iTunes Movie Rentals Beyond 24 Hours

[THX1139]

If you can't finish watching a movie within 24 hours, I feel sorry for you. It illustrates a lot of what is wrong with society today. People have so much crammed in their lives that they can't sit down for a few hours and chill. Once I start a movie, I finish it... unless it sucks. I can't imagine having to go back the next night to finish it, unless I start it over. But it has to be a good movie for me to to that! Some of you posters are actually asking for 3 days to watch a movie and I think that's borderline pathetic. If you can't find a few hours out of your week to enjoy a movie, then I suggest you examine your priorities and kick a few things off your to-do lists.

 

[cisco1138]

I understand why Blockbuster would limit the rental and then charge more if you keep it longer than the agreed amount of time, they need that DVD back so they can rent it again. VOD doesn't require anything back from us and I don't see how they will loose money if we keep the file a few days longer.

What if they offered "erase as you watch"? The part of the movie you have already seen goes POOF a minute after you view it, and they give you 30 days to complete the entire movie, but you will only get to view it once.

Just a thought...

 

[JonHimself]

I understand why Blockbuster would limit the rental and then charge more if you keep it longer than the agreed amount of time, they need that DVD back so they can rent it again. VOD doesn't require anything back from us and I don't see how they will loose money if we keep the file a few days longer.

What if they offered "erase as you watch"? The part of the movie you have already seen goes POOF a minute after you view it, and they give you 30 days to complete the entire movie, but you will only get to view it once.

Just a thought...

Then people will complain that if they had a time limit they could watch it over again, or someone else in the house could watch it over again. There really is no solution that everyone will be satisfied with (consumers and studios). I think 48 hours is a good limit, it gives you two nights while not letting you have a movie for a week. Then again, I'm ok with that, I'm sure that some people would see 48 hours as too restricting and others would argue that you shouldn't need more than one night.

 

[Padriac]

I personally tried the pause trick on the AppleTV with an HD (AppleTV) rental. When I tried to resume the movie 10 hours after expiration I was greeted with a "this movie has expired" screen.

 

[Padriac]

If you can't finish watching a movie within 24 hours, I feel sorry for you. It illustrates a lot of what is wrong with society today. People have so much crammed in their lives that they can't sit down for a few hours and chill. Once I start a movie, I finish it... unless it sucks. I can't imagine having to go back the next night to finish it, unless I start it over. But it has to be a good movie for me to to that! Some of you posters are actually asking for 3 days to watch a movie and I think that's borderline pathetic. If you can't find a few hours out of your week to enjoy a movie, then I suggest you examine your priorities and kick a few things off your to-do lists.

People with kids (especially newborns) really have no control over when they have free time or not... they fit it in when possible.

 

[gr8tfly]

Then people will complain that if they had a time limit they could watch it over again, or someone else in the house could watch it over again. There really is no solution that everyone will be satisfied with (consumers and studios). I think 48 hours is a good limit, it gives you two nights while not letting you have a movie for a week. Then again, I'm ok with that, I'm sure that some people would see 48 hours as too restricting and others would argue that you shouldn't need more than one night.

24 hours DOES give you two nights (see above. or, well, even the OP). If you start it before the end of the 24hr, you can complete the movie. You could start it the first night at 8pm, then start it again, at 7:59pm. The closest I've verified this was 30 minutes before the clock ran down, and it worked just as described here.

 

[ATG]

The 24 thing, even with this loophole, is an absurdity! Does someone really think there's going to be a significant loss of revenue if the renter is give 72 hours? This is just utter nonsense. With Children and work interruptions in my life, I just can't plan my life this precisely and can never rent a video because of this. Netflix for the win.

They aren't loopholes. Somebody coded that alert box, the pause timeout and the "please finish watching" notice.

I think an extra 6 hours would really help. THen you can start the first half at 8pm and finish the rest at 9pm the next day. Hopefully they will have extended it a bit by the time it comes over here.

 

[schimanke]

Hi there,

I have found a way to extend the 24h limit of a started movie over the complete 30 days rental time. You can read the instructions in my blog: http://www.schimanke.com/index.php?/archives/192-Two-tricks-for-iTunes-movie-rentals.html

Regards from Germany,
Flo

 

[kkat69]

If you can't watch a movie within 24hrs then DON'T RENT IT UNTIL YOU CAN!

Good lord, bunch of whiney babies.

 

[schimanke]

Good point! But if you use my method you can watch it even as often as you want during the 30 days period. I know that this is not what Steve intended with rental movies but hey, if you just want to watch it once, just do it! This is just an option for those who want to watch it several times or not just within 24 hours...

 

[Roller]

If you can't finish watching a movie within 24 hours, I feel sorry for you. It illustrates a lot of what is wrong with society today. People have so much crammed in their lives that they can't sit down for a few hours and chill. Once I start a movie, I finish it... unless it sucks. I can't imagine having to go back the next night to finish it, unless I start it over. But it has to be a good movie for me to to that! Some of you posters are actually asking for 3 days to watch a movie and I think that's borderline pathetic. If you can't find a few hours out of your week to enjoy a movie, then I suggest you examine your priorities and kick a few things off your to-do lists.

That would make sense if life were as predictable as you imply. The problem isn't the length of my to-do list - I can handle that - but rather the unpredictable events that take unplanned time.

You're also not accounting for the fact that different people in a household may want to watch a movie separately, on their own schedules. That's tough to do with the 24-hour limit, "pause and continue" notwithstanding.

 

[ScottFitz]

Or keep using Netflix and keep the movie how ever many days you want. 24 hour rental is a joke.

 

[symlink]

I don't even understand why there is a 24 hour window. Movie rental places need the movie back so they can rent it again - since its a physical disk.

However, with this system, they could easily give us 48 hours - and it doesn't affect anyone else.

 

[macFanDave]

Technically, can’t you just keep returning back to the beginning of the movie before the movie ends (before the credits) and keep it on a infinite loop?

My wife started watching the last hour of a movie starting at about the 23rd hour of our window. After it got to the credits, I rewound the movie to near the beginning to recheck facts and catch dialogue I missed the first time. I guess I went about 10-15 minutes past the deadline with no interruptions. When I stopped it, it said that the rental had expired and I could continue watching or let it go.

I guess, in principle, you could keep looping, but I'd guess that at some point, they'd cut you off.

 

[macFanDave]

Simple solution

While an extended viewing period (27, 30, 36, 48, 72 hours) is the best solution for the consumers, one must remember that Apple has to live by the amended version of the slogan, "The customer's always right*"

*except when the greedy, money-grubbing bastards at the movie studios say otherwise.

So, if those MoFo's want money, give 'em money!

Within one week of the end of the original rental, you can buy a 6-hour extension for $0.50. Buying the extension gives you another week to buy another one.

Why is this not great for everyone involved?

 

[StrongBad]

in my very humble (but very correct) opinion, the movie experience (plot, story, dialogue, etc) is lost if you stop the movie and restart it. As a film maker, I'd be PISSED OFF if you stopped my movie and came back 20+ hours later and attempted to follow the story. I bet you are the same people that ask questions in movie theaters ("is that the bad guy?" / "didn't she just leave him?")

I wonder how many people tried to take a several hour break in the middle of some great movies like Memento, The Usual Suspects, Primer, or Fight Club and when they were over, formed the opinion they just watched a bad movies since they weren't able to get 'lost' in it.

Welcome to America. Home of the "I don't have enough time to do my own lawn work, drive without talking on the phone, cook a real dinner, or watch a 2 hour movie". Land of the one hour photo, fast food, and 30 minutes or less.

I should move to Canada, eh?

 

[freeny]

Glad to hear about the lag time but i still have reservations that i will at least commit to "start finishing" in 24 hours.

I watch movies on my commute to and from work. At times it will take me several days to finish a movie. Sometimes im tired and dont want to finish a movie in consecutive days. even with the extended time I will feel pressured to to do so in fear of losing the movie i paid to watch.

Either extend the time to 48 hours or make it allow you to watch the whole movie once no matter how long it takes...

When a time comes up that I know i will finish the movie in one sitting i will try the service, but until then i feel it will be a gamble.

Apple needs to put in print exactly how the service works as far as warnings, lag time etc... until then its all just speculation on one persons experiments.

 

[CaptainHaddock]

The logic escapes me.

I still don't get it. If I lived in a region where rentals were available (and I don't), how would enforcing a 24-hour limit make me more likely to rent a movie than a 7-day limit, or no limit at all? It makes me much less likely to rent. Do they think they'll make up the lost sales by tricking me into renting the same movie twice if I miss the first deadline?

In short, how does a 24-hour deadline make Apple or the studios more money? If a short deadline does have that magical effect, why not make it 12 hours? 6 hours?

Morons. Bit-torrent has no expiry date.

 

[twoodcc]

well that's nice to know. so you can kinda trick the system.

 

[njchris]

To summarize: people should rent movies when they're fairly confident they have the time to watch it without distractions. If you need more than 24 hours to watch a 2 hour movie, the problem lies not with Apple, but with you. Spin it however you want, that's the nuts and bolts of it.

Those people that the 24 hour window doesn't fit their lifestyle WONT be renting movies this way. That would mean potential revenue loss. Extending the viewing period to 48-72 hours would BRING IN more revenue. They can still limit the # of viewings if they want.

And just because you end your post with the "spin it however you want, that's the nuts and bolts of it" does not mean anyone with another opinion or idea is wrong. As if your say is the final word and anyone else is wrong no matter what.

I don't see why people push back so hard for having a longer window. I don't see why you are so against it. What harm would it be to your perfect ability to watch within 24 hours if it was longer? You can still watch it in 24 hours, since you handle time management so wonderfully. It will just let those other unfortunate slobs who can't have an option.

 

[mrrory]

This may be for another thread, but I rented Training Day in HD last night, started watching within a couple of minutes, but it was not surround sound... Very disappointing. It would be good if this information was available before downloading a movie.

 

[jettredmont]

You are my hero. Thank you for writing this.

The problem is not the 24 hour limit. The problem is poor time management.

No, the problem is an entertainment service requiring more precise time management than a huge minority of people possess.

There are lots of avenues for entertainment. Most of them let me live my life the way I see fit instead of requiring I block out a solid time interval to bask in their presence. Hell, even my books don't complain about getting 30 minutes of attention a night spread out over several months per novel. And they're an uppity lot.

Again: 2 hours is usually plenty to watch a 2-hour movie. However, a small yet significant fraction of the time, the movie needs to be cut short one day and completed one or more days in the future (more often 1 day in the future than multiple days in the future, but a similar ratio as above). Relying on a device retaining power and my foresight to pause rather than stop a movie on the first day adds risk to the issue.

 

[jettredmont]

If you can't finish watching a movie within 24 hours, I feel sorry for you. It illustrates a lot of what is wrong with society today. People have so much crammed in their lives that they can't sit down for a few hours and chill. Once I start a movie, I finish it... unless it sucks. I can't imagine having to go back the next night to finish it, unless I start it over. But it has to be a good movie for me to to that! Some of you posters are actually asking for 3 days to watch a movie and I think that's borderline pathetic. If you can't find a few hours out of your week to enjoy a movie, then I suggest you examine your priorities and kick a few things off your to-do lists.

Why would sitting passively absorbing the content of a movie take priority over, say, spending time with our children and at paying jobs? It seems that you are perhaps the one who should examine priorities.

 

[mozmac]

The other thing I noticed is Steve said they would have new releases 30 days after DVD release but I think there are some new releases on there that just came out on DVD, like "No Reservations". Didn't that just get released this week on DVD???

Yes, I was confused about that, too. Anyone else know why this is on there? Is the "30 days after DVD release" not being enforced? Or is it a term set on a movie studio basis?

 

[Doctor Q]

Technically, can’t you just keep returning back to the beginning of the movie before the movie ends (before the credits) and keep it on a infinite loop?

I think the answer is yes. In that way, it's like the Netflix one-at-a-time plan, where you can watch one movie over and over but can't move on to the next one until you are done with the current one.