IDOC PRISONERS NOW HAVE OPTION TO RENT MOVIES TO WATCH ON PERSONAL TABLETS... BUT THE SELECTION (AND PRICES) LEAVE MUCH ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT.
On Sunday, April 26, 2020, IDOC prisoners were allowed to download catalog of movies available to rent and watch on their Jpay tablets. On Monday, movie content and ability to download were made available. While this is a great service, the selection is extremely limited - mostly 10 to 20 years old - with some television series (limited now only to season 3 of Black-ish) episodes. The price for renting these movies runs from $2.99 to $7.99 (plus tax).
Let's reserve judgment on how this is going to turn out, but for now, I'll just rent one of the two free (demonstration) movies "Sharknado" to see how it goes.
Here's the email from JPay on the movies:
JPay's Movie Store is now available at your facility!
You can now rent and view current and classic movies on your tablet. To set it up, just follow these easy steps:
1. Sync your tablet with the kiosk and click the "Download Movie Catalog" button. When the download completes and you disconnect your tablet from the kiosk, tap the "Media Store" icon on your tablet and then tap the orange "Movies" icon to get started.
2. Select a movie to rent and tap the "Rent" button note that this button shows the rental fee for that movie. After you have made your selections, sync your tablet with the kiosk again to download your rented movies. Note that since movie files are large, it may take up to 15 minutes to download each one. You may need to only download one movie per kiosk session to ensure success.
3. You can see a list of all your active rentals by tapping "My Rentals" in the upper right corner of the tablet screen. Note that after your purchase, you will have 30 days to begin watching the movie before it automatically deletes from your tablet. Also, once you actually start viewing the movie, you have 48 hours to finish watching before the movie will automatically delete. You can watch your rented movies as many times as you want during that 48-hour period. When viewing a movie, subtitles may be available tap anywhere on the screen and then tap the subtitle icon in the bottom right corner.
For more information about how to rent movies and navigate the movie store screens, detailed tutorials are located in the Help section. Just tap "Learn about renting" which is located next to the purchase button on each movie's detail screen. Please let us know about your movie rental experience via the inmate trouble ticket system. We will be adding more movie titles soon, so please be patient.
Thanks,
Your JPay Team
Let's reserve judgment on how this is going to turn out, but for now, I'll just rent one of the two free (demonstration) movies "Sharknado" to see how it goes.
Here's the email from JPay on the movies:
JPay's Movie Store is now available at your facility!
You can now rent and view current and classic movies on your tablet. To set it up, just follow these easy steps:
1. Sync your tablet with the kiosk and click the "Download Movie Catalog" button. When the download completes and you disconnect your tablet from the kiosk, tap the "Media Store" icon on your tablet and then tap the orange "Movies" icon to get started.
2. Select a movie to rent and tap the "Rent" button note that this button shows the rental fee for that movie. After you have made your selections, sync your tablet with the kiosk again to download your rented movies. Note that since movie files are large, it may take up to 15 minutes to download each one. You may need to only download one movie per kiosk session to ensure success.
3. You can see a list of all your active rentals by tapping "My Rentals" in the upper right corner of the tablet screen. Note that after your purchase, you will have 30 days to begin watching the movie before it automatically deletes from your tablet. Also, once you actually start viewing the movie, you have 48 hours to finish watching before the movie will automatically delete. You can watch your rented movies as many times as you want during that 48-hour period. When viewing a movie, subtitles may be available tap anywhere on the screen and then tap the subtitle icon in the bottom right corner.
For more information about how to rent movies and navigate the movie store screens, detailed tutorials are located in the Help section. Just tap "Learn about renting" which is located next to the purchase button on each movie's detail screen. Please let us know about your movie rental experience via the inmate trouble ticket system. We will be adding more movie titles soon, so please be patient.
Thanks,
Your JPay Team