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iTunes Music Store Sells Videos
bonch writes "With the recent release of iTunes 4.8 and its ability to manage and play videos, several users are discovering that iTunes is now selling videos through the online store. One example is the 'Feel Good Inc.' single used in the recent rollerskating iPod ad. The videos are provided in DRM-less .mp4 format encoded in 3ivx D4 4.5 and are available with purchase of the album."
The videos aren't in 3ivx format, they're in QuickTime MPEG-4. QT reports them as being 3ivx if you have the 3ivx codec installed, which is likely where the confusion arose.
That's been an option for a little while now, and doesn't require iTunes 4.8. iTunes 4.7 is handling it fine right now.
quicktime's support for anamorphic video has, and continues, to suck.
You're confusing QuickTime with QuickTime-based applications. In QuickTime 7 we added new attributes that tell QuickTime applications to take a movie with native size X by Y and play it back at size A by B. But the applications have to set that attribute.
besides, why the fuck would you offer online movie downloads as anamorphic video?
Because that's what the video is. Standard-def TV masters are stored on videotape in anamorphic format. When they're played back on a widescreen set, they're stretched out to about 850 by 480. That's how widescreen SD works.
It makes no sense to stretch content before encoding it; at that point, you're just compressing noise. It only makes sense to encode it in the native format, 720 by 480, and then stretch it during playback. That's how you get the highest picture quality out of widescreen SD content.
24p describes how cameras like the dvx-100 record video--24 frames per second, progressive scan. not necessarily HD (the dvx-100 shoots straight DV).
I don't understand this comment at all. When I said "1080/24p," maybe I should have been more specific. I was referring to video in the 1920-by-1080 format playing back at 24 frames per second. That's what the vast majority of scripted TV drama is, as well as high-def movie transfers. When that TV goes out over the air, it's converted through a process called "pulldown" to 60i, sixty fields per second interlaced. But that's for broadcast. We obviously won't want to do that, because again, we'd just be compressing noise. If 3:2 is required, we'll add it during playback just like DVD players do.
jvc's HD cameras record 30 progressive frames at 720p, the other HD spec.
Actually, 720p is usually shot sixty frames per second, not thirty. That's why it's so great for sports.
But the vast majority of scripted content is still shot at 24 frames per second, either on film or in 1080/24p. Motion at 24 frames per second has a very distinctive look, totally different from what we're used to seeing on video. Because people are used to seeing 24-frames-per-second content, giving them 60i or 60p is a distraction. Plus it's more expensive, because storing 30 interlaced frames or 60 progressive frames per second obviously takes more disk space than 24 frames per second.
We're going to deliver whatever the master format is. If that's 24p, then we'll deliver 24p. If it's native 60i (like shot in 60i, not interlaced from 24p source), then we'll deliver 60i. QuickTime doesn't care. If adjustments need to be made between the movie on disk and the screen, like adding 3:2 pulldown for display on an interlaced-scan television, then we'll add it at the end, not at the beginning.
why didn't you set this attribute in quicktime 7 player, presumably your flagship quicktime application?
Idiot. Quicktime attrs are set when the movie is written. The encoding app has to set the attr. Like Final Cut or iMove, the examples you named.
they're stored on videotape, which, the last time i checked, was an analog medium that had a fixed aspect ratio.
Check again. Videotape hasn't been analog for YEARS. Digital Betacam is by far the most popular standard def format and has been for a decade now. And no, it doesn't have a fixed aspect ratio. It holds either 4:3 or 16:9 anamorphic.
It's funny how you accuse As Seen for having his facts wrong when you clearly don't know the first thing yoruself.
besides, i don't really remember seeing a whole lot of standard-def tv in widescreen.
Everything that's shown in HD is shot in widescreen, whether it's center-cropped to 4:3 or shown letterboxed. Some of the prominent shows that are shown letterboxed include "Enterprise," "ER" and "Mythbusters."
so "the majority of scripted dramas" are not 1080/24p.
Do you understand the difference between how it's shot and how it's transmitted? Everything that's not live is shot 1080/24p or film @ 24p, then CONVERTED to 1080i or 720p for broadcast. Since AAPL is going to take the broadcast part out, there's no need to convert.
why would abc and fox shoot at 1080 when they're going to to have to convert and broadcast at 720?
Because studio equipment is all 1080. Besides, most of ABC's stuff is shot on either Super 35 or Super 16 and telecined anyway.
it took a very large update to final cut pro to support the 3:2 pull down from a 24p camera
A 24p camera doesn't insert pulldown, idiot. Pulldown is only present at 30 fps.
you think vhs really handled 24fps?
WTF? VHS was an ancient analog format that stored 30i WITH PULLDOWN. Your an idiot.
but leaves the vtr end at 60i
That's just wrong. The HDW-F500 records EVERYTHING at 24p then adds pulldown on playback.
Dude, you need to get off your high horse. You're just plain wrong.