cannot play rented movies as they are not there to play what to do?

This happened to me too. Usually the rental would be under videos. So, I went back to itunes on ipad and searched for the movie. Where it would say buy, it says watch. I haven't clicked it yet to make sure it works because of the 24 hour watch rule.

I hope this works.

Same thing here. Updated iTunes Match and downloaded a movie to be rented. Not sure if the two are related. After the movie downloaded I could not find it anywhere. I found the video file on my computer, tried opening it with iTunes and nothing happened. I want to watch this movie now. Using iMac and latest iTunes 11.0.1.

I had the same problems.

There are two solutions...

a) Logout from iStore at Apple TV, Restart Apple TV, Login again

If this way won't work:

b) Restore to factory setting helps.