Apple's Press Release (http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2009/03/19itunes.html)

It took long enough. ;)

This makes the mini so much more attractive to me than the AppleTV. And I own both...

Rentals as well. Of course AppleTV is supported as well, but this is the first time Apple is offering theatrical HD movies on the Mac itself. It will be interesting if there is DRM on the video output (something that existed on some HD TV shows and SD movies but not others?)

Apple's press release. (http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2009/03/19itunes.html)

I guess it will be a looong wait for Blu-ray now that Apple is in direct competition. Or maybe a short one, if Apple did a "we'll support BD if you let us sell HD movies through iTunes" deal with the studios.

FWIW: They are up for pre-order at $14.99

Yeah that was probably the biggest single advantage, other than price of course, the TV had over a mini.

Can you get get 720p out of the mini to an hdtv or will hdcp (or possible lack of) require it to be something less? I guess the real question is; does dvi/mdp support hdcp?

This is great news for ATV and Mini owners. And to think today was the day I finally got my Mini to play nicely with my Onkyo 875! Yay!

yes as greedo and JerryNY (i wonder if this is my friend Jerry in NY - hitch hiker?) say, other than price this seems to cinch the mini over ATV (still good for the 2nd room);
Do you guys like the Front Row interface as well and set-up operational complexities etc.? Jonesky, others need to check me on this, but I believe dvi hcdp answer is yes - i presently run such out of a comcast cable box to a lumagen without a problem...

ken

This is incredible!!!
I literally JUST got finished connecting my new Mac Mini to my Pioneer plasma for the first time. I mean I JUST took it out of the box. I came to AVS to get a few new ideas on how to use this magic box. The one thing that was missing in my mind was HD rentals (my primary use for my Apple TV).

This really changes the game for me. Looks like the Apple TV is heading into the bedroom.

Way to go Apple!!!

Are HD movie rentals really available on the mac directly? I too am excited but when I went out on iTunes it looks like you can buy the HD but it is not clear you can rent in HD. The screens show a price for buying HD movies, SD movies, and just plain 'rent'. So it isnt clear that they are in HD. Did anyone test it?

Are HD movie rentals really available on the mac directly? I too am excited but when I went out on iTunes it looks like you can buy the HD but it is not clear you can rent in HD. The screens show a price for buying HD movies, SD movies, and just plain 'rent'. So it isnt clear that they are in HD. Did anyone test it?

From the horse's mouth:

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2009/03/19itunes.html

Starting today, movie fans can purchase box office blockbusters for download in HD for $19.99 from iTunes, and films will be available as iTunes Movie Rentals in HD for $4.99 within 30 days after release. Customers can enjoy these films in HD on their Mac® or PC and on their widescreen TV with Apple TV®, as well as in standard definition on their iPhone™ or iPod® with video.

From the horse's mouth:

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2009/03/19itunes.html

I guess they just haven't put all of the detail in iTunes yet - or there are some movies that are available as HD rentals and some as SD rentals only. I haven't found an HD rental yet but will keep looking.

Now if they would just support 5.1 sound output for these films via a macbook I would be very, very happy.

One VERY bad thing wrt HD movies on iTunes:

http://i.gizmodo.com/5177075/itunes-hd-movies-wont-play-on-older-non+hdcp-monitors

It would seem newer Macs, including new minis I would assume, require them to be hooked up to HDCP compliant devices. This could cause quite a bit of annoyance IMHO.

Does that essentially mean that (in order to play iTunes HD movies), any new Mac Mini would have to be connected to a (HDMI equipped) television via a mini-display port/HDMI adapter?

In other words, would a Mini-DVI-to-DVI/HDMI cable work?

This HDCP stuff makes my head hurt...

One VERY bad thing wrt HD movies on iTunes:

http://i.gizmodo.com/5177075/itunes-hd-movies-wont-play-on-older-non+hdcp-monitors

It would seem newer Macs, including new minis I would assume, require them to be hooked up to HDCP compliant devices. This could cause quite a bit of annoyance IMHO.
So does that mean that the DVI based 30" Apple Cinema Displays that Apple is selling *right now* are HDCP complaint? Because if not, they will have some VERY angry customers.

Unsure why Apple hasn't yet implemented HDMI on their monitors, but I won't purchase one until they do.

The new Apple 24" is HDCP compliant but unless they did some kind of stealth upgrade the 30" on their store isn't AFAIK.

I cannot find a single HD movie to rent via iTunes (unless you are on an aTV). Even the movies in HD that they are promoting with a rental option only have that rental option in SD. Looking forward to when Apple really gets it together and supports this the right way - more complete library to rent on Mac/PC, 5.1 output via iTunes or FrontRow. 1080p would be nice at some point but I would take care of these other issues first.

I can understand the rental of HD, but who would want to buy them, they will cost almost the same as a blu-ray disk, and be lesser quality, I know it's more work to have to rip it with bootcamp/Fusion/Parallels, but you end up with a backup (disk) as well.

I'm not yet onboard with BluRay (will be later this year), and I'm going to be at the 720p level with my television for 1-2 more years for budgetary reasons.

I have an iMac 24", a couple of AppleTVs, and each family member has an iPod. My typical model is buy the DVD, rip it and archive it for both AppleTV and iPod and watch it whenever/wherever I want.

In the case of Quantum of Solace, for $19.99 (BlueRay $27, DVD $15) it is a pretty decent price point for an improved (720p) visual experience over the DVD. It also comes with the lower-res iPod friendly version.

If I had a BluRay player and a 1080P television, I wouldn't have likely made the same decision. For where I am right now, the value was about right - but probably only because I'm a Bond fan.

One thing I've noticed but haven't dug into yet...even though I downloaded two files (one hi-res and one lo-res), the movie is only "listed" on iTunes once, but with two icons (an HD icon and an SD icon).

Is this a new feature where iTunes can manage multiple copies of the same file? Or do you think it will only work for purchased content?

I'll dig into it later...