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What have you rented on ATV and what did you think?

C

Chuck

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 3, 2003
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my first rental was 'Next' in SD (didn't think much of it) and then tonight we rented 'Mr Brooks' in HD, which was a bit gruesome but it kept you on the edge of your seat. We should have waited longer after it said 'your movie is ready to commence' because it caught up to the download about 6 times after that.

So what have you rented and what did you think?
 
We rented "Waitress" in SD -- looks like a DVD on our 46" LCD. Started watching about 2 minutes after clicking "OK". "Waitress" was a 3 stars out of 5 :)

Looking forward to our first HD download -- keep adding content Apple!!!

Rented "The Cooler" (SD) -- felt just like a DVD. 3.5 out of 5, definitely an R rating.
 
MacboobsPro said:
Hills have eyes 2 in HD. Good quality. Crap film.
Click to expand...

Indeed. I saw nearly 250 movies the year it came out, and though I have only walked out of a couple other films, this and "Wolf Creek" I came very close to leaving.

It's a bad sign when a group of TEENAGERS gets up and leaves a free screening saying, "Let's go; this is sick."
 
Rented my first and only movie last night: Dragonslayer in HD. To my surprise the Apple TV told me I could start watching about a minute or two after the movie began downloading. The movie took more than an hour to finish downloading (wasn't keeping track too thoroughly) but there were zero hitches in playback.

Picture and sound quality were great, though I only have a 23" 720p TV and my audio comes from the 2 built-in speakers. Picture quality was much better than I expected for a film from 1981 that hasn't had a digital restoration I'm aware of. There are some landscape shots in that flick that looked terrific in HD. Color, sharpness, detail...all better than upconverted DVDs or other iTunes movie purchases.

I don't have cable TV or a HD disc player (and won't be buying either for the foreseeable future) so I'm very happy AppleTV rentals appear to be so trouble-free. This certainly won't be my last rental!
 
I downloaded Priates of the C: At World's End in HD a few nights ago and finally had time to watch it last night.

It took about 3 hours to get to the 50% mark, when I stopped tracking it, so I assume it will take 6 hours to download a nearly 3 hour movie.

Anyway, I wasn't overly impressed with the video quality. I could see some graininess and my gf even asked if there was something wrong with the picture saying that it didn't look "clear" enough.

I suppose that Blu-Ray and HD-DVD has spoiled us somewhat.

The convenience is nice, but my Netflix account won't be cancelled anytime soon.
 
My girlfriend and I rented "I now pronounce you Chuck & Larry" [HD] the other night. Great picture quality on our 61" panasonic. We saw the movie in the theater... but it was still pretty funny the second time around.
 
I've rented 4 films so far, all SD and they looked great. Couldn't tell the difference from DVD quality on my 32" 720p LCD. Each one was ready to play within a minute or two from renting, and no interruptions or re-buffering. Having become fairly regular movie renters, we couldn't be happier with this service.
 
Rented "The Brave One" in HD

Great film, great quality I was very happy with the experience. Goodbye video store...
 
Rented Sunshine (SD was only option) and it looked as good as (maybe better?) than DVD on our Panny 50" 1080p plasma. We also rented Next in HD. Awesome! I don't have a BD or HD DVD player as I am waiting for the technology to mature a little so I can't compare, but the HD download is definitely better than DVD and Dishnetwork HD.
 
I have rented 300 HD. Crap movie, IMHO but the quality was nice. It only took about 2 min to buffer enough to play on my 7 MB cable connection. Good bye movie store and I also will not be buying a Blu-ray player now until they are below the $100 mark. Thank you Apple!



We were at Target last night and my wife said "no more DVDs, thats so old fashioned... we can just rent it on AppleTV"...... This was great to hear since I had to convince her we should get one. You can't beat the convienance.
 
I rented a movie for my kids this evening. Was going to do an HD title but they vetoed the kid movies available (I hope the selection improves quickly) and they noticed the Aristocats at the bottom of the screen as one that similiar people liked (I think we were in the Preview screen of Ratatoulle or however you spell it), so we chose that. It looked fine...nothing great, but about what I would have expected from a non-HD movie. It was easy, quick, the movie began within seconds and was easy to navigate. I'll rent again, for convenience, if nothing else. Hopefully, I can try out an HD movie soon, but I didn't feel like manipulating my kids to test out the Apple TV.

We are Netflix folks and I am not sure how that will play out in the future. Apple will have to really increase the content and perhaps the watching time (from when we begin the movie) for it to eradicate Netflix completely.
 
Simpsons in HD.

Pretty positive experience so far. Looked great, no studdering, stereo kicked in the 5.1 surround.

Only the first movie so far, but It was ready to start in about a minute or two. I let it buffer up about 10% before I started it (less than 5 minutes).

After I finished watching it, it said I had 22 hours left on the rental, so I didn't see the 12 hour issue that others are reporting.

I'll have to check it again tomorrow.
 
First movie was 'The Whole Nine Yards' in HD. Started watching in a minute after purchase. Picture quality was good considering it's an old flick.

We then rented 'Next' in HD. Horrible ending. We were shouting 'boo' at the TV. Again started watching in about a minute after purchasing. Picture quality was very good.

Side note I love the latest version of VisualHub as I can watch my movies in 5.1 sound on the Apple TV. Watching 'Serenity' on it as I type this.
 
The Brave One and The Bounty

Both were SD. To my eye, both looked like DVD quality. I had them fully downloaded before I started, so no issue with stuttering, etc. Sound was good.

In contrast to the fellow above who thought The Brave One was a good film... I thought it was interminable. And I even like Jodie Foster!

I think I am going to be using this rental service a lot, based on first impressions. I hope that Apple keeps adding films regularly. Selection seems a bit skimpy for now.
 
kbunch said:
We were at Target last night and my wife said "no more DVDs, thats so old fashioned... we can just rent it on AppleTV"...... This was great to hear since I had to convince her we should get one. You can't beat the convienance.
Click to expand...

For renting movies, it's great. But if you want to watch them multiple times than you are still stuck getting the DVD (and maybe ripping it if you don't want to juggle discs).
 
I rented Transformers in HD. I watched it on my Pioneer Elite 950. I don’t own a Blu-Ray player and have only seen them in stores. I saw some graininess, but still the picture and sound were amazing. Besides isn’t it a compressed file? Anyway, I love renting movies from my couch. Way to go Apple! I definitely won’t be buying a Blu-Ray anytime soon.
 
I rented Fantastic Four Rise of Silver Surfer in HD. Movie wasn't all that great, but I was truly impressed by the quality of the HD presentation, even during the fast-action sequences it looked great.
 
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It's fantastic getting everyone else's first renting experiences, both in technical and moviemaking quality.

Like another poster above, I had a hard time convincing my wife to get it, and then yesterday overheard her raving about it to her friend in the phone about how it was 'the way of the future etc'... Gotta love that :)

I've just downloaded The Simpsons Movie in SD, because I was thinking that HD for an animation like this wouldn't improve the picture much at all... Anyone else have thoughts on this?

Chuck
 
Haven't got an Apple TV, but I rented Master and Commander ($2.99) for my Amtrak trip tomorrow from new york to DC and will watch it on my MacBook Pro. The download flew!
 
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