. Way way bigger.

That's not true, IMHO. And in any case depends on how big and how far you sit from your screen.

Sorry my mistake, the mathematical fact that the differential between 576 line resolution and 720line resolution is greater than the resolution differential resolution between 720 and 1080 is actually WRONG and it is actually subject to the distance you sit from your TV screen.

John 11:35. Jesus wept.

What are you on about? It IS dependant on whether you can see any additional pixels. If you can' then 720 and 1080 are the same.

In regards to the whole Download vs Blu ray thingy
this may put things in to perspective..
locally, its not just the actual throughput speed, which is an issue, but you must also weigh up the cost of a faster connection


http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20080224/BIZ/868675343/1005

I also found this "workaround" for Apple's iTunes "region coding"

http://www.apcmag.com/8254/how_to_rent_mov...lia_with_itunes

I have a US iTunes account and downloaded the HD version of Michael Clayton over the weekend. You need an Apple TV to get the HD version. Looked pretty darn good on my 50" 720p Plasma. Cost: US$5. This has the real potential to seriously hurt Blu-Ray and kill video rental stores outright if it takes off. The current problem is that the download is over 2GB and takes about an hour on cable broadband.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/biztech/woz-fin...ge#contentSwap1

Govt promises lightning internet speeds


Most homes will have broadband communication speeds up to 100 times faster than what is currently available, under the Rudd Government's plan to wire Australia for the 21st century.

Federal Broadband Minister Stephen Conroy told Fairfax Media's The Sunday Age that early discussions on the Government's promised broadband network indicated that it would be much faster than previously thought.

"This is going to revolutionise the way Australians live their lives," Senator Conroy said.

Before last year's election, Labor promised to contribute $4.7 billion to help build a national broadband network accessible to 98% of homes, with a guaranteed minimum speed of 12 megabits per second.

But by deploying VDSL, (also known as Very High Speed DSL) technology, Senator Conroy said the new network would be able to carry up to 25 megabits per second.

Most broadband users currently receive only 256 kilobits per second - 100 times less capacity than 25 megabits - using ADSL technology.

With internet speeds like 25 megabits per second, people living in the same house will be able to use the network simultaneously for different purposes.

This could include a broadcast-quality video telephone call , while someone else watches high definition internet television, and another person plays online gaming.

Pay television would also be delivered through internet cable, with people able to watch different channels at the same time in different parts of the home, while a feature length film was also being downloaded to a computer hard drive in another room.

Other applications such as "smart" electricity meters, which say how much electricity is being used and at what price, would also be instantly available.

"Labor would welcome the newer VDSL technology as part of its broadband network. This will greatly enhance Labor's current plan, making available a wide range of applications at the same time and begin to fundamentally change the way people live," Senator Conroy said.

"The extra speeds will simply allow more bandwidth-hungry applications to be run at the same time without shutting each other out."

The Rudd Government's broadband network will be built using a "fibre-to-the-node" network design.

This means laying new fibre-optic cables and extending them to the telecommunications pillars found on many street corners. These are called nodes.

Technicians will then attach the fibre-optic cables to the existing copper wires that run out of those boxes into telephone subscribers' homes.


http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/articles/2...4402251903.html

How long do you have access to the movie and how many viewings are you allowed once you've downloaded it?

About time some big guns were getting into this.

We haev been thrashing about on whirlpool for ages now. 2 SA ISPs have promised it for the last 5 years. Adam died as a result of Reeltime going down. Internode were looking at an STB to deliver to the TV, which is fine but I dont need nor want another box.

I expect it will really kick in when as a lot agree
a) the download is unmetered by your ISP
the speed is such that you only need to pause for 5 mins of buffering to begin watching it.
c) 90% of connections exceed 6mbit. \
d) DRM is in place for the providers (both video and internet)

SD quality floats around 4-6mbit (MPEG2) for minimal buffering, higher bitrates will require longer buffering etc. Lower bittrates work with bettr codecs like divx etc.

I personally think the best placed people to deliver this are
Apple appleTV
Microsoft XBOX
Sony Ps3
Nintendo Wii

These consoles are everywhere and always attached to a TV and all are network ready.

That's when it will hit mainstream. (IMO)


I'd sooner go to PSN and pick a movie and watch it, currently it's 25% of quota gone on a 720p mkv, if my local video store stocked HD then i would go there, but Im lazy and they dont.

24 hours; you can view it as many times as you like. You've got 30 days to watch it, though.

But is it glitch-free ? Audio sync problems ? Full of ads ? Do you get a credit if the system goes down ? Will the service become fragmented as demand increases ?.... etc.

Downloads may seem inviting at first but there will many practical issues that will affect it from day to day.

Encrypted HDTV signals would be a better option than a coaxial connection in my opinion.

C.M

So 30 days in total but 24 hours once you start to play it?

For $5US it's about on par with a video store new release rental so it's all about the convenience I suppose. If they can get the price down to around $2US I reckon it would really be worth looking into.

This will all happen and it will eventually even come to Aus. Kevin's broadband plan may move it along a bit which is a good thing. I just dont know how long they still need to waste deciding to give the go-ahead! Lets just build the bloody thing already! Goodbye Telstra and Foxtel, hello goodtimes. Luckily Labor are not as much in the pocket of business like the Liberals and as such are unlikely to maintain the stranglehold that the FTA networks and current media companies have on our daily consumption of content. Hopefully Labor will see that HS Broadband will remove many restrictions on our citizens and free them up to watch whatever they want whenever they want and without being force-fed adverts.

Viva the Revolution !!!

I'm just wondering how much it will cost

It should be close to AU$5.50 but Apple use a different conversion system to the rest of the workd so using the regular Apple conversion rate (where US99c = AU$1.69) that would work out to be more like $8.50.

For those interested my experience with ATV version 2.0

I have a fairly standard internet plan, 15gig per month / 1.5meg download speed

Get itunes gift card from the US and have set up a US account, this is very easy to do by the way and at current exchange rates worth doing because even music is cheaper and the range is bigger.

Movies look OK in SD, good but not great in HD, better than DVD in detail but not as good as Blu Ray.

The current collection of movies is small, around 750, only a hundred or so in HD

HD must be rented, 30 days to start to watch 24 hours to finish. All though if you pause and do not switch off you can go past the 24 hours.

Movies are $3.99 to rent, $4.99 HD for new movies cheaper for old movies

Quite a good selection of TV shows, this is what I down load mostly, just got the complete series 2 of Everest Beyond the Limit, $1.99 each

TV looks Foxtel quality

All of it looks great on an iTouch and that is one advantage with the TV shows, great for those plane flights.

Even with my quite slow down plan load times are OK, say no more than 15 min to start to watch an SD, 30 min to start to watch a HD

would never get a favorite / block buster on it, I will always get the Blu ray

Great though for those, I know I will only watch it once type movies.

So in short, for me in any case it is no threat to HD, but may replace cheap DVD's and Foxtel / FTA for some of my viewing. I think this is the way it is going, the market is diversifying and we will have multiple ways to get content, disk, FTA, VOD, Cable, download ..... all good

ATV also shows my all my "other" downloaded movies, sometimes with a bit of conversion, my photos, does Youtube, streams all my music in lossless and I have around 50 music videos on it as well. One problem that pisses me off is that it will not shuffle music video which is a real drag at parties.

All in all not a bad unit if you are a iTunes person, but not a replacement for BD, but perhaps in a while for DVD and Foxtel ?.

Guys what if I used a US proxy server. Then the site will think I'm coming in from the US. There's tons of apps out there that allow you to hide your real IP. that's how they know where you're coming from.

cheers

iTunes does not care where the server is, you need an account and to have a US one you either need a US credit card or other US based payment method like a US paypal account or US gift cards (you can get them on ebay of if you or a friend travel to the US )

A lot of people just set up an iTunes account with a US postal address, somewhere like Alaska
that doesn't have the state taxes.

From what I have read this is also using an oz credit card.

I could also use my sisters address in the US, but I think until Kevin 07 ramps up the speed,
and the cost of AppleTV comes down, I will sit on the sidelines for a while.

I've used my US Paypal account, although I also have a US bank account. Currently, I use my (Aussie issued) Amex card. You can change the billing address to a US one and it comes up as a US credit card.

I've been using the US iTunes since it first opened and hooked up a US sourced 160Gb Apple TV last night. Registration went without a hitch and I have the HD version of Michael Clayton waiting for me tonight. Many of the HD movies aren't available on Blu-Ray or HD-DVD so I'll check them out. Team America: Word Police should be fun.

Just to add to my above comment, the AppleTV HD downloads work flawlessly so far. The quality is a bit below Blu-Ray, but a step above even upconverted DVD.

Best of all, my ISP (IiNet) has iTunes in their Freezone so the downloads don't count against my monthly quota.

Agreed, both rent and buy works perfectly, I tend to buy TV shows, and rent movies I think are watch once, have "The Brave One" ready to watch tonight. HD looks Ok to good to me, not BD by any means but more than acceptable.


Tell me more on the US account with Aus credit card, I use US gift cards but this would be much easier, PM me if you do not wish to post the method publicly.