Apple Looking to Sell 1080p HD Movies via iTunes

[Maura]

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[FONT=&quot]According to a report on AppleInsider today, Apple is planning to sell 1080p HD videos via iTunes, possibly as early as this Fall. AppleInsider notes that up until now, iTunes videos have only been available in 720p, and Steve Jobs has also ruled out Blu-ray capability on Macs because of licensing issues and a variety of other potential problems that he has previously called a “bag of hurt”. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]However, it looks like this situation might soon be remedied, as AppleInsider says that according to its sources, several feature films have been submitted to the iTunes Store for September/October release that have the option for 1920x1080 resolution. These include a film from 20th Century Fox that has encoding options for SD (480p), HD (720p), and HD+ (1080p). Also, other forthcoming movies from two of the biggest studios have the option for resolution of 1920x1080, with a bitrate encoding of 10,000 kps. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]AppleInsider’s sources on this issue have also been telling them about rumours within Apple of a new Apple TV device in the works that would be able to deliver 1080p streams thanks to an upgrade to the A5 chip. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]All this is most likely being planned to coincide with the release of iOS 5, especially with the discovery in the iOS 5 beta of an iPad 2 video player that can display and sync 1080p content. [/FONT]

Source: AppleInsider | Apple could test limited iTunes HD+ 1080p movie service

 

[Gregoris]

well they sure do have the bandwidth to do so