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Rent ITunes movies question?

Hi Guys,

I am planning on bringing my IPhone (and maybe my ipad -haven't decided yet) on my tour to South France/Loire in a few weeks.

Here's my question:

I have a code share flight to France on American Airlines and they don't have tv's in the seatbacks. I thought I would rent a few movies on ITunes right before I leave and watch them on my phone (or ipad). I don't know if I'll have wi-fi in the sky though, so: can I stream the movies and watch the first 3-4 minutes before getting on the plane and then stop/pause it. Then, when I get on the plane, just hit start again and watch the rest of the movie (without wi-fi)? Also, could I do the same thing while in France (start the movies at home and then finish them in France)? I think the rental period is 30 days for some movies.

I suspect the answer is no for both because won't I need a constant wi-if connection to stream? Or, perhaps I can do it on the plane, but not in France where wi-fi in a hotel might be very slow. I've never rented an iTunes movie before, but I have gift certificate credits, so I thought I would try it out. Thanks as always.

Posted by
9099 posts

My experience is the same as George....whenever I'm overseas I'm permitted to purchase any title available on the Itunes USA store.

Posted by
559 posts

Hi again,

THANKS for all your help so far. I wanna ask few more things, since I'm not too tech savvy:

  1. To be clear: if I download the movies here to RENT the day before I leave, I could potentially wait ten days to start watching them in France (right around the time I get sick and tired of hearing the same BBC news report over and over again on the only English-speaking channel available - haha) ?

  2. As long as I don't start watching the movie until I get to France, it should stay on my IPhone/ipad for 30 days AND I will be able to open it since it's downloaded, not streamed, correct?

  3. The same goes with the plane too, right?

  4. I won't need to have cellular data on while I'm watching these, correct? I don't want big phone bills when I return.

  5. I'm typing these questions, I'm realizing that I have an IPhone 4 with Verizon, which will NOT work in Europe. Can I still watch movies on it, or will I have to bring my ipad 2 (which is wi-if only)?

THANKS for helping clear this up for me. As I said, I'm not too tech savvy, so I just want to double check and make sure I truly understand what/how to do this. :)

I'm sorry to ask some of the same questions twice, but I'm not really tech savvy.

Posted by
129 posts

You also need to plan for how much space movies take up, especially if you have other apps that you want on your phone or ipad for traveling. Don't expect to rent and store five movies on an 8 or 16 gig iPhone.

Posted by
559 posts

THANKS everyone! I forgot about file size, so I'll check that.

Posted by
3940 posts

For anyone else (and you as well Gretchen) a lot of times when you buy DVD's, you may get a code to download the movie onto your ipad/tablet. Some I've downloaded thru iTunes, and they are 'in the Cloud' and I'm assuming I would need a wifi connection to download, but could then watch without the connection. (Yes - I do need a connection - I just turned off the wifi and they all disappeared). Some others are thru Flixster (depends on the company giving you the download code) which is the same deal - can either download for offline viewing, or stream if you have a connection. At our local video store (which just closed after 30 years...boohoo) they used to sell the individual codes for like $4, and then the movie was yours to own (for your tablet, of course). Or perhaps you may have some friends who still buy DVD's or Blu-rays who may not bother using the code (only usable once) who would pass it along to you. Just a thought! (I currently have 5 movies on my Flixster and 9 on my iPad video app).

Posted by
824 posts

Gretchen,

Your Verizon iPhone 4 will work just fine overseas; just put it in airplane mode as soon as you get on the plane and don’t take it out of that mode until you return to the US. While in airplane mode, you can still access WIFI and Bluetooth networks and all your stored data. You can even iMessage/facetime other apple users (although this usually results in a caution to take it out of airplane mode) as long as you’re on a WIFI network.

If you are thinking about upgrading to a new iPhone 5x, I hear Verizon will unlock the GSM slot so you can install a local providers SIM while overseas. As I hear it, installing a GSM SIM in a Sprint or Verizon iPhone 5x disables the CDMA (Sprint/Verizon network) capability but allows it to function on local networks in Europe. You just need to remember to pull the GSM SIM when you return.

As for the American Airlines flight, only the new 777-300s have trans-Atlantic WIFI capability. If your flight doesn’t have coach-seat personal entertainment systems, it’s more than likely an old 767.

Todd

Posted by
9462 posts

Gretchen -- good for you for working to figure this out before departing! One less thing to worry about.

Answers to your questions.

1) yes
2) yes
3) right
4) right
5) yes, you can watch the movies on your iPhone. - I think it was Todd who explained that while your iPhone won't function as a telephone, it will still work as a device for storing and watching movies.

Posted by
9 posts

Quick note on file size...

From iTunes, often you can purchase or rent the HD or the SD versions of tv shows and movies - when traveling, if I have purchased the HD version (for viewing on the Apple TV), I download the SD version to the iPad - usually it's about 1/3 to 1/4 the size, and you probably won't be able to tell a difference on the iPad screen - definitely not on the iPhone screen. Even in SD mode, it's better quality than the overhead or seatback screen...

J