Hands-on with iTunes movie rentals: quirky and restrictive, but dead easy
By Thomas Ricker 
posted January 16th 2008 3:52AM
posted January 16th 2008 3:52AM
Update: Discovered something interesting about the aspect ratio... hint: it's not 16:9.
A new "Rented Movies" directory shows up in our iTunes library. Clicking "More Info" gives you some more information about your rental. The expiration time appears in the upper-right corner. The 24-hour viewing clock is already ticking since we started watching the film during download. Really, who can wait the 30 day maximum before watching a film they just rented?
Don't worry, Apple is happy to nag you about your rentals.
Damn, have to run out. Let's try to transfer the rental to our iPod like Steve showed us during the keynote.
iPod plugged in, ready to sync and... er, what's this? How come our Video tab looks nothing like Steve's? Oh right, the rental transfers to iPods are for current generation "iPod classic, iPod nano with video and iPod touch models" only. Where's the firmware love Apple? Our iPod is only one generation old!
After locating the file on our hard drive (~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/Movies) we discover some interesting details about our download. So what aspect ratio is 853 x 356 pixel exactly? 16:9, 4:3, or some iphone proprietary ratio sitting in between? None of the above. It's actually a cinematic 2.39:1.
Conclusion
Despite the few quirks we experienced, the steps required to rent from iTunes were dead simple and the ability to play the movie after just a few minutes of clicking "rent movie" was a big plus for our Type A personalities. Assuming you have the bandwidth that is. Sure, we're not talking HD video or 5.1 audio here. Nevertheless, the quality was surprisingly good when displayed full-screen on our 30-inch, 2560 x 1600 pixel display -- even when sitting at keyboard-length from the monitor.
Perhaps the most telling result of our experience is this: we're tempted to rent again, soon.
So yeah, we rented a second flick -- Zoolander. Note the variation in pixel density which also results in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio. Looks like iTunes renters are in for a crapshoot.
Oh, and in case you're wondering, yes we tried to open the file with VLC and other media players. No luck, the file is locked down tight with Apple's own flavor of special DRM sauce. You can see a few individual frames of the film but no video. iTunes is the only capable player.
Conclusion
Despite the few quirks we experienced, the steps required to rent from iTunes were dead simple and the ability to play the movie after just a few minutes of clicking "rent movie" was a big plus for our Type A personalities. Assuming you have the bandwidth that is. Sure, we're not talking HD video or 5.1 audio here. Nevertheless, the quality was surprisingly good when displayed full-screen on our 30-inch, 2560 x 1600 pixel display -- even when sitting at keyboard-length from the monitor.
Perhaps the most telling result of our experience is this: we're tempted to rent again, soon.
any chance that there is cc or subtitle available? I don't think so.
I love Netflix. I now get UNLIMITED online viewing of video along with my DVD rentals. If only APPLE offered a monthly package to view as many movies as you want to.
Even though I am an apple fanboy, I've found myself going to the dark side more and more lately. I got Vista Ultimate from school for cheap so I have been using that and xbox360s as my media center. Since the Xbox supports Divx, mp4, etc, I can stream all of my files, plus also rent from the marketplace on the xbox. I also bought a Zune so that I could wirelessly sync my podcasts. It all actually works great. Obviously without Apple's elegance though.
If the HD rentals worked with the mac mini I may consider replacing mine and using the rentals with the eyeTV. I also am not too happy about the rentals not working with my 5th Gen iPod. That pretty much means there is no way of me playing the files on my TV unless I buy an Apple TV, or pay 600 dollars to fix my 599 mac mini that died 1 year 2 months after I bought it. Yes I am bitter.
I've been using http://movielink.com for several years now. They have a similar pricing model, but in the past they didn't offer new rental releases. They're now owned by Blockbusters, so perhaps between I-Tunes, Netflix, and Blockbusters, they'll offer new releases, and the pricing will become alot more competitive. - Tim
caleb:
The whole point, though, is that Apple is trying to fix what's *broken* with cable on-demand. The fact is while free on-demand stuff is pretty popular, the pay version is basically as dead as all the other services like Movielink that do the same thing.
So what does Apple do? They come in and do the exact same thing the cable companies are doing: small selection, high prices, restrictive access. Only with Apple, you need *yet another* proprietary box if you want to watch in HD, and then it's only 720p.
So it's actually worse than cable on-demand, which is a pretty difficult thing to accomplish. Bravo, Apple(?)
Argh, that was supposed to be a reply up near the top. Sorry about that.
Pretty much. They just don't get it. These models simply do not work. The customer CLEARLY likes the Netflix & Blockbuster(online) model of renting, because most people watch movies at a pretty regular rate & the "pay per rental" model is old, tired & its not coming back. But here you have Apple saying "No no, these models failed. OURS is much better." Well, actually no its not, Steve. And nomatter how strong the reality distortion field is, its not THAT strong.
Why don't you learn from what IS working & build on that??
@ peestandingup:
IMHO, the Netflix / Blockbuster online methods aren't the greatest solutions, either.
The following statements are intended to illustrate a point, and do not necessarily reflect my own point-of-view:
I don't like the queue system, I don't like that they knowingly throttle users, I don't like that they don't have adequate inventories of High Definition content, and I don't like waiting on the mailman.
We also seem to forget that such a service costs very little in overhead, so even if Apple only has a few thousand regular users, it's a profitable venture.
yeah yeah zippy doo dah, and when do we get this in Europe? 2010? and no doubt it will cost £4!!!!
Captions. Please.
Does anyone know what happens if you try to move a rental onto an iphone/iPod before you've started viewing it (i.e. before the 24 hour countdown starts)? Does it just start the 24 hour countdown right away? If not, I could move it to my iphone, and watch it once, and as long as I don't sync back to my PC, the one on the PC wouldn't expire for 30 days.
Um..XBox Marketplace.
HD Rentals for 2 weeks! Not one measly day!
God, how many people still don't understand how this works? On Marketplace you have 24 hours to finish watching the movie once you've started it. That's the same thing as the iTunes rentals. Except iTunes lets you keep the movie for an entire month, not just two weeks.
Learn how it works before you post, people.
It seems there are some people missing the facts here. Apple isn't trying to hate anyone (I'm not a fanboy, just to be clear). Apple is a company. They want to make money for their shareholders. Now that that's clear, when Steve or one of his buddies (they're fanboys) want to start a new service involving intellectual property (music, videos, etc.), they need to sign distribution agreements with the owners of said intellectual property for every region they want to sell said intellectual property in. These licence holders, as they are called, want to earn a certain amount of money every time their product is sold, since they are also businesses and want to make money. The guys at Apple need to bargain a price and restrictions on this intellectual property, such as DRM (Which Apple doesn't want on music or music videos), a 24-hours-to-watch policy, a 30-days-to-start-watching policy and also the other little quirks that are involved. Now, considering this agreement was hammered out with 8 companies just for the world's largest market, I don't think they want to go through the same work for Canada, the Euro block, Britain, the Scandinavian countries, Australia, New Zealand and any other administrative region, for that matter, until the service has its bugs worked out and has proved its worth. Like I said, they want to make money, not waste time. So, just hope our American "friends" buy a lot so that Apple feels its worthwhile to go through the trouble of signing further contracts. Hey, maybe the price will even go down!
Very good points!
Pundit,
In America, we do not miss anything. We really do not care that Apple has to make money for shareholders. This is not a good enough reason for us to use this service. We already have better alternatives here. Perhaps the only thing Apple offers which is not readily available from other services is Video for portable devices. However, very few people watch movies on those devices so it remains to be seen whether it is going to be enough to support Apples efforts and encourage them to go abroad with it :-)
Lilo, I think you missed my intent. If America doesn't want it, Apple likely won't spread it to the rest of the world. I was merely intending to clear up WHY Apple wouldn't do all the work to get every country on board.
Two things to note:
1, I'm sure the pricing was not solely Jobs' doing. To get studios to sign on, I'm sure there was a lot of discussion about what the pricing model should be and it's probably on the higher side more due to the studios' requirements rather than just Apple's decision. Jobs has also always been against the subscription model for music so I'm not surprised this isn't subscription-based.
2, I'm not sure why everyone is comparing this to Netflix as if they must choose one or the other. I use Netflix, but there are times that I'm just really itching to see a movie and don't want to wait...when that happens I'll watch something on PPV (same pricing and time limitations as iTunes) or hit Blockbuster if I happen to be near one. There is an instant gratification thing that you get from watching movies this way that I think many people might use as a supplement to Netflix. Plus, there are a lot of people out there who don't watch enough movies to warrant a recurring, monthly expense but who do want easy access to movies. I think this will do well in that market. It's probably a "rip-off" for someone who has the $17.99 plan from Netflix and watches as many movies as they'll send in a month. But a lot of people don't and honestly $3-4 for a movie for the casual movie-watcher really isn't that big of a deal especially if it means it can be easily portable.
I might consider it if I could pay a flat fee every month and watch as many movies as I want. Netflix is doing it.
Too expensive vis-a-vis netflix but for impulse renters who go to Blockbuster, this could finally put that "immediate" rental market out for good.
Dead easy?.
I select my movie from a bittorrent webpage then click on it.
Firefox o iexplorer will ask for "do you want to open this file?".
If yes, then utorrent will start downloading to a default folder.
Finished it (100%), just double click and start playing.
Good for you. Illegal, but good for you.
Now, explain the same process to my 75-year-old mother. Not just what you listed there, but the whole process of installing the torrent software, making the computer not crash, and connecting to the Internet and finding what you want to watch without getting malicious files instead.
Why is it that some people think ONLY about how technology affects THEM, and not how it affects EVERYBODY ELSE IN THE WHOLE FUCKING WORLD?
YOU may be computer savvy and capable of downloading torrents, avoiding prosecution, and making your computer work for you. A lot of people aren't, and don't want to fuss with things like bittorrent, MPAA lawsuits, and federal probes into their hard drive's contents. The don't want to have to set up a computer just to watch a movie, either.
So who do you think this was made for? You? or THEM?
THINK. It will make you much more useful to society.
I could honestly care less about how easy it is to use, give me 1080p and some surround sound or Im walkin'.
And my aforementioned 75-year-old mother couldn't care less if it's 1080p or 3D. She just wants to be able to press a button and watch a movie, legally.
And once more-- IT DOES HAVE 5.1 SURROUND.
This is obviously not for the videophiles/audiophiles out there. This is for the average user who just wants an alternative to OnDemand or Netflix. It's a good option, considering the pricing, ease of use, and availability of the movies. It's not for everyone, but it's NICE to have choices.
This sounds fantastic, but it's expensive when compared with Netflix. You can basically get as many Blu-ray/HD-DVD movies as you can get within a month for under $15, instead of paying $3.99 or $4.99 a pop for the Apple download.
When you rent HD-DVDs or Blu-Ray from Netflix, they don't show up on your TV 5 minutes later, do they? Furthermore, you need to rent more than 3 movies a month in order for Netflix to be less expensive with the subscription model. Not everybody rents that many movies, and not everybody feels like waiting for them to show up in the mailbox. We are talking about two entirely different services here, don't compare them directly.
Zak,
You should compare Apple's service with Netflix because with Netflix you also can watch movies immediately (and for not extra charge). Though Netflix movie selection available for over-the-intenet watching is limited (as is Apple's) it is my observation that most often you want to watch movie immediately because you get bored :-) so most any movie will do.
Netflix's downloaded movies are AWFUL quality, require a plug-in and some computer knowledge, and last time I checked they didn't play nice with Mac.
They are also nowhere near the right size to look decent on a 26" screen, let alone a 50" plasma in the living room. The iTunes movies are higher quality and go full screen quite nicely. On the Apple TV they're HD, and have 5.1 surround. Netflix can't compare.
The Apple TV is a SET TOP BOX. It's for your television, not your computer. This iTunes movie service is meant primarily for iPod use, and Apple TV use. It's not sold as a way to watch movies on your computer. The computer is just in the middle of the whole process, and CAN play the movies.
I've used the Netflix online feature, by the way, and their movie selection sucked at the time.
so what are the odds of a firmware update for one gen old video iPods?? not that it matters, cuz Apple didn't even firmware update my color iPod to run video--sorry, you have to buy ANOTHER frickin' ipod--plus all new accessories because the old ones don't work on the newest iPods. say what?! hello, ZUNE!!!!
OK, I am so confused! In the screenshot of the Die Hard details page it says the format is Fullscreen but in the screenshot of the movie playing it's widescreen. I cannot find the widescreen version on the ITMS. I can deal with no HD but I'm not paying to watch a 4:3 movie. Can anyone clear this up for me? Thanks.
I still won't install that itunes crap on my machine. I'll also stick with redbox for sd movie rentals (walmart is less than 2 miles away). netflix is the way to go for streaming, since there aren't these limitations, you have a much larger library to view from and you don't pay per movie.
"itunes crap"
"wallmart is less than 2 miles away"
Somehow, these phrases make me understand you as a human being completely. I didn't know they got the Internet in South Carolina, yet.
Incidentally, Netflix doesn't stream to a set-top box connected to your TV. It doesn't offer HD resolution. It doesn't offer ease of use. It requires a computer. It requires a monthly fee. It's not the same market at all, and really, don't you think people who want to watch movies on their computer would find other ways to do it?
iTunes is for watching movies on your iPod, or your television. The computer is just a go-between that happens to also be able to play the movies, too. With iTunes, you don't need a computer at all to get movies on your television in high definition. You don't need a subscription to cable or a rental service.
I can't believe so many people miss the point of this feature. It's not competing with Netflix or OnDemand. It's not competing with Blockbuster or Redbox either. It's closest comparison is Microsoft's Video Marketplace on XBox Live, but the Apple TV is a dedicated HD download box, costs less, and doesn't mess with MS Points (it uses real-world dollar amounts, not "points", which are confusing.)
Please, continue to toddle down to Wal*Mart to get yourself some more Jeff Foxworthy DVDs from the Redbox. Nobody's stopping you. This is a device for people who simply want another option for HD movies on their television without having to pay the cable company or a rental service a monthly fee.
iTunes interface for video is weak. It shows especially compared to Leopard's QuickLook (c'mon, why they haven't integrated QL with iTunes!?)
If u want to rent in Canada, simply make the trip to Buffalo and buy an iTunes card in the US. Then come home, make a US email account and redeem the US Card you just bought. Thats what I do.
you all do realize when you rent a movie on demand from the cable you only get to watch it for 24 hours.
Hoop jumping? Yes, I am aware that marketing a product in the U.S is a substantially simpler exercise compared to dealing with the myriad of individual licensing regulations that apply to separate EU countries. But continually being made to wait 6 -12 months for products that are announced in the States at these yearly expo's tend to foster the idea of a consumer hierarchy. U.S customers get to eat first, we wait for the scraps. That doesn't pi$$ you off? fine. They can either put the effort in with simultaneous releases dates for both sides of the Atlantic or occasionally offer UK or French customers something first for a change... Address the balance.
Sony's PLAY TV freeview adapter for pS3 for example.. UK exclusive.. U.S get nothing..It's how you reassure your customer base that they're not an after thought...The odd exclusive goes a long way...
"My girlfriend always laughs during sex—no matter what she's reading." -Steve Jobs
So, he digs reading, he also dig chicks that read. He just don't dig product teams that uses up resources to try to offer solutions to a non-existing problem.
Sorry, too many page at a time, meant for another post.
WTF?
RoboCop and Robocop 3 but no RoboCop 2?
fu steve jobs.
test
The 24 hour / 30 days thing is totally cool but what exactly happens after the 30 days? Does the file automatically get deleted from your PC/Mac? I really hope when this service goes international they realize not everyone in the world has access to a 10Mbit/s connection. I'd personally like to have the download / file distribution part separate from the rental part so you can keep files indefinitely and only have to get a timestamped key to play the file when you pay for a rental.
There no extra copyright issue risk because there's nothing a cracker can do in a lifetime with an encrypted file that they can't do in 30 days.
How is the playback for PCs? I have noticed major issues playing back anything of significant resolution with Apple's proprietary and difficult Codecs. In my past experience, amazingly, iTunes seems to do even worse than the already incredibly heavy Quicktime player. What all is going on in there, Apple? Despite that my tiny little iPod handles things fine, my somewhat dated Pentium M chip can't seem to smoothly decode without rebuffering. This is in total contrast to PC-friendly DivX or MPEG2 Codecs which play back even as large as 1080p without hesitation.
I did not see this mentioned in any comment (or I'm blind), but 16:9 is not the only widescreen aspect ratio. The other ratio mentioned by the reviewer is anamorphic widescreen, which is wider than 16:9. This is not a fault of iTunes, but is a standard. You can look at your DVD back covers and also see that this is a normal ratio on many movies.
I want my $4 back please. this model is great for how much I watch movies, but it dont work yet. downloaded successfully, but when trying to play it locks up iTunes and no go. I'm on WinXP. anybody have a fix? I re-authed my iTunes already.