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Can I download Rented movies? (Incase my WiFi breaks when I'm watching)

E

ehzool

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 5, 2014
80
1
I have kind of slow internet, and I want to rent a movie to watch with my family but I don't want it to stop in the middle and dbuffer because my Wi-Fi sucks or even have it not play in HD. It would be very distracting.

I know on the iPhone you can download your rented movies, but I don't see this option on the Apple TV which seems like it should be very obvious to me.
 
You can only download the movies locally to your iPhone and/or iPad. Unfortunately you are unable to download rented movies to your Apple TV.
 
I haven't rented from iTunes for a while but why not rent it on your computer and then stream it to your :apple:TV from there? I believe that rental can fully download to the computer and then play fine to the local :apple:TV. Just don't start it until it's fully downloaded on the computer.

And at least with former models of :apple:TV, one could start the rental download, pause and wait until the whole movie was local before playing it.
 
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Would the Apple TV not cache the entire movie if you left it long enough? I'm pretty sure it does that when I play my purchased movies
 
HobeSoundDarryl said:
I haven't rented from iTunes for a while but why not rent it on your computer and then stream it to your :apple:TV from there? I believe that rental can fully download to the computer and then play fine to the local :apple:TV. Just don't start it until it's fully downloaded on the computer.

And at least with former models of :apple:TV, one could start the rental download, pause and wait until the whole movie was local before playing it.
Click to expand...
Wouldn't that stil be relying on my crappy Wi-Fi though? If the Wi-Fi breaks, then the movie stops?
 
ehzool said:
Wouldn't that stil be relying on my crappy Wi-Fi though? If the Wi-Fi breaks, then the movie stops?
Click to expand...

Niteflyr got it. If your wifi is unreliable because your broadband provider is:
  • not delivering consistently robust broadband, the problem is the pipe "outside" of your home.
  • delivering consistently robust broadband, the problem is the pipe "inside" of your home.
You can't easily fix the first problem unless you can change broadband providers or your current broadband provider does something to fix their problems.

You can probably easily fix the second problem by getting a better router or better cables, etc.

I'm guessing but I'm going to assume the first problem is the issue. Run speedtest and see if you have robust broadband to your home via a wired (ethernet) connection. If it is robust, go buy yourself a new router and your wifi issues will likely be solved. If your router is pretty old, a new one will bring latest & greatest wifi technology. If your router is pretty new, try moving it to a different position in your home and see if it improves your wifi reception. If it's close to your :apple:TV, connect it to your :apple:TV via a wired connection.

Note too that if you have a newer router but you have lots of people streaming lots of video via that same wifi, there's only so much wifi bandwidth to go around. If you don't have people living with you but you've shared your wifi password with a neighbor(s), they may be eating too much wifi bandwidth.

Once the rented video is downloaded to that computer in full, it will stream as fast as anything else can stream from that computer to your :apple:TV. If you try to do all that via wifi and it's slow, temporarily wire your computer to your router and, if possible, your router to your :apple:TV (cutting any dependency on wifi completely out of the equation).
 
niteflyr said:
This would work also. Start the movie and pause it until it caches into memory and then play it.
Click to expand...

As far as I know the Apple TV4 does not work like that. When my internet speed is acting up it doesn't matter how long I pause a show it does not buffer more than a few seconds in the AppleTV's memory. Say I'm watching Daredevil on Netflix and it keeps stuttering. I can pause the show for 10 minutes and go do something else, and when I come back and hit play it might end up stuttering a few seconds later, even though it should have had time to buffer at least a few minutes of video.

I really wish Apple would allow apps to download shows to the memory on the AppleTV. Netflix, HBO and others are starting to allow you to save their shows to your phones/tablets and watch later without relying on streaming. I would love to have that same ability on my AppleTV. Not to mention it would be nice to download some iTunes movies to it (even if I had to hook it up to my computer and sync them over) so I could take the Apple TV with me on business trips/vacation etc and have some movies with me to watch.
 
Only iTunes library will buffer to ATV I wish netflix and other apps would buffer also. I'm guessing that is an Apple imposed limitation.
 
OK, that's why I haven't noticed it. I download all my iTunes movies/shows to my desktop computer and use home sharing and the Computers App to watch them, I never stream those.
 
I may have misspoken there. You can see it buffering along the timeline bar while viewing home sharing library on computer app. Not sure about streaming now. Anybody have a definitive answer on iTunes streaming?
 
niteflyr said:
I may have misspoken there. You can see it buffering along the timeline bar while viewing home sharing library on computer app. Not sure about streaming now. Anybody have a definitive answer on iTunes streaming?
Click to expand...
Yes. This works with iTunes Movies Streaming. I do not use the computers app. Also, my Channels live TV App will buffer the entire show and allow pause, rew, ff. It is up to the app. Not a restriction by Apple. I have seen others apps as well. I wish PLEX would do it but just started using it and it does not appear to do it.
 
Hermes Monster said:
Would the Apple TV not cache the entire movie if you left it long enough? I'm pretty sure it does that when I play my purchased movies
Click to expand...

It does cache, then it would play directly from cache,, but don't think u'd wanna wait 10-20 minutes to cache a movie, before u start watching it.

Apple rentals do cache. but not sure if u still need a "connection" it won't download anything.. but i think the "connection" to server is still needed to verify..

e.g if u let the movie cache, then unplug internet connection, but leave router/cable modem connected on, would it still play ?

I know Home sharing it does that.. Takes a longer while to start, but it does start
 
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