First of all, this clearly was something spontaneous since he was stuck in the house without much to watch since Netflix didn’t come through for him. He mistakenly thought the movie rentals worked the same as the other video formats. I hardly think he was TRYING to create a problem. He was just documenting what happened when he tried his first rental. Stuff like this happens to people all the time when they first try out something new.

Some of you are way too sensitive, angry, and defensive.

@Chris @geochick @devin My main point is my past user experience with buying video via iTunes has trained me to download the video onto the RAID drives on my iMac, and then I’d copy the file to my PowerBook to watch on the TV.

@Edwin Sure, a problem exists, I couldn’t move a movie from one iTunes system to another. See my note to Chris.

@Bertiebus Could one point I was trying to make be something along the lines of the DRM being used is hurting more than it’s helping? Thus far, I’ve never downloaded a movie from a P2P network, nor have I ripped any of the DVDs I get from Netflix.

@RickO Netflix’s downloadable movie rental system is even worse, as it only runs on Windows, although their available catalog is much larger. See Greg’s comment.

@Greg I honestly didn’t try to create the headache. I did what I always do.

@Sam F Thanks for understanding my point.

@Seth I don’t have a most recent generation iPod, although you’re right, I could spend $149 for an iPod nano and cable, or $229 for an AppleTV, neither of which would have helped me that evening, but would help in the future.

I was a little disappointed with this, but not for the reasons that the author has. 24 hours to finish watching after such a long time to get it is harsh. The connection is my fault so I can’t fault apple for this one. I think apple could have done a better job with this and I believe that as more people use it, it will be improved. It isn’t a home run, but I’ll probably rent it again once the catalogue improves

I find it interesting that you complain about the Netflix requirements, but don’t complain about the Apple requirements for the same functionality, albeit a different service (iTunes). At least Netflix doesn’t require a major OS change. Well, maybe they do, if you’re still running Win 98. Apple has always had a weak spot in this regard; often even point changes are required to get a new functionality. But at least they’re free.

I also think the original poster made some basic errors in planning, but it’s possible that he has revealed deficiencies in the Apple sales model. 4 hours for a download? Something amiss there, but it could be on Apple’s side, too. Don’t know… Don’t blame the customer right off the bat.

My main comment is simply that I’m happy to see people complaining about not getting the services they are led to believe they are purchasing - regardless of platform. In the retail world, if you bought a pair of shoes and didn’t realize that they would hurt after wearing them for an hour or two, you’d maybe take them back. In the online video - and in this case, the iTunes - world, that can’t happen.

I believe we are often beta testers for this junk, and I don’t like it.

Mac users are often quick to accept this, but I am not.

That’s all.

Also, it was my understanding that the movie would play while downloading… was this not an option for you and your wife?

“Can I play my rental on more than one device?
If you download a rented movie on your computer, you can transfer it to your Apple TV, iPod, or iPhone. Once you move the movie from your computer to a device, the movie will disappear from your computer’s iTunes library. You can move the movie between devices as many times as you wish during the rental period, but the movie can only be viewed on one device at a time. If you rent the movie on your Apple TV, it is not transferable to any other device and you must watch it on your Apple TV.”

I do admire the effort (really VNC, iChat?…a cell phone???) but last i checked the $ was not that high, maybe i’d just rent it again on the powerbook instead of making up a scheme worthy of Doctor Evil.

I don’t know either way, maybe it is an unfair way of doing it from Apples side or maybe that’s just the terms on which they could get permission to distribute, never the less, the FAQ is quite clear. The workaround from the author was overkill.

Apple screwed this up. That the end of it. It pushed a new paradigm on customers that were used to something different—and better.

Don’t get me wrong I don’t hate Apple. I’m in a Mac only household. I won’t take point on the download speed. I’m sure it varies heavily with broadband speeds available to various homes.

Really? Just buy an Apple TV, really?
Buying an Apple TV can simply not be the only answer to such a problem.

Apple should simply enable Movies to be played on all your iTunesAccount enabled Computers just like all the other content you can buy on the iTMS.

And please, don’t get me started on who is at fault for not having services available on Macs. This isn’t about Fairplay licensing. What a bunch of Windows Fanboy BS. This is plain and simple an unwillingness to serve a market that is a tad more discerning and simply wasn’t willing to bow down to the Redmond juggernaut..

also, i could have sworn steve jobs said that the movie rentals stream and can be viewed instantly. why on earth did you have to wait for the whole thing to download first? oh yeah, i suppose that has to do with problem number 1, eh?

Of course, I just did what the entire rest of the world does, and downloaded a rip of the DVD via Bittorrent.

Movies have always had DRM. Music hasn’t. There a difference. Anyway… we’ll see in sales figures what happens. Even before the upgraded movie rental/apple TV update and not needing a computer Apple TV was on top of the sales for downloaded movies.

AppleTV is a boat anchor because of DRM. Jobs should know this because he’s been the one arguing against it.

Did you not see the Macworld expo? The answer is Apple TV - you’ve just proven Steve’s point.

Or as the comments above… you have a particularly slow internet and should have downloaded to your laptop directly.

It looks like a carefully planned way to find the one way to make it difficult to watch a movie.

I have an AppleTV and it works flawlessly with my LCD TV. I also dumped netflix as soon as this was announced. I am so tired of broken and scratched discs. And don’t get me started on the waiting.

Also, what kind of internet connection you have? 4h to download a movie stands for half MBit. I don’t believe you have such poor DSL connection.

But I am surprised too, that you’re not able watch rented movie in annother iTunes.