1080p download and playback bugs in iTunes 10.6 for Windows

Does Apple themselves read these help forums? Cause honestly this needs to be fixed. My computer IS capable of playing 1080HD, so there is no reason iTunes should be telling me it can't. Especially when I tell it "Ok" and it goes ahead and tries anyway and it plays just fine. In fact, I can be sure that's what it's doing because my LAST computer was NOT capable, and when I tried to say "OK" it would not play the video...

I have the same problem. I am running Windows 7 64-bit on:

- Intel i7-3770 (8-core 3.4 GHz)

- 16 GB of DDR3 RAM

- Intel H61-based motherboard

- Graphics card is an ATI Radeon HD6870 with 2 GB DDR5 RAM, connected to a 22" 1080p monitor

- The hard drive is a 3 TB SATA 3 Seagate drive.

These specs exceed my previous computer, a late 2009 21.5" iMac.

Cyberlink's BD&3D Advisor confirms that everything is OK for Blu-ray playback, including HDCP compliance.

I can play Blu-ray movies just fine.

iTunes complains that my 1080p movies purchased from iTunes are too large, but if I dismiss the error by clicking OK, the movies play without problem.

If you check you'll find that it's only playing in 720P. After it gives you the error message it defaults to 720p.

Sorry, but that is not correct. It doesn't force playback in 720p. The popup error message has three choices: PLAY SMALLER VERSION / OK / CANCEL. If I choose OK it plays the selected movie file. In any case, I haven't downloaded 720p versions of all HD movies I have purchased.

Right, most of my shows I've deleted the 720p version and only have the 1080 so its impossible for it to play the smaller version of 720 and I'd know if it was playing SD. In fact, in the case of newly purchased shows in which I have not yet finished downloading the SD version, I get only the options of "Ok" and "Cancel"

It is purely a case of the iTunes program either misdetecting or else it's just popping up no matter what. Either way, I really wish they'd fix it.

Just wanted to say that I also have this problem. I don't have anything except the 1080p version on my PC (despite iTunes being very determined to download the SD versions), and hence I see no "play smaller version" button. Clicking okay plays the video so it must be 1080p. Everything else is the same, though, including the message when selecting 1080p as the preferred download type.

I think the problem is a little more extensive as I had real trouble downloading anything but the SD version in the first place. When selecting "check for available downloads" only the SD versions would appear. On my old PC (which was 720p max), it would download the 720p and SD versions simultaneously (as Peter Lee noted). Personally, I would prefer it not to automatically download multiple versions, since I never want SD; that's a different issue, though, and the 1080/720 inconsistency in this respect is still annoying.

I had to go to the store, click on the "purchased" link on the right, select my TV show and then "download all". This worked and gave me the 1080p version.

Well, it used to automatically download the HD and the SD version, but then they changed it to only download the HD version, you now have to manually download the SD version if you want it. I personally like the SD version also cause I sometimes put tv shows on my itouch and so it saves space. If I am watching on my 1080 HDTV then i want the HD version.

Does Apple read these, or are these totally 100% user help community?

I agree with you 100%, Feeling left out here.. yet for some reason I still buy these **** movies from Apple which only play on Apple devices or software. APPLE where are you???? Can someone at least acknowledge there is a problem here?

Yeah, I actually like iTunes because I like iPods and that the movies/shows work on PC or Mac, but I do agree it's kinda annoying for cross and future compatibility.

Adding my specs for same issue ( OK or CANCEL options only - 1080p files only and DOES play the video at 1080p after selecting OK ) - unfortunately I have noticed over the years that Apple software programming quallity is getting worse and worse with more bugs - probably because they are trying to add too many features?

My laptop is certainly over the required spec as it is the ASUS G55VW gaming laptop with 1920x1080 display, intel i7 - Windows 7 x64 - Nvidia Geforce GTX M 2GB with Blu-ray and of course full 1080p gaming.

So to me it is yet another little annoying apple software bug that they seem too arrogant or cheap to post replies or comments on their OWN site to admit it is an issue and let us know that they are looking at it.

Personally, I own several apple products but prefer a windows PC due to work programs and gaming. I also actually like windows 7 (unlike the terrible vista). Yes I have used the latest OSX and I also like that just prefer Windows (mostly because I know it better I think).

I also like iTunes as I got used to using it to organise (consolidate) my music files and of course copy them onto my iPod (connected to my car stereo).

iTunes is CPU heavy. You need a faster CPU. WMPC is easyer on the CPU. AMD processors are better than Intel's. Software will run on both unless it is made to be incompatable. I'm very surprised that windows media player classic will play them. Doesn't DRM protection prevent it? Normaly only QuickTime will play them correctly in 1080P.

After having downloaded the new iTunes version 10.7, I find it fantastic that this problem is still there.

Apparently Apple doesn't know anything about it, or are just ignoring it.

Sad... I mean one would HOPE they can't figure out how to fix it, but considering I've asked them about it and their tech support only tells me how wonderful 720 is and how wonderful 1080 is and how some computers can't handle 1080 and if you computer cant handle 1080 then check the option and download 720 instead.

I'm curious... can anyone actually say they DONT have this problem? I would guess maybe if you had resolution HIGHER than the 1920x1080 maybe? But don't think that's possible yet, is it?

I do not have this problem when playing 1080p movies on my old late 2009 21.5" iMac with Windows 7 installed.

Here are the specs of my old iMac, which plays 1080p movies without complaints, and my new PC, which also plays but with the error message about the movie being too large first:

iMac:

- 3.06 GHz Intel "Core 2 Duo" dual-core processor

- 16 GB of PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM (upgraded from the original 4 GB)

- 2 TB SATA 3Gb/s 7200 rpm hard drive (upgraded from the original 500 GB)

- NVIDIA GeForce 9400M with 256 MB of shared memory

New PC:

- 3.4 GHz Intel i7-3770 quad-core processor

- 16 GB of PC3-10600 DDR3 SDRAM

- 3 TB SATA 6Gb/s 7200 rpm hard drive

- XFX AMD Radeon HD6870 with 2 GB of dedicated GDDR5 memory

My new PC exceeds the iMac widely on all points. I am suspecting that iTunes for some reason is detecting the integrated HD 4000 graphics of the i7 processor and considers this too weak to play 1080p movies, even though I have configured it to remain inactive if an extra graphics card is installed.

I am waiting to see if the bug still remains in iTunes 11 which is due next month according to the announcement yesterday.

By George, I think you might be on to something with that integrated graphics idea! When I restart my computer my HDTV switches to 1366.x768 until Windows kicks back in and turns on my Nvidia video card. So, you very well might be right in that iTunes is detecting the base motherboard's video card which would NOT be able to play 1920x1080 and not the Nvidia one properly. As for why the Mac worked, well even running Windows, it's STILL a Mac and iTunes is better able to dectect it's hardware.

So, yeah hopefully with Windows 11 we'll get a fix to this. Let's keep our fingers crossed!