“True, there are many things about life on this massive wetball that I haven’t figured out yet,” Andy Ihnatko writes for MacUser.
“But I’m pleased to say that I’ve got this home movie-watching thing down cold. Most of my movies come through Netflix,” Ihnatko writes.
“And when I like a movie enough to actually buy it, I have all the tools I need to enjoy it relentlessly. Mercilessly, even. A new DVD is handed off to my iMac and the soothing ministration of HandBrake before it ever sees the inside of a DVD player. The app spits out a QuickTime file that’s as close to the original DVD’s image size and quality as makes no difference. Then it goes on a big hard drive with all of the other movies and TV shows I own,” Ihnatko writes.
“I can watch the movie in my office. I can watch it on any machine on my home network, including a box that’s plugged into my big TV in the living room. Most of these big QuickTimes will even play on my iPod without any conversion whatsoever, but I can beat the holdouts into submission with iSquint,” Ihnatko writes. “QuickTime Pro can transcode a new copy for my smartphone, or produce a soundtrack-only edition that I can listen to on my iPod nano during my morning constitutional. With just a small amount of effort, I truly have a ‘Rip Once, Play Anywhere’ solution for video.”
Ihnatko writes, “So thanks for the effort, Apple… but frankly, I’m hard-pressed to spot a gap in my regime that an iTunes Movie Store can truly spackle… online movie purchases — at least as articulated by the iTunes store — still makes no sense to me.”
Much more in the full article here.
Many good points, but Ihnatko’s “small amount of effort” still seems like a lot of work for “Average Joe.” What Apple’s iTunes Store offers above all else is convenience.
Related articles:
Analyst: two major studios seen joining Apple’s iTunes Store – October 10, 2006
Disney’s remarkable 1st week iTunes movies sales should have studios clambering aboard Apple train – September 20, 2006
Disney sells 125,000 movie downloads via Apple’s iTunes Store in first week – September 19, 2006
Apple debuts iTunes 7 – September 12, 2006
What I can’t believe is that Andy Ihnatko actually admits in print that he’s stealing copyrighted material! Netflix is not a rent-to-rip service Andy! It’s a rental service and then you buy it via Amazon, Best Buy or whatever your favorite DVD retailer happens to be and then you have the right to rip it to your HD and keep it! Man the balls on this guy!
i too use handbrake but i can see myself using itunes (when started in UK) to download a movie when having a night in and just suddenly decide to watch a movie. convienience
Unfortunately, iSquint is a very instable app, and has always failed after a few days working. I tried reinstalling, updating, permissions, whatever, it simply stops working afetr a few days. I gave up on it…
Is he advocating stealing, or am I missing something?
ehhm, well, I hardly was able to follow Andy. I bought few movies already on iTunes. The process seems very easy: I see a movie I like, I click buy, I watch it.
I have it on iPod so I can carry it around with me and watch it on TV, I have it on my computer, I can watch it in the same places as you Andy.
More than enough for me. Thanks Andy, but I do not have the time you apparently have to go through what it takes me a one-click process.
Cheerio
He says that if he likes it he will buy it and then rip to watch – Therefore he is not stealing he owns the original.
Andy, brotha, that s**t is illegal. Not wise to put your written admissions into print…
The reading comprehension level of many of the visitors of this forum boggles my mind yet again.
Yup, thanks.
This article highlights the low Read Comprehension score amongst the MDN readers (or at least the posters). Ihnatko clearly stated that he would rip the movies that he buys. Anytime anyone writes anything remotely anti-Apple, all gloves are off. And they wonder why people call us zealots…
And BTW, I agree with MDN’s take on this one. The same can be said about music. You can buy CDs and rip them into iTunes. But most people who buy from iTMS do it because they don’t want to deal with that.
Read the damn article!!!!!!!!!11
“And when I like a movie enough to actually buy it, I have all the tools I need to enjoy it relentlessly.”
You don’t even have to read the whole thing. Open your eyes! He’s not doing it with his rented movies.
I think what he is saying is he uses Handbrake on the movies that he likes enough to buy, not on the NetFlix movies.
However, it is still technically not legal to rip a DVD, even if you buy it. That’s why iTunes doesn’t have that feature.
He says if he likes it enough to buy it then he rips it. He doesn’t say that he buys the DVD and then rips it. Seems pretty straightforward language to me.
Joe SixPack:
It’s really not difficult. I use Mac the Ripper and DVD backup all the time. No, it’s not a one click solution but I prefer DVDs b/c I’m a special features and commentary junkie. Plus with rips I can leave a burned copy in an accesible location and not worry that my roommates are going destroy my original. I do the same with CDs.
Can you burn an iTunes movie to DVD yet? I don’t want my roommates rummaging through my computer and possibly deleting important photos and files.
“What Apple’s iTunes Store offers above all else is convenience.” Yes, but at what cost? The value proposition for movie downloads, for many of us, simply isn’t there. One can buy a DVD offering higher resolution and numerous extras for a price comparable to iTunes or less, and use as one wishes.
TV offerings, in contrast, are – at $1.99 – an impulse buy. Buy just the episodes you like. (BTW, I’m still waiting for iTunes to carry short lived but well liked series like UC: Under Cover and Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.)
Finally, I want the next release of iTunes to allow us to “import” videos just as it does with music. I already own two seasons of Due South that I’d love to carry in my laptop.
You can rip purchased DVD’s legally in some countries.
You know, the countries where the major studios have not bought the politicians.
Handbrake rules. I’ve got a dedicated MacMini with a 750 gig drive to serve my house.
The iPod with video has made 30 hour travel days infinitely more enjoyable, I’ve got my media with me everywhere.
Trust me, he rip ’em all.
Whatever
iSquit work flawlessly for me on 10.3.9
and I can do youtube by thr truckload
What version do you have
OK, I’ll jump in. First, I don’t want to own most movies, I want to rent them. Most are only good for one viewing and some not even that. Nor do I want to download them in “near” DVD quality, I want them in HD! I bought an HDTV and want to use it.
Netflix is not a panacea. First, they ship slow and I never can seem to get into a routine. You can’t get new releases right away because everyone else is trying too. Netflix’s searching sucks! So many times I miss a new movie. I don’t know why this is. I’ll see at Blockbuster when I’m down there trying to get a new release I can’t get from Netflix! And last but not least, Netflix does not have everything. There are noticible holes in their catalog; Blockbuster is even worse.
So, Apple is not giving me what I want…at least not yet. I want HD quality 1080p and I want to rent. Let me keep three in a que that I can manage from my computer. And I want a complete catalog. Cable TV sucks too. I don’t want 200 channels of crap and I don’t want to program a PVR or Tivo to get what I want.
Apple has the right idea, but they need more content, higher resolution, and a renting model in additon to purchases.
Can’t bother to download movies (or TV episodes) in iTunes until Apple gets its sh!t together and figures out a way to include closed-caption information with the downloads. More than 30 million people in the US have enough hearing loss that they need the captions to enjoy television — including my wife. No captions? No iTunes movies or TV. To be fair, NO downloaded movies or TV shows have captions at this point, but Apple is the leader and should deal with this NOW.
“What Apple’s iTunes Store offers above all else is convenience.”
In my opinion, iTunes purchased movies are LESS CONVENIENT due to the restrictions.. I find it much more convenient to purchse a full quality DVD at about the same cost and being able to do whatever I wish with it.
What Andy has left out is the cost of his time to do all of this. At least the part that involves the HandBrake usage. Everyone’s time is worth something. If you get paid 20 bucks an hour by your employer, then your free time is worth at least that much. So 1 hour of messing with the file, which is likely typical, make the iTunes store price competitive.
Always amazes me the amount of free time that people will spend at 0 dollars/hour, when to my way of thinking free time hours are worth infinitely more that work hours.
I like iSquint and Visualhub and although they’re quicker than quicktime, the quality at the same rates is lower.
macaholic:
“What Andy has left out is the cost of his time to do all of this. At least the part that involves the HandBrake usage… So 1 hour of messing with the file, which is likely typical, make the iTunes store price competitive.”
– Put the DVD in the computer. Start HandBrake. Walk away.
So the time spent “messing with the file” actually only needs to be a few minutes, not nearly the hour that you suggest is typical.