What about shows that cant be rented?
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.
Comments
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.
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).
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!
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.