iTunes: "Not Available on DVD" Selection
 

After the Warner Archive collection and now the Universal Vault line sparked questions of when we can expect digital-only sales of catalog titles comes today's addition to the iTunes store: "Not Available on DVD" movies. I thought A Bronx Tale was part of the Universal Vault line, so perhaps this is a sign of titles that might make their way to a tangible release that way.

$9.99 to Purchase/$2.99 to Rent
* not available to rent, ** not available to purchase

Airport
Airport 1975
Airport '77
And You Thought Your Parents Were Weird!
The Bedford Incident *
A Bronx Tale
The Concorde: Airport '79
Cool as Ice
The Count of Monte Cristo (1975) *
Crackers
Don't Raise the Bridge, Lower the River *
Dragnet (1954)
Duck Soup
Eddie Macon's Run
Firestarter **
Harry & Son
Lord Jim *
The Man in the Iron Mask (1977) *
Mars Needs Women
Monty Python: Live at the Hollywood Bowl
Nutcracker: The Motion Picture
Sahara (1943) *
Saturn 3 *
Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll (also available to rent in HD for $3.99)
Shampoo *
The Solid Gold Cadillac *

$14.99 to Purchase (not available to rent)
Bless the Beasts & Children
Bonjour Tristesse
Circus (2000)
Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round
Die! Die! My Darling!
The Flower of My Secret
Happy New Year
Harry and Walter Go to New York
Oklahoma Crude
Sunshine State

Re: iTunes: "Not Available on DVD" Selection
 

Airport movies are widely available on DVD in a 4-film pack. Only $17.50 on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Airport-Termin...4562567&sr=1-1

Airport, Airport 75 and Airport 77 are also available separately but they are OOP and cost a varying about. Airport 79 does seem to be only available in the boxset but the fact remains it is available on a pressed DVD.

Re: iTunes: "Not Available on DVD" Selection
 

The Airport films are still available on DVD via the Airport Terminal Pack.

Shampoo originally had a DVD release, don't know why it went OOP.

Re: iTunes: "Not Available on DVD" Selection
 

Well, then, I would suggest that anyone who might be interested in the Airport features go ahead and pull the trigger on that box set. This might be a sign that Universal doesn't intend to keep it in print.

Re: iTunes: "Not Available on DVD" Selection
 

Duck Soup and Firestarter are on DVD as well.

This isn't new. I think it was gone from iTunes for a while, but I had rented Cool as Ice back in November through this.

Re: iTunes: "Not Available on DVD" Selection
 

Along the same lines, Netflix streams certain things that aren't on DVD yet. Amazing Stories Season 2 comes to mind.

Re: iTunes: "Not Available on DVD" Selection
 

Monty Python at the Hollywood Bowl is part of the Monty Python Live! set.
Sahara (1943) is on DVD from Columbia.

Re: iTunes: "Not Available on DVD" Selection
 

I have noticed some seasons of cartoon series on iTunes not available on DVD.

Re: iTunes: "Not Available on DVD" Selection
 

I got the Airport terminal pack for :D2:FREE:D2: a couple of years ago, thanks to a car dealer that was giving away Wal-Mart cards for looking at their cars.:lol:

Re: iTunes: "Not Available on DVD" Selection
 

I was hoping that Airport would make it to Blu-ray.

Re: iTunes: "Not Available on DVD" Selection
 

I saw that iTunes has Death Wish II, III and (I think) IV listed as being in widescreen, but I haven't been able to verify if that's correct or not. The current DVDs are full-frame only.

Re: iTunes: "Not Available on DVD" Selection
 

There's quite a few movies on iTunes that are in widescreen that are not in widescreen on DVD. Like: Homeward Bound I & II and Pokemon the Movie 3. Those are 3 that come to mind.

Re: iTunes: "Not Available on DVD" Selection
 

This is interesting. I think I'd prefer buying a movie from iTunes than from any company DVD-R program.

It would feel slightly more 'permanent' to me, as you can always re-download purchased iTunes content, right?

Re: iTunes: "Not Available on DVD" Selection
 

I'm the opposite, I'd rather have the physical disc. Even if you can re-download (which I'm not actually sure you can do), iTunes could go out of business (I know, unlikely anytime soon) or they could stop selling that movie (much more likely)

Re: iTunes: "Not Available on DVD" Selection
 

No; they are one-time only downloads. You can back them up on DVD-R's (movie files are obviously too large for CD-R's) and restore them later from those if need be. People whose libraries have been completely messed up for one unpredictable reason or another have had some success getting Apple to authorize a "one-time only" full restoration of their purchases, but it's not something that Apple advertises or is obligated to offer.

Re: iTunes: "Not Available on DVD" Selection
 

But my point was that with iTunes content, you have as many physical discs as you care to make, PLUS the apparently YMMV piece of mind that you could possibly re-download it someday.

Re: iTunes: "Not Available on DVD" Selection
 

Once you've downloaded the file, it doesn't matter if Apple goes out of business. You're paying to own the download, not to have access to it. And, yes, titles are removed from the iTunes store periodically just as they are with tangible releases. Frankly, I'm really considering buying an AppleTV and downloading some of these unavailable-on-disc titles. It's really no different from using TiVo, since I'd be watching a digital recording on my own TV at my discretion. I don't care how lame it is, I can guarantee you right now that if I do that, the first title I'd buy is Cool as Ice.

Re: iTunes: "Not Available on DVD" Selection
 

The new iPad makes the idea of downloading 'not on DVD' movies—as well as movies in general—much more appealing, at least on the 64GB version. There's a lot of stuff on that list I'd be happy to rent, not own, and likewise happy to watch on a smaller, but not too small, portable screen like that (watching at my desk or on my Touch don't cut it). I do hope, in time, that they'll lower the price to own "catalog" movies to around the $5 most people seem comfortable paying now for DVDs.

That list of movies will only grow in time, let's face it. It'll probably give the Warner Archives a run for their money as well, as more people move away from physical media thanks to the new devices.

Re: iTunes: "Not Available on DVD" Selection
 

I don't know why I didn't catch this the first time I read this, but just to be clear, you can't burn a playable disc from your iTunes downloads. You can burn it as a data disc for archival purposes all you want, but you can't pop that disc into a DVD player and have it actually play the content the way you can do with an .mp3 disc.

Re: iTunes: "Not Available on DVD" Selection
 

But it would play thru iTunes.

Plus I guess one could convert it if you played that way.

Re: iTunes: "Not Available on DVD" Selection
 

Too much trouble- I'll just watch my "Cool As Ice" laserdisc.

Re: iTunes: "Not Available on DVD" Selection
 

Not really when you consider that the screen is 4x3.

Re: iTunes: "Not Available on DVD" Selection
 

Has anyone here ever hooked there iPod/iPhone up to their TV? How does it look? I was thinking about buying the cable but wanted to make sure it looked ok before I spent the money.

Re: iTunes: "Not Available on DVD" Selection
 

Is it even possible to hook up the iPod/iPhone to the TV? I know you can do it with the Macbook

Re: iTunes: "Not Available on DVD" Selection
 

Yes it is. Apple has the cables.... http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB...co=MTM3NTA1Njc or http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB...co=MTA4MjUwMzk

Re: iTunes: "Not Available on DVD" Selection
 

I have. Some of the content looks pretty good on a 36 inch TV. Some not so good. Not surprising considering that many content providers are not encoding for this.

Re: iTunes: "Not Available on DVD" Selection
 

Doesn't iTunes put DRM on the videos? In that case, you don't own anything, and if Apple were to go out of business, or just decide that videos aren't worth it and shut down their DRM server, then you're screwed the next time you get a new computer.

Re: iTunes: "Not Available on DVD" Selection
 

I've been meaning to start a thread about the oop titles avaiable on Netflix streaming but I'm too lazy (but there's tons, everything from The Swimmer to Fat City to 1984, Legend Of Billie Jean, and even some of the new dvd-r stuff like I Ought To Be In Pictures).

Anyway, Netflix is streaming only. It's great to see some rarities available to purchase and keep. Now I won't have to over pay for oop dvds anymore.

Re: iTunes: "Not Available on DVD" Selection
 

Shampoo is not oop. It's available on a multi-feature disc, just like Airport.

Re: iTunes: "Not Available on DVD" Selection
 

There has gotta be some way to break that? But what about QuickTime? Does that care about the DRM? Like you said. I do know that iTunes makes you put in your password every time you switch your bought media to a new computer (allows up to 5 times I think). But I don't remember QuickTime ever asking for a password. And I'm sure there are other 3rd party MPEG4 players out there that wont care about Apples DRM. I have all my bought MPEG4 files backed up on DVD-Rs. So I'm going to have to do some testing.

Ok, to answer my question above... Yes, QuickTime does ask you to register your MPEG4 files just like in iTunes. I'll have to see if there are any 3rd party players that will bypass all that and play the files on any computer. Otherwise i agree that iTunes MPEG4 files are not worth it because you are only "maybe" owning them forever. If Apple were to go under or (more likely) if they change format or replace their DRM program with something else then you would loose the ability to play your files once you got a new computer. But who knows if some of the titles available on iTunes and not on DVD will ever see DVD/Blu/whatever? So if it's something you really want and its not too overly priced maybe It's still worth it? Just don't expect to be able to play that file forever.

This is my major concern with media going downloading or streaming. We will run into the same problem. You will only own your media for as long as the company you bought it from allows you to. If they go under or change their media format then you loose everything. Psychical media is the only media that works for collectors or for anyone who cares about owning their media for as long as they want to own it.

Re: iTunes: "Not Available on DVD" Selection
 

It's not a question of a player 'not caring' about the DRM, it's that the DRM is encrypted in the file, meaning a player needs to know how to 'decode' the DRM to play the file.

Re: iTunes: "Not Available on DVD" Selection
 

Okay, let me ask this. I download a movie. I never update or connect to the iTunes store again. What difference does it make to my being able to play the movie with the version of iTunes I used to download the file whether there even is an iTunes store?

Re: iTunes: "Not Available on DVD" Selection
 

Every time you switch your MPEG4 movie files (and anything else bought off iTunes) to a new computer it will make you log on to/enter your iTunes store ID & password. The problem will come when someday iTunes switches file formats, goes from DRM to something else, or just goes out of business all together. So as long as you have the same computer for the rest of your life will be ok, otherwise do not plan on having that file working forever.