my rental movie started but no picture

Hello Jerri1969

Report the issue to iTunes, and also check out the troubleshooting article for video playback in iTunes.

How to report an issue with your iTunes Store, App Store, Mac App Store, or iBooks Store purchase

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1933

iTunes for Windows XP: Troubleshooting video playback

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1386

Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.

Regards,

-Norm G.

I just experienced this for the first time (after many successful rentals) last night. I rented a movie on my Apple TV 3 and pressed Play when I was prompted. For the first time ever, the movie did not start properly. It only displayed a still image while the audio played normally. I was able to scan through chapters, but still the image was frozen and only the audio played. After searching through forums, I was forced to take matters into my own hands.

I had noticed the movie was rented at 1080p resolution. I knew that my HDTV was only capable of 720p. So I put 2-and-2 together and thought that maybe it was a resolution issue; that somehow, iTunes did not recognize my resolution and downsample properly so that I was able to view it. Sure enough, I went to my Apple TV and went to:

Settings / iTunes Store / Video Resolution

Then I selected 720p. It was currently selected at 1080p. Sure enough, I reloaded the rental movie and all worked as usual!