“The free movie rental promotion lets you rent one of the 8,500 compatible movies and you have 30 days to start watching and 24 hours to finish.,” Gurman reports.
Full article with screenshot of Apple’s freebie here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
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Who can complain over something that’s free
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I got a rock.
I rented movies up until netflix was offered! It’s perplexing why Apple would cut into its own rentals market unless it was going to be acquiring Netflix!
imaki
It’s a competitive factor for selling a set top box at the moment
I’ve rented a few movies through my ATV and having only 24 hours to view them was a little annoying. Why not give at least 72 hours if not a full 30 days?
@The MacDaddy-Oh!
You do have 30 days to start watching the movie. Though when you do start it you only have 24hrs to finish it.
The movie rental app on Google TV will be called ‘Deep Throat’. As in Eric T Mole was the deep throat on Apple’s board.
There was a syndicated show on the BBC called ‘University Challenge’. One of the questioner’s, Bamber Gascoigne, favourite phrase was, ‘I’ve started so I’ll finish….’
Well buster, you have 24 hours to finish yours, SJ seems to be saying to you Apple TV oglers.
@The MacDaddy-Oh!
Those viewing periods and other limitations are placed by the demands of the studios and the content providers. They assert similar rules on the Dish network movie rental feature (via Dish’s STB) as well.
I’m fed up with rentals from Apple. I love my TV2, but their movie rental downloads are screwed. I rented a movie weeks ago; my wife and I wanted to relax watch it on Saturday night. It takes 8 hrs download. I left it downloading. I came back with 2 days left on the rental to finally watch it this past Saturday night, thought it would be ready to view, but it wanted another 3 hrs download it again. Very frustrating. I know there is no drive to capture downloads in the new TV, but this is ridiculous. I just paid for rental that I didn’t get to watch. Haven’t complained to Apple yet (don’t even know where to start because I’ve never had a complaint with an Apple product), but I plan to.
@krquet
Thanks for the heads-up. It’s one of those things where it’s easier (I’m speaking only for me) to rent from Blockbuster and have the leisure to stop and start a movie within a longer time frame. The 24 hour limit is just too short.
@Spark
Stop using dial-up to rent movies…
Try dialling SJ’s number in Cupertino. He’ll roll out the red carpet for you, well at any rate a carpet stained with Eric T Mole’s blood.
@Ballmer’s left nut
Wrong questioner, wrong show!! It was actually Magnus Magnusson on “Mastermind”
=:~)
@SirROM
I will be sure to try that. LOL
I got a lump of coal.
@ Spark
I had the same exact problem last week. I went back to using my 1st Gen Apple TV. Then Sunday I tried the 2nd gen again and it work beautifully and fast with several HD rentals I tried. You might want to try it again with a 99 cent HD show or something. Apple might have fixed it.
I got a stick.
Until it’s possible to rent foreign movies or TV shows with selectable subtitles, Apple won’t get a cent from me. I’ve never watched a dubbed movie (beside the occasional cartoon as a child), and I’m certainly not going to start just because Apple can’t get their rental service together.
24 hours is a stupid limit. If you give more than 24 hours, you might as well just give 12 hours.
Think, if you aren’t going to watch the movie in one evening after work, it seems very likely that you be able to pick up watching it the following evening after work at the SAME TIME. Nope, you’d have to leave work early to do that. Dumb. The 24-hour limit starts when you first START watching the movie, so you’re screwed.
30 hours would take care of this problem. 24 hours is just plain arbitrary and stupid. It would be nice if Apple could at least push it to 30 hours. Or, geez, how about 24 hours PLUS the length of the show? That would take care of the start-time problem.
But, it is typical for movie publishers to put the comfort and convenience of their customers as the absolute lowest priority.
@ Erika
Just don’t hold your breath. As you may already know, Americans don’t really understand the concept of “foreign languages” (heck, most of them have serious problems mastering their own language!) and as such, the idea that someone might want to watch a non-U.S movie in its original state, is still being classified as “odd behaviour”.
Also, if you look at the iTunes movie store – does it look like a place for cineasts? Get my point?