Blockbuster On Demand - HELP!

 I activated my WDTVLP just fine.  Tried to rent a movie via Blockbuster On Demand.   In Blockbuster’s information it states you can stream instantly or download a movie (good for 24 hours.)  All I want to do is stream direct … no files … no downloading.

Blockbuster was loaded … fine.  I browsed, picked out a movie, and clicked on all the prompts that I had to.  I come to the last prompt and all it says is DOWNLOAD.  I thought, possibly, there would be a prompt to PLAY (like Netflix has) … but none.  I tried downloading … it says the download location is not avaible.  To make a long story short … I tried everything: over an hour with Blockbuster’s "live chat’ and a few days later, Blockbuster tech phone support.  No help.  All they can say is WD is new to their hardware and are not familiar.  Outside of asking me is my firmware up to date and re-booting, Blockbuster was worthless.

Has anyone tried On Demand from Blockbuster?   How did it work out … anything special to do?  It would be easier and convenient to have this feature work.  Please help.

I do have to ask… you are in the U.S., right?

yes … I was going to ask, “why do you ask?”  Then I realized you were probably asking due to the “US only” restriction on Blockbuster downloads.

So far … not good in the US either.  

It’s hard to tell, from your original post, if the steps you performed to attempt to rent and then stream a movie were performed on the Blockbuster web site via a browser, or directly on your WDTV?  I also struggled to figure out renting and streaming content from BB.  I think the problem is a combination of intermittent system problems on BB’s end, and confusing terminology on their website.  The main issue, is that they are a legacy “bricks and mortor” store that originally (and still, in areas where they haven’t shut downb) rented and sold physical boxes containing the media, not comparable to say, Netflix.  Therefore, their terminology and buying choices can be confusing.  “Rent” may mean “rent by USPS mail, or rent by walking into a store” or “rent a license to stream it online”…  Also, they have varying license agreements with the studios regarding the timing of releases.  For example, they bragged this week, that they were the first to have the movies “Salt” and “Inception”.  Well, try to rent “Salt”, and the only option via WDTV is to “buy” the license, instead of “renting” it for much less $.  “Renting” will come later, I assume.

To test this, using your WDTV on-screen interface, browse or search for an older movie.  You should see both “rent” and “buy” options.

When I did manage to rent and stream a movie from BB, I started out doing it via my Samsung TV’s internet interface.  The movie crashed 2/3 through, very aggravating.  I tried to stream it from my WDTV box (also activated with BB), and I couldn’t see how to stream it, like your experience.  Turned out it was a BB system outage, and I was able to resume watching it the next day.  Overall, IMHO, BB is not worth the bother.

I had the same problem. I have all of my user files shared, but when I specifically shared my Video file from my computer it worked. It uses that file to store the movie. Hope it works for you!