If I rented movie on ITunes on Mac, can I watch on Apple TV

Yes. Make sure home-sharing is enabled in iTunes and on ATV. Computer needs to be up and running and then you can access the rental via the computers section on Apple Tv.

I don't think you need to mirror. As long as it is the same account, find the movie you rented under movies, and it should still be active and you should be able to watch directly from the apple tv interface.

That is incorrect and there was no mention of mirroring. If you want to play the rental from a computer you need to use home-sharing or AirPlay from within iTunes. A movie has to be rented on the ATV to be played directly.

I believe you are referring to streaming purchases from the cloud

I have the same question. We rented a movie on my husband's computer, it took forever to download and in fact still says (24 hours later) that it is downloading, and it doesn't show up on Apple TV under movies or anything else. On the computer it shows up in a Rentals library. So what are we doing wrong? We have homesharing on and music, podcasts, etc. shows up on iTV, but not the elusive movie rental.

If its still downloading on the computer then that is the reason it isn't showing up. It will appear under the computers section once loaded.

If its taking that long then I would check into your network.

You can verify your current connection at www.speedtest.net

Under Computers section on AppleTV when you select the iTunes library there will be a new Rentals row if there is a valid rental fully downloaded in itunes - itunes must be running of course.

AC

That is what I assumed would happen. But the movie finally finished downloading (not at all sure why it took so long, we have a fast connection), and there is no rental row. We just checked. iTunes is on--and that is correct? Maybe we will shut down the computer and restart iTunes and see if that does anything. Thanks for the help from both of you.

BPK

We did restart computer and iTunes, the movie indicated a final download and then it appeared on AppleTV. So our problem solved itself and we learned a little more about AppleTV!

What Apple TV version works with this? I have the latest one, and it's my understanding that the movie rental does not actually download to the device, that it streams it. Regardless, I can't get it to work. I rented more than one movie on my Mac, and trying to play it on my TV via Apple TV is impossible. It simply Does Not Work.

I have restarted, checked everything, checked it again, etc. and nothing works. I get an eternal spinning wheel on the tV screen. The screen gets as far as to say "Resume Play" and after that point, nothing happens.

I have rebooted the Apple TV device twice, AirPlay is on, sharing is on, everything else works. I can play TV shows from the cloud, etc. Rented movies will not play.

I have rented a movie using my mac and have been unable to watch it using Apple TV. I spent several hours trying all the usual tricks but I shouldn't have sent five minutes. It doesn't work.

Not knowing exactly what you've tried nor the issue you are having it is hard to give any help

It does work, or at least used to.

If you are getting a spinning wheel I would try restarting computer, itunes AppleTV AND your router,

AC

I had this same issue a while back and it turned out that I rented an HD version of the movie and my ATV was not HD compatible so I needed to rent the SD version not the HD version if I wanted to watch it on ATV. Not sure if that is your issue or not. But it was good to know and Apple gave us a free rental after helping us resolve the issue.

Only Movies you have purchased will show up in "Movies" on your Apple TV. These get streamed and do not require any computer to be turned on in your house. Unfortunately, Apple has not made playing of rented movies that easy. art308 essentially answered this at the very beginning of the discussion. You must turn on Home Sharing on the computer you rented the movie. In iTunes on your computer go to the top menu bar and under "File" you will see "Home Sharing." Enter your Apple ID, etc. to get Home Sharing up and running on that computer. You also need to turn on Home Sharing on your Apple TV. If you have more than one computer in your house, it is probably a good idea to turn on Home Sharing on all your computers while you're at it...unless you have some unique reason why you do not want that functionality active on some of the computers. To confirm Home Sharing is on, and if you have more than one computer running iTunes at home, look at the left menu bar in iTunes (the new version of iTunes does not have that visible by default, but I choose to have it visible). Under "Shared" you will see the iTunes libraries that are included in your Home Sharing network-assumeing those computers are on.

Now, when you go to your Apple TV you need to go to "Computers." You will see a list of all the iTunes Libraries that are in your Home Sharing network that are turned on. The computers that are off will not show up. Click on the one that contains your rented movie. Start playing.

I must say...this is one heck of a pain. This would all be much easier if you could go to "Movies" on your Apple TV and see a listing of all your active rented movies...even those not rented on the Apple TV. Personally, I think the way Apple has this set up goes against its mantra of..."It just Works."

"Click on the one that contains your rented movie. Start playing."

It doesn't show up anywhere. Certainly not in 'Movies', and there are no other sections which are relevant.