Picture: Some of the Free HD TV content you can download from the US iTunes Music Store.

Lets delve deeper into this whole Apple HD TV content thing.

File Size: If you purchase any HD TV content from the US iTunes store you will also receive the iPod friendly version of the content. In the example below that would consist of a 1.64gb file and a separate 640mb file. A total of 2.2gb per episode. If your chosen show had 24 episodes a season that’s a 54.72gb download in total.

This presents two problems 1) You need to download that. Think bandwidth caps and putting up with slow Internet while it does it. 2) You need to store the content for in theory as long as you want to keep it.

Technical Details:

Video Codec: H.264
Resolution: 1280×720
Total Bitrate: 4439kbps

Video Quality: The 720 HD content looks a whole lot better than the 480 equivalent for sure but is it stunning? No, Don’t get me wrong it’s good, especially on a laptop or PC monitor in a window, but on a large 1080p TV the imperfections of compressed video are evident.

I can be very critical when it comes to video quality. I am sure half the time I am watching blu ray movies I am just looking for flaws in the transfer. So to recap it’s good but not perfect.

Tip: If you have a 1080p display and are distracted by image tear on the top section of the screen, try dropping down your resolution to something closer to the resolution of the video clip.

Audio: Some of the HD content comes with two audio streams  plain old stereo and the other a surround sound version.

Cost: $2.99 is the initial cost per episode but factor in the cost of storing the content and bumping up against any download caps on your Internet connection.

Tip: Download at night its the only way particularly with when you get into the 20 to 50 gig sessions.

Summary

It’s great having essentially an on demand HD content distribution system. The only competition is from from your Satellite or Cable company.

An Argument could be made that future generations will just cherry pick their content instead of buying 400 channels of content they have very little interest in.

So this business model is here to stay. In 5-10 years time it will be funny to re-read this post watching me complaining about file size, download speed and caps.

Yesterdays product announcement went pretty much as expected on the iPod Nano front.

These are sort of cool but I’m much more of an iPod Touch kind of guy. Video on a small screen just becomes annoying after a while.

The updated iPod Touch isn’t enough of an improvement to make me contemplate an upgrade. The additions of a volume control and speaker are nice but it doesn’t really make much odds to me.

The iPod touch is still a marvel to me. Here is what I do with mine:-

Listen to Music
Watch Video
Stream TV from BBC iPlayer
Stream Audio from AOL Radio
Read Twitter and my Gmail Email
Play Games and Apps
Read the New York Times

As well as all the standard things like Maps, Web sites and Pictures. The iPod Touch is more a computer than a Video playing mp3 player. It’s expensive but ultimately worth it.

The good news from yesterday is the Addition of HD TV content in their main store. Prior to this the only HD content available from Apple was locked to the Apple TV infrastructure, and that was movies and not TV.

Now you have the choice to download some TV Shows in 480p ($1.99) or 720p ($2.99).

Much like a drug dealer offering the first hit for free Apple are now offering free downloads of 10  episodes in HD from the likes of Heroes, Battlestar Galactica, The Office, Monk and more to showcase the HD content in the iTunes music store.

When you buy an HD episode you get both the HD and SD versions (one for your TV one for your iPod).

It’s nice to have the choice of quality and price points. But as I have said before paying extra for HD just feels like a tax.

Sadly if you are a UK resident don’t get too excited as none of this HD goodness seems to have filtered through to us.

Today Apple announced that the iTunes music store has now sold over 5 Billions songs.

As if that wasn’t enough they are now the No.1 Music retailer in the US.

I can’t be bothered to complain about DRM/Quality or Cost.

No I look on today as a tiny bit of history.

Vinyl > Tape > CD > Download.

Bricks and Mortar > Digital.

Game over Cupertino wins.

By the time my Kids grow up and want to purchase music the world will be a different place.

By far and away the best digital distribution model available today is offered by Steam. If I buy a game from Steam I can play it on any computer I sign into and install the Steam client on.

This iTunes model of Download, License, Backup or Else is just plain dumb in comparison.

I would imagine a subscription based model is the next big thing.

Link: http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2008/06/19itunes.html

I am unlikely to be a regular purchaser or renter of movies from the iTunes music store. The reason for that is I am a bit of a snob when it comes to the video presentation of movies etc.

I did however want to evaluate the user experience.

I chose a film I wanted to see but didn’t have in any other format.

I am a big Chris Rock fan so I chose his movie Down to Earth.

The 1.02gb download came down in 50 Minutes on my ADSL Max connection. I have an 8mb connection but acts more like a 4mb one.

As you can see from the screen dump the audio is just plain stereo with a video resolution of 853×480. The video carries a 1663kbps bitrate.

Quality

The video quality is only really good enough for playing in a Window (853×480) or on an iPod/iPhone. As soon as you go full screen on any large screen display it starts to get ugly.

So I would say this would be better suited to people who are happy to watch the content on a portable device. Think teenagers or commuters.

Cost

Next up is the cost (£6.99 from iTunes). I could have picked up the DVD of this movie for £4.97. The bare bones DVD would have been better video quality and  have a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack.

The US store sells the same movie for $9.99 or £5.11. So the UK consumer is once again paying more.

In my eyes the sweet spot on pricing would be £3.99 to own or £1.99 to rent. Once again if I can get better quality at a lower price point then I will.

Convenience

Obviously iTunes wins hands down.

Summary

So I like having the choice of being able to quickly access an online store and in some rare occurrences this might come in handy. Example a  rainy day or if I were stuck in a hotel while travelling. However as I said at the start of the post this isn’t really for me.

Tip: As with all content you purchase from iTunes you are responsible for backing it up.

Today Apple launched Movies into their iTunes music store in the UK. You can:

Purchase Movies from between £6.99-£10.99 or Rent from £2.49-£3.49

They also offer 720p Hi-Def Movies but these require you to have and AppleTV.

Their implementation of Hi-Def is flawed. You need their hardware and the content is 720p/1080i only as I understand it.

This is semi-understandable as 1080p content is just too fat to fit down the Internet pipes we have today.

The non HD content is more geared up for the iPod generation who want to watch content on their video enabled iPods/iPhones.

The UK is now no longer the poor digital relative.