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Apple iTunes: first test

Now, when Apple announces 'h264' quality for their series/movies I wanted to see.

So I logged in to my account and checked what I wanted to see, Prison Break Second Season Episode 3 appeared to be a good choice.

The new polished menu tells it all:
508 Mb for one episode.
When compared to other former episodes: those used to be around 200Mb.

(I grabbed Flightplan too, just to check, and it already downloaded too. When I started downloading, the new service was freshly released, which might explain the downloading time, still then it went rather fast. -for a 500Mb that is-)

The quality is stunning. I don't have an iPod video, but I am sure it will be plain crisp on those brighter screens.
I do have a 23inch screen and my only interest in seeing Prison Break or any other series, is on that screen.
Quality of former episodes was certainly acceptable on a distance of 4 meter, but the H264 is from a different scaling: it is beautiful.
One can best compare it to the DiVx format.
There is barely no pixilation when sitting on 12 cm from the screen...

Which comes to the next point: 500Mb download for 1 episode is A LOT.
I think of my HD storage, and my bandwidth.
The US might be more advanced than Belgium on this matter, but I might end up paying a lot for these movies: that's an added 0,5 euro for the space on my HD (taking into consideration: 1Gb=1euro) plus the extra bandwidth it might use (only when I pass my limit of 15Gb/month)

One can back up on DVD, but still...
I already referred to Videoshops that offer similar movies for the same price, in real DVD quality.
If you want you can rent your movie over there for only 3 euro.

As for those Belgians interested: run to the nearest Office Centre, they now offer a 250Gb Lacie Porsche drive for 79 euro (without VAT)
That's less than 0.32 euro/GB...

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