New Poll - Are You Buying Or Renting Movies?

I’m a renter kind of guy. I just cant justify giving up that much money to buy JUST the video.

Renting only. I will never purchase a release. Of all the DVDs I’ve purchased over the years, I’ve only ever watched them once, MAYBE twice over a span of 15 years. So even if I rent it twice @ $4.99 each time, I’m still coming out on top compared with purchasing it for $14.99. Hell, even if I re-rented THREE times, I come out ahead.

$14.97 to rent a movie 3 times vs $14.99 to purchase it. Yeah you get unlimited re-watches when you purchase it, but when am I ever going to watch the same movie more than 3 times? I don’t think I’ve ever done that in my life, except for maybe my top 5 favorite movies of all time.

I used to be a purchaser, but now I’m a renter. I still buy stuff like The Simpsons, and an occasional BD.

I might purchase if it was a better quality. Right now, a purchase movie is at the lowest resolution. Renting via Apple TV has a better resolution of picture.

Rent, but for a very (very) few cases. And for the handful of titles I care to own, I would have to consider the alternatives… For those that are obvious audio/visual notables, like Transformers, I would opt for Bluray. But for those that are time-honored family favs, like Home Alone or Nat’l Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, I would likely purchase them on iTunes. …That is, if they were available on iTunes…

As an aside, mostly in agreement with afx114, I learned from my old dusty Laserdisc collection… There are very few movies that I would ever watch more than once or twice. So, it makes little sense (for me) to amass an owned collection…

I would also like to ask the question once again… Are we certain that standard def movies purchased on Apple TV are any different in quality (resolution) from those sourced by computer to the iTunes Music Store? …And I mean confirmed by testing - not by calling Applecare. (You can get any answer under the sun from Applecare…) I had meant to investigate this myself, but have just not found the time to dig into it…

Chash, I rented Across the Universe via AppleTV and purchased it via AppleTV. The rental was higher quality - the purchased one is the same spects for iPod playback/iTunes.

Yes I typically RENT new movies unless I predict that I will watch them numerous times. Also if I become more attached to a film I have rented or seen in the theaters, I may also consider PURCHASING them. So in most part I rent Apple movies 50/50 SD/HD. Access to virtual HD content allows me to get out of the DVD player and media purchase cycle. Lets face it. most of use generally want our content in a computer and not on a shelf. What is stopping me from purchase more Apple movies -HD content for purchase. Purchase is for long term use and we are already in the HD era so why would we want to buy SD content. Does not make sense. If Apple were to provide an HD UPGRADE price which would allow you purchase SD Apple movies now and then upgrade to HD for a nominal fee then I would suspect movie sales for both would increase.
I will wait for HD content to become available for purchase before I make any real investment to purchase.

Santa…

freestate, could you pls clarify your method for determining the spec of the AppleTV download? Thanks.

CHASH - I can only guess at any specs on the rented version - I have the purchased version that is 853 x 356 and is playable on my iPhone (i.e. it does not contain B Frames).

There is a visual difference when I watched the purchased title on my 47″ TV there are visual artifacts that are not on the rented version (if you have seen the movie there are artifacts visible during “Let It Be”, a scene with smoke etc, that are not visible during playback of the rental). Just and FYI Im a designer for a film company so Im fairly picky - its still playable but if I were to do it over Id by the DVD and concert it w/handreak.