iTunes Movie Rentals Won't Play on 5th-Gen iPods

You're fine if you have an iPod Touch or the just-updated Nanos and Classics, but if you have a (relatively new) fifth-generation iPod, you'll have to go without movie rentals (on your iPod, at least). Needless to say, jilted iPod owners are pretty unhappy.

Wired News got wind earlier this week of the growing discontent, and it's hard to blame the angry iPodders. The fifth-generation iPod—the first of its kind with video playback—came out in October 2005, and a refreshed version (the 5.5G iPod) was released in September 2006 and was on sale until September 2007, when the new Nano and Classic models debuted. So we're not talking ancient hardware, here, and many owners of the 5G iPod naturally assumed that the just-announced movie rentals on iTunes would work on their devices. (In his keynote at Macworld, Steve Jobs did say that rentals would work on all "current" iPod models, and the playback limitations are indeed noted—in fine print—on Apple's Web site.)

"Why on earth would they not make this service available to the fifth-generation iPods," writes one angry user on Apple's support forums. "Mine is less than six months old!! If all the other services are available for the fifth-generation iPods, why not rentals?? I have a tough time believing it would not be technically feasible."

Why not, indeed? Apple has yet to comment, but Wired's Eliot Van Buskirk has a theory: new iPods and the iPhone may have built-in "secure digital clocks" that determine whether the rental period for a DRM-protected movie has expired. No secure digital clock, no movie rentals. It's only a theory for now, but it sounds about right to me.

So, fifth-generation video iPod owners: think it's fair that you can't watch movie rentals on your iPods?

Related:
Why You Can't Rent Movies for Older IPod Models [Wired's Listening Post]