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Saturday, September 08, 2007, 03:00 pm
Apple iTunes glitch reveals movie rental preparations
While attempting to notify Apple of a problem with its iTunes Store, one user stumbled upon evidence that suggests the company may be gearing up to offer movie rentals through the digital download service."I was trying to report a problem via iTunes, and this pop-up for selecting a reason contains some interesting/revealing strings," David Watanabe wrote in a posting the popular Flickr image sharing website. "[It] looks like 'RentalMovies' will be coming to the iTunes store."
Among the reasons for reporting a problem listed in the Apple-created menus were "DidNotReceiveMovie-RentalMovie," "AccidentalPurchase-RentalMovie," "ContentQuality-RentalMovie," "DuplicatePurchase-RentalMovie," "WrongVErsion-RentalMovie," "BadMetadata-RentalMovie" and "Other-RentalMovie."
Rumors that Apple would eventually be compelled to supplement its a la carte movie download service with a rental option have been making the rounds ever since the company first began offering downloadable flicks nearly two years ago.
The most recent report on the matter came courtesy of the Financial Times, which reported in June that Apple was in advanced talks with Hollywood’s largest movie studios about launching an online film rental service to challenge cable and satellite TV operators.
According to the report, individual films on the iTunes service would fetch $2.99 for a 30-day rental and would be governed by digital rights-management software that would allow users to transfer the movie "from a computer to at least one other device such as the video iPod or iPhone."
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Previous Comments View All
Oops! Someone has some 'splainin' to do back at Apple HQ. 
.
Sweet, if these are at 720p, I will actually begin using my AppleTV!
If that happens, the Apple TV will become relevant. It doesn't take a team of crack analysts and countless surveys to conclude that people don't want to watch VHS-quality films on their HDTVs.
You'll notice that the new iPods output 480p or 480i, as well as the PAL equivalent of 526p and i.
Assuming that "480p" means what it usually does, with the implied 720 horizontal resolution, we're talking line doubled DVD res.
Which I'm guessing is the next stop for iTMS video quality. That way Apple can brag about it's "better than DVD resolution" downloads without incurring the huge bandwidth increases needed for 720p, and, in fact, such material will look pretty good on most people's sets (assuming Apple doesn't throttle the hell out of the bit rate or do lousy compression, which appears to be the current case).
A lot of people are watching stuff on their big screens using progressive output DVD players and it looks great. The fact that the iPods can now do progressive out further suggests that the movie store's offerings will be 480p as well.
Makes sense, right? A bump in res for the roll-out of the rental store, and a brand new generation of iPods that can actually output that res to your TV (assuming you bought the pricey Apple approved component cable), and which looks plenty good to most folks.
I know the HD crowd will accept nothing less, but I strongly suspect that there will be an intermediate step.
You'll notice that the new iPods output 480p or 480i, as well as the PAL equivalent of 526p and i.
Assuming that "480p" means what it usually does, with the implied 720 horizontal resolution, we're talking line doubled DVD res.
Which I'm guessing is the next stop for iTMS video quality. That way Apple can brag about it's "better than DVD resolution" downloads without incurring the huge bandwidth increases needed for 720p, and, in fact, such material will look pretty good on most people's sets (assuming Apple doesn't throttle the hell out of the bit rate or do lousy compression, which appears to be the current case).
A lot of people are watching stuff on their big screens using progressive output DVD players and it looks great. The fact that the iPods can now do progressive out further suggests that the movie store's offerings will be 480p as well.
Makes sense, right? A bump in res for the roll-out of the rental store, and a brand new generation of iPods that can actually output that res to your TV (assuming you bought the pricey Apple approved component cable), and which looks plenty good to most folks.
I know the HD crowd will accept nothing less, but I strongly suspect that there will be an intermediate step.
I'd love to have HD just like everyone else. But honestly, If these rentals look AT LEAST as good as current dvd's that I rent, I'd be satisfied... For now.....
I'd love to have HD just like everyone else. But honestly, If these rentals look AT LEAST as good as current dvd's that I rent, I'd be satisfied... For now.....
Agreed, which is why I think DVD quality is likely-- most people will consider that a good value proposition, if the downloads look at least as good as what you get from Blockbuster, and particularly if they look as good as what you get from Blockbuster played back on a progressive output DVD player onto a 720p set.
720p or DVD quaity? Offer both. I have PS3 and an HDTV that supports 1080p. Best quality there is... But I'm not going to go crazy and buy a lot of Blu-Ray movies unless there are blockbusters like Spider-man 3.
Interesting that this leak surfaces the day after Apple's stock drops in response to its most recent product announcements. BTW, isn't the screenshot from Lepoard? Isn't that a NDA breach? (Not, I suppose, if the leak was from Apple.)
You'll notice that the new iPods output 480p or 480i, as well as the PAL equivalent of 526p and i.
My video iPod (5.5g 30gb) supports up to 720x320 res (total of 230,400 pixels), which is the resolution of some DVDs (wider than 16:9). So, in essence, Apple added a whopping 160 vertical pixels of resolution capability to the new iPods, which doesn't do you much, since many movies are wider than 16:9 (a movie is wider than 16:9 if it still has black bars at the top and bottom of your widescreen TV).
Now, the MOST important addition Apple made was the component video out. This will actually allow you to view your movies with near-DVD quality (assuming, of course, that you use component cables for your DVD player).
(kicks himself for not waiting a few weeks for new iPods, then realizes that an iPod was just a nice bonus with the iMac...)
Interesting that this leak surfaces the day after Apple's stock drops in response to its most recent product announcements. BTW, isn't the screenshot from Lepoard? Isn't that a NDA breach? (Not, I suppose, if the leak was from Apple.)
you can download the leopard background for tiger, or panther, or any other OS you want. So that may or may not be a leopard screenshot.
http://themes.belchfire.net/index.ph...showfile=6162#
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Sweet, if these are at 720p, I will actually begin using my AppleTV!