Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM) and Apple today announced that MGM is now offering titles from its prestigious catalog of feature films for purchase and download on the iTunes Store. Beginning today, iTunes customers will be able to purchase legendary films such as “Dances With Wolves,” “Mad Max,” “The Great Train Robbery” and “Rocky,” with other titles to be added in the coming weeks. MGM has the largest modern film library in the world and has received 208 Academy Awards in its history, making it one of the biggest award winning collections of films in the world.
“It’s exciting to be bringing so many amazing films from our catalog to iTunes,” said Douglas A. Lee, MGM’s executive vice president of Worldwide Digital Media, in the press release. “We have an unrivaled movie library and are looking forward to adding even more films in the future so users can take their favorite movies with them wherever they go.”
“More than two million movies have now been downloaded from the iTunes Store making it the world’s most popular online movie store,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes. “We’re absolutely thrilled so many legendary MGM films are joining an iTunes film catalog that now has over 500 movies.”
Titles from MGM’s collection of blockbusters and classics that will be available on iTunes will include “The Thomas Crown Affair,” “Ronin,” and the acclaimed musical “Lilies of the Field.” Movies downloaded from the iTunes Store are downloaded in near-DVD quality at a resolution of 640×480 (up to 480, depending on the aspect ratio) and can be viewed on a computer, fifth generation iPod or widescreen TV with Apple TV.
The iTunes Store features the world’s largest catalog with over five million songs, 350 television shows and, with the addition of the MGM catalog, over 500 movies. The iTunes Store has sold over 2.5 billion songs, 50 million TV shows and over two million movies, making it the world’s most popular online music, TV and movie store.
MacDailyNews Take: Slowly, slowly, but definitely moving in a positive direction.
MacDailyNews Note: MGM ownership is as follows: Providence Equity Partners (29%), TPG (21%), Sony Corporation of America (20%), Comcast (20%), DLJ Merchant Banking Partners (7%) and Quadrangle Group (3%).
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Have to agree with Heroin. I went to an Apple store last weekend to see for myself (you can only read other people’s opinions for so long). I browsed through all the options (pictures, TV, movies, etc.) The movie demos available are short snippets, maybe 1-2 minutes long. At the store they were hooked up to 32″ or 37″ Sonys. Very nice TVs. In my judgement the movies (and movies only) were unwatchable. Pixelated, undefined, blurred out. Maybe a little harsh on my part, but clearly not up to par. Simply not a good product for watching Apple sourced content.
People may retort back that the settings weren’t set right… It’s the Apple store, if they can’t set up their own equipment and get it working flawlessly, they shouldn’t be in business. Or people may say, but I can rip my own stuff in HD and it looks great… I’m sure it does, and that’s cool. But Apple is promoting the ITMS as much as it’s promoting Apple TV. It’s just not right that the movies should look that bad.
Please, I’m no troll. I just have high standards for Apple because they’ve set them there. They make great stuff and I always look to them to push the envelope and lead in innovation. It’s just that in this case they have produced something that, while interesting, doesn’t deliver on its promise. And I’ll keeping thinking that until it does.
Personally I suggest everyone ignore the Apple Store display for quality of the Apple TV movies. I too saw how bad they looked when I visited an Apple Store over the weekend.
I decided to check it out myself so I purchased a couple of movies from iTunes. I synced it to my Apple TV and watched it on my 50 inch LCD rear projection HD TV. I’m satisfied with the quality of the video. I’m missing the surround sound but maybe I can get that worked out using the provided optical output. Not sure if movies purchased on iTunes provide that capability. I also ripped a couple of my personal DVDs and they looked good on my TV also. Again, not HD but as good as using the original DVDs.
My thing is this on-line stuff is still all new. HD video and movies will be coming, its just a matter of time. I say set up your system and purchase a couple of movies. If you don’t like don’t buy any more. Try it out.
Also, try out the HD Movie Previews on iTunes store if you have a HD TV….streaming through the Apple TV they look great.
I like the commentary going on. Some want a subscription streaming service for TV shows and/or Movies (AKA Netflix).
Apple, outside of .Mac, has been adverse to subscriptions, and Apple has “guessed” right, and dominated the market with selling content.
But video content and HD (soon enough) are storage hogs, so Apple will move to a streaming-type of service, but my guess is it will not be subscription-based… at least not for movies.
It would seem the seaon passes work very well. Come home and there is the latest episode.
Movies, I should think, will be a rent to stream model…
But it is great to see people wanting what is in effect, a rental service, which will indeed kick Apple TV and iTunes movies into high gear… Now to get the studio’s to play nice…
Yes, I wish the movies were HD quality, but right now they are “good enough” for the average Joe. This is actually kind of like MS Windows in the 90s. Sure, Windows 95 wasn’t “Apple quality” but it was good enough for the average Joe and allowed Microsoft to almost take over the world.
It is more important for Apple to continue their iTMS movie catalogue expansion whether they can offer HD content or not. That day will come soon enough. (Just like the higher quality, DRM-free music in iTMS.)
Even though I will not buy movies because of the quality issue, I am completely happy that Apple is continuing to expand in this market. Just ponder the alternatives if MS were to somehow seize the initiative (or the content.)
Once the content is there, movie downloads will explode like a flood, cause Apple has made it so easy—then Apple can start talking about HD content and the studios will have to listen.
FOXY BROWN! Time to head for the bunk. Hold my calls, please.
Time Warner (which owns Turner) controls the older MGM titles. MGM controls the newer films, including the James Bond series.
Which, unless I missed them, are conspicuously absent from this announcement.
I would do it this way:
Have a subscription based service for movies and tv shows and would cost 30 bucks a month. TV shows would download the same way podcasts do and movies download netflix style so when you delete one movie the next one on your list downloads. Live content like news and sports would stream live.
Simple enough?
LL&P,
Just wanted to apologize for all the crap I spew on these boards.
I don’t even own a mac. And I work in Redmond.
Sorry…
WG
Apology accepted WG.
It must be tough for you these days.
I really don’t care about movies being available for sale on iTunes. Several problems with this. First, the quality is lacking. Its too compressed. Second, they are not in Dolby 5.1 surround sound. Defeats the purpose of having that home entertainment center. Third, why do I want to own these movies? I’ve already got too many DVD’s that I don’t watch. Give me the option to rent them at $1.99 or $2.99.
Improve the quality, make it available in surround sound, and let me rent it and then I’ll be interested.
At MacWorld in January, I played with an Apple TV and was really impressed with the video quality on a Sony widescreen. I recall that I was looking at “The Incredibles” and thought, “gee, that really is as good or better than DVD.”
Fast forward to last weekend. I was in an Apple Store and decided to take a look at the Apple TV again. I gotta say, I thought the picture quality was… well… crappy. In fact, generally speaking, I think the picture quality I get when I jack my video iPod into a conventional TV is at least as good and maybe better.
Not sure what to make of this, except that I suspect that the movies used in the displays at MacWorld were true HD and not iTunes content.
@Enuz
Those Xbox 360 HD movies only stay on your console for up to 14 days max. After which, you’d have to buy it again and spend all night downloading it again. It’s brick and mortar equivalent would paying $6 to rent a movie from Blockbuster but you have to return it the next day. But if overpaying for exploding media is your thing, then enjoy. I realize that iTunes does not offer a HD solution yet, but I’m sure once it comes it will be far more favorable than the Xbox solution you offer.
Video Rental: When you download a video marked as video rental, you must watch the video within 14 days from the moment you select Confirm Download. The 14 days includes download time. Once you select Play to begin watching the video, you have 24 hours to view it. After the 24 hours or 14 days (whichever applies), the rental will expire and you will not be able to view the video unless you rent it again. One rental entitles you to one download. If you delete the video and want to download it again, you will have to purchase another rental. Source: http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/systemuse/xbox360/livefeatures/marketplace.htm
I’m still holding out for closed captioning.
My ears need a little assistance from my eyes from time to time.
My dad started the Quadrangle Group.
How do you rip DVDs that you own so you can play them on your computer? I could play them through my DVD player and from my PYRO AVlink put them into iMovie but that seems complicated.
Mike From Canmore,
Handbrake.
Will this include the greatest movie of all time, Auntie Em?
Thanks Cubert.
What program can I use to backup DVDs? I would like to also copy some home DVDs for relatives that I have made using iMovie/iDVD but it takes a long time to compile before it burns. Only if I found out my relatives wanted copies when I first burned my copy.