iTunes movies 2 hour downloads for DSL users

Stan Beer
Wednesday, 13 September 2006 22:29

Opinion and Analysis

According to Apple CEO Steve Jobs, consumers with a 5 Mbps broadband connection will be able to download iTunes movies in 30 minutes and start watching after 1 minute. Unfortunately for most US (and Australian) internet users, 5 Mbps is a pipe dream. A quick check of the Verizon site will reveal that somewhere between 768 kbps and 3 Mbps is what's on offer, depending on what you want to pay.

• Announcements

Thus, in the US at least, if you're lucky enough to have, say, a 1.5 Mbps DSL connection, an iTunes movie download will take 100 minutes based on the Jobs figure. If, however, you're on Verizon's cheaper broadband plan which gives you 768 Kbps, you can make that about 200 minutes.

Now I know there are cable internet users out there who do get broadband speeds of 5 Mbps and higher. However, I hear tell that they're in the minority. So, assuming most budget conscious internet users are stuck with 2 hour downloads, that's quite OK if you can start watching the movie on your Mac or PC after about five minutes.

What happens though if you want to get a movie onto your laptop to take with you on a flight?

Well I suppose you could plan ahead and download it a few hours before you leave. Then again, you could always drop by the video store for a minute and pick up a DVD on your way to the airport. Then if you like the movie, you could watch it again with your family on the TV when you get back home.