Upgrading Purchased iTunes movies to 1080p

Question

Level 1

11 points

Upgrading Purchased iTunes movies to 1080p

I've purchased about 100 movies on iTunes over the years, and I am now trying to figure out how to delete those old 720p movie purchases and re-download the 1080p version.

I've tried and failed doing so with a half dozen movies so far. I know that not all movies on the iTunes Store support re-downloading the upgraded version of the movie because not all movies studios have signed-off on 'movies in the cloud', and that might be my problem.

Let's take the movie 'The Incredibles' as an example... A year or two ago, I purchased this movie on the iTunes store (it's a 'Protected MPEG-4 video file') and the version on my computer is 1.6GB (853x354 res). Obviously a lower than HD version. The 1080p version is offered for sale on the iTunes store and it says that it's a 3.25GB file.

So I delete the non-HD legacy download off my machine, then visit the 'Purchased Movies' section of the iTunes store, and try re-downloading the updated file, and it simply starts downloading a 1.6GB version of the movie, not the HD copy.

I've made sure my iTunes' Preferences are configured so 'When downloading High-Definition videos, prefer 1080p" is set, but it's still downloading the smaller version of the movie.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated... Thanks!

Posted on Mar 17, 2012 3:33 PM

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Answer 1

Revearti

Level 1

5 points

Jun 2, 2012 12:18 PM in response to m021478

After clicking Purchased then Movies, did you check the box "Download HD When Available" located in the bottom-right of iTunes?

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Answer 2

Jun 25, 2012 10:58 PM in response to m021478

Sorry if i'm responding late, but I wanted to tell you just in case you didn't get a true anwer. you CAN NOT UPGRADE TO HD. When you purchased your movie back in the day, you get to keep it, however, due to MPAA rights, you will have to REPURCHASE your film in HD. Your purchase does NOT get upraded automatically at no time.

Same with TV shows.

So when you downloaded your film, it only downloads the SD film, because you didn't purchase the HD film, even if that particular film wasn't available in HD yet. So if you want the film in HD, you'll have to purchase it again.

I hope Apple finds a way to fix this, however, it's not up to them, but the MPAA and the movie companies that distribute the film.

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Answer 3

Apr 7, 2013 5:44 PM in response to m021478

I can understand not automatically upgrading SD movies to HD movies for free. Personally, I was hoping they could come up with a way to upgrade movies originally bought in SD--especially before HD movies became an option--to HD for a pro-rated price, just like in the past when you could upgrade iTunes music to the iTunes Plus non-DRM format before it became the standard. I mean, when you buy an HD movie, you also get the SD version included. So why not pro-rate the HD purchase if you've already bought the SD version?

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Answer 4

May 11, 2013 12:04 PM in response to bemanidog

I agree! I would love a pro-rated price.

Or when you think about it, music gets a similar deal already if you pay for iTunes Match. All music that gets matched can be upgraded to 256 kbps. At least do that for movies too.

I would like to see what Apple does about this and see if they can work a deal out to allow at least a pro-rated price.

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Answer 5

Aug 9, 2014 6:28 AM in response to lisdavid89

Yes, this does not make sense about the MPAA. If you buy the SD, then you have to also later pay full price for the new HD if you want the upgrade. However, if you buy the HD, you can download either the HD (ie, for TV watching) OR the SD (ie, for iPad to save space). So if they are different films per the MPAA, you shouldn't be able to do this. Hope Apple fixes it. They would make a ton of $$$ from people like us who are willing to upgrade.

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Answer 6

Jmacosky

Level 1

0 points

Sep 2, 2015 12:16 PM in response to m021478

I think Apple should come up with a way to upgrade to the latest version of the film. I also understand that it shouldn't be automatic, but even paying an upgrade fee would be better than repurchasing the entire movie a second time. I have only done it once, and am holding off on certain ones till I absolutely can't wait anymore!

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE APPLE LET US UPGRADE!!!!

I have also sent in an email to Apple about this with NO response!

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Answer 7

Jan 21, 2016 4:37 PM in response to Jmacosky

Star Trek (2009) BluRay shipped with an SD digital copy (UGH!) If I upgrade this movie to HD by paying for it or using another code, etc. will it appear twice in my movie library (one for SD one for HD) or will it actually consolidate/upgrade properly? Anyone know?

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