Apple's iTunes HD Brain Teaser: More Files Or More Work? (AAPL)

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steve-jobs-heroes.jpgApple (AAPL) loves to sweat the small stuff, so we'd be really interested in hearing how the decision-making went on this one. Warning: It's wonky.

When you download one of their new hi-def TV episodes via iTunes, you're really downloading two files -- one is a large hi-def video, the other a smaller, standard-def video. This ensures you'll have a great-quality video to watch on your computer or Apple TV, and a smaller-size file to put on your iPod or iPhone.

itunes-hd-files.jpg

But unless you're going to use both files immediately -- unlikely -- that's not very efficient. The "smaller" file of the free '30 Rock' episode Apple is offering (257 megabytes) takes up 36% of the space that the larger, hi-def file takes up (720 megabytes). That means we need 36% more space on our hard drive to store it, and -- because both downloads start at the same time, 36% more bandwidth to download it.

In the perfect world, that wouldn't be an issue. But last we checked, both hard drive space and bandwidth are finite resources -- especially if you buy Internet service from a cable company that's keeping track of your downloads. And downloading 36% more video means you'll probably have to wait a bit longer before either video is ready to watch, transfer, whatever.

So, what are Apple's options?

  • They could ask you if you want to download one or both files when you purchase the episode. But that's an extra step -- not exactly elegant.
  • They could, by default, only send you the HD file. That means that if you wanted to put the TV episode on your iPhone or iPod, you'd have to download the second, smaller file separately. That might piss people off, if, for instance, they're not connected to the Internet, or in a hurry.
  • They could make iPhones and iPods capable of playing hi-def video files. But that wouldn't be the best use of smaller portable hard drives, and would use up more battery power -- hardly a resource the iPhone can spare.
  • They could do what they're currently doing, assuming you'll delete the smaller file if you want to be more efficient with your hard drive space.

What's best? We don't know. Maybe you have a better idea -- let us know in comments.

But Apple's not the first company to have to make this decision. When Amazon (AMZN) opened its Unbox store two years ago, it initially transfered two files to its buyers, too: A larger movie/TV video to watch on their computers, and a smaller file for their portable gadgets.

For a number of reasons -- like the fact that their smaller videos were only compatible with niche portables that few people actually own -- they later dropped the smaller files, asking customers to download them manually. And now they're focusing on streaming videos, anyway.

Still, something to think about.

See Also:
Amazon Launches Video Streaming Service: Look Out iTunes, Hulu, Netflix
Apple's Holiday iPod Story: Same As Last Year
NBC's Zucker: We Came Back To iTunes Because We Got Variable Pricing



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24 Comments

mark said:
They could let you set preferences, such as
1. If I buy it from my iPhone/iPod touch, send me the low-res file only, and let me get the HD file later.
2. If I buy it from my AppleTV or computer, do what my preference setting says. Preference can be set to:
a. HD sent first, followed by low-res
b. HD only (let me get low-res later)
c. Ask me
d. Low-res first, followed by HD
e. Low-res only (let me get HD later
Greg said:
Why not use some of their software experts there at apple to build a down-converter into itunes, so that if you download it to your ipod or iphone, it automatically converts it into a low-res version.
kurt said:
I second Greg's idea. The conversion/compression could occur in the background as well.

Makes you wonder about all this noise about 'limited bandwidth'. Cable companies are looking for excuses to make a bigger profit. Apple in bed with AT&T to help precipitate the 'bandwidth crisis' to help create that tiered internet system the telecoms are drooling about introducing?

But I bet converting a movie file on your computer would take a bit of time. Maybe that's reason for the extra download.


Tim F. said:
Greg's proposal seems the obvious solution, but the obstacle is the DRM. The authentication keys need to originate on the server.

I don't see much of a problem. If you are blowing 3 bucks on a half-hour or hour broadcast TV show, I doubt the bandwidth/HD capacity is much of an issue. Certainly, Apple is wise to decide to put the onus on the provider/user rather than upsetting users by an hour or more of slow converting on the user's machine that slows down other processes. I don't think overloading users with choices is a wise decision either (although it's annoying that a handful of iTunes preference options disappeared).
I thought of the downconverting idea but ditched it because of DRM and speed. Tim, you're right. It's not a problem, which is why I waited until 6 pm to write about it. But still worth thinking about.
Marc Siry (URL) said:
On-the-fly transcoding still runs at a little slower than 1:1 speed on consumer level desktops for decent quality- that means an hour broadcast show (typically 44 minutes) would take a little under an hour to transcode after download begins.

Near-term leveraging of GPU processors might substantially shrink that- dedicated hardware does 5x-10x- in which case the on the fly transcode would work for just about any situation other than downloading at the airport for iPod sideload before the flight. In that case, a 'Download straight to iPod' option would allow for a download of a smaller file with an HD download in the background later.


Tim F. said:
Dan, I applaud you for admitting it was a filler post. I hope Henry doesn't ground you.
Daryl (URL) said:
How about using a hierarchal compression scheme that represents the hi-res movie as a sum of a low-res movie plus an 'error' movie. you get the low-res first ofcourse but together they are no bigger then the hi-res movie alone would have been. Essentiually a wavlet based decomposition compression scheme, similar to the way WavPack Audio compression works.

Ideally there should be no redundant information between the two versions and hence no wasted space. Infact, it would be even better to send it in more then 2 files, let's say 10 that incrementally scale to produce the full movie so the longer you wait the better the movie quality is but you can stop and watch it at any time.
Scott said:
Daryl has the right idea, and it is one that I've wondered for several years why Apple hasn't implemented in some fashion.

Given that QuickTime-based format for MP4 supports multiple streams within a given file, you'd think that a single .M4P file could have a lo-res version of the content (both movie and music) as well as including several correction streams for decoder reconstruction. As mentioned, WavPack does this as does JPEG2000 for its Progressive Transmission feature.

During the enocde, you'd think the encoder could run multiple threads: say a 128, a 256, and a ALAC with a recombinator thread then decomposing the results into differential, progressive streams.

From Apple's side, all those streams would be stored and could be encrypted separately with Fairplay.
Jax said:
I like Greg's idea and use the for my music files on my iPod already. I have my ripped music at a 320 bitrate, then have the option checked for it to be converted to 128 when I put it on my ipod. It works out fine and allows me to keep a higher quality file in my library.

I have no idea if that would work for video, but it's a possibility.

Daryl/Scott have something interesting there as well.
Don Sheehan (URL) said:
downloading HD & SD files of one TV episode?

Send me only the HD version. If I later want an SD version, I can dump the HD version into iMovie and save it as a smaller version while having lunch.
Dan Rayburn (URL) said:
Why are we so quick to always think technology is what's going to solve the problem? The easy solution is let consumers decide what they want, when they want, at the quality they want. Apple should not force users to download something they don't want. Apple knows better than this.
RogerWilco said:
Wow you are retarded. Do you not understand that it would take same bandwidth if you download one file or both file at the same time?

You just have no clue how stuff work right? Why are you even writing technical stuff if you are this clueless.

Find some books for dummies.
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