phasornc - I'm in exactly the same situation as you (except I have a work laptop pc for netflix). Combining services it is possible to access a decent - though not great - selection of tv and film. Plugging/unplugging in laptops to my tv is a pain as is searching through different services and delivery mechanisms to find what I want.
It is perfectly obvious once you have experienced this way of doing things - even in its current crippled state - that on demand access to back catalogs and current/new releases is the way media will be in the future (with the option of ad-supported or pay to not watch ads) and it reveals the complete ignorance and short-sightedness of the old tv/film companies that they continue to resists it - despite the lessons they could have learned from the music industry.
I have no doubt that the next step will be the industry bemoaning freefall DVD sales and falling tv ratings and blaming net piracy - when in fact, as with the music industry, it will be a problem of their own creation.
man, i would LOVE to rent some movies on my aTV...but alas i'm kinda boycotting the thing until they fix what's amounted to a huge new glitch in itunes & QT...
ever since i upgraded to QT 7.4 and itunes 7.6.1 my audio has gone on complete fritz. massive stuttering that, at times, affects the entire system...up to & including flash in any browser, audio on QT video files, itunes audio...and even the sound effect that pops up when you're raising or lowering the volume on the machine.
the support threads at apple.com are all abuzz with tons of people having the same issue.
probably couldn't find a bigger apple fan than me...but until that issue's ironed-out and i'm able to get back to normal with my itunes, i'm not shelling out any more dough...
That comes in just under 1,500 movies, almost 50% MORE than the 1,000 promised, and 100% MORE than the writer is giving them credit for. And I'd bet that if we go back and watch the keynote, there was something in Jobs' wording that left open the possibility that 1,000 would be available, but not yet available for rent, by this point.
As others have pointed out, Apple rightly lists their films as multiple genres. There is an All Movies option to check below that that will list 37 pages with 21 films on each page save for the last page.
I wish iTunes was robust enough to allow for multiple genres for my content without having to resort to Smart Playlists and using the Comments section. For example, I'd like to have all 80's music music listed as a "1980s" genre, all music within a set year listed as a genre, a "Bllboard Top 40s" genre, A number "Number 1s" genre, as well as all the regular genres they fall into like Pop, Rock, etc.
PS: i'd also like teh album covers that are copied to iDevices to be higher quality. The covers in the iPhone's Coverflow are highly reduced in quality.
Quote:
Originally Posted by digitalclips
If I am not mistaken the whole 'Apple TV Take 2' thing was pushed back several weeks after the initial Mac World announcement. Therefore it seems reasonable to assume all related dates may well be pushed back by a similar time frame.
That is a good point. While they don't seem to be connected, if Apple is able to get to 1000 titles by mid march then I think many will forget about this.
Quote:
Originally Posted by digitalclips
Good one
Of course Dell doing so well these days, I see they are second in higher education ...
Perhaps I'm just a d!¢k, but if I were Jobs I'd wait until Dell could be purchase on the cheap and then actually close it's doors and give the money back to its shareholders.
I've only rented "Priate of the Carribean- At World's End"- HD and was not impressed. Visually it was very dark and not very HD looking at all. Has anyone else rented this? Do all HD titles look like this? If so I won't be renting more. Does anybody have an HD title that they highly recommend renting? I would like to check out another one. Any recomendations?
I've only rented "Priate of the Carribean- At World's End"- HD and was not impressed. Visually it was very dark and not very HD looking at all. Has anyone else rented this? Do all HD titles look like this? If so I won't be renting more. Does anybody have an HD title that they highly recommend renting? I would like to check out another one. Any recomendations?
Matrix Revolution looked great on my set - you're not the only one to complain about Pirates...
simply go to the iTunes store, select "Power Search" then use the pull-down menu on the left to select "Movies" - keep the ratings selection at "All Ratings" and check the box that says something like "Only show rentals" (I'm not on a computer with iTunes loaded right now - but I'm pretty sure that's correct)
You'll get a list of all available rental movies in blocks of 150 - last count there were 3 pages with something totalling a little over 400 but I haven't checked in a few days.
Maybe someone can check and let us know what it's really up to now.
simply go to the iTunes store, select "Power Search" then use the pull-down menu on the left to select "Movies" - keep the ratings selection at "All Ratings" and check the box that says something like "Only show rentals" (I'm not on a computer with iTunes loaded right now - but I'm pretty sure that's correct)
You'll get a list of all available rental movies in blocks of 150 - last count there were 3 pages with something totalling a little over 400 but I haven't checked in a few days.
Maybe someone can check and let us know what it's really up to now.
If you go to the All Rentals category on the front movies page in iTunes, it will show pages in blocks of 21 movies (7x3). Right now there are 14 pages, which puts it at under 300 movies available for rent by that count. Counting All Movies - including those only available for purchase and not for rent - gives you 38 pages, which is just under 800.
Guys if we are also talking strictly Apple TV rentals, Apple is still under 500 movies according to our count over at www.appletvjunkie.com. This is HD and SD. And just as Appleinsider states in the article, a lot of the HD movies are at least 20 years old. Or Apple does what they did today and add crap like American Pie 2 in HD. Just want I was waiting for.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but surely the number of titles available will be dictated by the content owners (studios) being tardy in supplying the titles to Apple?
This hardly tarnishes Apple. This is evidence that the studios are once again telling the consumer how they are to use their hard-earned for poor return.
The current 24hr model has so many holes in it.
Criticise the studios who provide the content, not the system that is trying to deliver it (making money for all along the way)
If the studios were to blame, then how did Amazon get ten thousand titles available for download, as the article says?
Blame the studios for the 24 hour limit (all services have the same thing), but if apple has far fewer download rentals than anyone else, I don't see how that's anyone's fault but apple.
I assume it's a negotiation issue and not an encoding issue, apple can't just go and start ripping DVDs with handbrake, the hard part is negotiating the rights to all the movies (since the studios obviously haven't agreed to blanket agreements of big numbers of films yet).
I'm surprised apple is this far off, I thought I read a week or so ago that they were up to about 700 rentals...guess that was wrong.
If the studios were to blame, then how did Amazon get ten thousand titles available for download, as the article says?
Blame the studios for the 24 hour limit (all services have the same thing), but if apple has far fewer download rentals than anyone else, I don't see how that's anyone's fault but apple.
I assume it's a negotiation issue and not an encoding issue, apple can't just go and start ripping DVDs with handbrake, the hard part is negotiating the rights to all the movies (since the studios obviously haven't agreed to blanket agreements of big numbers of films yet).
I'm surprised apple is this far off, I thought I read a week or so ago that they were up to about 700 rentals...guess that was wrong.
So you blame Apple because they didn't give in more with the negotiations? Amazon also has a complete DRM catalog whereas does not. That is not Apple's choice.
If you go to the All Rentals category on the front movies page in iTunes, it will show pages in blocks of 21 movies (7x3). Right now there are 14 pages, which puts it at under 300 movies available for rent by that count. Counting All Movies - including those only available for purchase and not for rent - gives you 38 pages, which is just under 800.
For reasons unknown to me movies (and music, for that matter) take a while to show up on those pages. I always use "power search" to look for items as it will often show up items not listed elsewhere that are indeed available.
So you blame Apple because they didn't give in more with the negotiations? Amazon also has a complete DRM catalog whereas does not. That is not Apple's choice.
Well, I definitely blame apple for making a promise before the deals were signed. To the consumer, selection is important. Nobody really cares about "giving in more", the product with less selection is less appealing. If apple is going to enter this market, they need to *compete* in this market, not make excuses.
Well, I definitely blame apple for making a promise before the deals were signed. To the consumer, selection is important. Nobody really cares about "giving in more", the product with less selection is less appealing. If apple is going to enter this market, they need to *compete* in this market, not make excuses.
Wow, do we actually agree on something. From the info we have, I don't blame Apple for not reaching their stated goal as we don't know what actions they could have taken to reach them; but I do blame them for making a statement that they did not deliver on. They have been late on so many things recently. I much prefer the Apple that projected a timeline and then delivered ahead of it.
Comments
It is perfectly obvious once you have experienced this way of doing things - even in its current crippled state - that on demand access to back catalogs and current/new releases is the way media will be in the future (with the option of ad-supported or pay to not watch ads) and it reveals the complete ignorance and short-sightedness of the old tv/film companies that they continue to resists it - despite the lessons they could have learned from the music industry.
I have no doubt that the next step will be the industry bemoaning freefall DVD sales and falling tv ratings and blaming net piracy - when in fact, as with the music industry, it will be a problem of their own creation.
ever since i upgraded to QT 7.4 and itunes 7.6.1 my audio has gone on complete fritz. massive stuttering that, at times, affects the entire system...up to & including flash in any browser, audio on QT video files, itunes audio...and even the sound effect that pops up when you're raising or lowering the volume on the machine.
the support threads at apple.com are all abuzz with tons of people having the same issue.
probably couldn't find a bigger apple fan than me...but until that issue's ironed-out and i'm able to get back to normal with my itunes, i'm not shelling out any more dough...
Anyone bother to do the math?
When browsing MOVIES:
...
That comes in just under 1,500 movies, almost 50% MORE than the 1,000 promised, and 100% MORE than the writer is giving them credit for. And I'd bet that if we go back and watch the keynote, there was something in Jobs' wording that left open the possibility that 1,000 would be available, but not yet available for rent, by this point.
As others have pointed out, Apple rightly lists their films as multiple genres. There is an All Movies option to check below that that will list 37 pages with 21 films on each page save for the last page.
I wish iTunes was robust enough to allow for multiple genres for my content without having to resort to Smart Playlists and using the Comments section. For example, I'd like to have all 80's music music listed as a "1980s" genre, all music within a set year listed as a genre, a "Bllboard Top 40s" genre, A number "Number 1s" genre, as well as all the regular genres they fall into like Pop, Rock, etc.
PS: i'd also like teh album covers that are copied to iDevices to be higher quality. The covers in the iPhone's Coverflow are highly reduced in quality.
If I am not mistaken the whole 'Apple TV Take 2' thing was pushed back several weeks after the initial Mac World announcement. Therefore it seems reasonable to assume all related dates may well be pushed back by a similar time frame.
That is a good point. While they don't seem to be connected, if Apple is able to get to 1000 titles by mid march then I think many will forget about this.
Good one
Of course Dell doing so well these days, I see they are second in higher education ...
Perhaps I'm just a d!¢k, but if I were Jobs I'd wait until Dell could be purchase on the cheap and then actually close it's doors and give the money back to its shareholders.
I've only rented "Priate of the Carribean- At World's End"- HD and was not impressed. Visually it was very dark and not very HD looking at all. Has anyone else rented this? Do all HD titles look like this? If so I won't be renting more. Does anybody have an HD title that they highly recommend renting? I would like to check out another one. Any recomendations?
Matrix Revolution looked great on my set - you're not the only one to complain about Pirates...
You'll get a list of all available rental movies in blocks of 150 - last count there were 3 pages with something totalling a little over 400 but I haven't checked in a few days.
Maybe someone can check and let us know what it's really up to now.
When an antagonist in a movie uses a Mac to bring down a government... Apple takes the fall.
When the US government purchases Xserves for use in Iraq... Apple was accused of starting the war.
Seriously? I call BS.
simply go to the iTunes store, select "Power Search" then use the pull-down menu on the left to select "Movies" - keep the ratings selection at "All Ratings" and check the box that says something like "Only show rentals" (I'm not on a computer with iTunes loaded right now - but I'm pretty sure that's correct)
You'll get a list of all available rental movies in blocks of 150 - last count there were 3 pages with something totalling a little over 400 but I haven't checked in a few days.
Maybe someone can check and let us know what it's really up to now.
If you go to the All Rentals category on the front movies page in iTunes, it will show pages in blocks of 21 movies (7x3). Right now there are 14 pages, which puts it at under 300 movies available for rent by that count. Counting All Movies - including those only available for purchase and not for rent - gives you 38 pages, which is just under 800.
Seriously? I call BS.
I call BS, too. Or perhaps he was just kidding.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but surely the number of titles available will be dictated by the content owners (studios) being tardy in supplying the titles to Apple?
This hardly tarnishes Apple. This is evidence that the studios are once again telling the consumer how they are to use their hard-earned for poor return.
The current 24hr model has so many holes in it.
Criticise the studios who provide the content, not the system that is trying to deliver it (making money for all along the way)
If the studios were to blame, then how did Amazon get ten thousand titles available for download, as the article says?
Blame the studios for the 24 hour limit (all services have the same thing), but if apple has far fewer download rentals than anyone else, I don't see how that's anyone's fault but apple.
I assume it's a negotiation issue and not an encoding issue, apple can't just go and start ripping DVDs with handbrake, the hard part is negotiating the rights to all the movies (since the studios obviously haven't agreed to blanket agreements of big numbers of films yet).
I'm surprised apple is this far off, I thought I read a week or so ago that they were up to about 700 rentals...guess that was wrong.
If the studios were to blame, then how did Amazon get ten thousand titles available for download, as the article says?
Blame the studios for the 24 hour limit (all services have the same thing), but if apple has far fewer download rentals than anyone else, I don't see how that's anyone's fault but apple.
I assume it's a negotiation issue and not an encoding issue, apple can't just go and start ripping DVDs with handbrake, the hard part is negotiating the rights to all the movies (since the studios obviously haven't agreed to blanket agreements of big numbers of films yet).
I'm surprised apple is this far off, I thought I read a week or so ago that they were up to about 700 rentals...guess that was wrong.
So you blame Apple because they didn't give in more with the negotiations? Amazon also has a complete DRM catalog whereas does not. That is not Apple's choice.
If you go to the All Rentals category on the front movies page in iTunes, it will show pages in blocks of 21 movies (7x3). Right now there are 14 pages, which puts it at under 300 movies available for rent by that count. Counting All Movies - including those only available for purchase and not for rent - gives you 38 pages, which is just under 800.
For reasons unknown to me movies (and music, for that matter) take a while to show up on those pages. I always use "power search" to look for items as it will often show up items not listed elsewhere that are indeed available.
If this were a Japanese company Steve would step down or commit Seppuku.
There's no way that would happen...there's currently a huge shortage of proper knives for this as Toshiba's bought them all up.
There's no way that would happen...there's currently a huge shortage of proper knives for this as Toshiba's bought them all up.
He could just use the edge of a MBA.
He could just use the edge of a MBA.
They're selling out apparently. His only chance may be a new iPhone with 3G that's only .09" thick.
So you blame Apple because they didn't give in more with the negotiations? Amazon also has a complete DRM catalog whereas does not. That is not Apple's choice.
Well, I definitely blame apple for making a promise before the deals were signed. To the consumer, selection is important. Nobody really cares about "giving in more", the product with less selection is less appealing. If apple is going to enter this market, they need to *compete* in this market, not make excuses.
Well, I definitely blame apple for making a promise before the deals were signed. To the consumer, selection is important. Nobody really cares about "giving in more", the product with less selection is less appealing. If apple is going to enter this market, they need to *compete* in this market, not make excuses.
Wow, do we actually agree on something. From the info we have, I don't blame Apple for not reaching their stated goal as we don't know what actions they could have taken to reach them; but I do blame them for making a statement that they did not deliver on. They have been late on so many things recently. I much prefer the Apple that projected a timeline and then delivered ahead of it.
Matrix Revolution looked great on my set - you're not the only one to complain about Pirates...
Thanks for the recommendation. Is there a website where you saw the other complaints? Do they have reviews of other rentals' quality, etc on there?