Streaming rented iTunes movie to ATV2 from Mac

Question

I rented a movie from iTunes and downloaded it to my Mac — with the idea that I could elect to view it on either my iPod or stream it to my ATV2. I chose to do the latter, but no go. Apple says (or seems to say) that you must own the iTunes movie to be able to stream it to the ATV2. When I bought the ATV2 at my Apple store, I was emphatically told that "If it's in your iTunes library, you can stream it to your ATV2." Since the direct streaming from iTunes to ATV2 has significant issues (stalling part way through even on a fast line), I thought a direct download to my Mac was the answer — to be streamed from there via my network. What the #*^^ is the truth about this. In another post in this forum, a person says he is regularly doing such streaming of a rented iTunes item that he has downloaded to his Mac!

Answer 1

OK — I've gotten things resolved. Unplugged and replugged the ATV2 for a reset. Now everything streams just fine — even a rented iTunes movie from my Mac. Too, I have now gone into the ATV2 settings and instructed it to select standard (non-HD) movies for rentals. This is many times faster and on our large flat screen Sony, I see no difference. In any case, HD or not, the wise thing to do is to do your download well in advance of viewing — i.e. hours. The flash memory in the ATV2 should hold it for at least 48 hours (or so Apple Support tells me). As it turns out, "streaming", even with a 10 mb line and an "N" wireless system, streaming is not exactly streaming. But it comes closer to it if you select non-HD movies.