Filed under: iTunes
iTunes rentals and the system date
We got an interesting tip from "Jack", who noted that you could affect the time remaining on an iTunes movie rental by altering your system time. I gave it a shot to be sure. It's true, if you're willing to offset the date on your computer until you finally have time to watch that movie, you can get past the 30-day time limit.
It was also noted that if you fast-forward your calendar to the due date of a rental, iTunes will remove the movie from the library but apparently not from your drive. That seems odd to me, but that's the way it works, at least if you switch the date up yourself. And sure, you could get a little creative with a DVR and some streaming output, but the price isn't so bad to me that it warrants the extra effort. My movie-watching habits seem to be in line with Apple's plan: I generally watch a movie once no matter how good it is. Ultimately, it's just a matter of finding the time to do it.
Thanks, Jack!
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Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)
joel c said 12:14PM on 1-16-2008
does this work with ipod viewing? would you have to set back the ipod clock or just your mac's clock?
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DistortedLoop said 2:29PM on 1-16-2008
Doesn't the iPod's date/time get sync'd from the Mac anyways.
cole said 12:15PM on 1-16-2008
well this wont last long... :D
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Joe said 12:25PM on 1-16-2008
And can you use Time Machine to "go back" and watch the movie after your rental expires?
I'm definitely curious if you can set your clock to, say 2033, start watching the movie, and then set your clock back to the correct time. Time to start watching is no bggie, but time to watch after you start is the big important part.
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stevebr said 1:23PM on 1-16-2008
A caveat for anybody intending to try this out:
Screwing around with your system date and then doing just about anything on a network can have unintended (and potentially serious) consequences.
Also, Leopard users will want to turn Time Machine off *completely* for the duration that they're cheating the rental timeout using methods like this.
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Mr Lizard said 1:36PM on 1-16-2008
any chance of an Applescript/automator action for this?
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Thomas said 1:44PM on 1-16-2008
Personally I don't think any of these solutions will really work until there is some real synergy between on demand via the internet and broadcast TV. It's all well and good being able to rent/buy your content as you decide you want it but there's something to be said for scheduled content, both in terms of discovering new stuff but also in just watching something again because it's on and it catches your eye. I must have seen the first two Bourne films a dozen times because I've noticed them on late night and ended up watching them, otherwise I wouldn't have even thought to watch them again even though I enjoyed them and have the DVDs.
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mune360 said 1:59PM on 1-16-2008
Does anyone know what the size of the movies when we could rent it?
HD and standard?
Because, not all ISP offer unlimited bandwith to our Internet connection.
Thx
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Mikko said 2:16PM on 1-16-2008
This is a bit off topic but Engadget says HD rentals are only available with AppleTV, not with iTunes. Is this true?
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Ryan said 4:21PM on 1-16-2008
This is true
Jim said 3:05PM on 1-16-2008
This might sound like a crazy question but does anyone know if you can watch the same movie more than once within the 24 hr period?
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mbaudis said 3:43PM on 1-17-2008
yes
Apple said 3:38PM on 1-16-2008
Rookie mistake!
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Greg G said 3:57PM on 1-16-2008
Output to dvr... are you trying to give me ideas? ;)
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James Elliott said 1:19PM on 1-17-2008
Heh, as ryan says, there will be a fix for this.
On an aside (randomly hoping someone can help with this), i tried to access the itunes rentals by changing my store location in itunes. When i do it (this is repeatable by the way) it stops loading the US itunes store halfway through, and then my internet stops working. Firefox tries to load pages for about a minute before doing the standard "page cannot be displayed" error. This also affects mail, safari etc. After a reboot, everything works fine.
As i say, this is repeatable. I'm in the UK and usualy use the UK store if that helps.
And sorry for commentjacking, just thought people may know what is happening (i have googled the problem, and nothing).
Cheers
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mbaudis said 3:48PM on 1-17-2008
well, do you have 2 itunes accounts?
i did it in the past, and currently have 2 accounts. one is US, the other Germany (actually rareky used, due to Euro and lack of movies ...).
you should log out of your account, before changing.
Bob said 2:12PM on 1-17-2008
I rented The Simpsons Movie, i thought it was the typical resolution as the rest of the films but according to the information, the video dimensions of the film are 853x356.
A link to show you that its true, it may be a typo or something but it's there.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2190/2199495065_3155c04272_o.jpg
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brian.padilla said 2:50AM on 1-18-2008
you can change date on your computer, in itunes it says that you have more days to watch it then you actually do, but when you try to watch it, it connects to server, and your rental expires immediatley, so this cheat does not work. it only displays "fake time" remaining. i assume when it connects to server it sees that your computers date and time is earlier than your rental date and time and it screws up your rental....
should have known better
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