Look for yourself! Plus Law and Order, the Tonight Show, Monk, Conan, and a whole bunch of other stuff!
I’m going to go buy myself a video freaking iPod! Go Apple!
What’s the video quality like on these things? If I’ve got iTunes on my home PC, can I watch BSG full screen on my 21" monitor, or is it going to look like crap, the way a lot of the trailers do when you play them full screen?
I would estimate the quality to be approximately as good as an average cable TV connection. Not great, but certainly tolerable, especially for shows where the special effects don’t really matter.
IIRC, the shows on iTunes are 320 x 240, the native resolution of the iPod. The shows can only be played on an iPod or a computer, not burned to DVD. If they were full resolution and I could burn them to disc, then I would be all over this, as it is, I’ll pass.
Apple sells a $30 cable that converts the iPod video to composite video. We’ve been watching the first season of Desperate Housewives, downloaded on iTunes to my iPod, and connected to our 42" plasma. Looks better than analog cable, and about as good as digital cable, but not as good as a DVD. Should look fine on your 21" TV.
You can, technically burn these to a DVD if you have a standalone DVD recorder that accepts composite input, just like you would burn the broadcast to DVD, or in the old days, record it to VHS.
I downloaded an episode of Lost last week, and it was perfectly watchable at full-screen on my laptop: a little fuzzy around the edges, but it was mostly noticeable during the credits. The rest of the time it didn’t really annoy me, and I’m easily annoyed by poor resolution. On the iPod, of course, it looks awesome – better than cable TV.
Absolute, thanks for this thread! I hadn’t checked out the TV shows in the music store in a while, but now I might just have to download the two-part premiere of Knight Rider and the premiere of Adam-12. Oh, and some Alfred Hitchcock Presents! 