Big Banana TV Comes To iTunes And AppleTV.

iTunes has the wrong name. By adding TV shows and movies and music videos, Apple’s iTunes Store is misnamed.

The same goes for another online movie store-- Big Banana TV-- movies for iTunes and AppleTV. Big Banana TV sells movies for your TV (and your Mac or Windows PC using iTunes).

Apple’s iTunes Store has hundreds and hundreds of movies from big name movie studios, with big name stars, with big name movie titles. Big Banana has, well, a couple of dozen movies priced at $5.00 or less.

What does the smaller price tag get you? Smaller quality movies. For example, one of the featured Big Banana TV movies is Hercules. Pirates of the Caribbean, it’s not.

If you were the last person on earth would you be interested in watching the Last Woman on Earth for $3.99? I didn’t think so.

Big Banana TV has movies available by theme category. For example, in the Kids and Family section you can download Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, circa 1964.

99-cents will get you a Superman cartoon to download to iTunes. The original George Romero Night of the Living Dead is available for just $3.99.

I know what you’re thinking but I’ll say it anyway? Does anyone really care? Yes, because Big Banana TV is doing something to benefit iTunes and AppleTV users-- movies are available for download in the MPEG-4 file format.

Just as MPEG-2 became the defacto standard for movies on DVD, MPEG-4 is becoming a higher quality standard for online movie and TV show sales.

Big Banana TV has only a few dozen titles and doesn’t stand to make much money or much competition for Apple’s iTunes Store, but it does tell us of the trend taking place online.

Just as AAC has become the dominant standard for music from online stores, MPEG-4-- the format of choice for movies in iTunes and AppleTV-- is set to become the dominant standard for video from online stores.

All of this wonderful standardization begs the question, “Are you downloading movies for iTunes?” If so, where do you purchase the movies? Do you plan to add an AppleTV to your living room?

Share your experience and future plans in the Comment section below.

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