Transferring rented movies to iPod?

Yes, I too was surprised when I rented 2 movies to take on vacation and found out after the fact that my VIDEO iPod (5th gen.) isn't compatible. The stupidest thing I have EVER EVER heard of. What in the world did I buy a video iPod FOR?????

The worst part was when I called Apple (after about 30 minutes of searching and then going through endless amounts of transferring, listening to menus, etc. and trying like crazy to get a live person... thanks Apple.) and finally got a live person, I was told that my iPod was too old and that I couldn't be given any help with it unless I paid $29.95. Are you KIDDING???? I paid $300 for an iPod and can't get help with it a couple of years later??? At this point I am seeing stars I am so mad, the guy finally tells me that I can find the info online. Well, yeah, I am sure I could if I had all the time in the world because (please read the sarcasm here) their site and access to help is SO EASY TO USE. Finally after he realized how insanely mad I was he told me my iPod was not compatible.

I hate Apple. I hate the fact that they just don't care about their customers. And I hate even more that I have given them so much of my money in purchasing an iPod, buying movies, buying music, buying my son an iPod and recommending them to my friends that don't have one. I can honestly say that if I lose my iPod I will buy something else and will NEVER recommend Apple products to anyone I know.

Apple has the supported iPods listed on the learn more about rentals page on the store:
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewCustomPage?name=pageMovieR entalLearnMore

They have it on their marketing page for Movies on iTunes:
http://www.apple.com/itunes/store/movies.html

They have it on their Movie Rental FAQ on their support site:
http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/store/rentals/

And they have it in the document on movie rental usage rights in their knowledge base:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=307246

Where else do they need to put it?

pfft - they could have an alert on the "Pay $4 to rent this movie" page that says renting movies is only available on the most recent models of video ipods.

I just rented three movies to watch while I traveled this weekend and apparently can't watch them. What a waste.

I can't believe apple would not allow rented movies from the itunes store not to be view on 5th gen ipods. That just blows my mind, i cant even imagine how they thought this was a good idea. Technical wise I know this has to be possible. This is the exact reason so many people bought video ipods to watch videos of course not a couple years later when they release new devices they only allow those devices to view rented movies. So they're saying oh you bought a $300 ipod 2-3 years ago and now to watch our rented movies you have to pay another $300 for a classic ipod or $400 for a ipod touch are u playing with me here. Way to **** off your customer's Apple. I can deal with petty things here and there but not allow functionality on a device to make consumers buy new expensive new toys is outrageous.

So they're saying oh you bought a $300 ipod 2-3 years ago and now to watch our rented movies you have to pay another $300 for a classic ipod or $400 for a ipod touch

No.
You don't need any kind of an iPod to watch rented movies.