Can't stream rented movies from Mac to AppleTV 4th Gen

I have the identical issue.

Hi

You can only watch rented movies on the device you used to order them on

If you order on pc you have to watch on pc.

Download Atv 4 to watch on Atv4.

Cheers

Brian

Thats not entirely true, it only applies to movies rented on Apple TV. If done on IOS you can AirPlay, you also have the option of home sharing from computer. Haven't had a chance to test on new one yet.

Is it possible that streaming rented movies from Mac to the new Apple TV is not supported?

Yes, you can play movies you rented on your Mac on your Apple TV 4 via home sharing, but you need to let it fully download on the Mac before you can see it on the Apple TV.

I have been in touch with Applecare and we could not resolve the issue, to date. We even did a hard restore via iTunes and a laptop with a USB-C cable.

Starting to think this could be an issue with TVos.

The issue is isolated strictly to playback of movies "rented" via iTunes on the ATV4. I use my iMac to order and download the content. My network is fast. The iMac is connected to it via wi-fi. The ATV4 is connected via ethernet. I have always used Home Sharing to stream content from the iMac to the ATV, and with my old ATV 3, this worked fine. And when I swap-in the ATV 3 now, it still does. But when I connect the ATV 4, "rentals" do indeed appear on the screen to be selected,, as they should, but once selected, will not play. The screen goes black for a few seconds, and then the display goes back to the menu screen.

NOTE that ALL OTHER CONTENT, photos, "purchased" movies, home videos, music, podcasts etc. play fine. I even purchased a movie last night, just to test things. Worked fine.

So what is unique about the "rental" transaction? I believe it is the fact that rentals require ongoing two-way communication between customer and Apple to determine when rental period starts/expires. I can't imagine a hardware issue in the ATV4 that would ONLY affect the rental feature and nothing else.

Applecare suggested I take the unit to the Apple Store. There is no Apple Store anywhere near me so I may end up mailing it back....this 3-day-old piece of gear that is probably fine but has buggy software inside it.

Exactly the same problem as mjkelch. Does the 9.0.1 update fix it?

This issue is not fixed by the Nov. 10/15 ATV4 update .

This worked for me playing Rented movies on Apple TV which were bought on my computer (I am using Windows 10 computer in Study on First Floor and Apple TV4 in Living Room on Ground Floor,all Wi-Fi)

1 Turn on Apple Tv and make sure Airplay in on.

2 On computer open I Tunes and at the top of the screen is a small TV symbol;click this which brings up the speaker options,click "SINGLE" and Apple TV.

3 Still on the computer open the movie you want to see and click the Play button.This brings up a window on the computer which says your Apple TV is after a code or password I think.

4 Go to the Apple Tv and the screen should be blank with a four number code shown on it.Enter this code into the window on the computer,click Ok and Voila it worked !!

Yes, this is a work-around that will work if you don't mind using your computer to control playback, instead of the ATV4 remote, which is flaky when using Airplay. Thank you.

I still contend that the ATV4 should be able to play the rentals that are displayed onscreen on the TV, just as the ATV 3 _always_ did. Instead, even after yesterday's software update, selecting the rental from the RENTALS menu item _tries_ to play the selection, the screen goes to black for a few seconds, and then the RENTALS menu is once again displayed. That is not supposed to happen, and it seems a software issue.

It is, at this point, simply easier to swap-in my ATV3 to watch rented movies, which it still does very well. The only requirement is my computer upstairs (the source) must be on with iTunes open and home sharing turned on. As it always was.

The ATV4.....simply.....does not do this. And it should.

Thanks again for the post and the workaround.

That's fine but that isn't how people here are wanting to watch. Essentially Movies rented from the computer can be played from the Apple TV using home sharing, it's just that there is currently an issue with home sharing in this respect and when the rental movie is started it stops almost immediately.

I still contend that the ATV4 should be able to play the rentals

It can, it's quite simply that there's an issue with it currently.

I agree. I guess folks who have the new ATV4 need a bit of advice regarding whether this is then a "hardware issue" with ATV4, requiring a trip to the Apple Store (which an Applecare advisor suggested to me, which would probably have been a waste of time for all and which I declined to do), or simply a soon-to-be-solved software glitch.

I work in IT and write software, and I know these are "early days" for the ATV4. But_ Applecare folks should have better advice for less-informed folks who will now think it is the box that's broken and must be returned, after spending a half hour on the phone with Applecare trying a myriad of things, none of which will work.

If I were Apple, I would at least make sure that, if there were bugs, they at least did not affect any parts of the TVos that generate revenue directly to the company, assuming any content rentals//purchases via iTunes are moneymakers for Apple.

:-)

Exactly the same problem as mjkelch. I hope they fix it soon, very frustrating…

I have the exact the same problem as mjkelch. I have to revert back to the Apple tv 3 to watch rentals from the home shared computer 😮

I hope they fix it soon, very frustrating…

Problem was resolved by latest update. (mid-Dec. 2015)