the-ish.com/blogiTunes versus Pirating
I’ve purchased a number of things from the iTunes Store. Music and TV shows primarily, and I’ve been pretty happy with the ease of use and quality of my purchases… The problem i have, though, is that television shows such as Lost, which are broadcast in a 16×9 aspect ration HD, when purchased from the iTunes Store, are only 4×3.
As you can see in the above image, by purchasing the episode from iTunes rather than just pirating it, i actually get less of the show. …and to be honest, pirating this episode took maybe 2 to 3 minutes more work.
The downfall of pirating, though, is that iTunes (and therefore most likely AppleTV) doesn’t not play friendly with DIVX, but then on the plus side, there’s no DRM. I can convert my pirated copy to any format i want, burn it to DVD, extract clips, scrub through frame-by-frame, etc.
Sounds to me like legality, and even the convenience of auto-downloads, are having a hard time competing with pirating.
But what it really comes down to for me is this: If i get LESS INFORMATION from my legal purchase, if i cant even get widescreen (much less HD) then why should i be purchasing instead of pirating?
I’ve sent Apple an email letting them know that i am dissatisfied with my purchase, that i believed it to be misrepresented product, that no where on the iTS does it tell me that my purchased copy of the season is a stripped down, cut off version of the show. I’ve asked for a refund.
I’d much rather legally purchase the season, i’d much rather they just give me an alternate download link for the 16×9 version, but we’ll see how they respond.
It doesn’t seem like a stretch for Apple to start selling at least 720p versions of their video offerings. It should happen soon, but until then, i do not want to pay full price for only 4/5ths of the show.
Just do what I do: pirate the show as it plays, then buy the DVD set when it comes out. I did a similar test with BSG on iTunes vs. piracy a while ago. The pirated version was out sooner, was of a higher resolution and had a similar file size. Piracy was (and remains) the clear winner. Since I just buy the DVD later anyway, I feel like its a waste of money to pay for iTunes and then pay again for the DVD.
Paul - February 19th, 2007 at 5:08 pm
One thing that you may not know, it varies from broadcaster to broadcaster as to whether they use 4:3 or 16:9 on iTunes. ABC seem to always use 4:3, which looks great on an ipod screen, but NBC opt for 16:9, which looks a bit cramped on an ipod screen, but much better on a mac.
you are right though, to beat the pirates, itunes will have to be faster, and 720p.
This morning for instance, a 720p x.264 version of Prison Break was available at about 7am GMT, which is about 2am ET. 1.08gb. The basic 350mb version was available 30 mins after broadcast on the east coast. The official 640×480 Prison Break download , somewhere in the 900mb region, won’t be available on iTunes for another few hours yet.
Cool experiment by the way, good work.
Edward - February 20th, 2007 at 7:29 am
Interesting…
We’re writing about this as well, based on what you’ve noticed. All i know is, if you don’t have qualms about quality, then piracy seems to be the logical choice.
Sometimes… piracy is still a crapshoot, quality wise.
Victor - February 21st, 2007 at 4:12 am
Apple should be up-front about what it’s selling. But this seems like a lame excuse for pirating content instead of buying it.
You’re only comparing the image size here, and not factoring in that one version is illegal and the other one is fully licensed and returns a financial return to the creators that makes it possible to invest in a follow-up series.
If you really are prepared to pay for the full size series, you could buy the iTunes download, discard it and watch the pirated version. That way, you’re happy and the creators don’t lose out either.
And this is only a TV show. If you don’t like what’s being sold, you have the choice to watch something else instead or go outside, instead of breaking the law and leeching off the livelihoods of writers, actors, and everyone else involved in making television.
Sean at Prompt - February 21st, 2007 at 4:37 am
What lightbox plugin do you use? I was looking for that plugin but can’t find it nowhere. Can you help?
Jonathan - February 21st, 2007 at 6:41 am
[…] First of all, i want to clarify that iTunes versus Pirating was not meant to be a scientific in-depth review of the entire iTunes store versus all the possibilities of pirating copyrighted material. It was simple a specific example, that of ABC’s “Lost” from the iTunes store compared to the most easily accessible pirated version. […]
the-ish.com/blog » iTunes vs. Pirating Followup - February 21st, 2007 at 2:56 pm
I personally don’t feel that downloading a television show is piracy. I could just as easily call up my neighbor and tell them to record BSG for me because I am out of town. They would gladly do it and give me the DVD-RW or VHS tape or whatever once I get home. These things are just recorded off the TV/Sat anyways. Yeah I don’t see the commercial, but hell if I recorded it myself I would still skip the commercials.
Pirated DVD’s are a different story, of course, although I find purchased DVD’s annoying with all the crap that comes up before the movie can play, most of it locked so you can’t skip it either. And any DVD’s I buy for the kids get scratched to hell after a few playings (they _gotta_ put it in themselves, you know) so a backup copy is very handy.
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iTunes versus Pirating « Apple Top News - October 12th, 2007 at 8:29 am
But you are say, that this idead is bad?,
Pvzixjzo - June 15th, 2008 at 7:52 pm
Good example of how backwards things are.
Panther - August 17th, 2008 at 9:56 pm