Apple TV Movie Rental Video Formats – Does This Hold True For Purchased Movie Also?

Posted May 7th, 2008 in Movies and tagged apple tv, iTunes Store, Purchase, rental, Resolution by Eddie V.

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.

YodaMac

But can iPods play 720×480? . . .
matrix6028

Eddie,
I just verified this with Apple.
Buying Movies has the lowest resolution.
The resolution is 640 by up to 480 pixels

For renting and viewing directly from Apple TV
Wide screen Apple TV format
Resolution: 720 by up to 480 pixels
Audio: Stereo (some include Dolby Pro-Logic II Surround)

Rentals in HD are,
Resolution: 1280 by up to 720 pixels
Audio: Dolby Digital Surround 5.1 and stereo

For renting (this is the same for movies you BUY too) from a computer and viewing on a computer, iPod, iPhone, or Apple TV
iTunes format
Resolution: 640 by up to 480 pixels
Audio: Stereo

All in All – I think we need to keep an eye on what the Vudu box is doing. We will never know what the studio’s contacts say, but we can compare what the Vudu box is doing to see if Apple is falling behind.

Apple really needs to push HD. The Vudu box allows you to download HD movies – why can’t Apple? I know Apple is concern about confusing its customers. I do think HD buyers of content understand the limitations of iPhone and iPods. Apple can sell you an HD movie then allows you to down convert via iTunes if you choose too. Then this will allow you to play it on your iPod/iPhone and save Apple in its bandwidth from having you download two files, (one HD, one for iPod/iPhone). Also the DRM will still be in place, so everyone will be happy.
http://www.appletvjunkie.com Eddie V.

I’m just saying, according to this Apple Support Page there is a distinction between what you can rent on Apple TV and what you can rent through the iTunes Store as far as resolution and if matrix6028 is right and there is only one flavor of or resolution for purchased movies I’m really staying away from purchase titles.

FYI matrix6028, I got the idea for this posting from your original comment about format resolutions.
matrix6028

Yes, there are 3 flavors of ‘rented’ resolutions – only ONE for purchase. Hopefully the ‘purchase’ model will change and allow the purchase of HD movies!!!
Clif

The quality of the rented SD downloads is so bad I can’t imagine buying a movie from Apple. At the 640×480 res, the heavy compression that Apple puts on these will be even more apparent at least on any screen larger than 19″ or so. The “HD” downloads look fine, however, on large screens even if well short of Blu-Ray or OTA HD.
matrix6028

I am very happy with the few HD rentals. I have an older big screen. No HDMI ports, I have to use component inputs to get my HD. This is one reason I love my AppleTV. It has component hook-ups!!
donshank

http://homepage.mac.com/septentrion/001.jpg
http://homepage.mac.com/septentrion/002.jpg

these two images show that my purchase of Cloverfield is a file with dimensions of 853×480. the properties window in Quicktime Player shows that the file is not anamorphic
http://www.appletvjunkie.com Eddie V.

donshank, what was your overall feel for the quality of the download?
donshank

I thought the quality was quite good considering the small-ish file size. Though it was hard make a comparison as I don’t own the dvd and the film is all “shaky-cam”. I am happy with it.
santa

I have purchased two movies in the past week. “National Treasure 2″ and “Enchanted”. Both purchases were made from my AppleTV and in both cases the resolution downloaded was 640×264 (Low Definition – LD). Not as expected.
Apple Support upon request are looking into this.

Santa..

Apple TV Movie Rental Video Formats – Does This Hold True For Purchased Movie Also?

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