Films on iTunes have finally caught up with TV shows, with Apple announcing that High Definition movies are now available to buy on rent at the iTunes Store in the USA.
High Def movies - presumably in 720p like other HD content on iTunes - will cost $19.99 (£13.77) to buy, and $4.99 (£3.44) to rent 'within 30 days of their release'.
The initial selection is extremely limited (Transporter 3 and Punisher: War Zone could fall foul of fair advertising legislation to be described as 'blockbusters'), but Quantum of Solace and Twilight are available to pre-order, and they'll be joined by The Spirit on April 14.
High definition, high prices
Apple claims that the iTunes Movie Store will be adding more HD movies "soon" and says the full list of titles will be available to view at www.itunes.com/movies/hd.
"Movie fans are going to love being able to buy and rent films in stunning HD from the iTunes Store," said Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of Internet Services. "Customers have made HD content on iTunes a hit, with over 50 percent of TV programming being purchased in HD when available.
Pricing for HD movie rentals is just $1 (68p) more than standard definiton movies, while the $20 price-tag for HD downloads looks barely competitive with the price of new release Full HD 1080-pixel Blu-rays.
Quantum of Solace can be pre-ordered on Amazon for $25 and Twilight for $24, although it is not clear yet whether the iTunes download will include any of extras found on the discs.
Your comments (3) Click to add a new comment
avi
April 3rd
3. Quantum of Solace is such a silly, pretentious title I probably shan't bother to buy it or watch it, but if I did I'd buy it from Tesco for £7.00 and not iTunes for £10.99
Left4dead you're wrong because I'm certain that in a proper A/B comparison you'd definitely not be able to tell a 256 AAC from a full file.
There's a test on HDD that you can take to prove otherwise, but I know the outcome.
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chrisinbelgium
March 20th
2. ALL the movies available through the iTunes store in Belgium also in HD? Wow, that means the following titles: nothing, nada, ziltsch, niks.
Who cares?
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left4dead
March 20th
1. When is the music going HD? ie. Lossless.
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