No surprises here on the quality - it's what we've come to expect from iTunes. One big surprise is that the movies you rent have to be watched in iTunes - you can't find them using the excellent Front Row or move them to the "Movies" folder - which is where we've all got used to finding them. So a couple of points off there. We downloaded The Matrix, Sixth Sense and The Usual Suspects which all played fine, looked great in SD. Some movies are also available in HD via Apple TV. It took about 30mins for a 1hr 45min for an SD movie - so that's not bad, but your mileage really will vary depending on your broadband speed.
If you're buying not renting, then £6.99 might seem a bit steep for movies that you can pick up for less than a fiver on DVD. But then if paying a pound or two extra for flexibility and convenience bothers you, I'm guessing you might not have splashed out on an iMac or iPod or Apple TV in the first place. One nice touch is that you can "gift" movies - another nail inthe coffin of the landfill physical DVD business which claimed this week that buying DVDs as presents is why they'll never disappear. All in all, not a bad first day for this service. Top of our wish list is more movies (particularly from the Independent studios), Front Row integration and slightly cheaper prices. We'll keep an watchful Download Monkey eye on things to see how it develops (and spend our money trying it out so you don't have to spend yours...)