What's the solution to a frozen iTunes movie rental on a current Macbook Pro with current software? I think perhaps no one knows.

Question

I rented Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Extended Version) tonight, because I'm taking my family to Universal's Wizarding World of Harry Potter tomorrow. This is the kind of event that can't happen just any ol' day; it's expensive, a big deal for everyone, and we were very excited to watch the first HP movie tonight to help set the tone for our getaway. 44 minutes into the movie, it froze, just before the "sorting hat" comes to life. Boy were the kids dissappointed. And the parents. Ugh.
I have a 2.3 GHz Intel Core i5 13" Macbook Pro with 8GB of memory, running OS X vs.10.6.8 with iTunes 10.5.2. I have rented movies many times from the iTunes Store without issue on this computer and also another. Once upon a time, I rented the HD version of a movie and it wouldn't play. I recieved a refund, and rented the non-HD version and it played without flaw, although it wasn't until the following day. In this case, tomorrow is too late, Apple.
Many thanks to anyone who can shed some light on this!
And is this the end of the world? No. However, I must say how dissappointed and irritated I am about this, and here is why: I can't believe that SO MANY people have this same exact problem--it's posted all over the internet--yet every thread I've seen has NO SOLUTION, and no responses from Apple employees. If the answer is out there somewhere, which I certainly don't doubt, how about making it a little EASIER TO FIND? From what I have read, this is a problem that has been occuring for years now.
We have been devout Apple customers--computers, iphones, ipods, ipads, itunes purchases out the wazoo--I'm a big supporter of the whole kit and kaboodle. I really regret not having simply rented this movie from Comcast on demand tonight, though. It was the same price. In fact, I would do that right now, however it's well past the kids bedtime. I wrongly assumed I would find a solution with a little searching after I saw how many people have had this same problem. My bad... I guess...
Honestly, I'm seeing myself using the iTunes Store as a last resort to rent a movie from now on. After you've gotten involved in a movie, it kind of ruins the mood when it stops playing, even if you do have the time to fiddle around troubleshooting or wait a day or two for a response.

Answer 1

If your HDTV is HDCP compliant, you probably will have no problems. But you might want to read this information which while written a while back still, to the best of my knowledge, applies:
http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/16488
HDCP compliance is, from what I've read, rather a "rubber ruler" so even if your TV lists as being HDCP, it might or might not work correctly with your Mac. Testing with one movie first might avoid an expensive surprise.
As to your complaint to Apple, it probably wasn't up to Apple but instead was forced on them as part of the conditions by the content owners for licensing movies and shows to the iTunes Store. But feel free to comment to Apple via their feedback pages:
http://www.apple.com/feedback