Katie MarsalApple is likely to use Macworld as the venue for an announcement which will see 20th Century Fox license its movies for an iTunes on-demand rental service, according to an article by the Financial Times.
As an exchange, Fox DVDs will include a copy protected version of the movie that can be transferred to a computer and, ultimately, an iPhone or iPod. This will help users watch the movies in portable form without having to break the DVD's copy protection, which occupies a legal gray area, the Times says.
No mention is made of whether either the rentals or DVD copies will sport enhanced quality. Apple has not increased the resolution of videos on iTunes since fall 2006, when it began selling videos at NTSC television resolution (640x480) or lower. Viewers have complained that image quality suffers when viewed on HDTV sets and that the iPod maker is underusing the Apple TV, which can play back video at an HD-grade 720p (1280x720) resolution.
Other studios are said to be in talks for similar deals, but may not strike their agreements in time for Macworld's mid-January keynote speech.
Regardless of the output quality, the business model is expected to help drive sales of Apple hardware due to the lower cost to watch videos. It will "help Apple sell a load more video iPods," a studio executive has purportedly told the paper.
Expectedly, neither Apple, Fox, nor other studios have been willing to comment on the matter.
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47 Comments
I really like the idea of a portable version of the film included with DVDs. DVD ripping is a huge pain in the ass.
I still say Apple should buy Netflix and TIVO with some of their cash and roll it all into iTunes and Apple HDTV
It's not a rumor, it's a story on MarketWatch... here .
Oh, nuts... it is a rumor. It cites the FT article also. Oh, well.
Aren't current iTunes video downloads running about 1 GB for a movie? That's going to take out a chunk of available space on a DVD. If they downsize it to iPod/iPhone screen resolutions it would save space, but then I'm right back to having to rip the DVD for Apple TV playback.
It will be interesting to see what compromises they make. For $3 I'd be willing to occasionally rent at iTunes current resolutions for movies that don't have a lot of action and visual/special effects. But they'll need to up the resolution and provide 5.1 surround for to make the "blockbusters" watchable (at maybe $4). Sure the file size will be bigger, but it's only temporary since it's a rental.
Aren't current iTunes video downloads running about 1 GB for a movie? That's going to take out a chunk of available space on a DVD. If they downsize it to iPod/iPhone screen resolutions it would save space, but then I'm right back to having to rip the DVD for Apple TV playback.
It will be interesting to see what compromises they make. For $3 I'd be willing to occasionally rent at iTunes current resolutions for movies that don't have a lot of action and visual/special effects. But they'll need to up the resolution and provide 5.1 surround for to make the "blockbusters" watchable (at maybe $4). Sure the file size will be bigger, but it's only temporary since it's a rental.
$3 or $4 sounds great, but I'm guessing it will be more like $4.99, which is still cheaper than most on-demand services.