6 ms·

How does this differ from iTunes? There's a business model that works, and the experience is pretty much exactly like Popcorn Time, except iTunes has those pesk

How does this differ from iTunes? There's a business model that works, and the experience is pretty much exactly like Popcorn Time, except iTunes has those pesky Rent/Buy buttons.

cmiles74 11y ago
The comment compared Popcorn Time to Netflix; I don't think you can really compare iTunes to Netflix (or Popcorn Time). Netflix provides broad access to a range of work for a fixed monthly cost, iTunes is more of a storefront where you can purchase rights. Popcorn Time seems like what many people want from Netflix: a much larger library. Something more like Spotify, but for movies and television.
- npizzolato 11y ago
  Yes, people want a library of every tv show and movie, and they want it for free. I'm not sure that's ever been untrue.
mlrtime 11y ago
Where is the rent/buy button to watch Seinfeld on itunes? Its not just about price, piracy also doesn't care about where the content comes from.
driverdan 11y ago
There is something very wrong when buying a movie on iTunes costs more than buying it on Bluray.
- kalleboo 11y ago
  And don't forget that despite paying more, you get less, since on iTunes it doesn't come with any of the extras on the Blu-ray.
  - enraged_camel 11y ago
    This is incorrect. For most movies there's an iTunes Extra section that comes with the movie when you buy it.
    - kalleboo 11y ago
      Maybe in the U.S. Not here. Nothing I've bought has extras. Looking at some current top movies (including Disney ones), no extras. edit: after checking 10 movies in the top current movies, finally found one with extras (released by Fox). so it exists, but nowhere near "most"
- enraged_camel 11y ago
  I disagree. iTunes offers a massive amount of convenience that bluray doesn't offer. When you buy something on iTunes, you can start consuming it almost immediately. Versus a bluray, which you have to either wait to receive, or go to the store in person to buy. This "on-demand" nature of iTunes is enough of a value-add to justify the increased price, at least in my eyes.
- rhino369 11y ago
  Why? It's more convenient. I can have the iTunes movie playing in 10 seconds instead of going to the store or waiting for shipping.
lars 11y ago
At least with iTunes for Windows, the experience is pretty horrid. I've found iTunes to be extremely hard to navigate, and generally difficult to use. Aesthetically, the app looks like a mix between an OSX app and a website, very out of place on a Windows machine. The UI is slow and unresponsive. It seems like every time I open the app, it wants to update, with a new EULA for me to read. They used to bundle the installer with unwanted crap. Somehow whenever I want to buy a movie, I need to click through 3 or 4 dialog boxes to confirm the purchase. The download I finally get is DRMed, and wont play on my devices. In general iTunes manages to be bad in almost all ways software can be bad. In my mind, it's one of the worst applications I've had to deal with in recent years. Imagine a world where content providers made content available for purchase over an open protocol, and allowed anyone to build apps to buy content on top of it. With real competition on the app side of things, non-piracy apps would be more usable than Popcorn Time, and things like iTunes would die in a heart beat.
kalleboo 11y ago
I've been trying to watch a movie I bought on iTunes on my AppleTV all afternoon. I've committed the cardinal sin of moving between two different countries (!!!) so this movie is on the iTunes account in the country I lived in before. Playing it from iTunes with AirPlay it kept stopping for some reason, playing it with home sharing worked for a while, and then I tried to buy a song I liked from the movie on my computer and it stopped and lost where it was in the movie. I got pissed off and just pirated it and used Beamer.app to send the video to the AppleTV, it played back flawlessly. I'm happy to pay for a movie. I've funded several documentary projects on Kickstarter. Just give me an MP4 or MKV file so I can trust that I can play it today and 10 years from now on any device I own. DRM doesn't work. It only punishes the actual customers.
tomjen3 11y ago
I don't think there is a movie I can buy in iTunes that I actually want, although I haven't looked in years. I assume it is different in the US but, sadly, the US isn't the entire world.

How does this differ from iTunes? There's a business model that works, and the experience is pretty much exactly like Popcorn Time, except iTunes has those pesky Rent/Buy buttons.

cmiles74 11y ago

The comment compared Popcorn Time to Netflix; I don't think you can really compare iTunes to Netflix (or Popcorn Time). Netflix provides broad access to a range of work for a fixed monthly cost, iTunes is more of a storefront where you can purchase rights. Popcorn Time seems like what many people want from Netflix: a much larger library. Something more like Spotify, but for movies and television.

npizzolato 11y ago
Yes, people want a library of every tv show and movie, and they want it for free. I'm not sure that's ever been untrue.

mlrtime 11y ago

Where is the rent/buy button to watch Seinfeld on itunes? Its not just about price, piracy also doesn't care about where the content comes from.

driverdan 11y ago

There is something very wrong when buying a movie on iTunes costs more than buying it on Bluray.

kalleboo 11y ago
And don't forget that despite paying more, you get less, since on iTunes it doesn't come with any of the extras on the Blu-ray.
- enraged_camel 11y ago
  This is incorrect. For most movies there's an iTunes Extra section that comes with the movie when you buy it.
  - kalleboo 11y ago
    Maybe in the U.S. Not here. Nothing I've bought has extras. Looking at some current top movies (including Disney ones), no extras. edit: after checking 10 movies in the top current movies, finally found one with extras (released by Fox). so it exists, but nowhere near "most"
enraged_camel 11y ago
I disagree. iTunes offers a massive amount of convenience that bluray doesn't offer. When you buy something on iTunes, you can start consuming it almost immediately. Versus a bluray, which you have to either wait to receive, or go to the store in person to buy. This "on-demand" nature of iTunes is enough of a value-add to justify the increased price, at least in my eyes.
rhino369 11y ago
Why? It's more convenient. I can have the iTunes movie playing in 10 seconds instead of going to the store or waiting for shipping.

lars 11y ago

At least with iTunes for Windows, the experience is pretty horrid. I've found iTunes to be extremely hard to navigate, and generally difficult to use. Aesthetically, the app looks like a mix between an OSX app and a website, very out of place on a Windows machine. The UI is slow and unresponsive. It seems like every time I open the app, it wants to update, with a new EULA for me to read. They used to bundle the installer with unwanted crap. Somehow whenever I want to buy a movie, I need to click through 3 or 4 dialog boxes to confirm the purchase. The download I finally get is DRMed, and wont play on my devices. In general iTunes manages to be bad in almost all ways software can be bad. In my mind, it's one of the worst applications I've had to deal with in recent years. Imagine a world where content providers made content available for purchase over an open protocol, and allowed anyone to build apps to buy content on top of it. With real competition on the app side of things, non-piracy apps would be more usable than Popcorn Time, and things like iTunes would die in a heart beat.

kalleboo 11y ago

I've been trying to watch a movie I bought on iTunes on my AppleTV all afternoon. I've committed the cardinal sin of moving between two different countries (!!!) so this movie is on the iTunes account in the country I lived in before. Playing it from iTunes with AirPlay it kept stopping for some reason, playing it with home sharing worked for a while, and then I tried to buy a song I liked from the movie on my computer and it stopped and lost where it was in the movie. I got pissed off and just pirated it and used Beamer.app to send the video to the AppleTV, it played back flawlessly. I'm happy to pay for a movie. I've funded several documentary projects on Kickstarter. Just give me an MP4 or MKV file so I can trust that I can play it today and 10 years from now on any device I own. DRM doesn't work. It only punishes the actual customers.

tomjen3 11y ago

I don't think there is a movie I can buy in iTunes that I actually want, although I haven't looked in years. I assume it is different in the US but, sadly, the US isn't the entire world.