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UK-Rob

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 12, 2008
1
0
Anyone from the UK updated their AppleTv's?

Is there really an advantage as we cannot get the movie rentals?

Any news on when we will be getting the rental service, want to try it out on my HD TV, see if its worth the hype
 
You can now buy music and TV shows from the Apple TV. You can also browse and listen to (or watch) podcasts from the Apple TV. Generally you can do more from the Apple TV itself without needing to have stuff already in iTunes.
 
you can also view web galleries from .mac and flikr and log into youtube accounts. (and set the store to america, buy itunes american vouchers from ebay and rent movies ;)
 
I have, and even though we can't get rentals (yet) this is the main reason I bought my AppleTV. It's just done much better now, more of a finished product IMHO.
 
I updated mine last night and am generally pleased with it. I've set myself up with a US iTunes account so was able to rent a HD movie and buy a TV episode. What was impressive was being able to view the episode almost immediately after I'd chosen to buy it.
 
Is there really an advantage as we cannot get the movie rentals?

What you can see, rent and buy from the iTunes Store is determined by the billing address of the Apple ID you sign in with.

The AppleTV allows you to set a region independently from the Apple ID it will use to authorise purchases. There are no restrictions on the AppleTV itself. If you go to the trouble of setting up a US-based Apple ID and authorise it for use with the US iTunes Store, you can rent movies today.

I imagine this behaviour is frowned upon, but the AppleTV itself plays no role in preventing it.
 
how do the podcasts work? Can you set up a subscription and appleTV automatically downloads? or do you just pick an episode and stream it like with the youtube clips?

I'd prefer the automatic download as for example the BBC remove content after a week so you can't stream it (but its fine if you've downloaded it).

any real point if you already subscribe in itunes and sync to your appleTV? Maybe a good way to preview something before subscribing?
 
Any realistic ideas when rentable movies will hit the UK?

well "later this year" is the quote so probably
december 31st lol

actually now they have every studio on board i don't think that movie rentals will be the problem for other territories but tv shows will be the hard part at least here in the uk where everybody is putting real money in to publicising their on demand net services, hopefully they can get bbc to put in an appletv iplayer for free use.
 
So when you change your account details to the US, are you guys just making up a fictional address? Does that cause any problems with your card which you have setup for payments to iTunes?
 
how do the podcasts work? Can you set up a subscription and appleTV automatically downloads? or do you just pick an episode and stream it like with the youtube clips?

I'd prefer the automatic download as for example the BBC remove content after a week so you can't stream it (but its fine if you've downloaded it).

any real point if you already subscribe in itunes and sync to your appleTV? Maybe a good way to preview something before subscribing?

No subscribing, which is a real miss for me. You can either stream or download a specific episode. A real pain as you always have to go back and then find the podcast to download. You also get a trash can symbol to delete the podcast that you have downloaded.
 
i am right in saying the apple tv has been reduced in price in the US but over here it's still the same price?
any reason why?
 
i am right in saying the apple tv has been reduced in price in the US but over here it's still the same price?
any reason why?

The UK doesn't have movie rentals, the US does. Apple are basically trading their profit margin on the device for the possible additional revenue gained from rentals / extra sales. The UK will probably see a price drop at the same time as we get movies (sometime this year apparently).

Or you could buy a reconditioned 40gb model for £140 from the Apple store when they have any in stock...
 
I'm holding out on buying one until movie rentals are available in the UK.... hopefully that will be accompanied by a UK price drop.

Currently :apple:tv in the UK is far too expensive (with respect to the US where it is almost half the price :S) for the crippled functionality.
 
So when you change your account details to the US, are you guys just making up a fictional address? Does that cause any problems with your card which you have setup for payments to iTunes?


Any address will be fine, it is not used for anything. The credit card you use must be a US one though. If it is not, itunes will not set up the account. If you don't have a US credit card (which I don't) , need to buy some itunes gift vouchers in US dollars. These are readily available on ebay, with about a 10% markup. Redeem the vouchers in itunes and set up a new account. As you are redeeming a voucher, no credit card details are requested. Bit of an pain at times, but it gives you access to rentals today!
 
Any address will be fine, it is not used for anything. The credit card you use must be a US one though. If it is not, itunes will not set up the account. If you don't have a US credit card (which I don't) , need to buy some itunes gift vouchers in US dollars. These are readily available on ebay, with about a 10% markup. Redeem the vouchers in itunes and set up a new account. As you are redeeming a voucher, no credit card details are requested. Bit of an pain at times, but it gives you access to rentals today!

Thanks for the info!
 
Any address will be fine, it is not used for anything. The credit card you use must be a US one though. If it is not, itunes will not set up the account. If you don't have a US credit card (which I don't) , need to buy some itunes gift vouchers in US dollars. These are readily available on ebay, with about a 10% markup. Redeem the vouchers in itunes and set up a new account. As you are redeeming a voucher, no credit card details are requested. Bit of an pain at times, but it gives you access to rentals today!

You can set up a US paypal account and try to register various UK credit cards with it until one sticks. It charges $1 to each card - some just refuse as address doesn't match. others will block and phone you up, but some will just accept it. Virgin credit cards definately work.

Once your paypal account is set up you can set up a US itunes account with your US paypal account as the funding source. Anytime you buy on iunes it will take the amount from your US paypal account.

To avoid having paypal charge your Uk credit card every time you purchase and risk the address checking being setup just open a UK paypal account. Use this UK paypal account to send $50 at a time over to your US paypal account and your credit card never needs to be billed on the US side.

Works a treat for me and saves having to worry about gift cards and postage costs.
 
You can set up a US paypal account and try to register various UK credit cards with it until one sticks. It charges $1 to each card - some just refuse as address doesn't match. others will block and phone you up, but some will just accept it. Virgin credit cards definately work.

Once your paypal account is set up you can set up a US itunes account with your US paypal account as the funding source. Anytime you buy on iunes it will take the amount from your US paypal account.

To avoid having paypal charge your Uk credit card every time you purchase and risk the address checking being setup just open a UK paypal account. Use this UK paypal account to send $50 at a time over to your US paypal account and your credit card never needs to be billed on the US side.

Works a treat for me and saves having to worry about gift cards and postage costs.

I tried this first, but I could not get the account verified as my CC was based in the UK. I guess I was just unlucky with mine, good to know that it is possible though. Thanks
 
You can set up a US paypal account and try to register various UK credit cards with it until one sticks. It charges $1 to each card - some just refuse as address doesn't match. others will block and phone you up, but some will just accept it. Virgin credit cards definately work.

Once your paypal account is set up you can set up a US itunes account with your US paypal account as the funding source. Anytime you buy on iunes it will take the amount from your US paypal account.

To avoid having paypal charge your Uk credit card every time you purchase and risk the address checking being setup just open a UK paypal account. Use this UK paypal account to send $50 at a time over to your US paypal account and your credit card never needs to be billed on the US side.

Works a treat for me and saves having to worry about gift cards and postage costs.


Did you have to verify you US PayPal account and if so how did you do it? I'm hoping you dont have to because I've just managed to set an account up and add a UK credit card to it.
 
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