It was not just iOS device users getting the 3rd generation iPad and Apple TV last month. Apple also released iTunes 10.6 the same day with iPad event and bring in 1080p contents to iTunes Store. The renewed iTunes store now offers HD content in both 720p and 1080p. Reviews pointed out that iTunes 1080p video looks better, saves space using better H.264 compression. Now the question is, does iTunes 1080p downloads presents crystal clear quality as Blu-ray Disc movies do? The good folks at Ars Technica tested out the film 30 Days of Night, and come to the conclusion that “while iTunes isn’t going to topple Blu-ray for quality, downloading a couple of films or TV shows from Apple’s 1080p-ified Store will still be more than satisfactory in terms of quality” (1080p video smackdown: iTunes vs. Blu-ray).
If you’re more into video quality, an advice here for you is to rip the Blu-rays by yourself, and encode movies at higher bitrate. And better still the rip is DRM-free and can be transferred to an Android tablet like Asus Transformer Prime and Galaxy Tab 10.1. (Read more for how to rip Blu-rays to Full HD 1080p MP4 files that play even sharper than the iTunes 1080p downloads. )
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