can i watch a movie rented on my apple tv on my macbook?

You can't - from the HT1657 page that you posted from :

• If you download a rented movie on your computer: You can transfer it to a device such as your Apple TV (1st generation), iPhone, iPad, or iPod if it’s a standard-definition film (movies in HD can only be watched on your computer, iPad, iPhone 4 or later, iPod touch (4th generation or later), or Apple TV). Once you move the movie from your computer to a device, the movie will disappear from your computer's iTunes library. You can move the movie between devices as many times as you wish during the rental period, but the movie can only exist on one device at a time.
• If you download a rented movie on your iPhone 4 or later, iPad, iPod touch (4th generation or later), or Apple TV: It is not transferable to any other device or computer.

Regarding your reply above where you say: "You can move the movie between devices as many times as you wish during the rental period, but the movie can only exist on one device at a time."

I have an SD movie rental on my Iphone 5 (Video app) and I have not watched it yet - How can I transfer it BACK to Itunes on my laptop? I don't see how simply syncing my Itunes on my laptop will automatically transfer the movie rental back since it's in the Video App rather than Itunes now.

What did you rent it on ? If you rented it on your iPhone then you can't move it from the iPhone. If you rented it on your laptop then does File > Devices > Transfer Purchases moveit back ? Or if you select the phone's Movies tab (either the tab that you used to sync it or the tab that lists the films on the phone) on your computer's iTunes can you move it back

And apparently they never appear on the apple tv if you rent on your laptop using itunes.

If you have downloaded your rental on your MacBook and enabled Home Sharing on both MacBook and AppleTV, then the rental will appear on AppleTV (under Computers -> My Library) now. I just watched a rental movie this way.

If you have a Mac, you can import photos from your iOS device using iPhoto, Image Capture, or Aperture.

Import photos using iPhoto: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4083

Want to get a easy way to transfer, use the iPubsoft iPhone Moive to Mac Transfer .