[Osx-nutters] 15 for this?

[Roger Howard]

On Wed, September 13, 2006 8:25 am, Kevin Callahan wrote:
>
> On Sep 13, 2006, at 6:57 AM, Shawn Erickson wrote:
>
>>
>> On Sep 12, 2006, at 11:30 AM, Kevin Callahan wrote:
>>
>>> $15 for this resolution?
>>>
>>> With iTunes 7, all videos purchased from the iTunes Store are
>>> downloaded in near-DVD quality at a resolution of 640x480 (up to
>>> 480, depending on the aspect ratio),
>>
>> Most "library" Movies are $10, new releases are $15 unless you pre-
>> order or buy them in the first week then they are $13.
>>
>> <480px-Standard_video_res.svg.png>
>>
>> In the end you are getting near NTSC resolution (with a frame rate
>> of 24p) with decently high-quality encoding (and of course stereo/
>> surround) audio). Most folks won't notice much of a difference
>> between what you get and your average DVD. It is a simple matter of
>> balancing quality / resolution against the fact of how large the
>> downloads would be. If you jump up to 720P then you are talking
>> about an increase over 2x in the data rate assuming you maintain
>> similar level of compression in the encoding.
>>
>> Recall that your average DVD uses MPEG-2 (which isn't as good as H.
>> 264 at the same data rate) and it could even contain video encoded
>> at 352x480, 704x480, or 720x480 with a similar dropping of vertical
>> resolution to allow wide screen formats.

Not only that, but given the difference in PAR (pixel aspect ratio - the
shape of pixels) between NTSC and computer video, a video encoded in NTSC
at 720x480 is effectively "only" 640x480 anyway. So nothing is lost anyway
- if they provided 720x480, it'd still only be displayed at an effective
640x480.