Friday, January 18, 2008 -- 2:30 a.m. -- on my couch

I love big screen TVs just like everyone else. But I also love the small screen -- my iPhone's screen.

I have no problem watching a movie in the palm of my hand. In fact, with the frigid weather expected here this weekend, I may just give it a try.

Here are a few tips for renting movies through iTunes and putting them on your phone:
1. You need iTunes 7.6 and Quicktime 7.4 before beginning.
2. Once you rent a movie, you have 30 days to start it. Once you start it, you have 24 hours to finish.
3. When you put a movie on your iPhone, you are moving it from iTunes to your iPhone. Translation: You only have one copy of the movie once you rent.
4. Your iPhone only holds 8GB, so go slow -- do a movie at time -- at least until the 16 GB model comes out.
5. No, your iPhone will not get you a bucket of popcorn, so don't ask it.

As of last count, there are approximately 350 movie rentals available at iTunes, with that number expected to increase substantially as we move forward.

You'll also find a list of the most popular movie rentals on the left rail at the iTunes store.

If you've rented a movie and synced it to your iPhone, please call and let me know how it went and what your impressions were.

Thanks for calling.

Hello hello!

Okay I am just curious, but I was searching for alternatives to downloading movies other than itunes as well as sites I can download games for the iphone. I've been coming across this website called pretty frequently in my searches and have seen pretty good reviews. However, I want to know the legitimacy of this website and hwo much it can be trusted or worth it. I believe it's a peer to peer sharing website for music, movies, games, and e books for the iphone at a one time membership charge of about $50.00 and includes unlimited downloads with no other charges. Have you ever heard of this site and do you know if it's actually legit?

Thanks I hope to hear from you soon.

SCOTT'S REPLY: Thanks for the comment, Dave ... These sites are 100 percent NOT legit. I will tell you and all my callers NEVER to use these sites. As Dave says they are peer sharing sites that charge you to give you hints on how to get media. They say you get unlimited media for $50, but the sites don't host the media ... they tell you where to get it in places that you aren't really allowed to get it. They are all schemes to get you out of $50. If you want media, iTunes is the way to go because it's legal and easy and it doesn't cost $50 to get started. There are thousands of illegal ways to get media, but that's not something I will talk about here.

So to answer your question, Dave, stay away and don't be tempted. It's a total scam.

I think I understand your #3 translation correctly: only 1 copy means that you can either move a movie to the phone OR pod. Not both. Is that correct?

SCOTT'S REPLY: Yes, Al. You can use it one place at a time, but not both. That is indeed correct.

I downloaded Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End and have just synced it to my iPhone. The 1.84GB file took 6-7 minutes to sync and I still have 3.5GB of spare space on my iPhone. I'm so pleased about being able to rent movies from iTunes. My iBook only has 6GB of space left and one movie takes a serious chunk of that free space. So to be able to watch and then get rid of a movie is perfect for me. I'm not sure exactly what happens when you finish watching it - does it just disappear into thin air?

The quality of TV shows on the iPhone always amazes me and I've just had a quick view of POTC and it looks fantastic. Because it's widescreen it only takes up about 2/3rd of the viewing area. Once transferred to the iPhone the movie no longer shows in the "rented movies" folder in iTunes, but you can transfer it back from your iPhone.

Got to go now, I only have 23 hours and 5 minutes to finish watching the movie :-)

SCOTT'S REPLY: Enjoy, Kim, and thanks for the play by play. That's exactly how it's supposed to go ... the file disappears in iTunes when move it to the iPhone. And yep ... I guess in some ways it just goes into thin air -- that or Steve Jobs' iPhone by way of osmosis.

I have a question that I don't think I've seen addressed anywhere, or if it has I have missed it. Can you only watch the movie one time once that 24 hour period starts, or do you have that 24 hours to watch the movie as many times as you can in that period?

SCOTT'S REPLY: You can watch the movie as many times as you want in the 24 hour period.

I can't find the answer to this anywhere and I was wondering if you might know. When you sync a rented movie to your ipod(whatever generation it may be), does the 30 day/24 hr thing still counting then, or does it stay on your ipod until you plug it back into the computer. Really wondering how this works, espically if you have older model ipods w/o the internet available on them.

SCOTT'S REPLY: Hi, Samantha. Well, let me start backwards ... the rented movie unfortunately won't play on an older model iPod. It's only the most current generation. So unless you bought an iPod recently, unfortunately, you won't be able to take advantage. I have an iPhone and that's the only device I can play the movies on. As far as the first part ... the 30 day rule applies because the date is set on iTunes when you download. Remember, once you hit play, the 24 hour clock starts. But say you download but don't hit play and move the file to your iPod 4 days in -- you'll have 26 days left before it vaporizes into thin air. I hope that helps.

Scott - my son Matt has the iPod Touch and he rented Zoolander and dragged the movie onto his iPod to watch on the way to a hockey game. It looked great. His constant laughing told me he was enjoying the movie, too. There goes the portable DVD player, right out the window. . . .Jim

SCOTT'S REPLY: Yeah, it's great. I've only seen TV shows and podcasts. I'm about to pick out my first movie and I'm excited. The resolution and 144 dpi screen really make the videos pop.

I watched some of Pirates on my iPhone last night and although I mention above that it was in widescreen and only took up 3/4 of the screen, I found the little icon that switches it to full screen mode, so you have the choice. Movie chapters are also there - it's just a shame there was no Jack Sparrow in the first 20 minutes of the movie (that's all I've watched so far) - I thought that was the whole point! I guess I can't blame Apple for that :-) Anyway, I'm pretty impressed with the whole movie renting process, and watching them on my iPhone.

SCOTT'S REPLY: Sounds like a great experience. I spent last night catching up on some podcasts and such. Movie rentals are next on the list.

hey, i hear of the unlocked iphones. does that mean that they can go ahead and slao use itunes like all others because i would taken it that it is only the phone network that is changed over.is itunes affected by the netowrk provider?

SCOTT'S REPLY: If anyone has any background and unlocked phones that can answer Solo's question, that would be great.

I have never unlocked my iphone, so I can't tell you from experience what specifically happens when you connect it to iTunes.

As someone who has unlocked iPhone (I'm not from US) I can testify that it works perfectly with iTunes and movie rentals. For example, I've just got the Appleseed Ex Machina :-)

SCOTT'S REPLY: Sorry, Alon, I deleted the part about circumventing the 24-hour limit. We won't be getting into breaking DRM and cheating the system on this blog.

Alright, I love watching movies on my new iPhone 3G. However, is there any way to rent a movie when I am not at home to watch it? I am on vacation and have access to wi-fi and other computers but it is asking me to delete my iPhone data to sync the movie. Is there a work around?

SCOTT's REPLY: I don't think so unless you can log into your iTunes account on another computer ... you need to sync it with the account that you use with your iPhone.

I have a number of purchased DVDs ripped to .mp4 and have been watching them on my iPod touch for some time. I recently purchased an iPhone assuming that I could load the same movies onto the iPhone. However, although Movies show up under the iPhone device in iTunes, there is only the Rented Movies part of the Video tab and the familar Movies tab is missing. Is there a way to watch movies I own on my iPhone? If so, can you point me in the right direction to get them on the iPhone?

SCOTT'S REPLY: Let me look into this a little further. You should be able to watch the same movies on your iPhone that you were watching on your iPod touch. When you say the movies tab is missing, are you referring to on your iPhone or in iTunes? If it's on your iPhone, you need to select the button that says MORE in the lower right corner and then you can change what you see in that bar along the bottom. If you are talking about in iTunes, well I need a little while to look into that because I'm not sure why you'd have trouble.

Hi, I just downloaded rented movie and it wont drag and drop into my Iphone. I have itunes 7.7.1.11. What am I doing wrong.

SCOTT'S REPLY: Hi, Matt. Drag and drop? You don't actually drag and drop movies in iTunes ... you select the movie in iTunes on the screen when you go to sync -- check box on and off. That should help you.

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