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Watching RENTED movie on flight (i.e. no wi-fi or 3G available)

I saw the following statement in the article titled "Viewing and downloading HD content on iPad" that says "An Internet connection to the iTunes Store is required to authorize playback of movie rentals." Does that mean that I can not watch a rented movie on a flight where there would be no internet connection? Has anyone rented an HD movie and watched it in-flight?

iPad

Posted on May 23, 2010 5:04 PM

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Posted on May 23, 2010 5:26 PM

The authorization takes place when syncing between the computer that downloaded it, and the iPhone/iPod/iPad. The actual viewing does not require Internet to watch it.
29 replies

May 23, 2010 7:23 PM in response to GLBOregon

I 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 11:17 PM in response to GLBOregon

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 AM in response to GLBOregon

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 1:52 PM in response to Waymen

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.

Dec 4, 2011 5:01 AM in response to GLBOregon

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...

Jan 18, 2012 7:14 PM in response to DCGOO

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...

Jan 22, 2012 11:03 AM in response to GLBOregon

We too have had this problem where rentals were downloaded to PC, then to iPad, and when on the plane it required an internet connection. Apple clearly states that an internet connection is required in order for playback but this is not practical for remote viewing, i.e. travelling on a flight or in a car. It also assumes that you're going to watch the movie within the next 24 hours which may not be the case. This seems to be an oversight in the design because I've authenticated to iTunes at the time I paid and downloaded the content.

Watching RENTED movie on flight (i.e. no wi-fi or 3G available)

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