Can't "BUY" HD?

You can't purchase anything through the new Apple TV, only rent. If you want to purchase, you'll need to work through iTunes on your computer. You can then stream the purchase to the Apple TV.

Regards.

This first confused me when I bought my Apple TV. I don't have the new one. I have the one that came out before it. No, you aren't missing anything. The message about "also available in HD on Apple TV and iPad" meant exactly what you saw. The movie was available in HD on the Apple TV but only as a rent. It probably wasn't offered as an HD rental in the iTunes Store so that is why they had that message referring you to the Apple TV or iPad if you wanted to view the movie in HD. I have never come across a movie that was not available for purchase in HD in the iTunes store but was available for purchase in HD in the Apple TV. But yeah, nothings wrong, probably just bad wording in the iTunes store. It is deceiving. But I always check the Apple TV just to make sure it isn't available to purchase in HD.

I think the question here is more along the lines of why can't a person buy any newer release movie in HD, but can only rent it in HD from in iOS device? Is the Apple TV market hurting so bad that this is the only way they can try and drive business to it? The machine I'm running iTunes on has a 64bit OS with a BluRay player installed, and an HDCP compliant HDMI out video card, so I can't imagine it's an issue of incompatible hardware. It just seems a little counter-intuitive to try and push the HD line so hard on one hand, then systematically limit the manner in which it's made available to those who might like to purchase it. Maybe it's a licensing thing with the studios, but even that line is getting pretty dang thin this close to 2011.

Right - the "Buy HD" option is simply no longer there for post Apple TV movie releases...It's still there for older releases....