I have previously been rather pro iTMS (iTunes Music Store), and I believe in paying where fees are due, for various material, be it movies or music etc..
Currently I am residing in Norway, and I know many of my readers live in Europe, or in other words outside the United States. The US being the only country (correct me if I am wrong), where you can currently download TV series and full length movies from Apple’s iTMS. All this means that I have not seen any iTMS movies with my own eyes yet. Although I must admit a lower quality suspicion of movies ready for iPod video has been present. Now the-ish.com/blog has compared pirated material with material purchased on iTMS: iTunes versus Pirates. (Note: The compared material is from ABC material, and may not be applicable to other material.)
First comparison at the-is.com/blog
Second comparison
The first and most significant difference is that a great deal of the pirated material (still mainly TV shows) are appearing in High Definition (HD) quality, while material purchased via iTMS is still in Standard Definition (SD). (In my post Comparing 480p and 720p you can see some of the first hand differences between SD and HD material.)
Secondly iTMS material is in 4:3 and Pirated material is 16:9 (or widescreen). (Perhaps this is partially due to the fact that the iPods and still a number of computer monitors have 4:3 aspect ratios.)
However although this is a superficial comparison it does prove a point, restricting a materials quality, which can be purchased and costs money, will not exactly encourage more people to buy material if they can download better quality material for free. In addition restricting the material geographicly sadly only serves to boost piracy even more. My “superficial” conclusion is iTMS video quality must improve if they want more business.
Previous articles I have written related to iTMS:
Ad and iTMS Movies – Apple Follow-Ups
Domino effect for Apple’s iTMS?
(Via Mac1.)