[randombob]

dartmore10 said:

Eric, got to agree with your comment on the price. I like the convenience of whenever downloads, but as you point out, the going rate is $1.60/movie. The remaining $2.40 of the Apple's $3.99 rental price is their convenience premium - ouch! And that's not including the hardware investment.


The addition of video on demand, an GUI update and pricedrop are great. But there's no hardware update - ATV 2 = ATV 1 + software update.


What's still missing IMO - 1080P output & options for an optical drive. And the real killer app - TiVO-like abilities to enable timeshifting and program storage. EyeTV would be a great complement to ATV.

I must say I agree wholeheartedly with your opinion on 1080p, though I keep geting blasted for mentioning it. They're dropping the ball on this one, methinks. As of now, everything's going away from 720 and moving towards solidifying on 1080p and this is only going to be furthered once the dust settles on the "format war," and people invest in the winner a little (since both do 1080p it doesn't matter who, though BD is looking like the clearcut winnner anymore).

The TV's are doing it, the content's moving there, but Apple's sort of slapping us in the face by offering "HD" but only at the VERY low end of the spectrum. What's next, the Apple 8-track?

F- that. I don't care if it takes longer to d/l. I'll start it at night before I got to bed, I don't care about that. BUT, i do care about the content & the quality, and these offerings really don't hold up under fire. Cost is too much for quality that can be had for less through other channels. They may not be "hi-tech" download models, but like I said, it's the CONTENT not the delivery that I'm interested in. Get me what I want, I don't care much how it gets here.

[ericgorr]

> Comparing iTunes to Blockbusters rental is a fairly fair comparison. You can get the movie you want the day you want it. As far as costs, Apple has some pretty significant costs in hardware to make everything available for download. You'd be surprised how much it costs to maintain their internet connection. It would make the video store's costs seem downright puny by comparison. Remember that for everyone downloading at any given time they need enough bandwith and computers to be able to serve that up. Your $20/month internet connection is fast enough to have ONE download happen. Apple needs a connection that can support THOUSANDS of people downloading at any given time. This certainly isn't cheap!

Really, the price is very fair. The only thing I don't like is the 24 hour limitation. Just last night, I watched half a movie from 7-8 PM and I plan to finish it tonight when I get home around 9. With a 24 hour limit, that wouldn't work. 48 hours would be SO much better. But, oh well. The convenience of no trips to the video store and better yet, NO LATE FEES will make it worth it completely.
[/quote]
I was not considering the total cost of running just a single blockbuster store, but all of them (thousands? tens of thousands?). I can guarantee the cost of operating all of those stores is much higher then Apple is spending to maintain their infrastructure for the iTunes rental service.

There are no late fees with Netflix and since one has to make regular trips to the mailbox regardless, it is extremely convenient as well. The only downside is no instant gratification of being to watch a movie now, but such a thing isn't important for me.

Will it truly be instant gratification for a iTunes movie rental...? it seems to me that it could take many hours to download enough of the movie so it can be watched without interruption, especially if it is an HD movie.

And, remember, with a netflix plan, you get to stream movies as well - currently with more limitations then what Apple is offering, but I imagine that will change as well, especially given Apple's annoucement.

[rkdav]

I must be losing it. I downloaded iTunes 7.6, followed the directions in iTunes Help for renting movies (go to iTunes store, select movie you want to rent, click Rent) but--can't find the Rent button to click. Can someone point me to the Rent button or is it only on certain movies?

[wolfneuralnet]

Can't figure it out either - must not be turned on yet....

[johnlb]

I'm confused. I just purchased a Mac Mini to run my media center on it.
The ATV just doesn't have the space to store my content, does not allow an external drive, and until recently, to my knowledge, could only pull content from a Mac.
(1) Does the appleTV now allow me to upload all my files to it, without having the files exist separately on another computer?
(2) Are the HD Movie rentals not downloadable to a Mac in iTunes (this would be really unfortunate and may, partly out of spite, inspire me to return my Mac Mini)
What gives?

[rwmoore]

Actually, rarely anymore do I get to sit down and watch a movie in one evening. Being parents of young children, the children come first. I'm lucky if I have 60-90 min an evening to spend on TV, at least TV that does not involve a big purple dinosaur or a mouse with ears, etc. That is why the DVR has become such an important appliance in the house. I would need 3 days, at least, before I would even consider dropping $200 on it. All though I would really, really love to have an Apple in my TV, with out a little more, a DVR, a blueray player, HD movie purchase w/ increased storage capacity (enough to hold an entire library of films or some way to burn them to disc for storage), or at least more realistic movie rental times, it ain't going to happen.
....sad really.

I rally hope this works out for a lot of people, because I really want Apple to stick with this and improve our options so that maybe someday it will happen for me, but not today.

[ithos67]

I agree with webmacher:
bq. "I don't think once you'd start watching it you wouldn't watch the entire thing within the 24 hours allowed."?
bq. I take it you don't live with any small children! There are MANY times I've only been able to get through part of a movie, and sometimes it's a couple of nights before I have a chance to resume watching.
This it totally true. Not only are there many times where we don't finish a movie, but sometimes my kids are so excited about a movie they just saw that they want to watch it again. This is totally unworkable within a 24-hour time limit unless I let my kids be couch potatos on the weekend just to watch a movie again before it expires.

Ideally, a 72-hour window would be great -- long enough to span an entire weekend (Friday afternoon to Monday morning). Even 36 hours would be better, since it would give us an option to finish a movie on a second night (or watch it again) without fear of being cut off in the middle.

Anyway, now that the Apple TV will support HD and 5.1, I figure it's only a matter of time before Handbrake gets updated. SD and 5.1 (from my current DVD collection) would certainly be a nice alternative to renting, especially since it appears that SD rentals from iTunes won't include 5.1. That appears to be limited to the HD domain.

[dkheersink]

After downloading iTunes 7.6 I am now finding that it is freezing up every 5-10 seconds for about 5-10 seconds. Anyone else having that same problem?

[quicknik]

Regarding HIGH DEFINITION:
Will HD movies be available for download and viewing using iTunes 7.6 on a Mac? Or are they available only for AppleTV2? Please chime in, as I'm reading some conflicting implications in other posts, and the Keynote wasn't crystal clear on this.

[quicknik]

Regarding HIGH DEFINITION:

Will HD movies be available for download and viewing using iTunes 7.6 on a Mac? Or are they available only for AppleTV2? Please chime in, as I'm reading some conflicting implications in other posts, and the Keynote wasn't crystal clear on this.

[johnlb]

Everything I've found online thus far says only Apple TV. I find this absolutely ridiculous and am PO'd to be sure. Hopefully they will change this very very soon (What's the return policy at Mac Mall again?)

[Bryan]

I have to wonder about the people who keep saying the price is decent. The price is highway robbery for a download. This is about how much it should be to buy the movie.

[realtwang]

I noticed that Steve Jobs said the movies were watchable on "current generation iPods". I wonder if that aces out my 5th generation?...

[elCapiton]

I think the 24 hrs to watch it might be one of those things that gets changed if enough people complain. They really should have it be 3 days to compete with regular DVD rentals. I still think 24 hrs is fine for most people but not for everyone.