Microsoft's Xbox Live Video: HDTV and HD movie downloads for your 360

This may sound a bit familiar to those paying close attention, but on November 22nd -- the year anniversary for the Xbox 360 -- Microsoft is announcing something fairly momentus, not for the gaming community, but for the CE industry. The Xbox 360, along with Akimbo, will be among the first mass-market devices able to download high def television programs -- and the first we know of in the states able to download HD movies. The service is called Xbox Live Video, and the fall update enables customers to spend their Microsoft points on standard and HD television from CBS, MTV, Comedy Central, VH1, Turner, and UFC, as well as HD movies from Warner Bros., Paramount, and so on. We're still a little in shock, ourselves, that Microsoft was able to in one fell swoop hit TiVo, Apple, Netflix, and a handful of others, but looking at Live over the last year, the move isn't that massively surprising. Of course, not even the vision of on-demand HD movies and TV downloads in six million homes at the flick of a switch could be without its variety of niggling concerns; being that we all know the devil's in the details, click on to get the particulars of the service.

• Microsoft has not yet disclosed pricing for downloads, but it will be in Microsoft points.
• Movies will be "rental" only, TV for "purchase" only.
• At launch there will be over 800 hours of SDTV, and 200 hours of HDTV.
• Neither TV nor movies are streamed; they are only downloaded, although you can stream short preview clips from the Live interface.
• You can only download content to your Xbox 360 drive -- not to an external drive.
• Your "purchased" TV programs can be downloaded an infinite amount of times to an infinite amount of consoles; you may also play them back on friends' 360s with your removable drive.
• Deleted TV shows can be re-downloaded later; HDTV shows can be re-downloaded in either HDTV or SD.
• Movies can be watched an unlimited number of times the first 24 hours. Plays after that period will cost the same as the initial download, although the movie data isn't necessarily deleted. You can keep the movie data on your drive up to 14 days without re-downloading it.
• Downloads are in VC-1 (aka WMVHD) at 720p, 6.8Mbps video with 5.1 surround.
• An average HD movie download should be between 4-5GB, and a two hour SD movie would be 1.6GB.
• An average 1 hour (44 min) HDTV download should be about 2.2GB, and an average 1/2 hour (22 min) HDTV download should be about 1GB. A 1 hour SDTV download should be about 600MB, and a 1/2 hour SDTV download should be about 300MB.
• This service will not be available for MSN TV users, Vongo subscribers, or any other Microsoft partners. It is Xbox Live only.
• You cannot download programs through the Xbox Live web interface -- they can only be transported to your 360's removable drive.
• There aren't any drive announcements being made, so if your puny 20GB Xbox drive is near or at capacity, you're out of luck, kid.

Launch titles

• Aqua Teen Hunger Force
• Avatar: The Last Airbender
• Batman Forever
• Breaking Bonaduce
• Carpocalypse
• Chappelle's Show
• CSI
• Hogan Knows Best
• Jackass: The Movie
• Jericho
• The Matrix
• M:i:III
• Nacho Libre
• Nicktoons Network Animation Festival
• Numb3rs
• Pimp My Ride
• Race Rewind (NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series races)
• Raising the Roofs
• The Real World
• Robot Chicken
• Skyland
• South Park
• SpongeBob SquarePants
• Star Trek (original)
• Superman Returns
• 50 fights from Ultimate Fighting Championship, and some episodes from The Ultimate Fighter

[Keepy @ Feb 19th 2008 12:54PM]

:-D who gives a monkeys about HDDVD and Blue Ray when you can just download HD content through your xbox! AWESOME!

[Moparchick @ Nov 5th 2008 5:27PM]

Hey does anyone or has anyone heard if this will be happening in Canada? If so when.

[raymond fence @ Mar 19th 2009 7:39AM]

http://www.gmboards.com has great sources to find HD videos and good quality movies online.

[Junaid @ Sep 9th 2009 8:59AM]

Wow great stuff by Microsoft not for the gamers and computer workers but for the household persons..........
http://www.pcs4cheap.ca/

[nodnetni @ Nov 6th 2006 9:05PM]

Won't somebody think about the tubes???

[MoparChick @ Nov 5th 2008 5:25PM]

How long until it gets to Canada though there always seems to be some type of delay getting here.

[X Budd @ Nov 6th 2006 9:06PM]

And so it begins...

[Molly C @ Nov 6th 2006 9:07PM]

Fantastic move by Microsoft.

[Abe @ Nov 6th 2006 9:10PM]

Delicious!

[Casey @ Nov 6th 2006 9:10PM]

If they do not have a larger hard drive in the works this is going to suck!

[Matt @ Nov 6th 2006 9:12PM]

Anyone else forsee larger hard drives avalible for purchase shortly? Maybe in the 100GB range?

[QUOW @ Nov 6th 2006 9:13PM]

I think that a larger drive will launch at the last moment, or before Christmas.

[cvato86 @ Nov 6th 2006 9:14PM]

This is AWESOME news and in my opinion a great move, but where are the larger Hard Drives Microsoft?

[Bjcoolguy @ Nov 6th 2006 9:16PM]

So..... this feature sucks unless they make something larger than 20gbs to store all that data. And while I understand compression technologies, If an HD movie can be 5GBS of data, why Blu-Ray and HD-DVD? These downloadable "HD" programs must still look drastically inferior. There is no way they are in resolutions close to what physical media can produce right now. No way. As for moving in the right direction. Microsoft gets a pat on the back. But they do need to step their removable hard drive game up 20gbs is pitiful for all of this content!

[Molly C @ Nov 6th 2006 9:31PM]

Obviously the HD movies will be more compressed than what you might find on an HD-DVD disc, but that doesn't mean they'll suck by any means. I've seen WMVHD DVDs that look great. I imagine these will be similar in quality to broadcast HD (which uses MPEG2; MS will provide the movies in VC-1, which blows MPEG2 away and allows for greater compression without much loss in quality).

And think of practicality - how many people want to spend time downloading a 20GB movie? 5GB is more practicle, and at $3 a movie (1/8th the cost of HD-DVD), you'll definitely get your money's worth.

[ben @ Nov 6th 2006 11:56PM]

I'm willing to bet that the MS downloads are 720p rather than 1080p, which, well, makes a pretty big difference in file size.

[Srahn @ Nov 14th 2006 9:56PM]

wow this is going to be awesome watching ATHF from my 360 in glorious high def. now all we need is a 750 gb and i will be ready to crap my pants

[CrazyD @ Nov 6th 2006 9:22PM]

Very awesome move indeed. Having predicted this a long time ago (not that it was hard), I am also calling that this will be tied into the marketplace for the Zune. A TV or movie purchase (and you know they will do movie purchases) can be downloaded as HD, SD, or Zune size, all for one price. I mean, they said Zune will have video downloads based on Microsoft points, and they are announcing it for the Zune soon as well.

Microsoft, you've already offered Battlestar Galactice episode for download on Live, even if they were only teasers and summaries. Please, please, pleases, offer BSG in HD. Trust me, I'll buy them all.

[thechad @ Nov 6th 2006 9:18PM]

Now if only they'd hook this up with the zune and media center, MS could look to take over the market.

[AT39 @ Nov 6th 2006 9:18PM]

Larger drives for the 360 are now a must, otherwise there is barely any room on the drive, especially if you already have it filled with game demos!

[Matt @ Nov 6th 2006 9:18PM]

what would actually be a good solution, is to just allow data storage on external USB hard drives.

[eric @ Nov 6th 2006 9:21PM]

Wow... This will be cool if they do it right and price them right. If they can release Movies in HD for less than the cost of renting a movie from Blockbuster, they are going to get my money. Especially while HDDVD and BluRay duke it out. I don't have to spend any money on any other devices to watch HD content.. I'm very excited about this.

I'm sure someone is going to talk about the 20GB drive limitation.. For movies it won't matter because they are rental only.. So, after the rental period you might as well just delete.. For TV shows that you purchase, it would be nice to keep.. However, the ability to redownload as many times as you'd like is nice.. You could delete after watching, then if you wanted to watch again you could just redownload..

Important things to watch are going to be download speeds and prices.. Will they stream it or will it be download then watch.. If download then watch, the speed needs to be VERY quick.. I don't want to wait 3 - 4 hours for something to download.. As far as price, iTunes is at $1.99 for less than standard def versions.. So, I don't think I would pay more than $3.00 (~240-250 MS Points) for an hour long HDTV Show..

[Leonard Nimrod @ Nov 6th 2006 9:21PM]

I'm under the impression that one can change the default 20GB HDD size and still download MS video without issue as long as it's on the default HDD socket.

I suppose I would typically be considered an "Apple fanboy" but this mainly due to Apple ususally havin the best option for seamless internet/computer/multimedia entertainment, however, Microsoft really seems to have something here. I hope, for their sake, that they allow one to port their movies and TV shows to their Zune players. I image such an option may actually start to make a dent in Apple's iPod/iTunes Store and --soon to be-- iTV market.

[Shmoe @ Nov 6th 2006 9:23PM]

Why couldn't one use that adapter that sits between the 360 drive and the console to transfer movies to an external drive?

Why not 1080p downloads?

Why does MS always get things only half right?
They had better release at least a 100 gig drive soon at a very reasonable price.

They also need to release that damn HDMI cable soon.

[_man1c_ @ Nov 6th 2006 9:33PM]

yea i was thinkin the same thing, and then you can just use your pc as the master drive. although im not sure if the device being talked about is for everyone. that is can everyone understand how to use it, but i get exactly what you're saying..

[E @ Nov 7th 2006 12:14PM]

Probably because there is almost no content in 1080p. The files will be larger and in the end, if you are that anal about it, you shouldn't be looking at things on a 360 anyway.

Spend more money on a top of the line system.

[eric @ Nov 6th 2006 9:27PM]

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/live/marketplace/moviestv.htm

Here's a movie about it.. Check it out, they show 240MS Points for TV Shows.. I GUESSED IT RIGHT!!!

[eric @ Nov 6th 2006 9:33PM]

320MS Points for Movies it looks like.. At least in the video Batman Forever was 320MS Points.. So, about $4.00 for a 14 day rental.. As long as all movies are that much, I don't think that's a bad deal for an HD Movie rental.. Especially since I don't have to spend $200 for an HDDVD Drive Add-On, $500 for HDDVD Standalone, or more on PS3/BluRay Player...

[doctorSpoc @ Nov 6th 2006 11:42PM]

eric

it's not a 14day rental... it's a 24hr rental.. you don't have to download it again for 14 days but you can only play it again for the 1st 24hrs... if you want to play it again after 24hrs you need to pay again.. you just don't need to download it again...

[Chris Chance @ Nov 6th 2006 9:36PM]

Wicked... i KNEW that expiration date was their for a reason! HIDEF TV SHOWS thats exactly what i wanted!!!!

1080p downloads? What you want to sit their for a month downloading the tvshow? Even 720p's take a good long time for small trailers let alone full hour long shows, at 1080p it would take a day or 2 just to download for an improvement few if any would take advantage of.

I can soooo see this and zune being interlocked cant wait to see the ZunePass accessible from the xbox360 :) MUHAHAHA

[Chris Chance @ Nov 6th 2006 9:39PM]

As a note guys: the downloads are possible on the 20gb drive for a simple reason...

HDDVD/Bluray have 1080p video while these will be the more often used 720p and will not come with the "extras" that are also 1080p on the hddvd's... this is mainly true because also hddvd videos are smaller than bluray because hddvd uses VC1 codec which is MUCH MUCH MUCH more efficient and higher performance than blurays crappy mpeg2

Have to agree 320ms points for a 14 day rental seems spot on... im gonna be getting the hddvd addon for the movies i deem worthy... but being able to directly rent movies is gonna be awesome!

[BORAT @ Nov 6th 2006 9:41PM]

Big hard drives will be coming, or an update if it hasnt happened already that allow external hard drives. Thats going to happen, trust me.

Now on a somewhat related topic does anyone know if comcast internet still puts limitiations on broadband usage??

[Jimmy Dean @ Nov 6th 2006 9:42PM]

lol

it already takes forever to dl 300 MB demos on 360... not sure why its so slow compared to my PCs dl speeds..

dling a movie/tv show in high def your looking at over 10 hours.. EAYY

[uNext @ Nov 6th 2006 10:20PM]

microsoft all of sudden looks like 1 amazing company-wow the revamp the company is going through is really paying off.
Bill gates kept the copmpany stuck in 84 time to move on and microsoft is doign that the right way.

Amazing and fantastic at the same time.

pat yourself on the back microsoft you are slowly started to gain 1 of your old customers back.

[LarryN @ Nov 6th 2006 9:55PM]

I'll agree with everybody about the limited hard drive space, but what about the wait times? Who here wants to wait a day to d/l a movie (or at least quite a few hours). Playing games halts downloads remember too. So, we'll all have to leave our 360's on, yet unattended while these movies download.

I'm betting on the not ready for primetime yet.. (unfortunately)

[BORAT @ Nov 6th 2006 9:58PM]

Jimmy Dean - if you re-read the article or maybe i saw it at ign.com but anyway they said they are using a totally different server for the large downloads.

[Jon @ Nov 7th 2006 1:41PM]

Once again for Microsoft they they only go half way.. I'd love to see them get something really right but they just struggling to do it. They're thinking small time here. They are building this whole multimedia structure (media center pcs, xbox 360, the zune,other media center portables and windows handhelds) and yet they fail to successful connect it all. Why just for xbox 360?? You've already given people the ability to turn pcs into multimedia hubs and connect them with tvs. Why not use this service in conjuction with media center and the upcoming vista. Not only that but connect it with the upcoming Zune and other portable players. This would give you a system that could beat apple's itunes store. It would have a super large customer base and would draw in many other portable players where apple only has 1. Or enhance the ability of the zune by making it connected only with that. But make a system that makes sense. You would then a have a video store with more options than itunes and a subscription music store(another option apples doesn't have). However, apple knows how to get it right. THey expand from the top down. They give you the media on your computer and ipods and then are now trying to move it to the TV. Microsoft could leapfrog them by doing it with already exsistent hardware. I hope they see that potential and fix it.

[malik1979 @ Nov 6th 2006 10:17PM]

What does it mean "transported to your 360's removable drive"? Will we have to put it on a DVD or something? Or worse, have to do a link to your PC. It wouldn't be that bad, but Microsoft doesn't play well with my Mac.

[Ian @ Nov 6th 2006 10:23PM]

It's quite funny how everyone mentions 100G HDD as a good size. This is 2006 people, a 250G HDD would be acceptable, but you know they'll give you a 100G at 250G prices, and everyone will be happy. Because it's so much bigger than 20.

*sigh*

[Aaron @ Nov 11th 2006 2:18AM]

I was just thinking the same thing. 100 gigs isn't enough, but you're right, everyone will be content to pay lots of money for it.

It's true that the 360 uses a 2.5 inch drive as opposed to the 3.5" ones found in desktop computers, but so what? Make the hard drive attachment a little bigger and put in a 3.5". I doubt anyone would have a problem with it. It would even make sense to your average consumer. More space, larger drive. Probably won't happen, so either way I just hope they're smart about the price.

[werk @ Nov 6th 2006 10:30PM]

Ian:

I don't know about you, but I haven't seen too many (read: any) 250GB 2.5" SATA drives.

[AndrewF @ Nov 6th 2006 10:46PM]

They should add purchase options for movies. Sure, without more storage, they'll have to delete the movie and redownload everytime they want to watch it, but I'm sure there'll be some who appreciate that option. Besdies, I suspect most people wouldn't be willing to rent a movie twice, but they would pay more to purchase a movie they otherwise might only rent once. This means more revenue for Microsoft.

Anyhow, add SciFi and NBC to that mix and price it less than iTunes, and I'm hooked.

[Justin @ Nov 6th 2006 10:55PM]

320 points (~$4) for movies seems fine--you could pay $10 elsewhere for a digital download and keep it "forever"--but whats the replay value on that?

240 (~$3) for TV shows just seems expensive, especially if its only a rental.

[Gary T @ Nov 6th 2006 10:50PM]

They better to do something to improve transfer rates from xBox Live, otherwise it'll take 48 hours to download a movie in HD. Already it takes an hour or more to download a lousy 500 MB demo over a 7 Mbps connection (which I regularly max-out from other sources), and I have a friggin' GOLD account! Pathetic.

[Joel @ Nov 6th 2006 11:02PM]

Actually Microsoft ANNOUNCED it today. On the year anniversary they will launch it. How do these people write for a living?

[karlie @ Nov 7th 2006 3:42AM]

Movies will be "rental" only, TV for "purchase" only.

That's what we love about monopolies:
Every one wants movies for purchase and TV for rental so the monopoly decides to offer only the reverse

[gb @ Nov 6th 2006 11:05PM]

"You can only download content to your Xbox 360 drive -- not to an external drive."

So I could buy a TV show, but it's tied to the console... I can't even transfer it to my computer or even an external drive?

"Movies can be watched an unlimited number of times the first 24 hours. Plays after that period will cost the same as the initial download, although the movie data isn't necessarily deleted. You can keep the movie data on your drive up to 14 days without re-downloading it."

So if I rent a movie for x points, and if I don't watch it within 24 hours, I have to rent it again for x points? The only difference is that it's now on the HDD? After 14 days, I need to re-download it?

Sounds good if you don't read the bullets... I'll stick with Netflix.

[Dave @ Nov 6th 2006 11:11PM]

Here's another site with more information about the launch:

http://www.computers.net/2006/11/microsoft_xbox_.html

[Trevor @ Nov 6th 2006 11:17PM]

This will help Microsoft against the new generation video game consoles coming out from Sony (Playstation 3) and Nintendo (the Wii). The �Xbox 360 Live Video� looks very attractive and this will allure buyers to the Xbox 360. Having the ability to download HD movies and HD television programs is great. This beats going to the video store and paying late fees, and it is also faster than Netflix. Instead of mailing out your DVD�s and waiting several days, you can immediately download them for rental. It would be better if Microsoft would allow you to download information to a disc for a hard file, but you cannot ask for everything.
In deciding in my purchase of a new generation video game console, the Microsoft Xbox360 just went up a few notches in my vote.

[Mike @ Nov 6th 2006 11:25PM]

if you can purchase tv shows why can't u purchase movies???