Apple made a valiant effort with their Apple TV. It’s a great device which lets me easily share my iTunes contact with my TV. I’ve bought a few movies via iTunes and it’s great to have the option to play them on my computer, my Apple TV, or my iPhone, particularly when I’m trying to keep a 2 year-old entertained. When Apple announced they were adding movie rentals, and then HD movie rentals, I thought for sure Netflix was doomed.

I was wrong. There have been a few problems. The biggest is that the rental window is only 24 hours, which precludes watching half the movie one night and the other the next night unless you are really careful with your timing. There’s also a somewhat limited selection. The biggest problem, however, has been with HD. HD video downloads, even if slightly lesser quality than Bluray, would seem to be a great alternative, especially for rentals.

But the material just isn’t there. By my count, there are only 40 HD movies available on iTunes, and only a subset of these are rentable. It’s just not enough content to make the system work. Granted, even Netflix has a limited collection on their streaming service, but it would only make sense for Apple to add the ability to stream Netflix content to the Apple TV.

Might as well add Hulu, too, for good measure.