Decaflon

I've got a projector hooked to my computer so I do most of my movie watching through that, and I too am by myself most of the time.

I would love an instant gratification system like Netflix's reduced DVDs. If I could pickup a flick I liked instantly for a reduced price that would be amazingly simple and would be an even bigger draw to my bank account.

The Season Passes are already too simple. It'd be great to see this extend to movies too. Let me pay for a movie, then the moment it's release it is automatically downloaded to my machine as a rental or purchase.

There's a lot of talk about families huddled around the computer screen to watch media and how they won't. However, I think there is a plenty big audience of us geeks that are more than willing to watch their media on computers because they live alone or have the hardware to make it worthwhile.

As for the hardware, I don't think it'll be long before the computer = the television in many homes. Think about it, how big is the average monitor getting? And aren't things like Windows Media Center Edition and even TiVo precursors to that setup?

To be honest, I think the technology itself is almost a moot point. The concept, however, isn't. It's great in fact: I don't know how often I've rented a movie and decided "I'll just go ahead and buy it!" after watching it. Of course, I much prefer the idea of buying the disc set, since I love the extras, but the principle could work fine without the physical media.

I watch most of my movies on my computer, either on my laptop or my 20" widescreen. I usually multitask while watching movies, so that's mainly why.

DVD rental is fast, relatively cheap, better quality and if HD takes a hold in the next few years then the short comings of online video delivery, rental or otherwise, will become more obvious.

I recently bought an episode of Lost from the UK iTunes store and the quality was worse than a similar file from a torrent and substantially worse than an original DVD copy. On a large 42" screen the iTunes Lost was hopeless, like watching a bad cable transmission.

An entire season of a show like Lost is £32.99, I can get the DVD version for £35.00. It's better quality, more portable, quicker to obtain (i can order it and have it delivered in 24 hours before the show has downloaded from iTunes, or pop out to the shop and get in an hour).

Even if they cut that price in half to rent the shows, add all of the shows you might watch together, say 5 or 6, and you would be better off with a cable tv subscription.

Online video models are all, for me, unfriendly towards the user, over priced, slow and rubbish quality. Fix all of that and I'm in!

I'm not big of a movie renter. I feel like I would use this service as its so easy to access. I'm in iTunes a lot and the store is just one click away. For some reason I feel I would find myself getting a lot of movies. The discounted price is a great idea. I think i would be a little surprised if they offered that but hey lets reach for the stars.

This is the future.

Neither Blu-Ray or HD-DVD will win the hi-def war, broadband will. It has a ways to go yet, yes, but it is not far off that you'll browse your apple tv or similar device and choose some hd movie or show. Probably not long before you can browse what to buy right on your tv, pick it, and a few minutes later start watching it.

It's going to destroy cable companies that can't adapt to be broadband providers primarily.

[[There used to be an incoherent, sleep-drunk rant here. But I eated it. Sorry.]]

I just rented Hannibal tonight, only to come home and discover that they'd given me the Specials disc instead of the feature disc. Great. I can't Ctrl+z that.

Connect the computer to your TV. The wires are the future
(Hack the Planet!).

Well we don't have a TV over here - I know shock horror. We've been nearly a year now sans TV and only watch movies / rentals on our macs. It works well for us and I really don't miss being tied to a box in the corner at all. We use lovefilm.co.uk and rent a lot of entire series including movies. I'd consider the itunes service as it would work easier than the sending back >> waiting to have sent thing that lovefilm has. We can wait a long time 3-4 days sometimes and to have a gap when you've not got TV and fancy just watching something can be annoying. Personally, don't think we would ever have a TV again. The only issue with itunes is their slowness on adopting anything new for the UK market - we only just got a very small TV selection over here. £1.79 though for one show seems a bit much compared to our monthly £15 bill with love film - we could rent in one shot 12 episodes if had 3 dvds with 3-4 on each of them.

I'd say it would be great to be able to have the instant access that movie rentals through iTunes would provide, IF the quality were comparable, AND I had all the right electronic equipment to make it available in my living room (without the computer). Then I'd be right there. I could have used it this week, when I ran out of DVDs that I wanted to watch, but was still sick on the couch. :(

As an aside, Netflix already does something like this I think, but though I can get DVDs sent to me through the mail, I can't to the watch instantly thing because I'm not in the States. another :(

With everyone telling Apple to implement more and more DRM to protect their content, I don't know if Apple can satisfy that requirement to the movie studios' satisfaction. I mean, the first thing that's going to happen is someone will find a way to turn a $3.99 "rental" download into a "permanent" download. If that happens, I think the movie studios are going to bail... unfortunately.

I really don't think the movie studios will have a choice in the matter. It will come down to what people buy. That will be determined by people like apple (not necessarily them,) that come up with a great, easy way to make it happen.

Apple is the #3 music retailer in the US. Five years ago, they didn't exist as a music retailer. It changed that fast. What's happened in the last year? We and the music labels see that the model works--regardless of the potential for piracy. EMI now sells non-DRM music. Other labels will eventually follow.

As I mentioned before, we're not quite there yet. The US is behind in broadband capability compared to many modernized countries, but we're begining to catch up utilizing things like FiOS, and Broadband of Power Lines. I don't think it will be many years before streaming true HD content becomes common place. At that point it's just a matter of who implements the model in a way most convenient and easy for consumers.

I don't have a t.v. so all of my visual watching is via my computer. I'd pay $1.99 for 1 viewing of a movie, or $2.99 for unlimited times, but I'm not sure that I would ever pay to download the whole thing. If I buy a movie, I want it on something more portable than a laptop.

Most likely, 5 or 10 years down the road you'll be able to have your movie or music collection on something as portable as a username and password.

tv's and computers are converging, and companies like apple are just getting ready for what's next.

would i want to do all my tv/movie viewing on my laptop or desktop now? no. in 5 years? more than likely.

my fantasy is a hi-def screen on the wall, with media streaming wirelessly to it.

How do the TV shows/movies look on a 30" display? Are they excessively pixellated? TV shows have just come on the iTunes store for the UK and I may consider buying an episode or two of Lost and Grey's Anatomy in the future. I mostly watch video on my 20" display and DVDs still seem to be superior in almost every aspect. The quality is much better, there's subtitles and I can always sell it off on eBay when I'm sick of it and recoup 80% of the cost. The only plus point for downloads is instant gratification, like when you're bored at midnight and want something to watch.

I'm looking forward to seeing what they do with the Apple Tv in regards to this, because as of right now I don't see much reason in buying it other than an expensive wireless link between my iTunes library and television.

I'm interested to see what happens, because having on-demand video rentals through iTunes seems like the obvious next place for them to go, especially now that they have the Touch out there and the iPhone and other devices that are so superior in mobile video watching.

As for me, though, I'm probably not going to make a change to my habits until my life situation changes. I don't have cable, and do most of my watching via Netflix or by streaming TV shows from network sites. My personal laptop is a Mac, so I can't watch Netflix movies instantly on that, but I have a work laptop that's a PC, so I can use that machine for that. When I'm totally geeked out, I'm working on one laptop and watching on another!