[smumac]

alvino said:

1) No 5.1 surround sound. This is also the reason why I REFUSE to buy any movies from Apple's iTunes store. Until they add surround sound support to the hardware, to quicktime, and to the AppleTV, and until they start selling movies with Surround sound, I will keep buying DVD's. No surround sound, no purchase. That simple.

I think it's funny people are so big on the 5.1 issue. Much of the older movie content and definitely television content was not originally surround sound, but Dolby Stereo or mono. Only when it was "remastered" on DVD did some of the content get the surround sound treatment. If you're buying Mission: Impossible III, then yes, the sound is an issue; If you buying something like Blacula (which was mono), then iTunes version should be just fine. Don't get me wrong, I like surround sound, but if I'm using an iPod with headphones or the built in TV speakers like the majority of iTunes users are (I'm not saying Apple TV users, just people buying content on the iTunes Store), then the stereo mix is fine.

What I would like to really see is HD content. If Apple offered movies in 720p, it would be small enough to download in a reasonable amount of time (and not too large of size) and would not compete with the retail market's HD DVD and Blu-ray sales. And if they can do 5.1 at the same time :-), that would be great too.

[John_Scott]

I think Chris it's more about multi function in a unit then anything else. I have not used a Apple T/V. I do know what it does and does not do. I just saw it as really dependent on other hardware for true function. I did not want that. In fact I bought the XBox 360 for gaming and nothing else. I knew it could play DVD's but hey I have a DVD player for that. I just see too many Apple people sounding like they are trying to find ways to brag up the hardware. Im sure what it does it does very well. No question in my mind about that. Will it find a niche market? Sure it will. Is their plenty of other hardware out there? Yes.
TiVo comes to mind as a company who struggles to make a profit but people that have it love it.
I always say if it fits your needs then that's all you need. I am not sure movie downloads will ever be real popular because of bandwidth problems and providers who seem going the direction of controlled bandwidth.
One thing to credit Steve Jobs for is throwing something out there and see if it works.

[John_Scott]

I agree that 5.1 surround must be available! Who wants to download a movie to watch it on a HD tv with a surround system only to realize their is no surround? Plus, I have the question about downloading HD. Does anyone realize how big a file a HD movie is? Do you know how long it can take? I am thinking that Apple will not offer these movies in any HD format and it will probably be standard definition. Too bad if that's true. This is not just a Apple problem but others who are trying the movie download thing are having bandwidth troubles too. Until American upgrades it's archaic internet system. We are limited as to what we can do.

[alvino]

Quote

I think it's funny people are so big on the 5.1 issue. Much of the older movie content and definitely television content was not originally surround sound, but Dolby Stereo or mono. Only when it was "remastered" on DVD did some of the content get the surround sound treatment.... Conversely, some studio's advertise Dolby 5.1 surround sound, the the mix simply sucks (lazy sound editing technicians or short-budgeted movies).

Very true and for those movies I think I could make an exception. I know that in many cases, surround sound would have been used had it been available; George Lucus for example 'remastered' his Star Wars Trilogy for the 1999 release. If it were my preference movies would come in 7.1 or 11.1 to fit my systems. In a well designed home theater system, Audio is always 50% of the equation and can make or break the experience... starting with a good surround sound mix on the media.

Of the 700+ DVDs that we have purchased in our collection, I think that more than 75% contain Dolby 5.1. AppleTV may have the ability to play 5.1 (I haven't been able to get it to work but others report that it will work properly). I simply believe that Apple should enable surround sound in QuickTime, it's iTunes music store, and enable all future computer hardware (AppleTV included) to play surround-sound. I would even like to see surround-sound output from the higher end iPods; since these are sometimes used as make-shift portable DVD players.

[John_Scott]

I don't know how far back you are talking? But for the most part the last 10 years almost all movies had at least analog Dolby.
Most every movie today has 5.1 or better. Plus most new movies offer a choice of surround sound settings. I am sure with HD and BluRay coming out this will even be more apparent. From my experience with renting movies on Xbox through their network is that even with the choice of 480 or 720HD formats to download. Even the 480 can take a hour or so to download.
I can go to the movie store and back in half that time! So I do not see this as being a big seller unless you plan ahead on your downloads.

[russellb]

"Can you share what method do you use to transfer your DVDs to iTunes? I am looking for something other than HandBrake since I did not have much luck with Hand Brake. Thanks"

I find Handbrake works fine or you could also try Visual Hub. Also Elgato's Turbo H264 also works .. but i find Handbrake I get the best success

[pattyroy33]

The Xbox 360 causing house fires? That could be one of the dumbest most absurd reasons for an insurance company to try to squeeze every penny out of it's clients.

[gregspeck]

Well now we have take 2, lets see the results of movie rentals, 5.1 , streaming, etc. I still use it 3 - 5 times a week for viewing and listening to music.