Apple certainly know when to strike while the iron is hot, barely a month ago it announced that movies will be available for download from its UK store on the same day as DVD and the service is up and running already.
Today sees the official launch of its new movie download site, which will allow UK users to download or rent a range of titles from major studios such as Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros and MGM.
700 films are currently available including I Am Legend and Hitman, and over 100 are available in high definition formats. Films can be downloaded to a PC or Mac and then transferred to Apple devices like an iPod or AppleTV. They’re also fairly reasonably priced at £10.99 for new releases and £6.99 for classics, or you can rent for between £2.49 and £3.49, with high definition versions costing just £1 more across the board.
If you rent a movie you’ll find you have 30 days to start watching, or 48 hours once you have, before DRM kicks in, though there’s no limit to how many times you watch it in that period.
Unfortunately we’re still paying quite a bit more than our friends in the US, whose rentals cost around half the price. Steve Jobs has blamed this on VAT and the price of doing business in good ol’ Blighty. – Paul Lester
[Telegraph]
iTunes Apple high definition
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Editor and Contributor | Martin Lynch
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We can buy DVDs for about £3 - £6 not long after release. Or we can pay double that for Apple DRM-addled junk. Yup, people are going to lap it up as usual and Apple will get applauded.
maybe cause its the only legal way of having a digital movie (so far in the uk) and not everone likes breaking the law like you, also apple doesnt set the price, the studios do, apple makes just enough from downloads to keep the servise running, and so far has kept music the same price despite the growth of storage etc needed for the store, as in they are absorbing the costs. The DRM is pretty open, it allows you to have your film on your computer, as many ipods/phones as are paired to it and appletv. do you need the film anywhere other than your living room, pocket or computer?