Rentals

You Can Now Buy and HD Movies From iTunes Directly

You could rent ’em before, but starting today, you can buy movies in high def from the iTunes Store on your computer. They’re $20—yes, about as much as a Blu-ray—and they’ll pop up as the usual $5 HD rentals within 30 days after that. It kicks off with Quantum of Solace and Twilight for pre-order,…

Blockbuster Total Access to Offer Video Game Rentals

Blockbuster is set to test out offering video games in addition to movies via its Total Access rental by mail system. It’s a move Netflix probably won’t counter. Blockbuster is testing offering games now, and planning to offer it to customers in the second half of this year. Netflix has made no noise on the…

Hertz Connect Car-On-Demand Service Starts in NYC With iPod and RFID Tricks

Hertz is jumping into Zipcar’s territory with its new Connect service, offering short-term rentals via membership for young urban folk to load up on gourmet groceries or Swedish particle board furniture. Zipcar users will be familiar with the process: book any available car at any time, get its location via text or email, wave your…

iTunes Movie Purchases and Rentals Go to UK and Canada

Apple’s finally taken their movies to the UK and Canada, giving them 700 and 1200 films respectively to buy or rent. The flicks will be available the same day as their DVD release, and if you’ve got an Apple TV, you can watch 100 (UK) or 200 (Canada) of them in HD on your TV.…

Blockbuster Planning In-Store Downloads, Not At Home Streaming?

This is an interesting turn to the Blockbuster media streamer rumor we heard last month. The Hollywood Reporter says Blockbuster will be going for the in-store kiosk download scheme where customers can download a movie within two minutes onto portable devices (we’re thinking iPods as opposed to USB hard drives). https://gizmodo.com/blockbuster-announcing-a-media-streamer-this-month-378185 The plan is to…

“Blockbuster” Living History Museum Offers Insight Into the Past

I don’t want to spoil anything here more than the headline already has, but the visually hilarious Onion News Network has a biting critique of the movie rental chain Blockbuster. We actually like Blockbuster because of our grandfathered unlimited in-store exchanges and two free game rentals a month, but this is still pretty funny. [The…

Apple Falls 601 Movies Short of February Promise

Macworld did some follow-up on a promise made by Apple in a press release from January’s keynote. In it, the company claimed: iTunes Movie Rentals launches today and will offer over 1,000 titles by the end of February, including over 100 titles in stunning high definition video with 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound which users…

$0.99 Pick-O’-the-Week Comes To iTunes Rental Store

The iTunes rental store now offers weekend specials, just like your local RST Video. Thursday through Monday each week, one movie will rent for $0.99, or $3 less than usual. If we keep heading down this path, the next update of iTunes will bring streaming video of a crushtached geek who snickers at you when…

Question of the Day: How Do You Get Your Movies?

The recent Apple TV 2.0 update got me thinking about the myriad of ways that consumers can get movies in their home these days. There are numerous companies out there vying for your entertainment dollar in both brick and mortar stores and online. So our question to you is: how do you get movies at…

Confirmed: Change Your System Time, Watch Your iTunes Rentals Forever

Click to viewUpdate: That was fast. It’s busted—or fixed, depending on your POV. See the jump. Movie rentals from iTunes 7.6? Awesome. That pesky 24-hour viewing window once you’ve started the film? Not so much. And even if you get a little trigger-happy and click play only two MB into the download, the self-destruct timer…

Apple Wheeling and Dealing For Movie Rentals From Multiple Studios?

According to the New York Times, Apple is in negotiations with multiple studios for iTunes movie rentals, not just Fox as was previously reported. The NYT sources did confirm the Fox deal but, not surprisingly, they declined to comment further saying only that more than one studio would be on the stage at Macworld. Wusses.…

Movie Gallery, the number two video rental chain, has been browbeaten into bankruptcy by the vast array of forces assaulting B&M rental outlets—the bloodbath between Netflix and Blockbuster, web video, VOD and so on. Quick and dirty takeaway: The picture’s not looking pretty for your corner video store. [Crave]

Blu-ray Signs Profit Sharing, Ruffles Some Feathers, Probably Shouldn’t

Last week, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment signed an agreement with rental company Rentrak to offer revenue sharing on Blu-ray titles. Some are calling this an aggressive move by Sony, bordering on on anti-competitive. But as far as I can tell, it’s a fair play that’s probably pretty smart. Rentrak is a go-between company for independent…

Blockbuster’s Blu-ray Endorsement Having Major Impact on HD DVD Player Sales

Click to viewBlockbuster’s decision to support Blu-ray in all of its 1,450 stores is having a bigger impact than it seems. A tipster at an unnamed retailer tells us they’ve had more HD DVD player orders canceled over the last few days than they’ve seen over the entire life cycle. The kicker? All of them…

Blockbuster Deals Blow to HD DVD Camp By Choosing Blu-ray

After testing out both Blu-ray and HD DVD rentals in 250 of its 1,450 stores, movie rental chain Blockbuster has gone with Blu-ray as the format it’s going to widely deploy next month. The decision comes as customers in those 250 stores chose Blu-ray 70% of the time, obviously more than doubling the amount of…

Hertz to try RFID Rather Than Keys for Rentals

A Hertz at the Nice Cote d’Azur Airport in France will begin using RFID to start up and check out cars, rather than keys. A group of 60 frequent Hertz customers will be guinae pigs in this test to see if using RFID-enabled cards for vehicles will speed the rental process. There are 10 Renault…

iTunes to Get Movie Rentals

Think Secret has learned that Stephan Jobs himself will announce the availability of movie rentals via iTunes at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference on August 7. It is also being reports that Walt Disney, Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. have already signed on to offer content for the iTunes movie rental service. Jobs…

MovieBeam Price Drop

MovieBeam, that service where you download movies via a broadcast signal, has just dropped its cost of entry to $49. That’s compared to its already-reduced priced of $199. Keep in mind, though, that you still need to rent each individual movie that you want to watch. But then, there’s no returning that DVD to the…

Netflix Adds HD DVD Rentals

We reported earlier that Netflix would support HD DVD at its launch this month, and while the launch of the players and disks is behind schedule, Netflix has quietly begun to accommodate HD DVD rentals on its website. If you go to the your account area, it gives you the option to set up your…