Do you have to have an internet connection to watch a rented movie from itunes?

Question

I rented a movie from itunes and tried to watch in on a plane.  But a message came up that itunes could not connect to the internet.  I did not realize you had to have an internet connection to watch a rented movie.  Is this correct?

Answer 1

I have experienced this on several occassions and after being unable to watch three of the six movies I rented from iTunes on the return leg of a six hour flight, I finally decided to explore a little more to determine how to "fix" this. I have yet to find a definitive answer but at this point I am 100% certain that you "need" an internet connection to watch a movie. If you have ever downloaded movies on your iPad and tried to BEGIN watching them in flight, imagine your frustration level when the "Content Not Authorized" message appears and you are SOL watching the back of the seat in front of you for six hours. On the initial leg of my West Coast trip, fearing this would happen, I started playing the three movies I might watch on the flight while in the terminal. This of course began the 24 hour countdown. I was rushed on the return leg and neglected to do this. Of course the three remaining movies could not be viewed because the "Content Not Authorized" message appeared.  Upon landing however I was prompted to log into iCloud and sure enough the movies could be played.
While an internet connection is not required to view movies once they begin, there is clearly some form of authorization taking place and required before they can be played. If you wait until you are cruising along at 30,000 feet, you are SOL and heaven forbid you are on a New York to Seattle flight in the middle seat of a 737 with no in-seat entertainment. It makes for a very long 6.5 hours. 
The abursdity of this is simply beyond my comprehension. Once you download and pay for the movie (transferred from PC), shouldn't the iPad somehow be intelligent enough to know when you started the movie using its own internal clock or something? Isn't the whole purpose of the iPad to enable me to screw off on a 6-hour flight watching movies and avoiding work? The apparent oversight here is simply impossible to understand given how frequently this must occur. Ten years from now every flight while be equipped with WiFi and this issue will be a thing of the past but what an incredible limitation of an amazing piece of technology. I would be willing to bet that if Jobs had ever been screwed out of $15 for three movies because "Content Not Authorized" appeared on his flight I wouldn't be posting this.