Renting A Movie Through iTunes

January 16th, 2008

I decided to take one for the team and rent a movie through iTunes. Basically the experience was decent, and I think I’ll use this more than the more cost-conscious part of me would care to admit. However there are a few constraints that still have me questioning the price of $2.99 per rental.

To rent a movie, just navigate to a movie in the iTunes Store as you would to buy a one. In addition to the “buy” button will be a “rent” button. I decided to try my luck with Wargames, a flick I haven’t seen since I was a kid.

iTunes Store

If you have 1-click shopping enabled, once you click “rent” the movie starts downloading. This particular movie was about 2 hours long and file 1.30 GB.

Download

You can start watching the movie as it downloads. Click on “Rented Movies” under your iTunes Library, and then the movie icon, and the movie will start playing as it downloads in the background. That’s instant gratification for you.

The first constraint: You’ll get a warning once you start watching that you have started the timer of 24 hours to watch your flick. The amount of time left appears next to the movie’s description.

The last thing I tested was pushing the movie to an iPod. I couldn’t push this rented movie to my older, 30GB Video iPod. I hope that model isn’t incompatible.

I was able to push it to a more recent iPod Touch. Two things of note - you can see in red the amount of time you have left. It’s the same as the video status on your computer. You also have to have the computer connected to the Internet when you transfer a rented movie to your iPod - probably so it can check this time out status.

iPod Video Renta

This is where I encountered a second constraint - once you push a rented movie to an iPod, it disappears from the iTunes library on your computer. Apple basically wants you to have only one copy and not on multiple devices. I couldn’t figure out how to copy the video from the iPod back into my iTunes library.

Addendum: It turns out you can push the video back to the computer by clicking the “Move” button. This copies the rental off of your iPod and back onto your computer. Whew. Still, you can only have a rental on one device at a time.

So of course now I’m wondering if you can move a rented movie file to another computer (probably not). Obviously, pushing to multiple iPods is out.

Anyhow, as with anything in life, it’s up to you whether these parameters are a make-or-break deal. I now feel a bit constrained as I have pushed this flick to an iPod and now have to watch there, today, otherwise I’m out three bucks.

So I still feel the price of $2.99 is a bit high - I’d have preferred $1.99. I am quibbling over a dollar, but seeing how the rental is very limiting in time and file management and the cost to own the iTunes much higher ($9.99) I’m left wondering why I don’t just rent the video from Netflix (which would give me more time than 24 hours to watch), see if it’s available via “Watch Now”, or buy the DVD for $9.99 from Amazon.

I still hope there’s a day where one can watch an unlimited library of movies via the Internet for a reasonable fee. Apple has made a huge, positive step toward that future - but that day isn’t today.

Additional Notes: The rentals appear as .m4v files in iTunes Music > Movies. The file won’t play in QuickTime Player or VLC - only iTunes. They also don’t appear when you connect to your shared iTunes library from another computer.

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  • The $2.99 price point doesn't bug me. After all, we've paid $5 for Comcast On Demand shows, so this is in line with expectations. As with the iTunes Store on the music side, it'll take a great expansion of the library to make this all it could be. We're looking forward to it. We're also looking forward to getting the updated Apple TV software. I wonder when that shows up...
  • I think in conjunction with Apple TV, the ease of use might win me over. As mentioned in my last post I'm really close to getting an Apple TV. I may find I am too lazy to get up off the couch and check the mail box for a new movie or a box from Amazon, and a dollar is worth that convenience :)
  • JC
    I agree that the whole thing feels a bit too limiting. I didn't know about the one-way, one-time only transfer from computer to iPod. That kinda sucks, if you want to start a movie on the iPod, say during a flight, but then decide to finish it on your computer.

    Question: If you rent a movie but don't start watching (giving you 30 days to start) and then push that movie to the iPod, does it start the 24-hour thing right then and there? Or does that start when you start watching it on the iPod? How does the iPod know to start the clock without an Internet connection? If you don't sync your iPod for another thirty days, does the movie refuse to play?

    Not being able to transfer between the Apple TV and iPods or computers is even worse. You have to decide from the get-go where you want to watch, which is very un-Apple.

    Another huge confusion is figuring out which movies are only rentable, which ones are rentable or purchaseable, and which ones are only for purchase. Way too confusing for the average user. Apple should at least create a rental section of the iTunes Store, so you at least know which ones can be rented without clicking them all one by one.

    I also found a few movies which were both for rent and sale, but only the rent price showed up. Next to the "buy" button was blank. Mystery price? Very odd.

    I suspect Apple will figure most of these these things out soon, and hopefully talk the studios down from the overbearing restrictions eventually.

    The Apple TV software update is supposed to arrive in two weeks, by the way. For the person who asked earlier.
  • JC I had that same question about renting a video, pushing to an iPod, and then starting to watch it on the iPod - does the timer start there? I believe so, because since the copy has moved to the iPod, the Mac is no longer keeping track. When I look at the rented video on the iPod, it has the red countdown on it.

    I would imagine a lot of these restrictions came from the studio end and not Apple, in order to get all the studios on board. Hopefully, as you mentioned before, the restrictions will relax over time.
  • According to Apple's press release yesterday, rented movies are only compatible with the iPod classic, iPod nano w/video, iPod touch, and iPhone. Sucks for people who still have a perfectly good iPod video.
  • Podophile - yep I obviously just realized my iPod Video is not able to handle rentals. Bummer.

    Also, in the TOS I did confirm this one-device per rental limitation. So be aware of this if you push your rental to an iPod or Apple TV, or rent on the Apple TV.

    "You must be connected to the Service when moving or streaming movies. Once a movie is moved, it is no longer viewable on the sending device. You may only move movies to another device from your Mac or Windows computer. Movies downloaded directly to your Apple TV may not be moved."
  • $2.99 is the early adopters price - it'll drop in a few months to become more competitive. But even at that, it sure beats hoofing it down to Blockbuster to rent a disc, then ripping the DVD to transfer to the iPod.

    What's the download time like on a feature-length movie? And how much space do those files seem to chew up on your iPod Touch? And are the movies formatted in widescreen to take advantage of the Touch and/or iPhone?
  • Well the file size for the movie I downloaded was 1.30 GB so I think you could figure that out for your connection or how much space it would take up on an iPod. Yes, the video was formatted for widescreen, it looked really great on the iPod Touch.
  • Interesting review...I wondered how the iPod rental system would work. $2.99 isn't a bad price considering you don't have to leave your home and you get almost instant results.
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