Q: Watching RENTED movie on flight (i.e. no wi-fi or 3G available)
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May 23, 2010 7:23 PMby StevePug2,HelpfulI second DCGOO. Just watched one without any wifi connection. BTW, those HD movies take up a lot of space on your iPad (about 5 to 6 gigs) and cost a buck more and although they look great, the regular def movies look pretty darned good too. HD also take about an hour to download and you can't watch them until they're all downloaded (you can't download anything else while that happens either and if you pause the HD download for any reason, it restarts from the very beginning again!).
Oh, and welcome to Apple Discussions! -
May 23, 2010 9:35 PMby GLBOregon,That actually brings up a second question that I have, again the rental FAQ's make it sound like you can only download HD movies DIRECTLY to the iPad, which sounds incredibly slow on a wi-fi connection. Is that not true? Can I download to my PC and sync, even for HD movies? -
May 23, 2010 11:17 PMby StevePug2,It takes over an hour with wifi but you can certainly rent them from the iTunes store on your computer and then watch them on whatever platform you want, the computer (as well as other authorized computers), your iPhone, Touch or iPad, which you get to them by synching. However, I've never done it that way so I don't know how long it takes to transfer them by a sync or if it's faster than wifi. But you can sync HD as well as regular def. -
May 25, 2010 2:04 AMby Waymen,The vast majority of the HD rentals on the iTunes Store can only be rented and viewed on the Apple TV or the iPad. In these cases you aren't even given the option of renting the HD content if you are running on a Mac or PC. Thus, some (few) HD movies can be rented on the Mac/PC but most are only available on the Apple TV or iPad.
This confuses a lot of users who then complain that there isn't much HD movie content on the iTunes Store. However, that is only because those users are accessing the store from a Mac/PC rather than from an Apple TV (or now iPad, which frankly I don't think really needs HD for most viewing). -
May 25, 2010 9:11 AMby GLBOregon,Thanks Wayman. I hadn't tried it both on PC and iPad, but that's the way I was interpreting the "rules" on the iTunes FAQ's. SO...the big question is, is the HD version of movies worth the extra download time and extra buck. Do you miss out on the WOW factor that the beautiful iPad screen has? -
May 25, 2010 9:22 AMby plarkin,Do what I did...splurge a little and rent or buy an HD movie and decide for yourself (you'll get the SD version included as well). HD looks great, but SD looks pretty good too and is cheaper, not to mention smaller in size. Plus, I can watch the SD version on my iPod if I want. -
May 25, 2010 1:52 PMby StevePug2,Thanks for the corrective elaboration regarding HD syncing from a computer. That's good to know. I also agree with you that the HD doesn't make that big a difference on the iPad, but check it out for yourselves, definitely. It only costs a buck to see (and some extra download time and space). It was nice, but I only find it really compelling for certain films (like big sic-fi productions). It seems wasted on smaller, dramatic films. -
Jun 25, 2010 3:23 PMby iPad_Traveler,Had this problem on my current trIp. Rented multiple movies. I was only able to watch the one I started to view before departure. Couldn't even watch at connecting airport (europe). When I got to hotel and i connected to wi-fi I was once again able to view. So I have experienced this first hand. Movies are in standard def. -
Jun 30, 2010 2:32 AMby Fluffsmoke,Are rented movies considered downloads, so internet connection not necessary for watching? You seemed to have no problems, but iPad_Traveler apparently did. I'm confused. Also, where is a good place for movie downloads? Netflix had limited choice of movies for rent. -
Dec 4, 2011 5:01 AMby HappySwitcher,Can someone confirm the above with OS5?
I am in the process of downloading a rented movie from itunes for the purpose of watching it on an flight with no internet connection.
Then I find this: "An Internet connection to the iTunes Store is required to authorize playback of movie rentals."
(This advisory is NOWHERE near the page where the actual purchase is made, by the way...)
I will NOT be starting the movie before the flight where I will have internet, bc I don't know if I want to watch it within the fist 24 hours...
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Jan 18, 2012 7:14 PMby Kslamb,I don't fully understand. I rented a few movies from itunes directly on my ipad, not from "another computer". And, when I tried to watch them on my flight it said that I have to have wifi to do so. It sounds like you are stating that the sync should have happened automatically but it obviously didn't. Can you help? What steps do I take to sync and be able to watch these without a connection. They are showing in my purchased music list but I still can't watch them without wifi a this point. thanks...
