Wait, iTunes rentals can only be used on the device they were rented on? WTF?

NMF · Feb 24, 2013

So there I am, renting Skyfall on my wife's iPad so she can watch it on the plane while traveling. I decide I want to watch it later on as well, so I go to download it on my iPad. It isn't showing up as an automatic download, so I go and "rent" it again, assuming that iTunes will just figure it out and charge me once.

Neither of us end up watching on the iPads, so we decide to watch it in the media room on the Apple TV. It's not showing up at all. I go and look it up online and see that if you rent something on an iPad it can't be viewed on any other devices.

WHAT THE HELL?

How is this even legal? I can't ****ing believe that Apple thinks they have the right to pull this crap. I paid $6 to watch a goddamn digital copy of a video that I won't own and will never be able to watch again (after 24 hours). I should be able to do that on any device I choose.

Their loss. This is the first -- and last -- time I will ever pay money to view the digital copy of a film. The big companies wonder why people take to piracy... ****ing idiots.

slothrob · Feb 25, 2013

Wouldn't the movie Airplay from the iPad to the aTV?

blueroom · Feb 25, 2013

It's DRM, and it's the studios not Apple.

b-rad g · Feb 25, 2013

If you rent it from your Mac it will be available on all your devices once it finishes downloading. Had this happen to me once, but after I figured out what the deal was I know that I need to rent from the Mac and then can watch it on whatever I choose.

musicpenguy · Feb 25, 2013

You have to transfer the rental - you can plug your wife's iPad into your Mac and it will transfer it there from there you can transfer it to whatever device you want - it does this because it can't be on two devices at once - just like you wouldn't get 2 DVDs when you rent a RedBox

FreakinEurekan · Feb 25, 2013

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1657

Click on "Can I play my rental on more than one device?"

As stated above if you purchase the rental option on your computer, you can then transfer it to another device - and even transfer it back and forth (e.g. transfer it to your wife's iPad, watch half, transfer it back to the computer, then transfer it to your Apple TV to watch the other half).

While this is inconvenient, it's still often an improvement on renting from other services. For example you can rent from Amazon Instant Video and switch back & forth between devices easily, however that's a streaming service - so you don't have the option of, for example, transferring the rental to your iPad and watching it off-line on an airline flight. There are trade-offs to all solutions.

nep61 · Feb 25, 2013

I agree that having to jump through hoops to view something is a bit stupid.

After going through that same nonsense a few times, I've decided, at that point, to, BUY the Blu-Ray / DVD / Ultraviolet version of any movie from now on. I'd rather OWN it myself and view when I want on whichever device I want.

$6 for a rental... no thanks... There is plenty of media out there to watch... I don't need to have it as soon as it comes out.... The $18-$22 for the BR/DVD/iTunes version is well worth it in the long run... to me anyhow...

NMF · Feb 25, 2013

So if I rent a movie on the Mac, how do I transfer it to the Apple TV? Do I just stream it over home sharing, or what?

So stupid that it matters which device I rent on. I don't care if it's the studios' fault or Apple's fault, Apple is my point-of-contact as a consumer so it ultimately falls on them. They need to figure it out. I don't care how, just make it work. Ugh.

nep61 · Feb 25, 2013

NMF said:
So if I rent a movie on the Mac, how do I transfer it to the Apple TV? Do I just stream it over home sharing, or what?

Yeah, that's what I've done.... which works fine, but if you want to take the move to go... there's a problem with copying to an ipad... I haven't been able to do it via RENTAL... A purchase, however, works.

Primejimbo · Feb 26, 2013

nep61 said:
I agree that having to jump through hoops to view something is a bit stupid.

After going through that same nonsense a few times, I've decided, at that point, to, BUY the Blu-Ray / DVD / Ultraviolet version of any movie from now on. I'd rather OWN it myself and view when I want on whichever device I want.

$6 for a rental... no thanks... There is plenty of media out there to watch... I don't need to have it as soon as it comes out.... The $18-$22 for the BR/DVD/iTunes version is well worth it in the long run... to me anyhow...

this is why they have different options for people. Not everyone wants to buy something if they are only going to watch it once.
I like buying from iTunes and store it on my external hard drive and funny how I see a benefit now, I can't loan it out to people. I love this! I not longer have to worry about getting a scratched DVD back or something and I don't want to blame my friend or whoever, so now I can't. I see this as a big plus in my eyes.

ravenvii · Feb 26, 2013

Why can't they just put rentals in the cloud? It appears in your iTunes in the Cloud, sits there for 24 hours (or whatever it is), and you watch it wherever and whenever. And after 24 hours, it disappears.

No need for this overly-complicated stuff.

NMF · Feb 26, 2013

ravenvii said:
Why can't they just put rentals in the cloud? It appears in your iTunes in the Cloud, sits there for 24 hours (or whatever it is), and you watch it wherever and whenever. And after 24 hours, it disappears.

No need for this overly-complicated stuff.

Exactly.

musicpenguy · Feb 26, 2013

The rental companies would never go for that - that would allow that movie to be loaded onto multiple devices at the same time. The agreement in place is that that movie is like a DVD where it can only be on one screen at a time.

WestonHarvey1 · Feb 26, 2013

musicpenguy said:
The rental companies would never go for that - that would allow that movie to be loaded onto multiple devices at the same time. The agreement in place is that that movie is like a DVD where it can only be on one screen at a time.

Not sure why they can't just make it work like Netflix. Just require a cloud hit to validate/invalidate the auth token on whichever device you want to view the rental on right now.

thenaes · Feb 26, 2013

ravenvii said:
Why can't they just put rentals in the cloud? It appears in your iTunes in the Cloud, sits there for 24 hours (or whatever it is), and you watch it wherever and whenever. And after 24 hours, it disappears.

No need for this overly-complicated stuff.

This is how it works for Amazon Instant Video rentals, I believe. So I'd say it is certainly possible.

NMF · Feb 26, 2013

musicpenguy said:
The rental companies would never go for that - that would allow that movie to be loaded onto multiple devices at the same time. The agreement in place is that that movie is like a DVD where it can only be on one screen at a time.

Saying this is "impossible" is utterly wrong. That's how it works on both Amazon Instant and Vudu. Rent once and view on any device (only one at a time). There's no reason why iTunes couldn't do the same thing.

We're not renting physical media here. It's not the same as Blockbuster. It's a goddamn digital file. There are no actual limitations here, only article ones fabricated by monolithic corporations. It's BS.

musicpenguy · Feb 27, 2013

What I'm saying is a new contract would have to be made and historically the media companies are more hesitant to do things obvious for other companies like Amazon - because one company can do something doesn't make it a certainty we can do it with an Apple contract.

These deals were done when we watched movies on iPods and our computers - don't think the contracts have been updated to include these newer devices

(I'll all for cloud access and redownloading rentals - I buy movies instead of rent so I don't run into these problems often)

FreakinEurekan · Feb 27, 2013

NMF said:
Saying this is "impossible" is utterly wrong. That's how it works on both Amazon Instant and Vudu. Rent once and view on any device (only one at a time). There's no reason why iTunes couldn't do the same thing.

We're not renting physical media here. It's not the same as Blockbuster. It's a goddamn digital file. There are no actual limitations here, only article ones fabricated by monolithic corporations. It's BS.

Amazon and Vudu are streaming services. With iTunes you can load the rental to your device (iPad or laptop) and watch it off-line.

I'm sure if the studios would allow it, Apple would be happy to just make the rental available "in the cloud". It's not like they're trying to make your life difficult on purpose - they're enabling the features that their agreement with the studios allows them to enable.

NMF · Feb 27, 2013

FreakinEurekan said:
I'm sure if the studios would allow it, Apple would be happy to just make the rental available "in the cloud". It's not like they're trying to make your life difficult on purpose - they're enabling the features that their agreement with the studios allows them to enable.

That's nice. I don't care. They need to renegotiate their agreements then.

"blablabla agreements legal jumbo blabla have to blabla contracts blabla"

I don't give a ****. I'm the end user. If I rent a movie, I should be able to watch it wherever. The end. Apple needs to just figure it out.

FamiliaPhoto · Feb 27, 2013

Sounds like the contract with the studio only allows for a single copy download. Apple found a way to move that copy around to comply with the contract and provide some flexibility.

What you want is a way to download multiple copies of a rental; until the studios are open to that it isn't going to happen.

MacLovin78 · Feb 27, 2013

NMF said:
That's nice. I don't care. They need to renegotiate their agreements then.

"blablabla agreements legal jumbo blabla have to blabla contracts blabla"

I don't give a ****. I'm the end user. If I rent a movie, I should be able to watch it wherever. The end. Apple needs to just figure it out.

I understand your frustration but you are really overcomplicating this. If you rent the movie on your iPad just play the movie on your iPad and then hit the Airplay Icon in the controls area and Airplay the movie to the ATV. I travel frequently for business and rent movies for the plane and hotel and sometimes I don't get around to watching them. When this happens I just Airplay it which is about as simple as it gets.

NMF · Feb 27, 2013

MacLovin78 said:
I understand your frustration but you are really overcomplicating this. If you rent the movie on your iPad just play the movie on your iPad and then hit the Airplay Icon in the controls area and Airplay the movie to the ATV. I travel frequently for business and rent movies for the plane and hotel and sometimes I don't get around to watching them. When this happens I just Airplay it which is about as simple as it gets.

Except I don't get a 1080p stream that way, not do I get the 5.1 audio mix. I only get those features if I rent straight through the Apple TV, but if I do that I then don't have the option to finish it up on the iPad or any other device.

That is a bunch of CRAP.

blueroom · Feb 27, 2013

NMF said:
I don't give a ****. I'm the end user. If I rent a movie, I should be able to watch it wherever. The end. Apple needs to just figure it out.

Tell the studios. It took Apple ages to get the music industry to drop DRM but they did.

E.Lizardo · Feb 27, 2013

NMF said:
So if I rent a movie on the Mac, how do I transfer it to the Apple TV? Do I just stream it over home sharing, or what?

So stupid that it matters which device I rent on. I don't care if it's the studios' fault or Apple's fault, Apple is my point-of-contact as a consumer so it ultimately falls on them. They need to figure it out. I don't care how, just make it work. Ugh.

Try being realistic.Apple can only do what the studios let them.Do you scream at Amazon if UPS smashes your new lamp?If so you are a bad person.

And as far as digital rentals,dumbest idea ever.You're better off without it.WAY over priced!

NMF · Feb 27, 2013

E.Lizardo said:
Try being realistic.Apple can only do what the studios let them.Do you scream at Amazon if UPS smashes your new lamp?If so you are a bad person.

You guys all seem to be missing the fact that other services DO in fact allow you to stream your rentals on whatever device you want within the rental period. This is already a thing. So much so, in fact, that I simply assumed that it would be the case with iTunes. It honestly never even occurred to me that it was possible for there to be a different way. Apple is languishing behind here.

E.Lizardo said:
And as far as digital rentals,dumbest idea ever.You're better off without it.WAY over priced!

How do you figure that? We used to pay $5 to rent a "new release" VHS at Blockbuster back in the day. How is it over-priced to pay the same amount and have the film instantly streamed to my home theater without even getting off the couch? If anything, digital rentals are an even better value!

Want to know what's actually the dumbest idea ever? Paying too much money for a new blu-ray, watching it once and then letting it waste away on the shelf. Or even worse: paying too much money for a new blu-ray, wasting countless hours ripping it and encoding it in m4v, watching it once and then letting it waste away on a media server with hundreds of other movies you've only watched once. LOL, hoarders. The worst of all peasants.

Wait, iTunes rentals can only be used on the device they were rented on? WTF?

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