Anime on iTunes and Vudu

[Mati]

I have been getting back in to anime and I noticed there are anime on iTunes and Vudu. Are they worth purchasing?

What do you all think about Anime in digital format? How is the quality? Is it close to blu ray quality?

[neoz]

Originally Posted by Mati

I have been getting back in to anime and I noticed there are anime on iTunes and Vudu. Are they worth purchasing?

What do you all think about Anime in digital format? How is the quality? Is it close to blu ray quality?

Not nearly as good as blu ray nor will it ever be. Unless you can't find it or just don't want to pay the prices for the physical copy then I guess you could go this route. But after looking at the prices on Vudu you better off finding the blu rays imo.

[Mati]

Originally Posted by neoz

Not nearly as good as blu ray nor will it ever be. Unless you can't find it or just don't want to pay the prices for the physical copy then I guess you could go this route. But after looking at the prices on Vudu you better off finding the blu rays imo.

Yeah, I bought Gungrave on blu ray because the price was way better.

[neoz]

Originally Posted by Mati

Yeah, I bought Gungrave on blu ray because the price was way better.

Yeah I feel on that one. I was going to buy Shiki on Vudu but then say the price. Glad I waited because I got it for like $17.99 at FYE.

[Scarface32]

Originally Posted by Mati

I have been getting back in to anime and I noticed there are anime on iTunes and Vudu. Are they worth purchasing?

What do you all think about Anime in digital format? How is the quality? Is it close to blu ray quality?

Other than the really good sale of all 8 Harry Potter movies bundled on iTunes for just $9.99 total I was able to snag, I don't buy digital. All of my iTunes and UV content is due to digital copy codes on Blu-ray Discs.

DRM encryption of digital means you never really own anything, as you can't resell it, trade it, or give it away. And you can't will it to someone in your death. Digital is more of a lifetime rental, than it is an ownership.

[SeaFox]

Originally Posted by Scarface32

DRM encryption of digital means you never really own anything, as you can't resell it, trade it, or give it away. And you can't will it to someone in your death. Digital is more of a lifetime rental, than it is an ownership.

Can't play it on anything other than Apple's devices, when it comes to iTunes's content. I don't own an AppleTV and Apple's video players for computers are complete crap feature-wise. This is exactly why I did not buy Time of Eve for all this time when the only U.S. release was iTunes, but jumped right on the Kickstarter for it.

If I buy on disc I don't get locked in and I can always rip it and encode to a format the Apple players/devices will accept, allowing me to play on all the same.

[Scarface32]

Originally Posted by SeaFox

Can't play it on anything other than Apple's devices, when it comes to iTunes's content. I don't own an AppleTV and Apple's video players for computers are complete crap feature-wise. This is exactly why I did not buy Time of Eve for all this time when the only U.S. release was iTunes, but jumped right on the Kickstarter for it.

If I buy on disc I don't get locked in and I can always rip it and encode to a format the Apple players/devices will accept, allowing me to play on all the same.

That's part of the other problem of DRM, UV suffers from the same thing. In both cases, you're limited to what software can play the video, and what hardware you can use. I can't play UV on my Apple TV, and I can't play iTunes on my Google TV. (people give it crap, but my Google TV box has proved to be quite useful, especially when trying to find something to watch on TV. I don't even need to know channel numbers anymore. If I want to watch TBS, I just type it on the remote, and go right to it without needing to know the channel it's on.). One good thing though, I can AirPlay UV from my iPad to my Apple TV via the Flixster iOS app.

[SeaFox]

Originally Posted by Scarface32

That's part of the other problem of DRM, UV suffers from the same thing.

Yeah, but UV is more platform-agnostic. You can watch it on your Sony BD player, your Samsung BD player, or your other streaming box made by some other company. With Apple's stuff it's Apple's ONE playback STB, an Apple iToy, or nothin'.

One thing that would have to happen for me to consider digital video purchases a real alternative to disc -- irrevocable usage rights.

I have a funny story about digital purchasing:

[Show spoiler]I "bought" (it was available for free on promo) a music album on Amazon for a family member who wasn't very computer illiterate and very new to online shopping. Amazon seems like a safe choice -- DRM-free MP3, will play back on anything, etc. Anyway, the email was sent to her to get the album and she didn't know how to redeem it, so it sat in her Inbox for a week or two. Now, keep in mind I've already bought this, so it doesn't matter if the promo price ends or not during that time. It's already purchased. She just needs to download it. After awhile I get to chance to help her redeem the gift -- I get an error trying to follow the link the gift announcement email has. Tried having a fresh copy of the email sent from my own Amazon purchase history, etc. Nothing worked. I contacted Amazon support.

Turns out the reason the link didn't work is Amazon was no longer carrying the album. They didn't have it available on their servers at all, even for people who already own it. There was no refund due because, well, I hadn't paid anything for it, obviously. I didn't lose any money, but it still pissed me off majorly. It's especially galling when you consider how much Amazon has been pushing -- even before they started their new Prime Music Service -- the idea of streaming your Amazon Music purchases with their Cloud Player app. Amazon has been actively steering people away from downloading their music purchases as MP3 files, to the point it becomes difficult to get the files when I want them I feel. They want you to just stream them instead.

'Course, if I had taken that advice with this album, I'd also be S.O.L. -- since Amazon doesn't have it to stream anymore either. If it was a paid album, you know Amazon would just say "well, you should have downloaded your purchase, we aren't responsible for keeping your music for you" -- even though that's exactly what they want you to do with their Cloud Player.

Now, if my relative had opened my email immediately and downloaded my gift, she'd have her music. But instead she got nothing. I can't wait for this to happen with a video. Have someone pay $9.99 or $14.99 for a movie and then have Amazon's distribution deal that covers it end. This isn't supposed to be a rental after all, Amazon frames the service as you "buying" the movie, even though you don't even have the option of downloading it. Just playing it live whenever you want (and they can provide it). What will they do when someone wants their ten-dollar flick that they "bought" and Amazon doesn't have anymore?

[Scarface32]

Originally Posted by SeaFox

Yeah, but UV is more platform-agnostic. You can watch it on your Sony BD player, your Samsung BD player, or your other streaming box made by some other company. With Apple's stuff it's Apple's ONE playback STB, an Apple iToy, or nothin'.

One thing that would have to happen for me to consider digital video purchases a real alternative to disc -- irrevocable usage rights.

I have a funny story about digital purchasing:

[Show spoiler]I "bought" (it was available for free on promo) a music album on Amazon for a family member who wasn't very computer illiterate and very new to online shopping. Amazon seems like a safe choice -- DRM-free MP3, will play back on anything, etc. Anyway, the email was sent to her to get the album and she didn't know how to redeem it, so it sat in her Inbox for a week or two. Now, keep in mind I've already bought this, so it doesn't matter if the promo price ends or not during that time. It's already purchased. She just needs to download it. After awhile I get to chance to help her redeem the gift -- I get an error trying to follow the link the gift announcement email has. Tried having a fresh copy of the email sent from my own Amazon purchase history, etc. Nothing worked. I contacted Amazon support.

Turns out the reason the link didn't work is Amazon was no longer carrying the album. They didn't have it available on their servers at all, even for people who already own it. There was no refund due because, well, I hadn't paid anything for it, obviously. I didn't lose any money, but it still pissed me off majorly. It's especially galling when you consider how much Amazon has been pushing -- even before they started their new Prime Music Service -- the idea of streaming your Amazon Music purchases with their Cloud Player app. Amazon has been actively steering people away from downloading their music purchases as MP3 files, to the point it becomes difficult to get the files when I want them I feel. They want you to just stream them instead.

'Course, if I had taken that advice with this album, I'd also be S.O.L. -- since Amazon doesn't have it to stream anymore either. If it was a paid album, you know Amazon would just say "well, you should have downloaded your purchase, we aren't responsible for keeping your music for you" -- even though that's exactly what they want you to do with their Cloud Player.

Now, if my relative had opened my email immediately and downloaded my gift, she'd have her music. But instead she got nothing. I can't wait for this to happen with a video. Have someone pay $9.99 or $14.99 for a movie and then have Amazon's distribution deal that covers it end. This isn't supposed to be a rental after all, Amazon frames the service as you "buying" the movie, even though you don't even have the option of downloading it. Just playing it live whenever you want (and they can provide it). What will they do when someone wants their ten-dollar flick that they "bought" and Amazon doesn't have anymore?

UV isn't as agnostic as you think. Depending on where you got it from, some platforms just will not play it. For example, one of my UV titles I uses Vudu to download, and Flixster refuses to play it. That's also a problem because my Google TV box isn't compatible with the Vudu app, just Flixster. And here comes another problem, Flixster behaves differently depending on the hardware you use. I can watch TV Shows on Flixster for the iPad, but on Google TV it's movies only. I can't watch any of my UV TV Shows, just my UV Moives.

Another problem, not everything is available in the cloud. Family Guy Blue Harvest is STILL not available to stream in the cloud. The other two Family Guy Star Wars movies are, just not that one. And it's the movie that ushered in this whole digital copy thing in the first place, as it was the FIRST movie to get a digital copy with the DVD. Now that, plus the whole Disney fiasco that happened last year where some of their movies disappeared from the cloud for a few weeks, is the reason I don't fully trust cloud storage and download all my digital movies to iTunes (another reason I prefer iTunes over UV. The ability to download.) But that also means valuable hard drive space taken up just for digital movies. Now, if the movies didn't have DRM on them, I could burn them to a BD-R, but you can't.