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Apple to Offer MGM Movies

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the roaring-on-the-mac dept.

UnknowingFool writes "Apple announced today that it will be adding MGM movies to its movie catalog. With Apple already selling Disney and Paramount movies, how long will it be before the other studios work out a deal with Apple?"

5 of 161 comments (clear)

  1. only USA by Riquez · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's good to see the Video content of iTunes progressing, obviously a must for Apple TV's success. Still, I have to say, it's only in the USA.
    The rest of the world are still have no Movie/TV content whatsoever (other than Music Vids & Pixar short films). Effectively making Apple TV a USA only device.

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  2. Re:no hd? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    The movies aren't HD quality because even with average cable/DSL speeds the bandwidth required would be prohibitive. Don't expect to see super high quality downloadable movies until we have fiber to the home.

  3. And by "Today" by PunkXRock · · Score: 3, Informative

    We of course mean 2 days ago. Slashdot, you have gotten oh so slow.

  4. Re:Follow or die by DrXym · · Score: 2, Informative
    Yes I've heard of Apple TV. It's an additional $300 that still requires you download movies to a computer, and then sync them in order to watch them on your TV. It's a pretty stupid back-asswards way of doing things. I imagine in time that Apple will integrate iTMS into Apple TV but until they do, the system is a very clunky and convoluted way to deliver movies to a TV. Not like Apple at all.

    By contrast, ordering movies on an XBox 360 for example is as easy as choosing the movie and just clicking on it assuming you have the points. I'm sure the experience will be fairly similar when Sony pull their finger out and offer their own service.

  5. Re:no hd? by rahrens · · Score: 2, Informative

    No, the AppleTV can do 720p. From the AppleTV specs page:

            * H.264 and protected H.264 (from iTunes Store): Up to 5 Mbps, Progressive Main Profile (CAVLC) with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps (maximum resolution: 1280 by 720 pixels at 24 fps, 960 by 540 pixels at 30 fps) in .m4v, .mp4 and .mov file formats
            * iTunes Store purchased video: 320 by 240 pixels or 640 by 480 pixels
            * MPEG-4: Up to 3 Mbps, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps (maximum resolution: 720 by 432 pixels at 30 fps) in .m4v, .mp4 and .mov file formats

    True, the iTunes videos are of lesser quality, but I think that's due to bandwidth costs to the iTunes store. I believe they're waiting for both content numbers and demand to get to a certain level before upgrading content resolution.

    Of course, if YOU have higher resolution video from another source, the AppleTv will play it just fine.

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