Can't rent movies in iTunes 8.2.1 with release of iTunes 9

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Level 1

138 points

Can't rent movies in iTunes 8.2.1 with release of iTunes 9

I started renting movies from the iTunes Store a few weeks ago. Especially when I became aware of the 99 cent movies of the week specials. I have rented about 20 movies in all so far and have enjoyed the feature so far.

With the announcement of the release of iTunes 9 today, I was eager to download the new version to try it out. I discovered on the download page that it does not work with G3 Macs (which mine is.)

Sad but perfectly happy with iTunes 8.2.1, I thought nothing more of it. A bit later, I got the fancy to check the 'Movies of the Week' to see what was new this week. When I tried to rent 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon', I was told that I could not rent it until I upgraded to the new version of iTunes. Already knowing I can't due to lack of G3 support, I moved onto other movies.

It now appear that if you are running iTunes 8.2.1, you can no longer rent movies from the iTunes Store. I clicked on some 20 different 'Rent movie' buttons and all gave the same result. I had to upgrade to rent it.

Searching the Apple.com site, I came up empty. Checking the web, in general, also yielded no answers. Anyone have any more info about this?

iMac DV SE (Summer 2001) G3 700Mhz, Mac OS X (10.4.11), 1GB RAM; 1TB Ext FW HD; Pioneer DVR-111 OD

Posted on Sep 9, 2009 2:30 PM

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Answer 1

JediTiger Author

Level 1

138 points

Sep 9, 2009 8:12 PM in response to JediTiger

Great news / sad news time...

*NOTE: What I about to say is not supported by Apple as iTunes 9 was not designed to work on a G3 Mac. Your results may vary. Also, always have a viable backup of your iTunes Library before upgrading to a new version of iTunes just in case something happens or you don't like the new version. That way you can revert back easily like nothing happened.*

For those of you still running a G3, you may be able to run iTunes 9. I have a Summer 2001 iMac (DV SE) G3 700Mhz Mac; 16MG GPU. While Software Update didn't show the iTunes update and the download page said it required G4 or higher, I downloaded it anyway and installed it just for kicks. And... so far so good...

It does seem to run a bit slower which is to be expected. It was not made to run on G3 and it is more media intensive than iTunes 8.x but it does work fine and is very, very usable. I was able to rent movies again and just updated both my iTouch and iPhone to 3.1 (3.1.1 for the iTouch)

There are features you won't be able to use due to hardware requirements. In my case, I don't play any video on my computer as any video (streamed or on hard drive) studders and skips too much to be viewable. I transfer all video (music videos, rented movies and purchased movies) to my iPhone and watch it on the TV.

I like the new features and am glad it works. The other sad thing about it working but not being 'officially' supported is that a future update may not work. Now I know how the jailbreakers feel...

But at least I got this far. Yea!

FYI for those out there rockin' the G3!

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Answer 2

rjmjr

Level 1

0 points

Sep 12, 2009 9:58 AM in response to JediTiger

Thanks for the insight. I'm in the same situation - hardware wise. I hope Apple creates a version of iTunes 9 for G3's

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Answer 3

JimRCGMO

Level 1

10 points

Dec 10, 2009 4:44 PM in response to rjmjr

Don't hold your breath on that - Apple seems glacially slow about supporting hardware older than the past few years...

I will see if iTunes 9.x will work tolerably on my system.

Jim

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