Does Apple Have To Improve Quality Control In iTunes

[Kage]

Many of you know by now that Apple has average quality control in iTunes. They allow content into iTunes with these issues:
1. Movies and tv shows with the wrong aspect ratio.
2. Sound quality that is more compressed than usual.
3. TV show seasons or complete tv series with the incorrect episode order.

Most of the time, iTunes support denies refunds when people complain about these issues. It states in their refund policy on digital media that all purchases are final, no refunds allowed. They also want to us to contact the studio about these issues.

I think that Apple should be tougher on studios on digital media quality control.

[BluBonnet]

Originally Posted by Kage

Many of you know by now that Apple has average quality control in iTunes. They allow content into iTunes with these issues:
1. Movies and tv shows with the wrong aspect ratio.
2. Sound quality that is more compressed than usual.
3. TV show seasons or complete tv series with the incorrect episode order.

Most of the time, iTunes support denies refunds when people complain about these issues. It states in their refund policy on digital media that all purchases are final, no refunds allowed. They also want to us to contact the studio about these issues.

I think that Apple should be tougher on studios on digital media quality control.

They should, but they almost certainly won't, because they don't seem to think that these issues would be serious enough to dent the bottom line. And, as some of you may have heard, Apple right now is a very profitable company.

[ManOfTheForest]

Originally Posted by Kage

Many of you know by now that Apple has average quality control in iTunes. They allow content into iTunes with these issues:
1. Movies and tv shows with the wrong aspect ratio.
2. Sound quality that is more compressed than usual.
3. TV show seasons or complete tv series with the incorrect episode order.

Most of the time, iTunes support denies refunds when people complain about these issues. It states in their refund policy on digital media that all purchases are final, no refunds allowed. They also want to us to contact the studio about these issues.

I think that Apple should be tougher on studios on digital media quality control.

I don't know about the audio compression but the other two are not Apple's responsibility.

iTunes is a shop and does not decide on aspect ratio or episode order. And they are right that you should contact the studios.

However, I do think that Apple should actual do more to actually support iTunes customers. They should make record of complaints and inquiries and pass those onto to studios in conjunction with customers. That way studios will actually listen and respond quicker. And I agree that Apple could do more to make studios up their game on iTunes.

[Cinematt]

Ultimately I suspect Apple is more worried about having a title available than having it with an Atmos track, as most consumers don't even understand let alone care about the technical issues like compression, and given half their customers would probably still be buying square TVs if they could then aspect ratios isn't a big deal.
Episodes out of order is ridiculous, though could be solved just by letting users alter metadata (so I could sort out all the bloody movie series in alphabetical instead of release order! Grrrrr!)but the more standards Apple give studios the less content they'll get, particularly on titles that aren't seen as money makers. Studios like digital as a way to dump out all their old movies without having to give a lot of thought to them, it's great for them on titles that few people care about, but if they start getting bigger overheads in mastering and administration lots of those lesser titles will stop making their way out.

[tjritter79]

Think of iTunes more of a "warehouse club".
Film studios/distributors send their movies/TV shows there.
iTunes distributes them to its paying customers.
iTunes has no say on the content or order of what it is sent....its only job is to distribute it properly.
Content is the sole responsibility of the distributor of that content.
As far as episodes of TV shows are concerned, there is no "set format" other than those in which the next episode is a continuation of the previous. IE:The Prisoner, this series has a defined order. Other shows, such as Star Trek, each episode (other then "The Menagerie" a 2-parter) is self-contained. Their digital versions seem to follow the order they were originally aired while the blu-ray discs follow production order. Since all the digital distributors of Star Trek episodes (CBS,Amazon,iTunes,Hulu) follow this same order, I can only surmise that the series is distributed to all parties this way, and either are not allowed or permitted to edit it in any way.
A customer does have the freedom, if they so desire....to watch a series in any order they want...per episode. So, in essence if you know the production order (google it!) select individual episodes and watch it in this manner.
It would be nice if iTunes included a "playlist" option, like they do with music, for their TV shows, and included this on ATV. That way you could create your "own" order if you don't want to watch a series in the order given to you.