Comments on: US Networks, HD TV Shows Now Available via iTunes Canada!

By: Paul T

Paul T — Thu, 28 May 2009 20:35:26 +0000

BSG was the best show on TV for 4 years. May it live forever in our hearts and on our iPhones…

By: zeagus

zeagus — Thu, 28 May 2009 19:43:13 +0000

@Jordan that was the point and there was a LENGTHY deconstruction of every item and pose and the placement of each actor, believe me.

By: makemineamac

makemineamac — Thu, 28 May 2009 17:43:44 +0000

CBS? I don’t see CBS anywhere. Maybe it’s just me…

By: Jordan

Jordan — Thu, 28 May 2009 17:04:48 +0000

Anyone else notice that the battlestar galactica pic resembles the famous pic of Jesus at the last supper?!

By: Josh

Josh — Thu, 28 May 2009 16:47:48 +0000

I was very pleased to wake up this morning and see this.

I think as long as the SD versions are still widescreen, they should be acceptable on my 32" 720p TV...

By: IcemanYVR

IcemanYVR — Thu, 28 May 2009 15:57:46 +0000

Finally, I've been using the US Stirr for a couple of years, but maybe I will check this out.

Just becuase Apple carries the requisite number of pixels to call it HD, the quality is NOTHING like watching it from a Blue Ray disc.

By: iPhoneMilk

iPhoneMilk — Thu, 28 May 2009 14:25:32 +0000

Cute silly little canadians....

Well i'm glad you guys got this =D

By: Ed

Ed — Thu, 28 May 2009 14:19:05 +0000

@Sam

Yikes! Yeah, that stuff like picture quality really bothers me, too. Thanks for the specs!

By: Sam

Sam — Thu, 28 May 2009 13:25:46 +0000

I agree with Big Willie, although i download TV shows through iTunes season packs in iTunes "HD", I only do it for the convenience of coming home and having them ready to watch.

iTunes "HD" is the lowest acceptable quality on any screen bigger than 40" that won't make you say "This is crap!".

HD movies, to maintain HD quality, should be ~5-10GB (A recent Star Trek Blu-Ray rip I grabbed that was compressed with x264 but maintaining 1080 quality was 22GB.

Comparing TV Shows: Dexter Season 2 h264 "HD" on iTunes: 20.68gb Dexter Season 2 720p x264 encode from BluRay: 37.5gb Dexter Season 2 1080p x264 encode from BluRay: 92.4gb

ALSO, iTunes staff still don't have a clue about interlacing. Its most visible in Family Guy episodes, the quality is atrocious! I had my season pass refunded as I couldn't take it.

By: Big Willie

Big Willie — Thu, 28 May 2009 12:33:46 +0000

30.17GB is the size of an entire season!?! Talk about compression! Why do they insist that these downloadable shows are HD when they are clearly not? The definition of true HD in audio/video requires a larger bitrate, a dynamic codec or container which inevitably makes the overall filesize much larger. This is why Blu-ray will not die out as quickly as people think. The size of that entire season is probably the same size that one episode would take up on a Blu-ray disc! HD? Don’t make me laugh!