Video Rentals

Today I’d love to open up a discussion about video rentals. It’s something that has been plaguing me a bit, and I need to change what I’m currently doing – which is going to the shoppette. My husband and I never think about renting videos until about 7:30 on Friday night. And you all know there is nothing left by then. Not to mention the fact that I never end up renting any of the current movies because I can’t seem to time them when they come in.

Go Local:

Has anyone rented locally? Kaho wrote an article on Tsutaya. It was focused on CD’s, but they rent DVD’s there, I think. Has anyone tried it? Do the DVD’s work? Japan and the US are on the same system, but I’ve never tried to play a Japanese move in my DVD player to make sure it works. Also, has anyone been able to get a membership at Tsutaya who lives on base? And what about their DVD selection, if it does work? Are there American movies available? How much do they charge to rent per movie?

What about another location? Does anyone have experience in this whatsoever?

Netflix:

I know a lot of people use Netflix. It’s a viable option for us. The two drawbacks that I see are (1) I’ve heard that sometimes it takes a while to get the newer movies sent to you. Has this happened to anyone? Do you find it to be a problem? And (2) I wouldn’t have the ability to watch something that night if I wanted. Can you request a newer movie prior to it being released? Will you get it that week?

Plan costs (Unlimited plans):

1 DVD - $8.99

2 DVD’s - $13.99

3 DVD’s - $16.99

Does this really earn out? For instance, if you got the 1 DVD plan, can you exchange it at least 3 times by mail during that month to make the S8.99 cost effective?

iTunes

What I like about using iTunes: (1) the rental fee is reasonable, and (2) videos available when it want them and I don’t have to worry about it being checked out.

However, there is a huge downside - downloading. My internet connection is not the best. I’ve bought one episode of a TV show since we’ve moved here (mostly because of the downloading snag, or I would have bought more). It took four hours to download an hour show. I’m worried about how long it will take me to download a movie!

I will say, though, the quality of the download is AMAZING. Once it was downloaded, I transferred it onto my iPod and then hooked that up to the TV. It looked better than what they play on AFN.

I have yet to rent a movie through iTunes. I looked up the rules and want to ask a few questions to those who have.

Some of the rules are as follows:

You have 30 days to watch the movie after the download completes.

Once you've started to watch the movie, you have 24 hours to finish watching the movie (even if you start watching before the download is complete). You can watch the movie as many times as you want within this 24-hour period.

The rented movie will expire when either the 30 day or 24-hour limit is reached. Once the rental expires, the movie is automatically deleted.

You can move the movie between devices as many times as you wish during the rental period, but the movie can only be played on one device at a time.

For all the rules go here.

What I’d like to know is, if I transfer the rental onto my iPod, how do they know that I’ve started to watch the movie? Couldn’t I then rewatch it on the computer? If I plugged the iPod that I did watch it on back into the computer, will it register that I watched it? What about if I used a different iPod? Would I be able to transfer it to another iPod?

iTunes rental prices:

Library Titles: Standard Definition - $2.99 / HD - $3.99

New Relases: Standard Definition - $3.99 / HD - $4.99

Another question: When I looked up new movies they are all listed in HD. Can I not rent them in standard def (that would cut the download time)? Why offer a price for it, if it’s not available? Or do I have to make that a “choice” somewhere in my preferences?

Apple TV

Can someone explain Apple TV to me?

I mean, I get that it’s wireless and you download the movies/TV shows you buy/rent on it. What I don’t get is, what is the benefit of having it verses downloading the movie via the computer? What makes it so special? Does it download faster because it’s not tied to the computer? I don’t see how that would be possible, but maybe…?

If you buy a movie/TV show on your AppleTV, can you transfer it to your computer/iPod or vice versa? Or is it stuck there? I know if you rent with the AppleTV you can’t transfer it, but what if you bought it?

Apple TV prices: 40GB - $229 / 160GB - $329

I went to see if they sold the Apple TV at the PX/BX. I remember seeing them at the PX in the states. They didn’t have any in stock when I looked. I don’t know if that means they don’t carry them, or they just didn’t have them at this time. The woman I asked didn’t seem to understand what I was talking about.

Other Options

Anyone have any other rental options? I’d love to hear them.