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What are the advantages of ATV Movie rentals over Pay Per View?
- Thread starter TheBonk
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With ATV, you have a much wider selection of movies from which you can choose. With PPV, it's pretty much whatever is available that week.
As previously posted, you have a much broader selection and you have 30 days to start watching the movie when renting off the AppleTV. With Pay Per View you have to watch it straight away.
I can't do that with mine (Cox Communications). I seriously doubt you could do that with any other cable company, either.
What cable company are you on? Comcast DVRs will not allow you to record PPV movies, whether purchased or free.
Advatanges I see to Apple TV (some already mentioned):
- (Hopefully) better selection, it will take some time but should happen soon enough.
- Better quality. My cable company ppv is full screen average quality. On apple tv you will get widescreen dvd quality and in (hopefully) many cases hd. My cable company has hd ppv but literally has about 20 titles to choose from.
- More convenient interface. the new apple tv interface looks great, can't wait to try it.
Agree with other poster, i cannot record ppv to my dvr.
The selection is key for me, i can't be bothered with systems where they usually don't have what i am looking for. after that it is picture quality. both of these should be superior with the apple tv. I already have 3 of them so it makes it easy for me
Peter
- (Hopefully) better selection, it will take some time but should happen soon enough.
- Better quality. My cable company ppv is full screen average quality. On apple tv you will get widescreen dvd quality and in (hopefully) many cases hd. My cable company has hd ppv but literally has about 20 titles to choose from.
- More convenient interface. the new apple tv interface looks great, can't wait to try it.
Agree with other poster, i cannot record ppv to my dvr.
The selection is key for me, i can't be bothered with systems where they usually don't have what i am looking for. after that it is picture quality. both of these should be superior with the apple tv. I already have 3 of them so it makes it easy for me
Peter
Advatanges I see to Apple TV (some already mentioned):
- (Hopefully) better selection, it will take some time but should happen soon enough.
- Better quality. My cable company ppv is full screen average quality. On apple tv you will get widescreen dvd quality and in (hopefully) many cases hd. My cable company has hd ppv but literally has about 20 titles to choose from.
- More convenient interface. the new apple tv interface looks great, can't wait to try it.
Agree with other poster, i cannot record ppv to my dvr.
The selection is key for me, i can't be bothered with systems where they usually don't have what i am looking for. after that it is picture quality. both of these should be superior with the apple tv. I already have 3 of them so it makes it easy for me
Peter
You can also watch said movie on your computer, your ipod or your iPhone. So it is much much more versatile.
Kevin
Comcast charges $3.99 for an older movie.$4.99 for a recent one.
ATV is $2.99 and $3.99
Comcast charges $5.99 for HD movies
ATV charges $4.99
ATV is $2.99 and $3.99
Comcast charges $5.99 for HD movies
ATV charges $4.99
You can also watch said movie on your computer, your ipod or your iPhone. So it is much much more versatile.
Kevin
Not if its rented on AppleTV - those stay on it and can not be synced back to anything. This is for the higher res SD and HD. You can rent a lower res iPod compatible movie on iTunes and play it on any apple devise but its quality will not be as good as the ones available via the AppleTV rentals.
I really cant see the excitement about movie rentals. I would much rather by to own. I havent rented a movie for over 25 years and wont start now (not that iTunes has videos in Germany).
I dont agree with his Stevieness that people only watch a movie once. Some of my favorites I have watched so often I could almost recite them, lol
I dont agree with his Stevieness that people only watch a movie once. Some of my favorites I have watched so often I could almost recite them, lol
yes, I agree. I have watched some of my favourite movies 20-30 times. But rentals, I think, are for movies you have never seen before and for that reason, I think its very good.
The ATV interface for controlling a movie is much better than my DirectTV box. DTV's is not very precise and frustrating. Also, I won't have to worry about the movie stopping before it's over or playback glitches - problems inherent to the DTV HDDVR since I got it last Feb. (almost a year now) and through I don't know how many firmware updates.
Plus, the movie selection will be vastly improved. On launch, the number of HD movies (100?) will blow away the weekly offerings, not to mention the SD library.
One disadvantage I noticed was the time from DVD availability to iTunes rental - 30 days. DirecTV (and probably other PPV) seem to get them sooner, but not by much.
I'm counting the days to thetv update!
btw: I can save recorded PPV's on the DVR drive as long as I wish. But, if it's something I really enjoy, I will buy the DVD or Blu-Ray disk anyway.M any times, it's worth it for the extras, too (if you're into that). I don't really see it as much of a plus for DTV.
Plus, the movie selection will be vastly improved. On launch, the number of HD movies (100?) will blow away the weekly offerings, not to mention the SD library.
One disadvantage I noticed was the time from DVD availability to iTunes rental - 30 days. DirecTV (and probably other PPV) seem to get them sooner, but not by much.
I'm counting the days to the
tv update!btw: I can save recorded PPV's on the DVR drive as long as I wish. But, if it's something I really enjoy, I will buy the DVD or Blu-Ray disk anyway.M any times, it's worth it for the extras, too (if you're into that). I don't really see it as much of a plus for DTV.
No, both. Which is absolutely ridiculous.
Also, the SD on the iTunes Store for Rentals is better quality than there purchases. They have provided Anamorphic Encoding now with higher bitrates (for the newer releases it appears anyway, I have only tested Simpsons and Windtalkers). The Simpsons was DVD Quality hands down (the file played back at 853xN (forgot the horizontal number).
Likewise. When Steve said people only watch a movie once, it made sense, but the more I think about it, I've seen some movies dozens of times - and some movies I watch every time they appear on the movie channels.
I've found I'm often too lazy to put a DVD on, but if I can watch it with the flick of a button, I'll watch it time and again.
So paying to watch it just once doesn't appeal to me. In fact, given they're so convinced people only watch movies once, why do Apple bother limiting the rental to just one day?
Recording VOD
Actually, you can record VOD on many cable systems. But you can't do it with the CableCo's DVR.
What you need is a 3rd Party DVR with QAM. My Sony DHG-HDD250 fits the bill. Here's how you do it.
From a Digital STB or DVR, rent the VOD movie/show that you want to watch. From a separate QAM-DVR, tune into the channel that is playing the VOD stream. Record using the QAM-DVR. Viola.
Not as elegant as the Dish DVR, I guess, but it'll work.
ft
Actually, you can record VOD on many cable systems. But you can't do it with the CableCo's DVR.
What you need is a 3rd Party DVR with QAM. My Sony DHG-HDD250 fits the bill. Here's how you do it.
From a Digital STB or DVR, rent the VOD movie/show that you want to watch. From a separate QAM-DVR, tune into the channel that is playing the VOD stream. Record using the QAM-DVR. Viola.
Not as elegant as the Dish DVR, I guess, but it'll work.
ft
Cablevision charges $10 a month for the right to rent PPV movies. Then its another $5 or $6 above that per movie. I found out the hard way when my kids were using the Free on Demand and made the mistake of ordering a movie. They were nice enough to refund the $10 fee, but I felt violated for charging me to rent a movie with a monthly fee besides.
I'm not a huge renter, but I run down to Blockbuster and rent a movie on "Family night" when there's nothing on Cable. This might be a nice alternative.
The cable companies are stupid, as they are in a unique position of making it easy instead of jamming you with fees. Between Cable and Internet access I'm already spending about $160 / month.
I don't think the 24 hour thing is such a big deal, as this is an impulse purchase.
I already have an ATV, so this is a no brainer. I'll try it and see how it goes.
I'm not a huge renter, but I run down to Blockbuster and rent a movie on "Family night" when there's nothing on Cable. This might be a nice alternative.
The cable companies are stupid, as they are in a unique position of making it easy instead of jamming you with fees. Between Cable and Internet access I'm already spending about $160 / month.
I don't think the 24 hour thing is such a big deal, as this is an impulse purchase.
I already have an ATV, so this is a no brainer. I'll try it and see how it goes.
i'm on comcast and have no issue recording a ppv movie. just order it. then hit the record button as its playing.
One "feature" I didn't see mentioned over PPV is the ability to watch a movie when you want.
I am a DTV subscriber and check out the PPV movies from time to time. When I look at the guide there always seems to be a movie that started "45 minutes ago" that I wanted to see and then isn't on the rest of the night. With ATV you almost get on demand PPV in a sense. I can see myself using the rental feature of ATV as a substitute for DTVs PPV.
SR