Star Trek Into Darkness on iTunes out today (1 Viewer)

[JWPlatt]

I have personally contacted the studio. The person at the top
should be aware of the situation.

I may get a reply. They are good people at Paramount. However,
not certain what I will be able to post and what I will not.

My goal was to make certain that Paramount is aware of the anger
from consumers on Internet forums like these. It may help stop this
kind of practice moving forward. Then again, it may have been
completely out of the studio's hands and a decision made by Bad Robot.

So much we don't know about this situation at this point.

....but the message has been delivered.

Was there ever a response from Paramount? I guessing "No" and that they are only accountable to the investors and shareholders.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Was there ever a response from Paramount? I guessing "No"

There was a response. It was basically that they are aware of the
opinions being expressed on this forum.

I never expect an explanation beyond that.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

It's an iTunes Extra. iTunes Extras don't play on iDevices.

So I'm not sure if this is common knowledge, but it turns out there is a way to kinda trick your iDevices into playing iTunes extras. Here's what you do (and it will only work if you're trying it on the computer that's registered to play that digital copy, as the copy protection remains intact) - I don't think this could be considered violating any copyright or usage laws since it only works on stuff that your computer is licensed to play in the first place. (i.e. I couldn't take my download, put it on a friend's computer, and have it work). I'm also not sure if this will work on a PC, I've only tried it on my Mac.

1. Locate the folder in your hard drive where the iTunes extra download is located. (It's usually in the iTunes Music Folder, subfolder Movies)
2. For a movie with iTunes Extras, there should be two different files - one for the movie itself, and one for the extras. The one with the extras should end with a ".ite" extension. For instance, the Star Trek Into Darkness file is called "Star Trek Into Darkness - iTunes Extras.ite"
3. Change the extension from ".ite" to ".zip" - this will allow your computer to actually recognize that it's a folder containing multiple items, and will allow you to browse it.
4. Open that folder, and you should see a bunch of items. The videos may be in there; they may be in a different subfolder. For STID, there's a "Videos" subfolder. Within that folder is an item called "enhanced_commentary.m4v" which is the commentary. Take that item, and manually drag it into your iTunes to import it.
5. Once the file is imported to iTunes, it can then be transferred to your iDevice like any other piece of movie in your library. It will also stream to an AppleTV this way. (It's a huge file, about 5 gigs, so make sure you've got the hard drive space to basically hold a second copy of it.)

By doing this, I was able to watch it on my TV via the AppleTV instead of on a computer monitor, and I was also able to put it on my iPhone for on-the-go listening. A little bit of a pain, but all in all it took about ten minutes - well worth it to not watch a three hour commentary hunched over my computer.

 

[Nelson Au]

Thanks for that very useful tip! I still have not downloaded the extras yet from iTunes and I paid for it. I think partly because I wasn't thrilled that I had to watch the commentary extra on the Mac. So it's definitely something I'd like to try on my iPad or iPhone.

 

[Tino]

Also if you have a Mac and Apple TV, you can stream it directly to your tv in high def. that was one of the main reasons I bought a MAC.

 

[Wayne_j]

You can stream it from a PC or a Mac to an Apple TV. I don't have a Mac and I stream extras to my Apple TV all the time.

 

[JWPlatt]

I lost interest after step 1. I have every Star Trek series, every movie - in multiple incarnations - in my collection. Star Trek Into Darkness is the first Star Trek title I have not purchased. And I won't purchase it until all the extras, especially the commentary, are in one disk case so that I don't have to go past Step 1.

 

[Tino]

You can stream it from a PC or a Mac to an Apple TV. I don't have a Mac and I stream extras to my Apple TV all the time.

I guess it depends on the PC you have. I have an older Dell and I couldn't get it to work.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I think it actually may be dependent on the Apple TV as well as the Mac/PC you're using… First generation AppleTV can play iTunes extras without any of the pain in the rear steps I mentioned above, but they took that functionality away from the later versions of AppleTV. I think the newest macs can beam their screens directly to an AppleTV, but if you've got like a 2009 or 2010 or older machine, you may not be able to do it.

I usually love Apple stuff, but the iTunes/AppleTV/movie thing is one area where I've been so disappointed - their whole schtick is that you don't need to be a tech genius, you just plug it in and it works everywhere, and yet, iTunes Extras don't work on more devices than they do. Seems a glaring omission.

(And don't even get me started on how long it would hypothetically take to make an IMAX-ratio version of the movie out of the "enhanced commentary" while ditching the commentary and enhancements… cause, like, if someone was crazy enough to do such a thing and I couldn't imagine anyone not named me who would, it would take a long long time..)