As predicted earlier in the week when Apple showed Lions for Lambs temporarily in the iTunes Store, it’s now back for rent in HD. Other new HD titles for rent are The Baby-Sitters Club, Kingdom Come, Tamara and Two Girls and a Guy.

I’ve been thinking. Now that Apple will be releasing titles same day as the DVD release, what do I call the type of movie Apple is releasing. Technically it’s no longer a Digital Video Versatile Disc release. Is it an AVD (Apple Video Download)? A DDV (Digital Video Download)? A ADV (Apple Digital Video)? I say we coin the term or acronym for the next generation of digital movies. I’ll start below, let me know what you think. Don’t forget to add HD for the High Def downloads as well. My vote goes for AVD.

AVD – Apple Video Download
A-DVD – Apple Digital Video Download
DDV – Digital Download Video
ADV – Apple Digital Video
DVDL – Digital Video Download
ADD – Apple Digital Download (I couldn’t resist)
DMD – Digital Media Download/Digital Movie Download (maxcalibre)

According to Apple’s support page on Rental Video Formats the resolution for Standard Definition movies is 720 x up to 480 pixels. If you rented the same movie directly from the iTunes Store the resolution would be 640 x up to 480 pixels. Now, I have yet to purchase a movie through Apple TV. Really there hasn’t been a title worth if for me. All though I am looking forward to next week when Indiana Jones is released on DVD, but I digress. My question is, does the 720 x up to 480 pixel resolution hold true for purchase titles also? Has anyone Purchased a movie through the Apple TV and noticed an improvement in quality over a purchase through the iTunes Store. My guess is this is why there wasn’t some huge dump of all the titles into the Apple TV from the iTunes Store, because they needed to be re-digitized for the higher resolution. Opinions? Thoughts? I’m curious. If this is true, and the quality is improved, then this may persuade me to purchase a title for two.

Reservation Road was a DVD release the same week as There Will Be Blood, so I hope to see that title turn Rental and hopefully HD soon. The other two HD titles released were Heartbreak Ridge and The Taking of Palham One Two Three.