HDTV shows arrive on iTunes 8

by Darren Murph posted Sep 9th 2008 at 2:15PM

Just in case your hectic work day hasn't allowed you to follow our word-for-word (almost, anyway) coverage of today's Jobsnote, here's an HD headline to simmer on: HDTV shows are coming to iTunes 8. Among other niceties, iTunes 8 sees the re-joining of NBC and the launch of high-def TV shows at $2.99 a pop. Details are admittedly scant at the moment, but you will be able to watch 'em right on your computer. For those with a few bucks to spare, try it out and let us know how things go.

Filed under: NBC, Internet, Apple

Tags: apple, breaking news, BreakingNews, content, hdtv, itunes, itunes 8, Itunes8, nbc, programming

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

iscorg @ Sep 9th 2008 2:38PM

belt please

Neutral

Mr. E @ Sep 9th 2008 3:47PM

Belt with slacks? Yes. Belt with jeans? Er, no.

As for HD on iTunes, I gotta agree that it's useless for everyone without Apple TV. Unless of course I missed the announcement of an iPod with a 1920x1080 screen.

Highest Ranked

DEEZNUTZ @ Sep 9th 2008 4:11PM

@ Mr. E.

No belt = douchebag (slacks or jeans). No exceptions.

Lowest Ranked

iscorg @ Sep 9th 2008 2:38PM

useless

Neutral

Mr_Fizzlepop @ Sep 9th 2008 3:19PM

Wow, 2.99 a show?

We're not talking movies but TV shows right?

Will that at least be commercial free shows?

With tax that will add up to a full month of service on Cable or Sat pretty fast.

Neutral

madgamer @ Sep 9th 2008 4:54PM

I agree. Even if each month you only watched something like 4 TV shows (that each came on once a week), you would be at what a basic cable plan costs. That would average out to about 30min of TV a day, which I think most people watch more than.

Neutral

Ander @ Sep 9th 2008 4:04PM

i wonder if you can import these HD videos to one of the new iPod's and use apple's component out cable for iPod and watch the videos in HD on a TV

Neutral

Ordeith @ Sep 9th 2008 4:46PM

No.

Output is 480p at best.

Neutral

Andy @ Sep 9th 2008 8:00PM

You would probably have to take the file, and right click and say "Convert for iPod" to be able to watch these on iPods/iPhones

Neutral

TJ @ Sep 9th 2008 5:54PM

Hopefully this will work with my Apple TV. Otherwise, I agree with the above commenters.

Highly Ranked

Ed @ Sep 9th 2008 5:44PM

It looks like you get 2 copies with the purchase:
1 in HD for your Mac/AppleTV
1 for your iPod/iPhone

Highest Ranked

clads01 @ Sep 9th 2008 5:52PM

There is a limited selection of FREE HD shows (at least as of now), so you don't need to have a "few bucks to spare" to try it out.

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Luis Amezquita @ Sep 9th 2008 7:42PM

for those saying that HD tv shows is useless, I have been waiting for this feature since they announced HD for apple tv. For all of the students in dorm rooms that don't have a tv and watch the majority of their shows on their computer, this is a great addition.

Highly Ranked

that1guypictures @ Sep 9th 2008 7:01PM

It works with Apple TV, and your computer (If your Video card is up to snuff).
You get a free portable copy (SD) for your iPhone/iPod with every HD purchase as well.
So I think it's definately worth it...(if you have the hard drive space.)

Neutral

Phil @ Sep 9th 2008 6:29PM

They're only 1280 x 720 :(

Neutral

Andy @ Sep 9th 2008 7:59PM

Somehow I figured it'd be that way

Neutral

Jeremy Riga @ Sep 9th 2008 8:14PM

This is the final thing I needed to cancel DirecTV. DO THE MATH. I did. I pay $65/mo for DirecTV, and in December that will go to $90 after my promotion offer is over. This is for HD DVR service. I have 15 shows that I watch and really like - the rest is junk. Not to mention I have to watch 30 seconds of ads for every minute of content through cable or satellite!! WTF is that!?

Now I can get content on MY terms in HD. Streamed right to the TV - the quality will be as good as the junk compression that cable and DirecTV use. No commercials. No mindless browsing through channels to get to the good stuff. Just content when I want it.

As for pricing, some quick math shows I will spend $955 in the next 12 months with DirecTV vs. $423 buying my content through Apple.

This is LES than half price for the same content, with no commercials... HOW IS THAT NOT A DEAL?

Neutral

NorthCranky @ Sep 9th 2008 8:59PM

15 shows at 20 episodes each at 2.99 each to be 897.00 so that will save you 100.00+ a year. Course, seeing as to how its apple you'll spend the extra on new hard drives or blu-ray/media if you want to ever watch them again.

Neutral

Rob @ Sep 9th 2008 9:18PM

@ Luis Amezquita

The point is, that if you watch 2 shows a week, every week for one month. You almost pay for a basic HD cable package. So for most people that have a show on almost every night they watch, plus live sports and events. It really is useless.

As far as it goes, I'm willing to bet that you almost never pay for the T.V. show's that you watch on your CPU. This is the biggest flaw of digital distribution. Also, the reason why it will take time to go mainstream in a big way. Plus once we get there, I'm willing to bet that most poeple are going to be really pissed off that DD has taken over. You wanna talk DRM. One copy for your CPU and one for your iPod, hows that for a starting point? Plus all this $hit is add supported now, so your going to have advertising EVERYWHERE soon. Web pages will be a 5"x5" square and the rest will be adds.

.....
.. .....
....

Pepole still buy records.

Neutral

takamaru @ Sep 9th 2008 9:38PM

Okay the file for the HD first episode of Heros season 2 was 640MB for 54 minuets. That ALONE should tell you the quality. I would call it DVD at best, more like XviD rip of a DVD quality. Much better than the SD but NOT HD. I will say however that it looks amazing on my Touch. Give it a DL and see for yourself.

Neutral

takamaru @ Sep 9th 2008 10:07PM

it seems the free ones are not in HD but if you buy them they are...
The preview is in 720p and looks very very nice.

Highly Ranked

siva @ Sep 10th 2008 12:18AM

I don't think that is the HD version. I downloaded the Monk HD and it says 1.5GB.

Neutral

A$ @ Sep 9th 2008 9:49PM

I downloaded Californication in HD. It's 720p and it also comes with an SD version for use with your iPod/iPhone.

Though Apple has rather lofty system requirements (2.0GHz Core 2 Duo) it plays fine on my 1.83GHz Core Duo MacBook Pro. Hopefully that means it'll play OK for all those out there using Intel based Mac Minis as media centers. It's super choppy and unwatchable on my 1.8GHz iMac G5 though.

Apple does not appear to have required HDCP as I was able to connect my MacBook Pro to my HDTV via a DVI to HDMI cable. My HDTV is an older JVC unit that doesn't play nice with HDCP (PS3, HD TiVo, HR21, and HD-A2 do not work with it via HDMI), so the fact that this works all but confirms the lack of HDCP as far as I can tell.

You can stream the HD shows from one computer to another. I found that it had to rebuffer a lot using my 54G wireless router, but worked fine using a wired connection. This worked through Front Row as well.

The episode of Californication I downloaded has an option for "surround" when I play it in iTunes, but I couldn't get my receiver to recognize it when connected via optical. Stereo worked fine. Since I'm pretty sure iTunes uses Quicktime for video playback, I'm sure I just need to try some of the tricks to getting QT to playback surround tracks.

Overall the video quality seems pretty decent. It's not quite as good as the MPEG4 HD I get from DirecTV, but it seems about as good as the HD I've seen on the Apple TV. iTunes reports a total bitrate of 4552 kbps and a file size of 1.05GB for 33 minutes of programming.

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A$ @ Sep 9th 2008 9:50PM

Neutral

A$ @ Sep 9th 2008 9:53PM

Sorry for the double post. :P

takamaru, are you sure you're looking at the HD version of that Heros episode? That's about the right file size for the SD version for a show 54 minutes long.

Neutral

takamaru @ Sep 9th 2008 10:09PM

it's funny cause all the free one are coming up around that size. However, the preview is in 720p and looks very good for three bucks. Looks like i may have to break down and buy one...

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Tim @ Sep 10th 2008 12:59AM

So I already have some of these shows in SD that I bought from the itunes store. Is there a way to upgrade these without paying the full price?

Neutral

DrXym @ Sep 10th 2008 3:39AM

AppleTV has a rather interesting definition of "HD". According to the tech specs it can do - "H.264 and protected H.264 (from iTunes Store): Up to 5 Mbps, Progressive Main Profile (CAVLC) with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps (maximum resolution: 1280 by 720 pixels at 24 fps, 960 by 540 pixels at 30 fps) in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats".

So I wonder if TV shows really are HD, as in 1280x720 or higher, or whether they're going to be limited to the abysmal 960x540 the Apple TV can put out at 30fps.

Neutral

A$ @ Sep 10th 2008 12:39PM

Interesting. I guess it's going to depend on the TV show. The HD version of Californication says it's 1280 x 720 and 23.98 fps.

Neutral

DrXym @ Sep 11th 2008 8:41AM

Looks like it got the higher res because it's 24fps. So its higher res or higher frames but not both. I don't even want to think what they did to munge a 720p30 or 1080i60 TV show down to 24fps. Some kind of reverse pulldown algorithm of some kind.

Neutral

A$ @ Sep 11th 2008 4:52PM

According to this article, the show was captured at 24 fps:

"Showtime's new romantic dramedy, Californication, marks David Duchovny's return to series television. It's the story of a quixotic New York novelist transplanted to Venice, California, who fends off writer's block and a disintegrating family with countless trysts with LA women. The show calls for a dynamic mix of imagery, largely captured at 24p with Sony F900 CineAlta HD cameras."

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0HNN/is_/ai_n21041704

Neutral

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater @ Sep 18th 2008 9:43AM

1080p24 please.. It's smaller than 720p60 even!!

Otherwise, it's dead to me.

DEAD TO ME!!!!!!

Neutral

drunkpanda @ Sep 24th 2008 7:32AM

im sorry $3 for a HD tv show? thats absurd its called piracy people, go download it from a torrent site for free.thats saving you $900 a year
and all those afraid of the cops dont be because they only go after actual pirates who try to profit by reselling the tvshows they recorded
ive saved my dad(im 15) some $11000 by using torrents to download movies, tv shows and mostly music. and what has that got me? the money i saved is going to my college fund so im gonna get a better education
BTW this aint actual proper HD

Highly Ranked

jntaylor @ Sep 24th 2008 4:13PM

Way to stay classy Panda. By all means, lets just steal all Movies, Music and TV shows and see how long the stream stays open and easy to use.

If you want free TV, get it OTA. If you want Movies and Premium TV, Rent it on DVD. I have moved to this model and I am saving big time on my bills.

The more you steal, the worst it gets in content lockdown, mode of playback and delivery media.

Neutral

soberpanda @ Sep 25th 2008 12:51PM

So who's the bigger loser? drunkpanda, or his parents for not taking the time to figure out this punk is gonna cost them jailtime?

When drunkpanda becomes a blue-collar worker as he is destined to be, I can bet you the million dollars he'll never earn that if someone came up to his jobsite and stole the building materials he paid for, he'd be singing a different tune.

Thus the problem with society today. Enjoy stealing, dicklips, and hopefully your dad has some of that $11000 you 'saved' him to pay your fines and court costs.

Neutral

Darrell @ Oct 11th 2008 8:48AM

$2.99 a show?!? Jobs can bite me.

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