I love my AppleTV's, but I've only used them before with content I own in iTunes. So tonight I decided to try a rental. I want to love the 
TV rentals, I really do, but my first experience is less than perfect.
I rented Tootsie. The quality was very good, better than I expected, particularly for a movie from the 80's. It started downloading but then wouldn't play until the bar said 100%, and I watched it for an hour (1 hour 9 minutes and 33 seconds to be exact). Then it froze, I went back to the menu and then re-played from resume, nothing, tried playing, pausing fast forwarding, nothing... Finally, I rewound a few minutes and it worked, but only for a minute then it did the same thing, so I rewound again, this time I skipped back one chapter, it notified me that the time to watch had expired... Then when I escapes to menu to play resume, it had reverted to downloading again and was at 64%, and would not play until its at 100%. Tried playing again, and it stopped, and now is back at 64%, and is Waiting to Download, whatever that means. And it won't play at all. So my first experience with Apple TV movie rental was not the best.
I'm guessing that 100% doesn't mean 100% downloaded, but 100% buffered, ready to play, and that my net connection wasn't fast enough, and I reached the end of the buffer? Even though it clearly says Downloaded %. I'm using AT&T (formerly BellSouth) FastAccess DSL, 3 Mbps down, should be fast enough, but who knows... thoughts anyone?
EDIT: Problem solved. I switched to Comcast cable internet - MUCH faster speeds - and movies on AppleTV work PERFECTLY. Even HD movies play within seconds with NO stopping.
TV rentals, I really do, but my first experience is less than perfect.I rented Tootsie. The quality was very good, better than I expected, particularly for a movie from the 80's. It started downloading but then wouldn't play until the bar said 100%, and I watched it for an hour (1 hour 9 minutes and 33 seconds to be exact). Then it froze, I went back to the menu and then re-played from resume, nothing, tried playing, pausing fast forwarding, nothing... Finally, I rewound a few minutes and it worked, but only for a minute then it did the same thing, so I rewound again, this time I skipped back one chapter, it notified me that the time to watch had expired... Then when I escapes to menu to play resume, it had reverted to downloading again and was at 64%, and would not play until its at 100%. Tried playing again, and it stopped, and now is back at 64%, and is Waiting to Download, whatever that means. And it won't play at all. So my first experience with Apple TV movie rental was not the best.
I'm guessing that 100% doesn't mean 100% downloaded, but 100% buffered, ready to play, and that my net connection wasn't fast enough, and I reached the end of the buffer? Even though it clearly says Downloaded %. I'm using AT&T (formerly BellSouth) FastAccess DSL, 3 Mbps down, should be fast enough, but who knows... thoughts anyone?
EDIT: Problem solved. I switched to Comcast cable internet - MUCH faster speeds - and movies on AppleTV work PERFECTLY. Even HD movies play within seconds with NO stopping.