Comments on: My Experience with Renting a Movie on iTunes http://gigaom.com/apple/my-experience-with-renting-a-movie/ Mon, 28 May 2012 12:08:06 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Josh Pigford http://gigaom.com/apple/my-experience-with-renting-a-movie/#comment-326497 Mon, 21 Jan 2008 19:52:39 +0000 http://theappleblog.com/2008/01/19/my-experience-with-renting-a-movie/#comment-326497 Unfortunately a large majority of the commenters on this thread aren’t capable of responding in a civil or mature manner. Comments closed.

]]> By: Angel http://gigaom.com/apple/my-experience-with-renting-a-movie/#comment-326496 Mon, 21 Jan 2008 19:29:52 +0000 http://theappleblog.com/2008/01/19/my-experience-with-renting-a-movie/#comment-326496 Aahhh…the predictable Mac fan’s response to a person’s problem with Apple…it’s ALL YOUR FAULT! You should have planned…you should have just bought an Apple TV…blah blah.

First of all, this clearly was something spontaneous since he was stuck in the house without much to watch since Netflix didn’t come through for him. He mistakenly thought the movie rentals worked the same as the other video formats. I hardly think he was TRYING to create a problem. He was just documenting what happened when he tried his first rental. Stuff like this happens to people all the time when they first try out something new.

Some of you are way too sensitive, angry, and defensive.

]]> By: Jon1 http://gigaom.com/apple/my-experience-with-renting-a-movie/#comment-326495 Mon, 21 Jan 2008 18:16:08 +0000 http://theappleblog.com/2008/01/19/my-experience-with-renting-a-movie/#comment-326495 After reading this I am deleting your RSS link. You are officially too inept. I read tech blogs for value and usefulness. You just have too much time on your hands and too few real problems. Wake me up when you learn to tie your shoes.
Thanks,
Jon1

]]> By: Michael Clark http://gigaom.com/apple/my-experience-with-renting-a-movie/#comment-326485 Mon, 21 Jan 2008 17:06:15 +0000 http://theappleblog.com/2008/01/19/my-experience-with-renting-a-movie/#comment-326485 Yes, it’s entirely possible my DSL is screwed up, it’s with Verizon. My test through a couple different bandwidth testers shows my speed is around 100 kilobytes per second, although one test once came back at 135 kbps. I’ll experiment with my home network to see if the problem is on my end or with Verizon.

@Chris @geochick @devin My main point is my past user experience with buying video via iTunes has trained me to download the video onto the RAID drives on my iMac, and then I’d copy the file to my PowerBook to watch on the TV.

@Edwin Sure, a problem exists, I couldn’t move a movie from one iTunes system to another. See my note to Chris.

@Bertiebus Could one point I was trying to make be something along the lines of the DRM being used is hurting more than it’s helping? Thus far, I’ve never downloaded a movie from a P2P network, nor have I ripped any of the DVDs I get from Netflix.

@RickO Netflix’s downloadable movie rental system is even worse, as it only runs on Windows, although their available catalog is much larger. See Greg’s comment.

@Greg I honestly didn’t try to create the headache. I did what I always do.

@Sam F Thanks for understanding my point.

@Seth I don’t have a most recent generation iPod, although you’re right, I could spend $149 for an iPod nano and cable, or $229 for an AppleTV, neither of which would have helped me that evening, but would help in the future.

]]> By: laura http://gigaom.com/apple/my-experience-with-renting-a-movie/#comment-326494 Mon, 21 Jan 2008 03:47:22 +0000 http://theappleblog.com/2008/01/19/my-experience-with-renting-a-movie/#comment-326494 Am I missing something, right now it does not seem that there are ALOT of rentals…. certainly not enough to cancel my Netflix account?

]]> By: Nascar http://gigaom.com/apple/my-experience-with-renting-a-movie/#comment-326493 Mon, 21 Jan 2008 01:33:48 +0000 http://theappleblog.com/2008/01/19/my-experience-with-renting-a-movie/#comment-326493 I pretty much had the same experience. After downloading a movie from iTunes, I was shocked to find that I couldn’t move the file to another local machine a home.

]]> By: Charles http://gigaom.com/apple/my-experience-with-renting-a-movie/#comment-326492 Sun, 20 Jan 2008 22:47:31 +0000 http://theappleblog.com/2008/01/19/my-experience-with-renting-a-movie/#comment-326492 You kind of blew it. Just because the download says it will take 4 hours, doesn’t mean you can’t start watching for 4 hours.
If you gave it a couple of hours headstart, it would have enough downloaded to start watching, while the rest of the file arrives. So if you decide on a 2 hour movie a 6PM, it says it won’t be done downloading until 10PM, you are safe to start watching at around 8PM.

]]> By: JRocks http://gigaom.com/apple/my-experience-with-renting-a-movie/#comment-326467 Sun, 20 Jan 2008 17:30:58 +0000 http://theappleblog.com/2008/01/19/my-experience-with-renting-a-movie/#comment-326467 Well, even though this was a real extreme way of doing what he wanted to do, the experience does leave you wanting a tad more. The download time for me was estimated at 4hrs (it came faster), and yes you can start watching it but it plays faster than in downloads so…

I was a little disappointed with this, but not for the reasons that the author has. 24 hours to finish watching after such a long time to get it is harsh. The connection is my fault so I can’t fault apple for this one. I think apple could have done a better job with this and I believe that as more people use it, it will be improved. It isn’t a home run, but I’ll probably rent it again once the catalogue improves

]]> By: Ben H http://gigaom.com/apple/my-experience-with-renting-a-movie/#comment-326468 Sun, 20 Jan 2008 17:13:57 +0000 http://theappleblog.com/2008/01/19/my-experience-with-renting-a-movie/#comment-326468 Also, one other note on the long download time. Steve has made it clear time and time again that Apple designs their downloads to work sequentially (unlike the random chunks in a bit torrents). This means that once you’ve built up enough of a buffer you can begin watching your movie. So even if it takes 4 hours to download the movie, you can probably start watching the movie after an hour or so. With most connections, it will take about an hour to download allowing the viewer to start watching the movie only minutes after the download began — Instantaneous downloads … check.

]]> By: Harry http://gigaom.com/apple/my-experience-with-renting-a-movie/#comment-326469 Sun, 20 Jan 2008 15:22:01 +0000 http://theappleblog.com/2008/01/19/my-experience-with-renting-a-movie/#comment-326469 @Greg: Yeah, I do get it. I use both Macs (2 of them) and Win, and like them both for what they do. Actually I agree that the Mac is a “funner” experience, but it’s Windows world, ya know?

I find it interesting that you complain about the Netflix requirements, but don’t complain about the Apple requirements for the same functionality, albeit a different service (iTunes). At least Netflix doesn’t require a major OS change. Well, maybe they do, if you’re still running Win 98. Apple has always had a weak spot in this regard; often even point changes are required to get a new functionality. But at least they’re free.

I also think the original poster made some basic errors in planning, but it’s possible that he has revealed deficiencies in the Apple sales model. 4 hours for a download? Something amiss there, but it could be on Apple’s side, too. Don’t know… Don’t blame the customer right off the bat.

My main comment is simply that I’m happy to see people complaining about not getting the services they are led to believe they are purchasing – regardless of platform. In the retail world, if you bought a pair of shoes and didn’t realize that they would hurt after wearing them for an hour or two, you’d maybe take them back. In the online video – and in this case, the iTunes – world, that can’t happen.

I believe we are often beta testers for this junk, and I don’t like it.

Mac users are often quick to accept this, but I am not.

That’s all.

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