HD video comes to iTunes -- in video podcast form only

What's this? High def video content available on the iTunes store? Ah, bullocks, it's only in the form of video podcasts available from the Washington Post. While we're still left desperately wishing iTunes would actually sell us some content in a format that would actually look good on a large HDTV, the Washington Post isn't exactly blowing it out with its poorly encoded, 250MB vidcasts. Still, unless you're willing to dive in and hack that Apple TV, this is about the only HDTV you're gonna get on yours for the time being, so grin and bear it.

[v_dogg @ Apr 10th 2007 11:52PM]

thats what ive never understood. why make apple tvs but sell crappy movies on itunes that look like crap on your hdtv.

[Michael La Framboise @ Apr 11th 2007 12:11AM]

I would say its because of two reasons; first of all, the amount of space HD content takes up - to me it seems like Apple is trying to do the same thing with movies as they did with music; they're trying to get you to start collecting and organizing it, and if they were to give you full res HD content, then they would run into the exact same problem as Microsoft did w/ the Xbox 360 - tons of high quality content, but not only does it take like a day to download your HD movie, but you can't even fit more then 2-3 full length movies onto your hard drive.

That takes you to the second issue, downloading that content. A full length HD movie would be what? at-least 15 gigs? - maybe with good compression, you could take it down to 10; but still -- given that most people that use "broadband" internet have DSL - I doubt anyone would want to wait for days for their movies to download. But then take the movies from the iTunes store; you click download; and by the time you make popcorn and etc - it already downloads at-least 5% of your movie, and you can start watching it right then and there, when you want to watch it, not a week later when any desire you had is long gone.

But as time goes on and larger hard drives appear, and internet speeds improve, I would bet that Apple will start offering all their video content in HD.

[Nigel @ Apr 11th 2007 12:04AM]

Not quite true, there are a few more HD sources than that, though the HD movie trailers didn't work apart from "the condemned" ( yes it looked damn good on a 60" screen ), there's also some awesome diving HD content.
Give apple a break, it'll take a bit of time for everyone to tool up to delivering HD podcasts, but with the cost of HD production equipment so low ( heck you can get a full 16 input, two ME bus, 4 keyer desk for < 100k ), the content will be here, if it's still the same in 6-8 weeks fair enough, but it's pretty new yet.

[Bart Lee @ Apr 11th 2007 12:06AM]

I gotta tell you guys, I bought an AppleTV mainly for streaming music, photos, and home-made high def movies, but I was pretty surprised at how good the videos from the iTunes Store look on my 62" Toshiba. Now if they'd just get that 5.1 audio going...

[Austin Hoyt @ May 17th 2007 4:40PM]

Yea sadly iTunes only supports Dolby Pro Logic I making it only 4.0 Sound... why they didn't go with Dolby Pro logic II I will never know... for Handbrake supports Dolby Pro Logic II (which is 5.1 in stereo form; Dolby advertises it as 5.1 on the go - it keeps the 5.1 sound how I do not know Dolby is genius) anyways iPod supports Dolby Pro Logic II, that is what some of my clips are in.


-AJH (Apples)

[mike @ Apr 11th 2007 12:10AM]

why make apple tvs but sell crappy movies on itunes that look like crap on your hdtv.

--

because the benefit better def is outweighed by the loss in space and DL speed?
obviously.

[michael @ Apr 11th 2007 12:27AM]

This is so much better than the Xbox 360 + Windows Media Center. HA! I knew Apple would beat them, yet again. We have HD video podcasts, and what do they have? Oh yeah, just a bunch of stupid noisy, overheating, junkware.

[Bollocks @ Apr 11th 2007 12:41AM]

BOLLOCKS. The word is BOLLOCKS. A Bullock is a young bull. A BOLLOCK is a testicle.

How can we trust your gadget reviews if you can't tell a small bull from a small ball?

[danb @ Apr 11th 2007 1:15AM]

you can use the open source project castcluster (http://castcluster.blogspot.com/) to encode HD video from bit torrent for happy apple tv viewing... it takes a little while, but it picks up new videos from directories on your local disk and publishes them as local rss feeds.

[crescentdavid @ Apr 11th 2007 3:35AM]

Just as soon as the entire internet infrastructure speeds up and just as soon as apple offers high def I'll buy whatever's the cheapest form of content provider and organizer.

But buy on, apple lovers- rest securely knowing you've supported the growing pains of a multinational corporation which outsources as much of it's manufacturing as it possibly can.

Don't you feel warm and fuzzy? Serving the machine, one purchase at a time ....

[Edward @ Apr 11th 2007 3:59AM]

So which podcast exactly is in HD? I think I just went through previews of all the WP podcasts and they were either 640x480 or crap-o-vision 320x240.

[Andreas @ Apr 11th 2007 5:07AM]

I think HD movies will be announced that day Apple announces movies for Europe. Probably it will be like with the new 256kbit music, you can choose whether you want to buy 480p or 720p movies.

[Brandon Humphries @ Apr 11th 2007 5:07AM]

MacBreak Weekly with Leo Laporte is available in HD and it plays just fine in iTunes, will it work on the AppleTV, or is it in some such incompatible format?

[Aaron @ Apr 11th 2007 9:54AM]

No, MacBreakHD didn't sync to my Apple TV.

[Will @ Apr 11th 2007 7:59AM]

Yeah, this is just an irresponsible post. Just because Apple isn't yet offering HD content from the iTMS doesn't mean you have to "hack" your AppleTV to watch HD. I'm watching lots of HD, either downloaded, ripped myself into iTunes, or many other HD podcasts. I've got movies, episodes of TV shows, etc. All look totally gorgeous on a big set.

That having been said, APPLE, Get your game on, we want some Apple-sanctioned HD action already.

[Matt @ Apr 11th 2007 8:33AM]

You can watch Apple movie trailers in HD with this podcast...

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=204096451

They are all in 720p or 1080p.

[Aaron Freedman @ Apr 11th 2007 9:52AM]

MacBreak has had its video podcast on iTunes in 1080p for a while now, though I don't think it's Apple TV compatible.

[Jon @ Apr 11th 2007 10:21AM]

Xbox 360 continues to be the only place one can download High Def movies and TV shows.

[Conrad Benedict @ Apr 12th 2007 6:37AM]

I have a 360 and the HD content is crap - just joke quality - i'd rather have good quality content versus high resolution content - in fact i want both! XBox 360 does not provide that at all

[James @ Apr 11th 2007 11:05AM]

Actually, LifeChurch.tv has been doing this since just before the Apple TV came out. They offer their weekly sermons as downloadable HD content.

[Conrad Benedict @ Apr 12th 2007 6:35AM]

There is a huge falsity in this article. Why do people perpetuate the myth that you need iTunes Store content for put HD onto the Apple TV.

You can get HD onto you Apple TV NOW by:
1) Ripping your own content into H264 - every single movie i have on my Apple TV is in 720p format
2) Creating your own HD movies with your own video editing software
3) HD Podcasts (washington post is NOT the first)

[[e-mail] @ Dec 27th 2007 9:04PM]

how do u guys figure the 360 HD movies look like crap? maybe u dont have a hd tv lol, I can barley see a differance between a downloaded HD movie and a HDDVD disc.. from watching an HD movie that takes about 3 mins to start waching when I start downloading.. so I dont know where your getting days to download.. yeah 5 gigs but u can stream at 5%.. if it takes days time to update your net connection.. apple tv is a good idea but for tvs no good.. your getting NEAR dvd quality, so they need to get with the program if they offer apple tv with crappy movies for it.. good for music/home vids/pics.. but hands down microsoft blows them away in the movie department!