TV Shows from the iTunes Music Store

Since we have a TV set and a cable subscription, purchasing TV shows from the iTunes Music Store has never appealed much. It didn't help that the episodes are sold in a small 320x240 pixel resolution. However, our neighborhood lost power for over an hour on Wednesday, Feb. 8 -- when a new episode of "Lost" aired. Even a TiVo can't record if it doesn't have power.

So the next day I purchased the episode (gift certificates are useful) from the iTunes Music Store (the name of which is increasingly inaccurate) and we watched it on our TV. The main point of this post is to note that the quality was shockingly not awful. Apple obviously has a good codec on their hands in H.264, as scaling the image up to full-screen showed little loss in quality. Neither of us could see a difference from the broadcast version.

The lack of commercials, teasers, and network watermark were actually quite refreshing. It also meant that we heard the closing credits 'music' for the first time.

The process wasn't entirely painless, however. For one, I used QuickTime Player instead of iTunes, as the latter is a very poor video player compared to the former. Second, I hooked up my iBook to our TV's RCA jacks. My original iBook required only one $19 adapter to do this. My new G4 iBook required three separate cables/adapters to accomplish the same feat. Finally, you aren't allowed to burn the episode to a DVD. Presumably this is to prevent piracy. If so, why not allow only one burn per episode in the same way iTunes only allows a limited amount of burns of purchased music (using a specific playlist).

Oh, and most importantly, the episode –– "The Long Con" –– was a good one.