HD TV First Impressions On My Apple TV

Posted September 10th, 2008 in Editorial, Movies by Eddie V.

Update! – Gizmodo has posted a comprehensive look at what is truly HD in the world of online digital media.

Macworld has a story covering the relationship between Apple TV, iTunes 8 and the new HD TV Shows.

Now that I’ve had a night to download a few of the free HD TV offerings from NBC, I thought I would give a couple of quick impressions, and ask you for yours. I’ve also attached a few screen shots comparing an SD TV Show with a New HD TV Show.

My first impression of viewing these new HD TV Shows on my Apple TV is that they are no HD Rental Movie. Maybe it’s the fact that all I’ve had to watch up until now have been HD full length movie content, but my opinion is this first round of HD TV shows is lacking the same quality as the HD rentals available on the Apple TV. Everything from the detail and sharpness, to the contrast and artifacting felt sub par compared to the HD movies I have rented.

Now I could be unfairly comparing HD TV Shows and HD Movie Rentals. Maybe I shouldn’t be comparing the quality of Blade Runner: Special Edition to Battlestar Galactica, but I did expect more. I’m curious to know what your experience was like. Maybe it was just me, maybe not.

FYI. We’re testing out a new lightbox plugin for the blog. Let me know if it’s giving anyone fits and if so it is I apologize in advance.

eric

I still have not figured out how to buy HD TV shows directly from appletv. I downloaded a few free shows overnight on my computer so I will be comparing tonight.
JR

The HD episode of The Office I downloaded was very good quality. I found it better than the HD version on bittorrent, and better than some HD movie rentals.

Overall, VERY happy.

@eric: I haven’t seen a way to download HD TV on the Apple TV yet either.
ccunning

I agree with Eric. This wouldn’t be a big deal except it eliminates the option to start watching while the show is downloaded. I also found the HD shows I downloaded last night to be of lower quality than the handful of HD movies I’ve rented.

More and more I’m finding HD content, whether its Blu-Ray discs vs. DVD or HD movie rentals vs. SD on the Apple TV, is not worth the premium price associated with it.
http://www.appletvjunkie.com Eddie V.

Eric – You are right, that was a whole different issue I forgot to mention. How do you purchase specific HD TV Shows on the Apple TV. I downloaded the free episode of Heroes and The Office from Apple TV, but there was no indication from what I remember, of a way to purchase either an SD or HD version of a TV episode. I expected the same functionality as the movie rentals, with a choice between an SD purchase and an HD purchase. It looks like the Apple TV is suffering the step child syndrome again and last on the list to be updated.
DustoMan

I have a feeling that we arn’t getting the HD versions transferred to our AppleTVs or the files we are downloading from the Apple Store are “HD” files. If you check out the “get info” on the HD file, the resolution is only 853×480. Normal “SD” Apple Store files are only 640×360. I’m really disappointed. At least when I download shows from XBLM, they are 720p.
CMB

Just to let you know. When you download a HD TV Show you automatically get the SD version as well to play on your iPhone/ iPod. If you’re watching the 853*480 version (which is actually 640×480 anamorphic) then you’re not viewing the HD file.

I believe there was an issue with having to re-accept the new terms and conditions of iTunes 8 before the HD downloads would work properly – so perhaps its worth trying to re-download the show again?
http://www.appletvjunkie.com Eddie V.

CMB – I think you are absolutely correct, this may be my problem! And to further that, I can’t seem to download any HD content?! I’ve tried on various computers and no luck.
DustoMan

CMB & Eddie – So I do have the wrong file! How do I get the right one?
Jeff Brown

I can’t fathom why apple is RENTING tv shows, they rent movies, but who wants to own EVERY show they watch??
Galley

Make sure you are using the “one-click” shopping cart.
CMB

Dustoman-Just try downloading them again. Heroes worked for me but i’m still having problems downloading any other shows. The HD file downloads, but then once it finishes it seems to disappear on my system and can’t be found. Since Heroes works now I can only assume Apple will fix it shortly. Try downloading Heroes as a test. I know that works for me.
DustoMan

CMB – I had to turn on “1-click ordering” and it’s working now. Looks great on my AppleTV. Kinda sucks that you can’t cancel the SD download in iTunes.
CMB

I gotta say, I kinda like it. When i first heard about HD shows I thought it was fantastic, but then in the back of my head I thought. What if I wanted to watch something on the way into work or on the way home. With the SD files its no problem, especially the way they’ve linked them so they kinda act as one in iTunes. Genius Now we just need to be able to buy HD movies that do the same
CMB

I just found this on the forums which I think explains the problems of downloading:

“Here is the problem I have found with the HD shows. When the standard version of the download starts it overwrites the HD version because they use the same file name. If you pause the standard version so that it doesn’t start downloading when the HD version finishes. Then exit iTunes and reopen it. When you start downloading the standard version iTunes renames the standard version with a number 2 at the end so it doesn’t overwrite the HD version. You think they would have bug tested this before launching. “
http://www.webtogs.co.uk Philip Wilkinson

Anyone think Apple is losing the plot a bit with regards to communication functionality restrictions and doing their bug testing. iPhone issues and now not being able to buy HD TV shows directly on Apple TV – and not even telling us! Plus it downloading both SD and HD shows at the same time – at least let us change the options to select one or both…

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