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.
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.
...
Actually, this is not true, if you rent a movie from Amazon, you can't watch it on your Apple TV (any version). If you have Prime, you can only stream the freebies and airplay them to ATV from their app on iOS device, but, it's not HD and not 5.1 audio.
NOTES:
1) If you rent via iTunes, you are downloading the movie, this way it is at the highest resolution at all times, unlike all other streaming services which stream it at low resolution until the buffer fills up then it gets into 1080p (but, it can also slow down if your network or internet gets bogged down while watching, depending on your rate and service). Also, be sure to let it download, do not check watch now, when you check watch now, you begin watching as it's downloading, but, it is downloading, here's why I say do not begin watching while downloading:
1a)
30 days: when you rent from iTunes, and let it download, (do not check yes to watching now), you have 30 days to watch it.
Once you start watching the movie, that moment begins your 24 hour period.
2) I'm not sure about iPad/iphone, but, when I rent I use iTunes on my Mac, let it download, and want to watch on ATV, I can only:
a) open iTunes on my Mac and watch over home sharing network (only streams it from your Mac, not the cloud). This will play 1080p/5.1 audio, if the movie has 5.1 audio. (I am not sure if home sharing is supposed to work from an iPad or not, I haven't tried this.)
Purchased movies can also be streamed from iCloud without iTunes being open on your computer, but, apparently not rentals.
*after your 30 days/24 hour rental period is up, the downloaded movie is automatically deleted from your iTunes library.
Apple's support page on iTunes rentals:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201611
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If I rent a movie or TV show using iTunes my Mac or Windows PC, I can stream it using the Movies or TV Shows apps on my ATV4. Those rentals show up in the 'Purchased' tabs in both apps...
On ATV3 (I just checked), only purchased movies show up, rentals do not. (I have a rental I have not watched yet, downloaded on my Mac.)