Got waaay too much business doco to churn out at the moment to be watching TV or flaffing about checking out download services. But just picked this up via Macrumours: TV shows are now available on ITunes AU. So I had to give it a go.

I went to download Lost, Season 4 Ep1. $2.99 for the single ep, or $41.86 for the season. This is interesting because:

1. Lost Season 4 isn’t yet available via retail DVD here yet
2. Prices seem reasonable. Lost Season 3 costs $68.77 on iTunes but $90 at ezydvd! The retail DVD comes packed with plenty of special features and extras, but that ain’t worth $20 in my books.

So ep1 (@43 minutes long) weighed in at 500 MB and took about 10 minutes to download. For the complete Season 4 of 14 episodes that’s a mighty 7 gig to download. Try Season 3 at 23 episodes and that’s 11.5 gig. On my home optus cable limit of 12 gig, season 3 of Lost would wipe me out. Downloading at off-peak rates (midnight - midday which gives me 24 gig allowance) is better, but the season download will still grab half.

At this download size the resolution is near-DVD quality. In a purely empirical test the ‘actual’ playback window on a DVD is bigger than the Lost window .. hence Lost runs at a lower resolution. Of course when you put it next to some hi-def content (eg http://www.apple.com/trailers/disney/walle/hd/) you immediately see how aged SD (Standard Definition) really is. HD resolution is stunning. When you upgrade to a flat panel you’d be crazy not to grab a Blu-ray player. HD will blow out that Lost Ep from 500 Mb to 3Gig (1min playback =11Mb to 1min=70Mb at 1080p) and the full season to 70 Gig. Yikes!!

I need Apple TV. My association with TV and movies is chill-time, and I’ve got thousands of dollars tied up in couches, coffee table, TV, DVD player and lighting to create a space that makes watching the box pleasurable. So like FTTN, until the last leg of delivery of video to my lounge room and TV is sorted, downloads just won’t grab for me. Apple TV could change this .. especially when rentals become available.

That last leg of delivery is crucial for the emergence of VOD and the downloads business .. let’s see where it goes ..

Posted June 25th, 2008 under Australian Web, Business and Strategy.
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