Apple enables movie purchasing on Apple TV

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Apple enables movie purchasing on Apple TV

Following this morning’s announcement that new movies from all the major studios will be made available for purchase on the iTunes Store on the same day as their DVD release, Apple has quietly updated the Apple TV’s movie browsing and renting system to allow for the purchase of movies directly from the device. In addition to the ability to purchase films, a “Top Sellers” category, showing the current most popular movie purchases, has been added to the top of the “Top Movies” menu. Apple has previously shown the ability to make live updates to the Apple TV’s iTunes Store sub-menus without the need for a full system update.

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Comments

1

So then does the purchase get transferred back to you computer with the main iTunes account? Somewhat related question for my sake, I think that rentals can only exist on one device (your computer, iPod/iPhone, or AppleTV) at a time but is that also true for purchased movies?

Posted by TosaDeac on May 1, 2008 at 1:24 PM (PDT)

2

I’m guessing that, since it wasn’t mentioned, you can only buy SD versions, not HD yet?

Posted by Austin on May 1, 2008 at 1:55 PM (PDT)

3

Purchased movies will be transferred back to your iTunes library in the same way as for any other content purchased on the Apple TV. TV Shows, music and music videos purchased on the Apple TV have always transferred back to iTunes since the release of the Apple TV 2.0 update. Podcasts subscribed to on the Apple TV began syncing back as of the v2.0.1 update.

Rentals made on the Apple TV still cannot be transferred back to your main iTunes library, however. This applies for both HD and SD rentals, despite the fact that if you rent the SD movie directly via iTunes on your computer instead you get the same movie, but can transfer it both to and from your Apple TV (and other devices, so long as it exists on only one device at a time).

Purchases are still SD-only at this point. You get the same movie that you would get by purchasing it through iTunes itself.

Posted by Jesse David Hollington in Toronto on May 1, 2008 at 5:29 PM (PDT)

4

In my opinion, Apple has two hurdles to still cross in order to dominate for cineasts:

1) Content/Quality: The library is still too small, and the quality (for purchasing) is not up to DVD standards.

2) Extra features: Many cineasts want to buy a DVD/BluRay for the extra features.

Posted by alexarch in Dallas, TX on May 2, 2008 at 9:22 AM (PDT)

5

What about Canada, still no movies here…

Posted by Serge on May 2, 2008 at 3:07 PM (PDT)

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