All Forces

In a media event this week, Apple released an iMac with a remote control, an iPod with video capabilities and a new iTunes that allows you to purchase videos. This means you can now purchase a TV show episode that aired the night before for $1.99. Sounds like a good deal, but what exactly do you get for $1.99 and how does it compare to a TV show you might be able to download using BitTorrent for free? Well, it just so happens that although we have TiVO in our home, I accidentally deleted the first show of the new Desperate Housewives season before my wife could get to watch it. So I went on and got it through BitTorrent one day before Apple announced the new iTunes. I couldn’t help but to download the same show from the Itunes Store to compare them side by side.

Technorati Tags: apple, bittorrent, itunes, itunes-tv, tivo

Availability

iTunes is off to a slow start carrying only 6 TV shows, but it’s safe to assume these number will change soon. They did great by having Desperate Housewives and Lost, but Night Stalker, That so Raven? I can only assume it was more of a studio push in exchange for Desperate and Lost. On the other hand, you can find over a hundred shows on BitTorrent. This makes BitTorrent the clear winner here.

Reliability

BitTorrent’s reliability depends on how many people are sharing a particular file. The more demand for a file, the faster the download is and the more reliable. However, as soon as interest starts going down so is the reliability and eventually the files becomes un-downloadable. This particular episode of Desperate Housewives took me over a day to download. That’s pretty lame by any standards. On the other hand, iTunes shines on it’s speed and reliability. As you can see by my screenshots, it took me about 12 minutes to download that show. And the files will always be available for download as long as they are listed there, as oppose to BitTorrent’s inevitable download deaths.

starting the download for just $1.99

download complete

Quality

iTunes compression quality is superb, no doubt about that. Apple has been the rockstar of video compression since the day they released the original Star Wars Episode 1 teaser trailer that redefined movie trailers expectations through the web. I’m not sure if my buddy Doug Werner or his team is responsible for the iTunes TV Show compressions but I wouldn’t doubt it. In any case, my only gripe about it is it’s puny size. 320×240px(208 megs) is just too small. Balancing between the file size, the quality of the compression and how it will look on the new iPod video is no easy task. But it looks sooooo tiny on my 20″ and enlarging the video only brings pixelation. No to mention that playing the videos on iTunes feels clumsy. When you double click a video it plays in the tiny little album art corner and when you click on that it comes up in a popup that has no controls for viewing size other than dragging the corner to resize it. No way to go double size or Full Screen [UPDATE: There's a button to go full screen at the bottom left corner next to the Shuffle and Album Art buttons, an unintuitive place for it if you ask me. There's also a preference for going full screen as the default when double clicked.] If u control-click the video you can go half, actual or double. On the other hand, file quality from BitTorrent is unpredictable. Some, like the one I just happen to download are superb ( 624×352px at 347 megs ) while others are just unwatchable. There’s no clear winner here. BitTorrent is till the domain of geeks. I just don’t see my wife going through so many hoops just to watch a TV show. She would rather watch a smaller version through iTunes. Me on the other hand, I live for going full screen on my 20″ Cinema Display :-)

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bittorrent and itunes side by side

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bit torrent (actual size) and itunes (double size)

Restrictions

With Itunes you can buy a TV show and play it in as many as 5 computers, and watch in an unlimited amount of iPods but you can not burn it. A real bummer, since it is something you paid for and own. BitTorrent on the other hand falls into the don’t ask don’t tell category. Bad Karma says Steve. But what if Karma is a hoax? Besides, wouldn’t Honesty be a more compelling reason than Karma?

Conclusion

iTunes TV downloads suffers from the same faults the original Music Store had when it was first released. The quality is not high enough for the more critical people, the catalog is not that big and digital rights management for something you bought is not as fair as the name FarPlay implies. But, it is so easy to use and it is sooo convenient that mass consumers might not mind the trade offs. And neither will I on occasion. 12 minute TV Show downloads for $1.99 is hard to resist.