How do you rent movies to watch?

[Steve]

Hi all,

I'm a movie fan and we have always rented most new movies at Blockbuster over the years. Their 4 for £10 offer where you could keep four movies 4 days was the main way, and at £2.50 a film in Blu-ray it seemed cheap and 4 days was a decent amount of time to get to watch the films in.

In recent weeks Blockbuster has moved to making it 3 for £10 for 3 days, so a much worse deal, and a single Blu-ray rental for one night has moved up to something like £4.50 or more a day. I see on the Web site it even talks of £10.50 for 3 days for 3 movies now.

I've been wanting to move to renting at home via broadband for years now.. and it has always seemed to be coming soon.

The 3D TV I got recently has Samsung Apps in it and its 3D blu-ray player that should allow streaming of films to the TV from folks like LoveFilm.. but it just says 'coming soon' when I look at it. How useless is that.

I am a keen PS3 user and when I saw LoveFilm announce the other day that they were now streaming to the PS3 I went and tried that. I could see no way to rent a film though, and even if I could the talk seemed to be of older movies that are of no interest to me, I want to view films the day they come out for rental, and in HD.

The LoveFilm talk seemed to be of this being an add on service to their old movies by mail system, and that you need an account/payment plan on that to be able to see movies online. That sounds plain silly to me and so I rejected the idea.

I'm writing because I have watched a few films this week by streaming them. It worked perfectly and all I paid was the cost for each film, which seemed to vary from about £3 to £4.50. No petrol/driving/trying to find the films, and then taking them back etc needed though... which is great.

The system I used is surprising.. it is Apple TV. I got one of the new just out streaming Apple TV boxes to watch some TV shows I bought from AppleStore after missing them on TV. It costs just £99 from an Apple store, and it is tiny, and has a neat small remote.

AppleStore seems to now have a lot of just out films for rental via Apple TV. A couple of clicks and I'm watching the film and that's that. No hassle and a fairly reasonable cost. Last night we watched a film that lasted over 2 hours and that was in HD and it was great.

The same Apple TV system can see what is on all computers in the house that are running itunes and that have my ID setup for home sharing in the itunes setup on them.

This allows playing of itunes material from those machines, so music, videos, and photos even...all via the main TV and sound system.

My setup is a good speed broadband, and an HDMI lead from the AppleTV box to the TV. I also have a light based sound lead from the AppleTV box to my AV sound system, though I could just listen to the sound from the TV if I wanted.

So - I hope me mentioning what I have found works really well for me will help others here. If anyone has found other systems to watch movies please do say, there must be various ways to do it.

Steve

[thelad]

Hi Steve

Looks like you been busy with the movies

How good is the 3d movies or system The only time i saw 3d movies was at Disney in Florida and they were brilliant then I am just wondering if they have improved a lot which iam sure they have

Have you saw any football matches in 3D or any sport. I can just imagine sitting behind the goal when a goal is scored and go to try and catch the football

take care and thanks for sharing your info on the movies

Jim

[Steve]

Jim,

If you go to a large store like Curry's they should have 3D TV setup so you can stand there and watch it and see what you think.

I watched Manchester Unitied v Manchester City in 3D the other day and quite enjoyed it. I am getting more used to watching it now.

There are quite a few catches and potential problems with getting and watching 3D TV.

To see it on the Sky 3D channel you have to have the full Sky package of all channels, Sky World I think they call it, and also their HD service.. then the 3D channel is free to view. They do show pay per view 3D movies at times on it though, so they cost extra.

I've recorded all the main 3D content off the 3D channel now and I plan to watch a lot of it over Christmas. I've also ordered up things like the new Christmas Carol in 3D that has just come out, so I can watch that from 3D blu-ray.

A 3D blu-ray player is normally needed to play 3D blu-ray disks. A PS3 games console with the latest updates can handle most of them.

Another thing to watch out for is that normally 3D will mean the latest HDMI leads for the actual 3D signals, they are to a 1.4 standard not the old 1.3 that is used for HD. The PS3 seems to manage with the old lead but I think you are perhaps losing some abilities doing that.

What else is there to say. Well Avatar is one of the best known 3D films and it seems to have just started to be given out on 3D blu-ray disks with some Panasonic TV's.. you can't buy it yet though so it may annoy some folks to have a 3D TV and not be able to see things like that on it at present.

You might imagine you can watch all your team's games on 3D TV.. but sadly you can't, Sky 3D football matches can be weeks apart, and they will not be showing the match you want a lot of the time when they do bother to show one in 3D. Also of course important things like England games are often not even on Sky, let alone on their 3D channel.

Personally I've been into 3D and movies and photos and so on for decades, and part of that is keeping up with the latest technology and getting an understanding of it. Do I need half the technology I have, from 3D TV to a 3D camera to things like 50mb broadband.. I certainly don't, and they all achieve very little really. However, it is my hobby/interest so it is what I do. Lots of folks spend much more playing silly games like golf , or wobble about on expensive little boats, or whatever.. and I don't even smoke or drink I just like my gadgets.

I hope that info is of some use to you and others when deciding what they want to do themselves. I'm happy to answer any questions where I can.

This thread was aimed more at streaming movies to the home as that is just starting to work as it should, and I am pleased to be able to at last talk of being able to do it regularly, and cheaply, and well.

Steve

[thelad]

Thanks Steve

Yes the info was great and looks like i will have to make the effort and get to Curry's or one of the other stores and have a look at the 3D Tv's at the moment I don't see a big difference it the HD and normal Telly so 3D s the way to go for me

I am a Gadget guy as well and would love to have the money and space to get all the gadgets that are around or when they hit the stores plus and I am a bit of a Horder as I hate throwing stuff away and in the past I have even brought stuff back from the tip when that was allowed a few years back but they have stopped all that so my wife is happy these days but a lot of our unwanted items are recycled to various charities

Is great to spend your hard earned cash on things that you like and not spending on something that does not interest me and like you Bonsai, The PC and now Photography are my things that I spend time with

thanks again

Jim