[Macworld]

Post your comments for 1,000 rentals? iTunes finally makes it here

[ATX]

If you look carefully, there's a lot of short films included. Short films are not movies. But 1000 rentals without "movie" term is about right. Jeez! I hate all these spinning.

[Grapho]

Cool, I just picked up an Apple TV and a 47" 1080p LCD HD TV.

[ibeetle]

ATX said:

If you look carefully, there's a lot of short films included. Short films are not movies. But 1000 rentals without "movie" term is about right. Jeez! I hate all these spinning.

A short film is a movie. How long does a strip of celluloid have to be to constitute a movie?
The Tramp is only 30 minutes, Lady and the Tramp 75 minutes, and Luxo Jr. is only 2 minutes. All pretty short films and yet some of the most influential films ever made.
On the other hand, Napoleon is 5 hours long and Empire is 6 hours long.
So a films length has nothing to do with what it is considered, or if it is good or bad. A movie is as long as its makers think it needs to be.

[joshuawait]

I was sick as a dog for about a week and being able to download movie rentals to my AppleTV was a real life saver.

[natmusak]

well said, ibeetle.

[ATX]

ibeetle said:

A short film is a movie. How long does a strip of celluloid have to be to constitute a movie?
The Tramp is only 30 minutes, Lady and the Tramp 75 minutes, and Luxo Jr. is only 2 minutes. All pretty short films and yet some of the most influential films ever made.
On the other hand, Napoleon is 5 hours long and Empire is 6 hours long.
So a films length has nothing to do with what it is considered, or if it is good or bad. A movie is as long as its makers think it needs to be.

If a short film is a movie, then why doesn't everyone call it a movie instead of a short film? And since when did I mention about film's time length? Then again, are you willing to pay a full movie ticket price for just a 2-minute Luxo Jr. or 30-minute whatever short film alone? Maybe if you're a hardcore film whatever. No moviegoer will pay a full movie ticket price for a short film. If you want to talk about terminology, many short films nowadays (movies even) are shot digitally. There's no film involved. Call it short dilm or whatever instead of film. As what constitutes a movie, go ask the average moviegoer on this. I guess their minimum is at least an hour or longer. The movie can run for 24 hours for all I care. Well, that will be a Jack Bauer's movie.

It's "cheating" on iTunes Rental part to brand or pass off short films as movies just to meet the target figure. I understand there are folks who like to contest this on admiration. But don't flame me for pointing out the faults.

[tatilsever]

ATX said:

If a short film is a movie, then why doesn't everyone call it a movie instead of a short film? ... No moviegoer will pay a full movie ticket price for a short film...

It's "cheating" on iTunes Rental part to brand or pass off short films as movies just to meet the target figure. I understand there are folks who like to contest this on admiration. But don't flame me for pointing out the faults.

Sorry to bring you down from your high horse, but short movies are not that many and they are only 99c to rent, so they are not full price, hence no "cheating."

[ATX]

tatilsever said:

Sorry to bring you down from your high horse, but short movies are not that many and they are only 99c to rent, so they are not full price, hence no "cheating."

Obviously, most people don't read carefully before bringing down horses. SJ is right about people on reading less. To add to that comprehend on what's written. I said "cheating" on target figure and not on rental or purchase price.

Anyhow, I do applaud iTunes Movies Rental on the price difference on movies and short films. Then again, short films are still not movies. Hence, the price difference. Follow the moviegoer logic.

The good thing is, Apple didn't announce on reaching the 1000 movie rentals target. They let others do the job. Everyone should learn from Apple's spin machine. But if one studies carefully what they said and what they offered, one can point out the discrepancies.

Anyway, everyone's entitled to their own opinions but don't slam if you can comprehend what I said. I'm no high horse. I just don't see short films as movies. Enuff said.

[DisabledTrucker]

They still don't have HD for purchase through iTunes, who cares if they finally reached their 1000 mark or not, where's the HD for iTunes? Not everyone has or wants an aTV!!!!

[Dylstra]

I agree with ATX's original point. The impression that I got from the keynote was that there would be 1000 feature films (as opposed to short films) available for rent. That may be a faulty assumption, but most of the talk (if not all) was about feature films, so it's not an unreasonable one. But I don't want to get into at what point a long short film becomes a short long one.

[cbh]

I figure you folks need to get out of your houses more, and quit debating the finer points of short vs. feature flicks. Sounds like a little fresh air wouldn't hurt.

[philipbroadway]

Let me qualify first.
There are several macs in my household, my work at the office is done on a mac, and I love everything about mac hardware and working on osx.
Everything except the sheep.
I 100% agree with ATX and find it laughable how some 'mac lovers' will defend apple's blatant faults lies spin or just bs.
Steve Jobs is not a god. He's an egotistical tyrant with excellent public speaking skills.
Apple computers are not perfect, they are just way better than the competition now.
Itunes rentals is overpriced and not nearly as developed as Netflix. I'll stick to Netflix+Cocktail if I feel like I really need to waste space on movies or tvshows I'll watch 2-3 times at the most.
:)

[philipbroadway]

p.s. 'mission accomplished'