That is a nice addition...

Maybe they will extend the 24 to finish once started....

Sure is starting to make that AppleTV had to resist...

Does anyone have an advice of websites they point to about using it as media server.. how does it do with other converted movies.. how much of a pain is it covert stuff to a format it handles?

For people who haven't seen The Hours, I highly recommend it. One of my favorite movies of this decade.

Just for the sake of balance, let me recommend that people don't see the Hours. One of my least favourite films of the decade.@chucklebuck:

DocGratis,

I own an AppleTV and live where no rentals are on the horizon (Switzerland). You can use it as a media server without any problems. You can either modify it's innards (software-wise) and have it read everything straight away, or (as I did) revert to some Mac (or PC) based software to convert everything.
Provided your computer has some horsepower (mine is a Core2Duo 2Ghz MacBook, so not the very fastest out there) you can pretty much convert everything to work with the AppleTV.

A tool I use is Handbrake which allows me to convert all my DVDs into AppleTV friendly files. The software is free and has settings for conversion for AppleTV and/or iPods.
Should you want to convert files from other codecs to go with the AppleTV I suggest you consider Visual Hub.
This software, which is not free, does a great jobs in converting pretty much any codec into an AppleTV freindly one. It can also take High Def (720p is more than enough) files and convert them in AppleTV format. The new version of Visual Hub also allows you to create Dolby 5.1 files, which is great since it is now supported by the "take 2" software.

These methods require, however, some computing, and therefore you might need some time before being able to sync the file to AppleTV. But having a great library, well organized and stored on my AppleTV and an external drive, made me bring all my DVDs to the basement, freeing up a lot of space. Moreover, when I shoot something with my High Def Sony Handycam, I can watch it straight away (after handling with Final Cut Express).

Seriously, AppleTV is great as a media center. But that is a very subjective perspective. And when Apple will allow me to rent and/or buy HD stuff I'll be more than happy to contribute. But until now I don't miss anything major, just need more time because I have to reencode stuff before viewing.

Yeah, but do they have Randal helping you out? No.

Actually you have more than 24 hours to finish the movie.

If you are watching it and you come back more than 24 hours after you paused it the Apple TV will ask you if you want to continue watching or stop watching.

Continue will continue, stop will stop and delete. So you have to finish that movie before moving on and renting another movie from what I can tell. But its not like after 24 hours the movie you started watching is gone and you are outta luck.

Converting video for AppleTV with Handbrake is dead EASY on the Mac, the PC version was a bit more daunting.

@korexz: Really? and it won't charege you a new rental charge for that?

@pinolo: Thanks for that. That sounds like what I was thinking about doing, especially the movie viewing.. It would be a nice way to watch stuff I recorded with my HD camcorder.. without hooking the camcorder up to the TV...

No Gene picks = FAIL

This is awesome.

I like the Apple TV hardware and software interface, but I am already paying for content from enough other sources that the Movie Store and Rentals aren't compelling enough for me.

For example, I installed VMWare Fusion on my computer specifically so I can utilize the Netflix "Watch Instantly" feature and it works like a charm. The Hours is one of the available choices, so I can watch it for free any time I want. It's not playing on my 42" LCD, but only because I don't have an Intel laptop to use in the living room.

On top of that, I get 3 movies any time from Netflix, plus I get HBO and Showtime in HD (in better quality than what I saw from Apple TV, although I haven't tested it in my own home theater). When I get a BluRay player, my rentals will be in HD, etc.

Now, if I could watch NetFlix movies on an Apple TV, that would be a no-brainer.

I've rented a few movies the past couple of weeks, and while the process worked great, I was a little disappointed with the quality of the files themselves. One of the movies I rented was Pirates of the Carribean 3, and there were several portions of the movie where the background was so grainy it looked like it was raining or something. It was mainly noticeable in scenes with kind of monotone backgrounds or a lot of sky in the shot.

It wasn't noticeable in other movies like Ocean's 13 where there where there were many more colors and much more action going on in the backgrounds.

Still, there's a Hollywood Video approximately 3 blocks from my house, which rents DVDs for the same price, so it's hard to justify the convenience of the download for not being able to watch the movie with the commentary and behind-the-scenes stuff. 99 cent movies will definitely make it more worth while.

(Also, totally off-topic, but I rented Gone Baby Gone on DVD, and it refused to play in my Media Center. That royally sucks that studios are now locking movies down, so that they won't even play on the computer.)

@jetexas: I rented Casino Royale in Montreal, and the same thing happened on my Macbook. Normally, just about everything plays on this system, but fucking Sony DVD's are getting worse. Strangely enough, a copy purchased in the US seems to work just fine on my computer, but it's impossible to rip the bastard for my iPod.

The horrible pattern it seems is that legitimate buyers are getting screwed way too often.

SO, how do you find out what the current $.99 movie is?

@Kaiser-Machead: I guess the studios are inadvertantly pushing us to more fully embrace the downloaded rentals ...