Vote Yes to iTunes Rentals

[pjarvi]

I already rent movies with the Xbox 360, so renting through iTunes is a no-brainer for me. The only issue Apple and the movie studios need to address is quantity and quality. There are way too few movies available on iTunes, and most of what's there is mediocre at best. Also, what about Unrated versions of movies? Microsoft offers them, but will Apple?

 

[Dont Hurt Me]

Its interesting to say the least and I vote yes because I like to rent movies even though we own them too. Consumer is King.

 

[je1ani]

I use netflix and I love it. Although I wish they included the bonus discs when they send them

 

[Apollo33]

I can easily go to the nearest grocery store and rent pretty much any recent DVD for just $1 per day. That's the entire DVD with bonus features, commentary, and everything. What will you get with Apple's service? Crappy quality that still (somehow) manages to take up 1GB (if the TV show downloads are any indication). I'm still amazed by how crappy Apple's quality is, compared to how much space it takes up.

You'll spend most of your rental time likely downloading the thing (granted, your "rental" will probably begin when you first play the movie or transfer it to an iPod.) I'm not really interested in paying money to download some crazy DRMed rental file that will only play via iTunes or an iPod, especially when I could just as cheaply (if not cheaper, as I've heard some rumblings that Apple may charge $2 for 1 day rentals) get a DVD that will play on my PC or in my DVD player. (or even any portable DVD player, if I had one)

 

[flyinmac]

I can easily go to the nearest grocery store and rent pretty much any recent DVD for just $1 per day. That's the entire DVD with bonus features, commentary, and everything. What will you get with Apple's service? Crappy quality that still (somehow) manages to take up 1GB (if the TV show downloads are any indication). I'm still amazed by how crappy Apple's quality is, compared to how much space it takes up.

You'll spend most of your rental time likely downloading the thing (granted, your "rental" will probably begin when you first play the movie or transfer it to an iPod.) I'm not really interested in paying money to download some crazy DRMed rental file that will only play via iTunes or an iPod, especially when I could just as cheaply (if not cheaper, as I've heard some rumblings that Apple may charge $2 for 1 day rentals) get a DVD that will play on my PC or in my DVD player. (or even any portable DVD player, if I had one)

Exactly

 

[Yvan256]

I think you are in the minority. I don't know anyone who has a limited data plan with broadband. Are you in the US?

Anyway, I'm all for a movie rental service, but I need to be able to put it on my iPhone, use on Apple-TV, etc. It also will have to be for at least a week (for traveling, etc) for it to get much use by me.

I also have monthly limits for my DSL connection. A combined download+upload of 35GB per month. After that it's 10$ per extra GB. Yes you read that right.

And I have no other ISP available in my area, either.

 

[Willis]

I feel this has gone a bit off topic with talk about broadband prices.. (speaking of which, I pay £25/month for 8MB ADSL (actual ~6MB) with unlimited DL's. So you americans are getting ripped off!!)

In terms of Movie rentals... I dont know... It'd be nice to download you film, but as mentioned, it will depend on the quality. And then to get full use out of it, you will need TV...

cost effective??

 

[flyinmac]

I also have monthly limits for my DSL connection. A combined download+upload of 35GB per month. After that it's 10$ per extra GB. Yes you read that right.

And I have no other ISP available in my area, either.

Wow, you get 35 GB. I only get 10 GB per month. After I transfer 10 GB, then I have to pay $15 per Gigabyte.

Your plan sounds much better (by comparison). Transfer limits suck.

As long as there are limits in monthly transfers / downloads, the Internet will fail to take off as the primary means of obtaining movies.

 

[flyinmac]

I feel this has gone a bit off topic with talk about broadband prices.. (speaking of which, I pay £25/month for 8MB ADSL (actual ~6MB) with unlimited DL's. So you americans are getting ripped off!!)

In terms of Movie rentals... I dont know... It'd be nice to download you film, but as mentioned, it will depend on the quality. And then to get full use out of it, you will need TV...

cost effective??

With the conversion rates (to U.S. Dollars), what you are paying (for your 8MB ADSL) comes out to approximately what I am paying for my 256K (yes that's K) ADSL connection with a 10 GB transfer limit.

The best I can upgrade to with ADSL is 768K and to get unlimited downloads (only available with the 768K package), I would have to spend $140 U.S. Dollars a month (approximately £71/month).

I disagree with your assessment of transfer limits being off-topic. The reason they are important in terms of this discussion, is because transfer limits effectively make the concept of video downloads completely unattractive and unaffordable.

Transfer limits effectively make downloading the movies much more expensive than using a home delivery service or buying / renting them at the local store (just a few blocks away).

If I can walk to the local store in a few minutes, and buy or rent a high-quality DVD version of the movie, then why would I pay the same price for a lower quality version when I have to download it and then pay the additional fees incurred by my ISP for the download volume.

The total cost and quality comparison is a valid discussion when discussing whether or not online rentals and purchases are practical or worthwhile.

 

[Willis]

With the conversion rates (to U.S. Dollars), what you are paying (for your 8MB ADSL) comes out to approximately what I am paying for my 256K (yes that's K) ADSL connection with a 10 GB transfer limit.

The best I can upgrade to with ADSL is 768K and to get unlimited downloads (only available with the 768K package), I would have to spend $140 U.S. Dollars a month (approximately £71/month).

I disagree with your assessment of transfer limits being off-topic. The reason they are important in terms of this discussion, is because transfer limits effectively make the concept of video downloads completely unattractive and unaffordable.

Transfer limits effectively make downloading the movies much more expensive than using a home delivery service or buying / renting them at the local store (just a few blocks away).

If I can walk to the local store in a few minutes, and buy or rent a high-quality DVD version of the movie, then why would I pay the same price for a lower quality version when I have to download it and then pay the additional fees incurred by my ISP for the download volume.

The total cost and quality comparison is a valid discussion when discussing whether or not online rentals and purchases are practical or worthwhile.

My point was about standard pricing. It seems you americans also get swindled with fees too. We have download limits too, but if you exceed them, I think your internet speed is throttled down, or you're charged per/MB. Not too sure. Because im a heavy online user, we've always had unlimited use, but even that can be limited if it exceeds fair use policy.. *sigh*

In response to your internet prices, we have much better deals here. You can get Cable Broadband speeds upto 60MB with Virgin media I think it is for about £50 a month... now thats insane!

 

[flyinmac]

My point was about standard pricing. It seems you americans also get swindled with fees too. We have download limits too, but if you exceed them, I think your internet speed is throttled down, or you're charged per/MB. Not too sure. Because im a heavy online user, we've always had unlimited use, but even that can be limited if it exceeds fair use policy.. *sigh*

In response to your internet prices, we have much better deals here. You can get Cable Broadband speeds upto 60MB with Virgin media I think it is for about £50 a month... now thats insane!

You have some amazing packages there. The prices you can get are just impressive.

I can't get past the K speeds with DSL here. And you're talking about MB. And, you can get those speeds so much cheaper than I can get the K speeds.

Yes, I know that isn't necessarily worded the best way. But, I would be all for the idea of movie downloads if I could get speeds and unlimited downloads at those prices.

 

[Willis]

You have some amazing packages there. The prices you can get are just impressive.

I can't get past the K speeds with DSL here. And you're talking about MB. And, you can get those speeds so much cheaper than I can get the K speeds.

Yes, I know that isn't necessarily worded the best way. But, I would be all for the idea of movie downloads if I could get speeds and unlimited downloads at those prices.

wow, i remember those days here in the UK ~2001... for 128k - 1MB used to be between £14-40 a month. These were also unlimited, then later came more options and the monthly allowances.

I have to say, its seems monthly download limits are subject to suitable broadband, and at the end of the day, that is down to your ISP.

 

[flyinmac]

wow, i remember those days here in the UK ~2001... for 128k - 1MB used to be between £14-40 a month. These were also unlimited, then later came more options and the monthly allowances.

I have to say, its seems monthly download limits are subject to suitable broadband, and at the end of the day, that is down to your ISP.

Yep, definitely determined by the provider. Unfortunately, we only have two available. I can get cable with higher speeds (up to 3 MB). But, their prices start even higher than the DSL prices.

With cable, they start at 64K (yes K) as in barely faster than a dial-up modem, and that costs about what I'm paying now for my slow 256K DSL package.

They won't even consider offering unlimited Cable Internet unless I get Cable television with every channel they offer, Cable telephone, use them for my long distance provider, and then take whatever other services they offer. If I buy every package they offer and every service they offer, then I can get unlimited downloads from the cable company. But, by then I'm up around $200 or more every month (around £102 or more).

Of course, if I spend that much on the service provider, I can't afford to purchase any content / movies

I did use cable several years ago before the current company took over the local cable provider. But, the current company always hits you with fraudulent charges for things you didn't do, and then you have to argue with them for 6 months to get them reversed. They always have one or more "accidental" mess-ups every month. And, then they agree to fix it and don't. You end up in perpetual circles.

I almost switched to them again a few years ago in a time of desperation. But, before they even arrived to connect anything to the new house, they started billing me for things I had supposedly done, although I didn't have service and couldn't even possibly use yet.

I canceled right then, and still spent months arguing to get the false charges reversed.

So, I use the only other option here, and that's the DSL. But, even they are expensive for what I get.

 

[termina3]

We already pay $40 or so a month for what we have. It would cost me another $100 to step up to a plan without limits (everything between that range just increases speed).

I'm in Texas, and we pay ~$55/mo (incld. equipment rentals) for what ends up being a cable T1 connection (few 'net users in neighborhood; I somehow pickup extra bandwith). Absolutely no caps whatsoever. We're also cable customers. When we signed up, it was with TimeWarner, but now we're under Comcast.

(ComCast) that are constantly pushed to their desktop as long as they have a browser window open.

...

Unlike my ISP which just charges me extra, ComCast will actually turn off your service and boot you from their customer list if you actually use their service too much.

I've never had an issue with Comcast pushing ads. I'd suspect a virus/adware.

As mentioned, my Comcast subscription won't shut off; no limits.