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Apple adds Television menu to Apple TV in Canada, elsewhere

3K views 10 replies 6 participants last post by  Tikker 
#1 ·
Apple has added the Television menu to Apple TV 2 in Canada, and apparently in Australia and the UK as well, to allow the direct purchase of TV shows from Apple TV. TV Show downloads haven't been added to the 'iTunes in the Cloud' previous purchases page yet but I'm sure that's coming next.
 
#2 ·
I always buy using iTunes or my first gen ATV so forgive my ignorance but here goes

When you buy a movie (and now a tv show) on ATV2, where is the movie / tv show stored. I assume that its in iTunes in the Cloud but can you download it to iTunes and store it locally as well?
 
#3 ·
On Apple TV 2 you cannot buy Movies, you can only rent them, even in the USA. What has been added, and was available only in the USA up until now, is the ability to purchase TV shows directly from the Apple TV 2. In the USA, prior to 'iTunes in the Cloud,' when you purchased TV shows on Apple TV 2 they would automatically download to your computer as well if you had a computer iTunes account also set up. There was a setting in iTunes preferences to do this called 'Always check for available downloads.' If you did not have a computer with iTunes set up to download automatically you would no longer have access to those shows since an Apple TV 2, as we know, does not have sufficient internal storage to hold any content. Although it was a shortcoming of the system it was also an unlikely scenario as anyone with an Apple TV would likely also own at least one computer. 'iTunes in the Cloud' solves the problem of accessing this previously purchased content regardless.

Some history! When Apple TV 2 was first introduced Apple also introduced TV show rentals in the USA. When that did not catch on they changed Apple TV 2 so that you could purchase TV Shows instead. That was exclusive to the USA market and Apple TV 2 everywhere else went without the Television menu until now. In markets where the Television menu did not exist, TV shows could only be purchased from a computer and then streamed locally over the LAN.
 
#6 ·
Oooops! It's disappeared. The Television menu is no longer available. I just checked to see if they had added additional networks, not all of them were there when I first checked this morning, and as I was scrolling the list the Television menu disappeared. Now I wonder if this was just a glitch on Apple's part. Will have to wait and see.
 
#7 ·
I saw it last night but was pretty disappointed with the content. Some kids stuff, PBS, and the History Channel. The first two menu options just gave some error. I'm trying to remember what that error was, it was something like "content not available". I just thought it was a US vs. Canada thing.
 
#8 ·
Yes, those where the same errors I got with the first two menu items, 'Top TV Shows' and 'Genres.' The third one, 'TV Networks' only listed a few networks, not all the ones that are available in the iTunes Store so I figured Apple was still rolling out all the networks on their end. 'Top TV Shows' across the top had 'Game of Thrones' as well as 'Breaking Bad' and 'The Walking Dead' listed, even though AMC was not listed in the Networks menu.

Later in the day when I went to check if more networks were added, the TV Show menu disappeared as I was looking at it. It's been gone since.
 
#9 ·
I have an ATV and an ATV 2. I always rent or buy from the old ATV as it also stores it on the hard drive and also syncs it back to itunes. Friday night is movie night in our house and the kids will scan recorded tv on the PVR, Netflix and apple tv (The XBOX, PS3 and ON demand never get used for rentals cause the apple TV just works so well and has the best selection).

After they rent and watch the movie once they will want to watch it again and again and again. If you rent on the ATV2 you have to download it again each time. For example Kunfu Panda 2 is available this week in HD and the kids will have 48 hours to watch it you can be sure it will be watched at least 5 or 6 times (even if no one except the family pet is in the room when it's playing). On the ATV as it does not have a hard drive you will download it every time you watch it and if it's a HD movie at 4 to 5 GB and you have a download cap and watch it 6 times you can probably declare bankruptcy by the end of the month.
 
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