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L
ongtime readers of this column know that I love the convenience of digi-
tal downloads. Naturally, I’m not purchasing any video or audio encum-
bered with digital rights management (DRM), but I’m perfectly content to
rent movies for limited playback over the Internet, whether they contain DRM or
not. In fact, I have a couple devices that offer that functionality in my entertain-
ment center—namely, an AppleTV and an Xbox 360.
However, I’m afraid I may have jumped the early-adopter gun once again and
am going to get burned. For one, the quality of the downloaded video—even the
H.264-encoded 720p fi lms I rent from the iTunes store—is inferior to the crappiest
1080p native Blu-ray disc in both resolution and encoding quality.
It’s simply a fi le-size problem—movies distributed via the iTunes
Store are typically about 4GB. In contrast, Blu-ray movies are typi-
cally between 10GB and 20GB on the disc (not counting extras),
depending on the codec and bitrate used. Since most new Blu-ray
discs use H.264, both formats are using the same codecs. With
around four times more data and more than twice as many pixels
on the disc, we’re not surprised that Blu-ray simply looks better.
Unfortunately, iTunes’s video quality isn’t likely to improve
anytime soon. With broadband either too slow to accommodate
larger fi les (sorry, DSL users!) or cable providers like Comcast
threatening to disconnect service for anyone who downloads more
than their “fair share” (between 25GB/month and 250GB/month
depending on the generosity of the provider), there’s no reason for
Apple or other online rental services to increase the resolution or
quality of their movies. If iTunes Store downloads approached the
video quality of Blu-ray discs, most consumers would be able to download only a
handful of movies a month before facing angry letters from their ISPs.
So, what’s the solution? I’m not sure, but I think that the ISPs will eventually
have to budge on their bandwidth caps as non-piratical uses for mega-downloads
become more mainstream; still it’s unclear if Apple and other providers will be
able to maintain the current prices for downloadable content if the amount of
bandwidth used for transfer multiplies by four. Hell, if people are watching their
HD downloads on 6-year-old 720p HDTVs, they may not even notice a difference!
In the meantime, I’ve found a happy medium. For the price of about four HD
movie rentals using Apple’s service every month, I get three movies a week from
Netfl ix, plus all the streamed content I want to view on either my PC or my Xbox- Sure streamed Netfl ix isn’t high-def, but it’s free!* That seems just about
right to me.
* With paid subscriptionMAXIMUMPC
A THING OR TWO ABOUT A THING OR TWO
ED WORDDon’t Pay
for Digital
Downloads
LETTERS POLICY Please send comments, questions, and Twix to
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PAGE 90Deep-Fried
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