# iTunes Video Quality and Doctor Who



## ertman (Jan 15, 2008)

I just purchased some Doctor Who from iTunes, I guess it was on sale. The HD version of season 5 seems to be pretty good, despite the low bit rate, but the other seasons (season 1 so far) seem to be lacking in the quality. Although probably not worse than Space Channel.

Apparently the video is in 640x360 which really isn't the problem, it is the compression artifacts. The bit rate for this doesn't explain the quality. I notice that anything round for example is full of jaggies. For the size of the file and bit rate, the quality is poor compared to a rip of a dvd with similar bit rate and overall file size.

I don't know if anyone else has purchased the video from iTunes and has noticed anything similar?


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## Paul82 (Sep 19, 2007)

I've never had any issues, It may be that the quality of the original isn't all that great... I know they didn't film the first couple of seasons in hd.... And obviously none of the early seasons are in hd but that's to be expected given how old they are.


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## ertman (Jan 15, 2008)

sorry I was referring to the 2005-Present Doctor Who, so the first season would be from 2005.


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## monokitty (Jan 26, 2002)

Is the affected season of episodes in HD from iTunes? If so, contact iTunes support and let them know - they'll correct the issue and give you a new set to download; the first season I ever bought from iTunes in HD (a different show) didn't work right off the bat - they corrected the issue, gave me a new set to download which was flawless, plus put iTunes credits into my account. They'll make it right.


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## ertman (Jan 15, 2008)

The HD version looks fine, given the limited bit rate of iTunes, but it was only available for the last season and the current one.

It is the SD version. They play fine. I don't believe there was anything wrong with the download. Maybe I am being picky, but I just don't get how Apple can create video files that look worse than someone ripping a TV show from a DVD, an already compressed media. I am pretty sure they have better masters to work off of then myself. Unfortunately, I can't make a comparison, as I don't own the DVD, which of course would defeat the purpose of the iTunes purchases.

The bit rate is somewhere around 1400-1500, the resolution is 640x360 (not sure why they just don't make anamorphic) and sure this effects quality, but this looks as if they ran some heavy deinterlacing or scaled up the video, or something.

These screen shots do not really do the problem justice.


















They are full size, I just used the screen grab to get them, which seems to have smoothed out some of the jaggies.


Thanks


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## Lawrence (Mar 11, 2003)

I just watch it on Netflix, Works fine on my iPhone 4 and on my Wii.


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## ertman (Jan 15, 2008)

Lawrence said:


> I just watch it on Netflix, Works fine on my iPhone 4 and on my Wii.


I would... if a 700kbps (or worse) connection would be usable on Netflix, and this doesn't really resolve or at least determine the normalcy of this problem.


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## Abby (Aug 19, 2010)

Besides Netflix, there are some other ways Im using, Air video, video converter from iFunia, National Film Board, fine on my iPad and quality is OK.


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## ertman (Jan 15, 2008)

Abby said:


> Besides Netflix, there are some other ways Im using, Air video, video converter from iFunia, National Film Board, fine on my iPad and quality is OK.


Sorry this thread is not about iPads, its about video from iTunes.


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## Guest (May 31, 2011)

Do you still see all the jaggies and compression artifacts when you display the video at native size? (640x360) It sounds like they are there in the original, but also when enlarging them to full screen it's emphasizing the issues. If you can see a lot of artifacts at the source size I would complain to Apple, that's probably about your only recourse.

I gave up buying video from them a while back, I probably had issues with about 40% of the video I purchased from them, and also I hate iTunes/front row as a playback engine and their videos are locked to it. I usually wait until one of the big box stores has the TV series I want on sale on DVD or Blu-ray now. In the case of DVD ones I rip them all right away (I usually don't even watch the DVDs directly!)


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## ertman (Jan 15, 2008)

mguertin said:


> Do you still see all the jaggies and compression artifacts when you display the video at native size? (640x360) It sounds like they are there in the original, but also when enlarging them to full screen it's emphasizing the issues. If you can see a lot of artifacts at the source size I would complain to Apple, that's probably about your only recourse.
> 
> I gave up buying video from them a while back, I probably had issues with about 40% of the video I purchased from them, and also I hate iTunes/front row as a playback engine and their videos are locked to it. I usually wait until one of the big box stores has the TV series I want on sale on DVD or Blu-ray now. In the case of DVD ones I rip them all right away (I usually don't even watch the DVDs directly!)



Its nice to know I am not the only one who is experiencing this issue. The shows in question were on sale, and one of the reasons why I bought them. I would by them on DVD, but $60 on sale, and $90-100 not on sale for 13 episodes seems a bit much and out of my price range. While I did get them from Apple super cheap (on sale), I feel kind of ripped off because of the poor production value. I also have been ripping my DVD shows as I like the long term convenience, and I am disappointed with the quality difference between Apple and myself.

The issues appear at native video size (640x360) also, at least on my macbook (pixel density). I don't believe the issues are necessarily with the resolution, I can rip a DVD to the same size and produce better results with the same or smaller file size and bit rate. I believe it is poor mastering of the digital file on Apple's part. I was also looking into what can be done, and I probably will send a complaint into Apple about it, and possibly not purchase any future video content from them. But it is good to hear its not just the content I purchased.


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## chas_m (Dec 2, 2007)

Not that I think this has anything to do with the video quality from iTunes, BUT for the record the first four series in the 2005-based show were shot in PAL widescreen standard definition. Starting with the "gap year," aka 2009 aka David Tennant's last year in the series where they only made four longer-length "specials," the show was filmed in HD and has been ever since.

Again for the record, the original BBC broadcasts of those first four series were at 720x576, and it sounds like iTunes is moving that down to 640x360.

The current show is broadcast in 1080i, ie 1920x1080.

If the video quality is poor, BY ALL MEANS complain to iTunes about it. This will encourage them to re-encode the episodes, and you may get better copies and/or download credits for your time. You should not be seeing any problems with any recent (2009 onwards) episodes.


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## ertman (Jan 15, 2008)

chas_m said:


> If the video quality is poor, BY ALL MEANS complain to iTunes about it. This will encourage them to re-encode the episodes, and you may get better copies and/or download credits for your time. You should not be seeing any problems with any recent (2009 onwards) episodes.


Thanks Chasm, I was expecting you to ring in on this.

I still don't think it is the source material, I think it was just very poor mastering on Apple's part. It wasn't even a resolution problem either has the second series was of better quality, but still had more digital errors that was unrelated to the bit rate or resolution. i am no expert but after playing around with ripping dvd's I can notice that some problems are just from poor transfers.

I did end up complaining, and the only thing they could do was reverse the purchases, and would not allow me to just re-download the shows if they were to be fixed. Because they had no idea if the quality issue would ever be fixed they couldn't tell me when it could be fixed. This sucks a little bit because if they do fix it, I will have to pay significantly more to purchase it again, as they had a sale price. 

If they get the quality from series 5 (SD) that would be good enough. I bought the HD, but was reviewing the SD quality too.


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