Apple announced at the ongoing Macworld conference that its iTunes store now offers renting as well as buying movies from all the major studios from Hollywood in certain regions. The new service provided by the iTunes will further popularize the online store as well as push the product called Apple TV, as only with it customers will be able to watch high-def (720p) movies.

Apple said that iTunes Movie Rentals will feature movies from all the major movie studios including 20^th Century Fox, The Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros., Paramount, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Lionsgate and New Line Cinema. iTunes Movie Rentals will offer over 1000 titles by the end of February, including over 100 titles in 720p high definition (1280x720, progressive scan) video with 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound which users can rent directly from their widescreen TV using Apple TV, which costs $229 - $329 depending on the model.

After Apple managed to get all major record companies into the iTunes record store, the company is now capable of selling one thousand of movies from the leading movie studios from the U.S. Unfortunately for customers, those movies will either be available in either DVD quality (720x480), or in below high-definition disc(1080p, or 1920x1080 with progressive scan) quality, whereas quite a lot of users nowadays demand full-HD resolution.

“iTunes Movie Rentals instantly brings great movies from all the major studios directly to your iPod, iPhone, TV or computer – without having to drive to the video store or wait for DVDs to arrive in the mail. Movie lovers can now discover and enjoy movies as simply and easily as music lovers discover and enjoy music today on iTunes,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s chief exec.

iTunes Movie Rentals require a valid credit card with a billing address in the country of purchase. iTunes Movie Rentals are available in the US only and are $2.99 for library titles and $3.99 for new releases; high definition versions are priced one dollar more with library titles at $3.99 and new releases at $4.99.Customers have up to 30 days to start watching it, and once a movie has been started customers have 24 hours to finish it – or watch it multiple times. Obviously, customers will have to have a broadband Internet connection to download the actual content.