• This forum is for posting news stories or links from rumor sites. When you start a thread, please include a link to the site you're referencing.

    THIS IS NOT A FORUM TO ASK "WHAT IF?" TYPE QUESTIONS.

    THIS IS NOT A FORUM FOR ASKING QUESTIONS ABOUT HOW TO USE YOUR MAC OR SOFTWARE.

    This is a NEWS and RUMORS forum as the name implies. If your thread is neither of those things, then please find the appropriate forum to ask your question.

    If you don't have a link to a news story, do not post the thread here.

    If you don't follow these rules, then your post may be deleted.

Movie rentals coming to iTunes Store??

Joined
Nov 18, 2006
Messages
4,934
Reaction score
207
Points
63
Location
Anytown, USA
Your Mac's Specs
27" iMac 2.7GHz Core i5, iPhone 6, iPad Air 2, 4th gen Apple TV
I remember not so long ago when Steve Jobs was dead-set against the idea of renting movies online. Well, new evidence right in your own iTunes has come up showing that Apple may be planning to implement it soon.

http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/08/itunes-store-slip-up-reveals-future-rental-movie-options/

I've wanted to try services like Amazon's Unbox, but it's only MS compatible. If Apple starts this service and the prices are reasonable, I may give it a try. I would be more interested in renting low-quality movies from iTunes than actually buying them.
 
Joined
May 29, 2007
Messages
748
Reaction score
32
Points
28
Your Mac's Specs
2.16 Core 2 Duo, 160GB HD, 2gb RAM, Black Macbook | iPhone | OS X Leopard
If prices are reasonable than it could be good.

What would they do though? Set the file to corrupt itself after 5 days?
 
Joined
Jan 20, 2007
Messages
3,269
Reaction score
270
Points
83
Location
Oakton, VA USA
Your Mac's Specs
White MacBook Intel C2D 2.2GHz, 2G, 250G, SD, Leopard.
If prices are reasonable than it could be good.

What would they do though? Set the file to corrupt itself after 5 days?
It would probably sense to do it that way or similar. Whatever device and its s/w plays it - AppleTV, iPhone, iPod, Mac - would know when the video has been played. At that point it is a matter of when it self-destructs.

It's an interesting idea to do downloadable rentals, and could also provide an incentive for movie distributors to allow more movies to go to iTunes. $0.99 television shows is practially the rental model. They're cheap and of sufficient quality to view. While you might not spend $2 to watch a tv show, a buck is almost nothing.

The downside is that the Internet turns into television all over again.
 
Joined
Sep 19, 2007
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
Points
1
What I would see them doing if they started movie "rentals" on iTunes would be to maybe issue a license each time you rent a movie and when you go to play that movie you have to log in and it issues that license, and depending on your rental length, the license would expire after your rental length is over. I don't know how feasible this would be for Apple or profitable, but I would definitely utilize it if the price was right.
 
Joined
Jul 2, 2007
Messages
3,494
Reaction score
204
Points
63
Location
Going Galt...
Your Mac's Specs
MacBookAir5,2:10.13.6-iMac18,3:10.13.6-iPhone9,3:11.4.1
$1 to rent or $2 to buy... tough call. Personally, I'd rather buy it but that's just me. Still, I'm all for anything that gets more quality content out there.
 
Joined
May 29, 2007
Messages
748
Reaction score
32
Points
28
Your Mac's Specs
2.16 Core 2 Duo, 160GB HD, 2gb RAM, Black Macbook | iPhone | OS X Leopard
$1 to rent or $2 to buy... tough call. Personally, I'd rather buy it but that's just me. Still, I'm all for anything that gets more quality content out there.

Where are they two dollars? not on itunes.
 
Joined
Jul 2, 2007
Messages
3,494
Reaction score
204
Points
63
Location
Going Galt...
Your Mac's Specs
MacBookAir5,2:10.13.6-iMac18,3:10.13.6-iPhone9,3:11.4.1
MY bad Shannonb, I was thinking of TV Episodes.
 
Joined
Jul 18, 2006
Messages
238
Reaction score
6
Points
18
Your Mac's Specs
iMac 17" Intel Core Duo, 2 GB RAM + 20" ACD
Would it be possible for Apple to rent a movie to you for x days (perhaps two weeks) and then say "you can buy this movie for the difference between rental price and purchase price" (meaning that you don't pay extra, and get a 'try before you buy' period for a couple bucks and if you like it you pay the difference.)? That seems fair and people who don't want to own just rent, those who buy can try first.
 
Joined
Jan 18, 2007
Messages
413
Reaction score
4
Points
18
Location
Burlington
Your Mac's Specs
See Signature
It would probably be similar to the current music with the fairplay, but maybe an updates standard like "fairplay video rental" where the file would either have a timestamp where it wont start to play after a certain date, and it could also be played again if you pay again. And would have restrictions gainst burning too.
 
Joined
Feb 28, 2007
Messages
1,444
Reaction score
59
Points
48
Would it be possible for Apple to rent a movie to you for x days (perhaps two weeks) and then say "you can buy this movie for the difference between rental price and purchase price" (meaning that you don't pay extra, and get a 'try before you buy' period for a couple bucks and if you like it you pay the difference.)? That seems fair and people who don't want to own just rent, those who buy can try first.

That sounds like a cool idea. I would definitely go for that!
 
Joined
May 31, 2007
Messages
926
Reaction score
37
Points
28
Location
Ontario, Canada.
Your Mac's Specs
Macbook(W) 2GHz, 80GB HD, 1G RAM, Windows XP
i can only imagine something similar to how the keynotes work on the website. how it would be like a live feed from the itunes store to you. then once it reaches the end. you have to pay to watch it again. and you would be able to pause, but not rewind.
 
Joined
Oct 19, 2007
Messages
8
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Location
Santa Barbara, CA
Your Mac's Specs
Macbook 80GB 2GHz 1GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM, iPhone 4GB, iPod Classic 80GB
Video Rental and VOD coming to AppleTV?

Courtesy of The Evan Series and MacDailyNews:

Video Rentals Coming Soon to iTunes?

Before installing any iTunes upgrade, I dump the strings from the old iTunes binary. Once the new version has installed, I diff the new version’s strings against the old’s, to see what shows up.

When I did this for the recent 7.5 upgrade, I found the following interesting (new) strings:


rental-content

rental-bag

rbsync

source-rental-info

dest-rental-info

getvodaccountselectionlist

GET VOD ACCOUNT SELECTION LIST

supportsRentals



It sure looks like video rentals (and video on demand, which I suspect VOD stands for) are coming to iTunes soon. If they did, I would sure get more use out of my Apple TV…


MacDailyNews Take: As we've been saying for years now, for TV shows and movies, a rental and/or subscription service makes perfect sense because it better fits human nature, matching the way people over the age of four consume those types of content than does outright purchasing. Not to mention, where do you store all of that content that you own, but are only going to watch once or twice? Most people can count the number of movies they've watched three or more times on their fingers.

We want to buy our music and rent our movies (or even possibly subscribe to a TV shows and movies plan) via Apple's iTunes Store. We also want to be able to buy /rent directly from our Apple TV.

We asked our same source who correctly told us that Apple would debut "wireless-capable iPods" along with "wireless iTunes Store sales" one week before Apple did exactly that, and the source said, "I can't talk about it, but let's just say that Apple TV is about to get a whole lot more interesting." That's it. No release date or any other info. For now, we file it under: RUMOR.
 
Joined
Mar 30, 2006
Messages
1,611
Reaction score
72
Points
48
Location
Southern California
Your Mac's Specs
Unibody MBP 2.4 GHz C2D/27" Core i7 iMac
Joined
Jul 25, 2006
Messages
354
Reaction score
7
Points
18
Location
Costa Rica
Your Mac's Specs
MacBook Black 2ghz / 2g / 160g72k | Ipod nano black 4G
yes, until everyone has 10mb high speed connections, downloading movies, even DVD, since most are DVD9 and people like the extra's, isntfor everyone, and with many ISP's having "invisible" download limits and throttling traffic usage for things like this, i cant see it going well.

I am sure with time online distribution would be great, cant wait to see the DRM attached to this , and what limit you have, what can it be played on, how many times, can you burn it to play on your DVD player or is it only on your computer....
 
OP
fleurya
Joined
Nov 18, 2006
Messages
4,934
Reaction score
207
Points
63
Location
Anytown, USA
Your Mac's Specs
27" iMac 2.7GHz Core i5, iPhone 6, iPad Air 2, 4th gen Apple TV
Typically when I rent a movie I watch it the same day or next day, so time isn't an issue for me. I think it could be a pretty good service. I think Netflix and Unbox have been doing very well. I'm sure a lot of people could use it, but I'll still rent regular DVDs at the store for certain reasons.
 
Joined
Nov 28, 2007
Messages
20
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Location
Honolulu, Hawaii
Your Mac's Specs
3.7 GHz Mac Pro, 30" HD cinema display, 12 GB 1867 MHz DDR3 RAM
I was under the impression the new download protocol would allow the playing of rented movies via a DVD player. Until downloads get away from being viewed only on computers or special devices (iTV) they are never going to be embraced by the general public. A Pay-per-view type experience with a large library of movies to choose from instead of the paltry offerings cable currently has would get my attention. I prefer to rent movies and have no desire to own them. A $4 price-point for 24 hours of viewing seems more than fair.
 
Joined
Jul 18, 2007
Messages
165
Reaction score
0
Points
16
Location
Ottawa, On
Your Mac's Specs
White Macbook, 2.16GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM
You get as long as you want to download it, and then the 24-hour rule kicks in once you have started, correct?

If that's true, it's a bit better. I still don't see these types of rentals and purchases outdoing in-store rentals though. There needs to be something more revolutionary for that to occur.
 
Joined
Mar 30, 2006
Messages
1,611
Reaction score
72
Points
48
Location
Southern California
Your Mac's Specs
Unibody MBP 2.4 GHz C2D/27" Core i7 iMac
You get as long as you want to download it, and then the 24-hour rule kicks in once you have started, correct?

If that's true, it's a bit better. I still don't see these types of rentals and purchases outdoing in-store rentals though. There needs to be something more revolutionary for that to occur.

I believe you need to watch it within 30 days.
 
Joined
Oct 11, 2007
Messages
7
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Location
Georgia
Your Mac's Specs
2.16 GHz Macbook
with Netflix and the like already in place what does Apple hope to gain from this? Netflix still has more bang for the buck. I pay 17.00 a month and watch about 6 movies a week plus I watch about 10 more online. 30+ movies a month for 17.00. Where is the benefit of Apple's service.:Confused:
 
Joined
Oct 27, 2002
Messages
13,172
Reaction score
348
Points
83
Location
Cleveland, Ohio
Your Mac's Specs
MacBook Pro | LED Cinema Display | iPhone 4 | iPad 2

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top