My colleague, Peter Cohen, nicely details the ins and outs of movie rentals via iTunes. But when Peter wrote that piece, the Apple TV "Take Two" software update was still on the horizon. Now that this update has seen the light of day, it's time to examine how rentals work on the Apple TV.

Hunting

To get there from here, choose Movies from the left side of the Apple TV's split-pane interface and from the right side of the pane, select Top Movies, Genres, All HD, or Search.

When you choose Top movies, you'll see a screen full of movie posters. Featured movies appear across the top of the screen. Top rentals appear in the next row. Just added movies are below that. Staff Favorites come next. And finally, a collection of movie titles associated with a particular theme appear at the bottom. Today, for example, this row contains Oscar-winning movies.

Choose Genres and you can look at movies by genre--Thriller, Comedy, or Drama, for example--and, in the case of G- and PG-rated movies, by MPAA rating.

All HD presents a page of just those movies offered in high-definition (720p). Apple claims that 100 HD movies will be available from the iTunes Store by the end of February.

And Search produces a TiVo-like Search screen where you use the Apple Remote to enter characters to search iTunes' library of movies. Search turns up not only movie titles, but also actors and directors.

To watch a preview of a movie--and possibly rent it--just select a movie in one of these views and press the remote's Play/Pause button. In the information screen that appears you'll see a description of the movie, details on its cast and crew, a Preview button, and at least one Rent button. To preview the movie, you select the Preview button and press the remote's Play/Pause button. The preview will stream to your Apple TV and begin playing when the Apple TV believes it can play uninterrupted.

In regard to "at least one Rent button," the information screen will show you all rental options available to your Apple TV. If the movie is available only in standard-definition you'll see just that option along with the movie's rental price. Standard-def library (meaning "old") titles are priced at US$2.99. Current movies in standard-def cost $3.99. If the movie is also available in high-definition, that option will appear as well. HD movies cost $3.99 for library titles and $4.99 for current titles.

Apple has just implemented a new Movie of the Week feature where the Store offers one film, from Thursday to Monday, for just 99 cents.

Gathering

To rent a movie, just select one of the Rent buttons and press Play/Pause. If this is the first time you've purchased something with your Apple TV you'll be prompted for your Apple ID and password. (If don't have an Apple ID you'll have to sign up for one via iTunes. You'll need a credit card and email address for this.)

The movie will begin downloading to the Apple TV. As it does, you can visit the Apple TV's Downloads screen (found by choosing Settings on the left side of the split-pane interface and then selecting Downloads) to view the download's progress. A progress bar appears along with the percentage of movie downloaded. If you choose Rental Movies you'll also find a percentage-downloaded figure there.

When the Apple TV believes it's downloaded enough of the movie so that it can begin playing it without interruption, a window appears alerting you to that fact. Should you choose the option to begin playing the movie, the movie begins and the 24-hour playtime clock starts ticking. You