“When Apple Computer started offering short videos and TV show episodes for $1.99 through its iTunes Music Store late last year, I thought it was a good idea… The problem is, in the real world, these videos don’t represent a good deal at all. And now I’m beginning to rethink my opinion on downloadable digital video. In fact, it’s unclear to me why any individuals need to own this content at all,” Paul Thurrott writes for Connected Home Media. “My first glimpse into the problem came last October, when Apple released its video iPod and added the first round of videos to the iTunes Music Store. I immediately downloaded a small collection of test videos, including a few TV show episodes (the pilot episodes of Lost and Desperate Housewives) and a couple music videos. The quality wasn’t inspiring. Because the Apple downloads are matched to the capabilities of the iPod, they’re encoded at 320 x 240 and about 650Kbps. This resolution is lower than that of standard-definition TV. Put another way, it’s poorer quality than VHS, a technology that’s over 25 years old.”
“When you watch these videos on an iPod screen, they actually look startlingly good, thanks to the small size of the display,” Thurrott writes. “The quality problems are exacerbated when you try to watch these videos elsewhere. There are two logical alternatives: a notebook or desktop computer, or a TV set. As computer files, the videos you download from iTunes will work fine on any Windows PC or Macintosh, assuming that you’ve installed iTunes and authorized that device to play videos you’ve purchased. But the high-resolution screens of most PCs—my iMac runs at 1680 x 1050, for example—makes the tiny iTunes videos look like animated icons, they’re so small. And when you enlarge them, the low quality of the encoding becomes apparent, with banding, artifacting, and other visual errors. They look horrible.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: “They look horrible,” writes Paul Thurrott. Hmm, Thurrott… Now why does that name seem familiar? Oh yeah, Thurrott’s the same same guy who wrote for WinInfo on October 28, 2005, “I’ve been playing with a new iPod with video, the Apple Universal Dock, and the new Apple Remote for the past week, and I have two observations. First, despite years of experience with portable video, I’m super impressed with both the iPod video and the video formats (MPEG-4 and H.264) that it utilizes; even at 320 x 240 (or 480 x 270, as I’ve encoded my widescreen videos in), these movies look great blasted out to a large TV set, albeit with sub-DVD-style artifacts here and there. Second, I’m suddenly hooked on the TV show ‘Lost.’ I purchased the show’s premiere episode via iTunes to test the iPod, and now my wife and I are several episodes in and there’s no turning back.”
So, which is it, Paul? Apple has changed nothing regarding iTunes Store video quality between October and today. The canyon between “horrible” and “amazing” is just a tad too wide for us to get a good feel for what you really think. Or do you just scribble whatever you feel like based on whatever random whim strikes you?
Regardless of Thurrott’s strange about-face, yes, it would be nice if Apple could up the video quality (and the music quality) if the content owners (TV producers and music labels) would allow such increases (don’t hold your breath). And, yes — referring to another of Thurrott’s points in his full article — for video content, a subscription service for iTunes would be a welcome option; pay a monthly fee, watch TV, just like cable (or in place of cable).
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Related articles:
Thurrott: ‘I’m super impressed with Apple’s iPod video, looks great blasted out to large TV set’ – October 28, 2005
Hm. Told’ya.
Well, you know…he is right.
That resolution does look terrible when blown up to the full screen size of a 20 inch LCD.
The man is a goat
Hee hee. MadMacMan said “goat”. Hee hee.
3
http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/389
Tell him about the turnaround, and like a good politician, he’ll probably remark, “The circumstances have changed.”
Turdrott is a schizophrenic hypocrite. I simply ignore his drivel these days. Of course it looks like shit on a 1680 x 1050 display, we didn’t need his genius ass to point this out to us. Hook it up to a standard TV set (720×480 tops) and it looks fine.
Ha ha – thanks Murray the K Byte.
3 Software Updates just been unleashed. Would love to know the Security Update ins and outs
He is right Apple is selling shabby videos. Also, no Closed Captioning sucks big time and its illegal.
“Because right now, iTunes is broken. And anyone who spends good money on such low-quality videos is just hurting themselves and retarding the market for truly viable services.”
Annoying as he may be, he’s totally right on this one. The only video I downloaded was Coldplay’s Speed of Sound. The quality of that video is just terrible on anything but an iPod. Other previews I’ve seen look better, but I’m not purchasing any more.
As for other quality, thanks to the latest version of Handbrake and OSX 10.4.5, the H264 encoding from DVD’s is much better. So I’ve started ripping the music video’s I’ve bought over the years and put them into iTunes manually instead – resolution is double that of iTunes. Much better picture.
I would point out that there is a difference between low quality encoding and low bit rates.
The iTunes videos are okay for watching on a normal TV or the iPod V. But, when I watch them on my 12 laptop screen, I can definitely see the artifacts. It looks worse than video that comes off a TiVo in high quality (not even best).
If Apple is trying to take over the living room with the overpriced Mac Mini and these songs that won’t look at all decent on a HDTV, then they are going to fail.
I really like where they are heading with all of this stuff, but they had better drop prices and get higher quality video out there or they are not going to make it.
um…i have a 23″ LCD and an AlchemyTV card…and i can say quite confidently that NORMAL TV looks like doo-doo at 1600×1200. looks terrible.
iTunes video was never billed as HDTV quality. it’s a freakin DOWNLOAD so it needs to be small. you should know better, Thurrott.
Anyones notice this:
When I started downloading LOST episodes and watch them when iTunes with video was first released, you could see artifacts in the video.
I just downloaded the last LOST, becasue I missed it, and the quality was amazingly better than how it was previously done! Amazingly!
Did I miss the news exerpt about the higher quality going up?
I watched both on my 23″HD display, and my TV.
Bipolar much?
I never knew Apple had ever suggested these videos were ever meant for anything BUT the iPod?
Thurrott is a terrible user of the English language: “The quality problems are exacerbated when you try to watch these videos elsewhere.” Exacerbated is hardly the correct word to use after you have just said the quality is great on the iPod…exacerbate, Paul, means to make something worse. Good to bad is not to exacerbate.
Learn to use the language and don’t add big words to look like you know your stuff. You clearly don’t… Oh, and be consistent will you!
The pig is right. The video quality sucks.
But there are many fools, er people who don’t care – millions.
Thurrot is completely right. The quality of those videos totally blows on anything bigger than an iPod.
I think it would be wonderful for someone to reveal Paul’s bank account and see when he gets paid – and by whom.
Apple today, M$ tomorrow. He’ll write for the highest bidder.
Of course this is the internet eara, and Paul continually pulling this type of thing are pathetic, and are at least exposed to a large audience.
THANK YOU MAC DAILY NEWS for posting this – so I do NOT need to click to his article, and can instead reduce his click-rate while exposing his lack of consistent journalism at the same time.
I understand that Macdaily news should justify everything on mac, Apple. But you got thinking it again. that quality from ITMS is totally terrible to watch through TV. you should admit it. with my 42-inch plama TV, I don’t watch TV shows from ITMS because the quality is way behind. next time, if Apple will introduce real video ipod, they must go with 640×480. period. I am not satified with it.
Whats the big worry about the quality? Those who are willing to spend the 1.99$ chose to have something to occupy their free time with rather than drink a latte and piss it away 1.5 hours later. Sounds to me like the critique is coming from boo birds who are a day late with their latest and greatest. Can anyone say VISTA?
For those commenting on his flip-flopping, if you read the article he actually addresses that. He was a fan from the beginning but after the excitement wore off, he found the solution less than stellar. A change of opinion isn’t flip flopping, nor is it ignorant.
MDN’s bushlike tactics I find rather hypocritical, knowing full well the political leanings of the site.
Maybe now that he’s seen it a few times he’s thinking $2 for a low quality show you’ll only watch once is a bad deal.
Apple needs to up the quality. I haven’t bought a video, but I’ve downloaded free ones from iTMS. It is cool to download videos for free, but the low quality is a turnoff. At first though it looks alright. Then you get used to it and see the problems.
Maybe Steve will become a self-proclaimed videophile and fix it.
You know he would if there was competition.
Turd-rot is a Windoze ho. He changes his position more often than a prostitute!!!
“Also, no Closed Captioning sucks big time and its illegal. “
Really? You want to cite the statute that covers this? Remember, Apple is not broadcasting video content, so even if there is a law that pertains to broadcasters it would affect Apple sales.