Onlinenerd24

If you have a US-based iTunes Store account, but access the store with the new Apple TV from outside the US, you shouldn’t be able to rent TV shows. The store only shows the “Preview” button, then actual “Rent for 0,99$” button is missing. Apple obviously does a IP location lookup due to TV licensing restrictions, just like hulu.com.

But there is a way around this issue. What you need to do is sign in once to the store with a US based IP adress from the new Apple TV. This can be done by using a US based VPN service. I use blackvpn which will currently give you 2 month free if you use the referral code ZDMXVQU when signing up.

Currently you will only need the VPN connect one time so you wont have to sign and pay a long running contract.

1. What you do is set up the VPN on your Mac computer according to the VPNB providers guidelines (it’s easy!) using your built in Wi-Fi.
2. Connect the Apple TV to your Mac with a network cable.
3. On your Mac enable “Internet sharing” in the Sharing preference pane and select to share “Ethernet” (from the “To computers using” box) to your VPN connection from the “Share your connection from” drop down.
4. Test if the Apple TV can still access the Internet by trying to load a Youtube video. If it doesn’t, make sure your VPN connection and Internet sharing is set up correctly.
5. Unplug the power of your Apple TV, wait a couple of seconds and plug it in again. Unplug the network cable from your Apple TV.

After the Apple TV restarted, test the internet connection. Your store location should now be set to “US” and renting TV shows should be enabled. You can even unplug the Apple TV and it will still think it’s in the US. Neat!

Let me know if this did or didn’t work for you.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 19th, 2010 at 15:18 and is filed under apple.