What is up with the Quality of DC in iTunes?

[Nightmare9]

I purchased about a dozen Digital Copies of Disney Movies for my daughters iPad. I installed all the movies into iTunes. I have watched a little bit of most of the movies and the quality is less than I expected.

The DC of Brave is from the 3D Combo set (it says Brave 3D right next to the code). (1.28GB)

I ripped a copy of Brave from Blu Ray onto the PC with DVDFab. (22 GB)

There is a noticeable difference on my 24" LED PC monitor. The DC appears as a poorly transferred DVD quality. Noticeable pixelation in most scenes.

I think the quality is going to be fine for the iPad 4 and my daughter isn't going to complain about the picture quality (she is 5).

I can only assume the quality on a large screen display like my 56" DLP is going to be bad.

I see lots of people with large UV and VUDU collections. Are those formats full HD?

Is there any way to get a Full HD version from my Disney DCs?

Thanks

[rdodolak]

Based on my recent research on this topic it appears the studio determines what quality you received. Unfortunately, Disney has been giving SD digital copies even if you purchase the Blu-ray version of the product. Some studios (i.e. Universal) have been giving HD versions for recent releases.

EDIT: UV isn't always HD but in my experience, especially lately, most have been in HD. For example, my The Lorax (Universal) UV copy was HDX (Vudu) but my iTunes was SD.

[HD Goofnut]

And here the entire point of UV was to make everything uniform and to streamline the process. As long as Apple is in the DC business things will never be uniform since they will always do things their way.

[rdodolak]

Apple will never go willingly and even if the Studios cut Apple off they'd still have to be dragged kicking and screaming. They want a piece of each purchase and that won't happen it others get to play. Apple is more concerned about their own bottom line then their customers IMHO.

Anyway, I found this thread where users are keeping track of the iTunes quality redemption.

Spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...Xc&output=html

Forum thread: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthre...425601&page=10

[bigpatky]

Originally Posted by rdodolak

Apple is more concerned about their own bottom line then their customers IMHO.

Yes.

As are all the studios and every other source we have to purchase movies from.

[rdodolak]

Originally Posted by bigpatky

Yes.

As are all the studios and every other source we have to purchase movies from.

Yes, that's true in a general sense. However, Apple purposely tries to stiffle competition. At least with UV you can buy movies from other competitors ... Apple won't allow it with iTunes. They also appear to play games with apps that compete with their own products. Look at the latest fiasco with Apple's Maps vs. Google's Maps software.

I also don't like how their products are mostly proprietary and how they try to prevent third-party players. Not to mention you must have Apple hardware to use their OS. It just reeks of anti-consumerness in disguise of being consumer friendly. Yes, I'm well aware of the reason for that but that is also their weakness.

Don't get me wrong, I do own some Apple products but I also prefer open standards and competition over the anti-consumer mentality.

[Lnds500]

Originally Posted by Nightmare9

I purchased about a dozen Digital Copies of Disney Movies for my daughters iPad. I installed all the movies into iTunes. I have watched a little bit of most of the movies and the quality is less than I expected.

Is there any way to get a Full HD version from my Disney DCs?

Thanks

Short answer no.

Disney (as well as other studios) does not provide the HD version along with its movies (which is really stupid). Some studios which have started giving away HD digital copies are HBO and Universal (Jaws, ET, Savages, Paranorman). Your best solution is to rip the movie yourself if you're into Disney DCs.

Originally Posted by HD Goofnut

And here the entire point of UV was to make everything uniform and to streamline the process. As long as Apple is in the DC business things will never be uniform since they will always do things their way.

Originally Posted by rdodolak

Apple will never go willingly and even if the Studios cut Apple off they'd still have to be dragged kicking and screaming. They want a piece of each purchase and that won't happen it others get to play. Apple is more concerned about their own bottom line then their customers IMHO.

The crap people will say without having done any research or having any facts to base their assumptions. You 2 just don't like Apple so you assumed they are to blame. Apple does not tell the studios what to do with digital copies. The main problem with iTunes DCs is that they were marketed as "lower quality copies you can have on your portable devices" and the industry has stuck to that. Now though these portable devices are capable and need 720p+ copies, so the normal DC copies have little to no use.

Anyway, I found this thread where users are keeping track of the iTunes quality redemption.

Spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...Xc&output=html

Forum thread: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthre...425601&page=10

That list is totally f*ed up, some idiot changed everything on purspose.

[RandomNinjaAtk]

I have yet to have a UV title to redeem as SD. However, I have only been redeeming since August and I know that early codes did redeem as SD but they now redeem as HD. Also you can usually contact the studio support and have that rectified if you received SD instead of HD for a blu.

[rdodolak]

Originally Posted by Lnds500

The crap people will say without having done any research or having any facts to base their assumptions. You 2 just don't like Apple so you assumed they are to blame. Apple does not tell the studios what to do with digital copies. The main problem with iTunes DCs is that they were marketed as "lower quality copies you can have on your portable devices" and the industry has stuck to that. Now though these portable devices are capable and need 720p+ copies, so the normal DC copies have little to no use.

Says the person making an accusation without facts.

Where did I say Apple tells studios what quality to provide? I was primarily mentioning why Apple isn't UV; same reason why they haven't made BD drives available to their consumers. Guess you missed the part about me owning some Apple products.

Originally Posted by Lnds500

That list is totally f*ed up, some idiot changed everything on purspose.

Did you even look at the thread and spreadsheet? Yes, the original spreadsheet was being messed up by people who had no clue what they were doing. Thew new spreadsheet, which I linked to, was created by Gadgetman and is only editable by him to prevent such issue. Based on my review of that spreadsheet and the DCs I have it appears to be accurate.

[rdodolak]

Originally Posted by RandomNinjaAtk

I have yet to have a UV title to redeem as SD. However, I have only been redeeming since August and I know that early codes did redeem as SD but they now redeem as HD. Also you can usually contact the studio support and have that rectified if you received SD instead of HD for a blu.

I've had some UV titles recently redeem as SD, it's much more rare but it happens, and I have tried contacting the studios. In one case Universal responded back stating that title wasn't available in SD in another WB mention that they were working on making the title in question availabl in HD. Both are currently in SD on UVVU and both came from Blu-rays.

Others have also reported having issues with getting WB to fix the problem.

[Lnds500]

Originally Posted by rdodolak

Where did I say Apple tells studios what quality to provide? I was primarily mentioning why Apple isn't UV; same reason why they haven't made BD drives available to their consumers. Guess you missed the part about me owning some Apple products.

And why is that (btw, you're right, I missed your last post)? Apple isn't in the DC business to make money. Unless I'm mistaken, the DC redemptions don't bring Apple money. It helps them as a whole obviously - cause that way they are pulling you deeper into their ecosystem - but that's about it. The BD debacle is a totally different thing, exactly cause there is money there for Apple and they probably don't want to jeopardize their market (that's actually my biggest complaint about the company).

Did you even look at the thread and spreadsheet? Yes, the original spreadsheet was being messed up by people who had no clue what they were doing. Thew new spreadsheet, which I linked to, was created by Gadgetman and is only editable by him to prevent such issue. Based on my review of that spreadsheet and the DCs I have it appears to be accurate.

Busted. The old spreadsheet was linked to in 3 different threads around the same time I responded to you and I thought I was replying to him. Sorry about that.

[HDMe]

Apple has HD digital copies of movies... but typically the studios only spring to give you a free SD digital copy.

Some exceptions, like Bourne Legacy comes with a code that redeems for an HD digital copy through iTunes.

Apple isn't the problem... the studio choosing to provide you with SD rather than HD is where you should direct your complaints and comments.