“Want to buy a video or game for your iPod from the iTunes Store? Apple’s the only distributor, but if you visit its popular online shop these days, one of the first things you’ll see is the equivalent of picket lines: numerous complaints from users regarding software compatibility and Store business practices, stacking up as negative ratings for various downloadable items. On other downloads, you’ll see ad hoc debate societies, with comments on the new iTunes offerings attracting more user attention than the downloads themselves,” Jeremy Horwitz writes for iLounge.
Horwitz writes, “Amongst the video gripes: numerous comments in the Store’s South Park Season 10 section angrily note that after paying in advance for the latest season of the popular Comedy Central cartoon, users then discovered that the Store had split the episodes into ‘Season 10A’ and ‘Season 10B,’ forcing subscribers to pay more to receive the second half of the season… Video quality also continues to be an issue for some users, despite recent Apple promises of near-DVD quality iTunes Store downloads.”
Horwitz asks, “Have you had issues with game, TV show, or movie downloads from the iTunes Store? Or found them to be fantastic?”
Full article here.
Downloaded 3 seasons worth of “The Office” and no complaints.
Well, the South Park split does appear to be a classic bait-and-switch.
Would never pay for such lousy quality! HDTVrips are available for free, give us a high quality alternative to torrents and people might consider it.
Hard to have an issue with stuff that is not available for download in your particular country!!
Downloaded many LOST episodes, and no problems. They look great on the iPod, but maybe this guy is pissed about watching them on his computer screen.
I bought the entire season 1 of Firefly (of Serenity movie fame.) Great show. I was surprised how watchable the video is at full screen on my 24″ Cinema Display.
I wished there was a season discount, but I guess that is only for current seasons.
I find that it is very diffucult to find a place to post, talk with, disscuss issues with the iTunes services! It is a little Microsoft like that you can’t find a coustomer service button in iTunes itself. Apple has the duscussion boards but that is not really a place to get help from Apple, just other users. Apple really need to take alook at the coustomer service of the iTunes store. I love apple but we do need to speek truth to power….
Scott
Downloaded my first iTunes items last week — first 3 season 3 episodes of Battlestar Galactica.
Image quality is dreadful for computer screen. Maybe on an iPod it wouldn’t matter, but I’ve no interest in the teeny screeny. Even on my 13″ macbook screen, it’s horribly chunky.
“Time for some thrilling heroics!”
I downloaded the free trailer to “the nine” and it looked beautiful on my Mac, even at double size.
Of course quality is bad, these are TV episodes, made for the lousy resolution of TV Screens! A 13″ MacBook display has twice the resolution of a big screen TV…
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Who decides how or whether to split a season? The distributor (Apple)? or the content provider (Studio ABC)?
I will never buy DRM protected media from Apple again after having had them tell me I could not play it because I was “not authoirised”, even though I owned the media in question.. Fuck you Apple.
I downloaded all 5 episodes of Heroes this past weekend. They look great on my 24 inch iMac screen. No problems, no glitches!
Have bought all the seasons of Lost including the current, and CSI last season and this current season and both look just as nice on my Powerbook 15″ as they do playing off of my dual core Mini/Intel to DVI on the back of my 32″ LCD tv using FrontRow. Maybe its the encoding of certain seasons but so far comparable to DVD quality, and WAY better than standard tv even over digital cable. Of course its not HD, but I would not expect HD quality in a 400-500meg file either for a tv show… I have grabbed some of the free episodes as well like last seaon endings and premires this season for like Bones… All in all the games, movies and TV seasons all have been fine.
“I’m pointing right at it.”
I love apple but we do need to speek truth to power…
Um, you’re talking about complaints about buying media through a web portal not overcoming the censorship and repression of a discriminatory regime. Apple has no power over you except that which you accede to them.
Actualy DRM with goverment backing gives them quite a bit of power over me!!!!
Scott
I bet you complained to Apple, didn’t you, John? I mean, you wouldn’t just submit your complaint here on MDN, would you?
Besides, did Apple really misspell “authorized”?
“Of course quality is bad, these are TV episodes, made for the lousy resolution of TV Screens! A 13” MacBook display has twice the resolution of a big screen TV…
Actually, most standard definition and high definition TV content is recorded in a widescreen film format, with pan and crop versions created for broadcast as needed, although some old variety and news programs were recorded using standard defibition video cameras.
This means that much original TV content is the same resolution as theatrical movie releases, and of very high quality. Even old TV series can (and are) being converted to high definition. Recently, I came across an old episode of the Night Rider TV series converted to high def on the Universal HD channel and it looked spectacular.
So, the download movie and TV series content Apple currently is offering really are down-sampled files made just for the new widescreen iPod that is coming soon…
Apple REALLY does need a customer service page for ITS. I too have had questions and problems (no major complaints), and searched and searched for a place to communicate with someone at Apple. It doesn’t exist, or is so well hidden that it might as well be.
I download from the iTunes Music store a lot, music and video. No hassles. I’ve also contacted customer support with authorization problems when I sold a computer. I received an email solution one day after I emailed them with the issue, and it was on a weekend.
Customer service is fine, product is what I expect, no hassles so far.
Every online transaction will have it’s issues, and thus cry babies, and with the internet, these people for better or worse, have a loud voice.
The main issue with iTunes is image quality. For an occational download of an Office episode I missed, fine.
But for movies, or a full season of a show or sports event – nope.
Once Apple hits 720p, the compaints will go away, as 720p is 95% of all HDTV content resolution with HDTV packages, and most find it to be stunning. Once more bandwidth and processor abilities are worked out, 1080p will blow this away.
Bottom line: Apple gets to HD (720p) at MWSF, and it will start screaming out movie and content sales, and blowing out iTV devices.
Anyone wanting to watch South Park deserves to be ripped off. It’s a show made by losers, for losers. Disgusting!
I downloaded a movie. While it wasn’t quite DVD quality, it was plenty good enough to watch on my computer. On a TV it might be nice to get better quality, but that’s what you get by saving the few bucks to download it instead of buying the actual DVD. Some people won’t be happy until we get DRM free, 1080p DVD’s and then they mail us a copy on a blu-ray, HD-DVD, and DVD disc’s, all for free + postage.