Goggle box content comes to iTunes UK

Compettitive?!

Ugly Betty S1, 32.99 (Amazon 29.98), Desperate Housewives S3 32.99 (Amazon 33.74) S1 32.99 (Amazon 25.48) ... etc.

Generally it's not a good deal, if it's cheaper then it's by PENCE. How can this possibly be described as a good deal?!

Oh and previous seasons are available for some series like Desperate Housewives, Greys Anatomy, etc. quite correct about season 1 and 2 of that not being there ... guess I'll just have to miss out on not-buying those seasons at the same time as I don't buy the 3rd.

Not much for Sci-Fi fans at the moment though ... Can't wait until Stargate and Battlestar Galactica arrive!

Interestingly in the US they have just added Season 2 of Jeremiah (it was written by the same guy as Babylon 5), curiously it's not available on DVD yet (despite airing 5/6 years ago). Maybe the studios trying something new?!

Bargain? My arse.

If I am not going to get the physical box, extras, free artworks etc. then I want to pay a damned sight less than the DVD price. Also the portability issue (I can play the physical DVD in any device I choose and don't need to "authorise" it) still makes the DVD more attractive. PC, Laptop, Console, DVD player, portable player; all quite happy to chunter through my DVD and no DRM to stress over.

For just a download of the show I'd stump up (maybe) 50p. Tops.

Why?

Apart from being able to access it immediately why would you possibly want to buy it online at the current prices? The quality is less, you get less, you pay more and you are very restricted as to what you can do with it. Doesn't make sense to me. Perhaps if they were offering HD content with bonus features and at a sensible price they'd be on to something but this is just an insult.

Or get them from iTunes US..

...for $1.99 (99p)

Can't watch easily on a TV, what's the point?

Not much of a bargin when compared to the DVD box set as there are only very limited and unsatisfactory ways of getting the content from iTunes onto a TV.

The AppleTV is too limited in the codecs supported to be viable for most users. (I know you can hack it, but I really can't be bothered)

To really take off TV downloads need to be DRM Free or DRM Lite so people can burn the downloads on to a DVD.

Consumer service

This will always be a "consumer" service, as those of us with knowledge will either buy the DVD and rip it (Handbrake is very good at this) or just download the series anyway.

And as the majority of people with an AppleTV are early adopters like me, who have hacked their boxes to play all codecs, this doesn't really appeal.

Yes, I know ripping stuff for the AppleTV is slow (H.264 encoding is very slow) but ripped content on my AppleTV vs. the original DVD, and I think the ripped content looks just as good, if not better!

The only advantage

is if you want to only buy one episode.

That works for music, because I often only want one or two songs off a cd, but I don't think it works so well for TV.

Title

I'm an Apple fan but the company joins in the almost universal game of "let's screw the Brits"!

Electronic transfer of data in iTunes costs no more in Europe than in the US yet they continue to charge us well in excess. If they make the same mistake with the iPhone, I certainly won't buy one even though I dearly want one!

As much as I like Apple products, I wish someone would take Apple to the European Court over pricing.

I hardly ever buy iTunes other than as individual tracks as I can buy the CDs cheaper and with the benefits of being able to choose where I play them and with whom I share them.

Absurd prices

We swallowed 60% higher prices for music, so they obviously thought they'd just jack it up to +90% for video. What the USians pay for HDDVD box sets, complete with all the extras, we pay for a season of low-res xvid quality.

Message to Apple: maybe for HD I'll pay that price, but not for something that looks worse than ITV,