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What about shows that cant be rented?

post #1 of 7
9/29/10 at 8:41pm
Thread Starter 
The new Apple tv works off of rentals only, as it only has 8 GB of storage, but what about shows that can not be rented? iTunes says shows that Iron Man 2 is not available till the end of October for Rental in Canada,only purchase. Would this just not show up on my Apple tv, or what? I have mine ordered already and it will be delivered in the middle of October, so I would like to know. If most shows are unavailable for a month or two, i'll cancel my Apple Tv from coming.
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post #2 of 7
9/30/10 at 10:12am
You can purchase and download shows to your computer then stream them to your ATV.
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post #3 of 7
10/1/10 at 5:57am
Correct, you can purchase shows and movies on your computer and then stream them to your Apple TV. If you select something on your Apple TV that's only available to buy outright you'll have to go to your computer to buy it, wait for it to completely download and then stream it to your Apple TV - not the most user friendly experience but as more content becomes available for rent it'll become less of a problem.

This means that depending on how fast your Broadband connection is you may have to wait a while to watch any movie or TV show that doesn't have the rental option.

In my humble opinion this is a definite step back from the Gen-1 Apple TV which allowed you to purchase content and rent movies (not TV shows) and start watching them after a couple of minutes.
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post #4 of 7
10/1/10 at 11:55am
Quote:
Originally Posted by tmccomp View Post

In my humble opinion this is a definite step back from the Gen-1 Apple TV which allowed you to purchase content and rent movies (not TV shows) and start watching them after a couple of minutes.

It encourages a change of viewing habits though. If you buy and download a movie for $9.99-$14.99 and watch it once or twice then you'd be better off renting at $2.99-4.99. Purchasing movies is only cost-effective after you watch a movie 4 times. The amount of times I've watched a movie 4 times or more I can count on one hand and I suspect a lot of people are the same. For the odd handful of movies that you absolutely want to keep, DRM-ridden downloads are not the best option but either Blu-Ray or DVD, which despite having DRM are higher quality and easier to rip for your devices.

The new ATV design was well thought out IMO and they've improved almost everything about it. The purchase price is 1/3 the original, the power consumption is cut to 1/5th, the size by 1/4, there's no hard drive to break, no sync times (including reverse sync for a purchase made on the device).
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post #5 of 7
10/1/10 at 6:30pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marvin View Post

For the odd handful of movies that you absolutely want to keep, DRM-ridden downloads are not the best option but either Blu-Ray or DVD, which despite having DRM are higher quality and easier to rip for your devices.

The new ATV design was well thought out IMO and they've improved almost everything about it. The purchase price is 1/3 the original, the power consumption is cut to 1/5th, the size by 1/4, there's no hard drive to break, no sync times (including reverse sync for a purchase made on the device).

Sorry I should have qualified my statement. I completely agree that when it comes to movies the rental option is the best way to go with iTunes, and to that end the new Apple TV is a definite improvement. However with the TV selection it's a different story - I'm sure it'll get better but as it stands the majority of shows you select on the new unit are only available to Buy so the whole computer purchase, wait for it to download and then stream option is the only one available. I guess I'm just impatient though!
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post #6 of 7
10/2/10 at 2:12am
Quote:
Originally Posted by tmccomp View Post

However with the TV selection it's a different story - I'm sure it'll get better but as it stands the majority of shows you select on the new unit are only available to Buy so the whole computer purchase, wait for it to download and then stream option is the only one available. I guess I'm just impatient though!

Apple should really have sorted out the licensing deals before shipping a streaming-only device. I guess you could buy TV shows from an iPod, iPhone or iPad and stream them via AirPlay but like with the DRM-free audio, they should apply it to all content.
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post #7 of 7
10/3/10 at 8:31am
Thread Starter 
i am kinda dissapointed that they didnt sort all of this out.I mean a lot of the new movies from some of the studio's are only available for purchase for the first thirty days. I am sure this will change, but its not much cheaper to buy and download than to go buy a blu-ray, so there is absolutely no benefit.
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