Movie rental up and running in the UK

EVH said:
...but don't forget.. when you buy a DVD you're only buying a license to watch that film in that format.. you don't own anything (other than the media it came on) :o
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That's the problem. When I buy a book I can read it, sell it, use it for toilet paper, and so on. Yet when I buy a DVD or Music CD I can't do anything with it other that listen to it in the format they chose on players they support.

Imagine if this applied to other items like your TV. "If you buy this TV you can only watch approved programs"" or your computer "Buy buying this computer you may only install approved applications or operating systems" or sofas "By buying this sofa you will only use it in approved living rooms and cannot resell the sofa"

The Movie and Music industries are dinosaurs in their death throws trying to survive in a rapidly changing industry.
 
I totally agree, just saying that some people assume it's their given right to moan about the terms they're agreeing to when they buy such items ;)

The only real solution is to stop buying, and hit them where it hurts.
 
EVH said:
I totally agree, just saying that some people assume it's their given right to moan about the terms they're agreeing to when they buy such items ;)

The only real solution is to stop buying, and hit them where it hurts.
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Unfortunately people want the latest Jay Z album or Will Smith DVD and cannot resist the lure of shiny things.

Capitalism has us by the balls. There simply isn't enough critical mass and far to much apathy for people the actually protest by not buying their shiny things...
 
I've started using it and think it's good. Very fast downloads and good quality, looks great when on the TV.

It might be more expensive than Lovefilm (and the equivalents) but you aren't guaranteed recent releases, it usually takes weeks to get them and they send you low priorities first. At least with this you get what you want more or less immediately.

My excuse for using "other sources" was that there wasn't a legal alternative. Now there is and I intend to start using it:) I won't bother buying films, seems a bit expensive and I don't like the idea of having to back them up. Would it have been so hard to implement a system where once you've purchased a title you can re-download it after crashes, system changes etc etc...? Renting seems like a good idea on it though, don't have to worry about that so much.

Maybe a tad expensive, but all in all I give it a thumbs up!
 
I don't get how they can justify the price! Same as the music they sell, if it was cheaper than having the physical album I might consider it. Whilst some things are twice the price though, I won't.

Unlimited access for a set amount like Napster or such would benefit them much more surely?

Also the fact there's no concept of a series for a certain price. It's £1.89 for a TV episode whether there's 5 or 20 of them. Fair enough you might say, but when the episodes of the longer series are each 20 minutes compared to the 1 hour of the shorter, you wonder how they can justify such a high price?
 
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Unfortunately not all of them are. To see which movies are subtitled or closed captioned (the terminology iTunes prefers to use), visit the film section of the iTunes Store, click on the eye icon on the bottom right of iTunes and click any genre. In the listings, you should see a CC logo which means the film is closed captioned.

This is the easiest way to find out if a film is closed captioned without clicking on each film's title to check whether it's closed captioned or not :(

I rented 3 films off iTunes Store and 2 of the films, the closed captions went out of sync after halfway through the film however I thought the film's quality was pretty good except for how the closed captions are displayed (poor quality - white text with black background) :(
 
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I wonder if the availability of movie rentals in iTunes will prompt a US-style Apple TV price drop? Currently it's $229 vs £199, which is a hefty difference.
 
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