Video Marketplace Launches

[moycon]

Well they finally did it. They added TV shows and movies to the market place.

My company recently did this as well. Personally I felt my company charged too much, something like $9.99 for the cheapest download on up to like $24.99. (This is to buy not rent)

 

It sounds like MS is much better deal. I cant tell for certain but it sounds like once purchased you keep the flick forever, that might be cool if it works out you have the flick tied to your account and if you delete it off your drive (To keep the space free) you could snag it again. To be honest though I'm not 100% how its going to work maybe the flick expires after 3 days or something. The TV shows will be $2.00 standard and $3.00 high def. Movies around $4 standard and $6 hi-def. I'm curious how long it's going to take to get a movie. I know in the past from downloading game trailers it doesn't seem to be a very fast process. Think starting your download at 2pm to watch at 7pm. Hopefully that's an over statement. I'm fixing to head out of town today, but when i get back Saturday I may try this out. Examples of TV shows include:

 

“CSI,” “CSI: Miami,” “CSI: New York,” “NCIS” and “Star Trek” from CBS

“Chappelle’s Show,” “Drawn Together” and Emmy and Peabody award-winning “South Park” from COMEDY CENTRAL

“Pimp My Ride” and “Punk’d” from MTV

“Avatar: The Last Airbender” and “SpongeBob SquarePants” from Nickelodeon

“Skyland” and “Invader Zim” from Nicktoons Network

“Chinatown,” “Star Trek VII: Generations,” “Patriot Games,” “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,” “The Sum of All Fears,” “The Untouchables” and “We Were Soldiers” from Paramount Pictures

“Aqua Teen Hunger Force,” “Frisky Dingo,” “Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law,” “Sealab 2021” and “The Venture Bros.” from Turner Broadcasting

Some of the most intense fights from Ultimate Fighting Championship

“Breaking Bonaduce” and “Hogan Knows Best” from VH1

“Perfect Storm,” “Poseidon,” The Shining,” “Three Kings” and “V for Vendetta,” as well as “The Nine” and “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” along with the CW show “Veronica Mars” from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment

 

Also this quote is interesting:

 

The benefit to downloading HD movies through the marketplace is that you can watch them in 720p without having to purchase an HD-DVD player.

 

Anyways here's the story as it appears on IGN:

 

November 22, 2006 - The next phase in the evolution of Xbox Live has begun. On the anniversary of Xbox 360, Microsoft has launched the Video Marketplace. You can now download movies and TV shows to your 360 hard drive. All TV shows downloaded are yours to keep, but the movies are just rentals, which automatically delete after 14 days if unwatched or 24 hours after you begin viewing.

 

Currently there are 47 TV series listed for download, though some, such as Late Night with Conan O'Brien, have no episodes available. Only a few of the shows are available in HD. Cost for shows are 160 Microsoft Points ($2) for standard definition and 240 MP ($3) for high definition episodes. An hour-long episode can run about two gigs, so expect your hard drive to fill up fast as you catch up on NCIS. Highlighting the first wave of available TV shows are South Park, Star Trek: The Original Series and, of course, Viva Piñata.

 

Of the 48 movies available at launch, only a half-dozen are offered in HD. Newer movies run 320 MP ($4) for standard def and 480 MP ($6) for HD. If you do choose to download a high-def movie, be prepared to wait, as they average about five gigs. Even the new releases aren't all that new, with V for Vendetta seeming to be the most current. As for older flicks, expect to pay 240 MP ($3) for SD and 360 ($4.50) for HD.

 

The benefit to downloading HD movies through the marketplace is that you can watch them in 720p without having to purchase an HD-DVD player.

 

It's unknown how often TV shows and movies will be added, but if Microsoft hopes to compete with iTunes and Blockbuster, there needs to be weekly, if not daily, updates.

[Red 5]

I am pretty psyched about this.

 

I wonder how long it will take them to get movies?

It would be great if they coincided with the DVD releases.

(Or even sooner ? Like the magic of the hotel room movies ?)

 

Do they delete after watching or after a certain amount of time.

(if it says in the article, I apologize. I only skimmed it.)

[+remowilliams]

They need to get some larger hard drives going, if they plan on anyone actually using this. Not to mention network speeds. It's often taken entirely too long to download stuff from marketplace.

[xenomorpher]

I don't think you can own the movie, it says rental under the description. You can own the TV shows though. Yeah, they really need to get bigger hard drives.

Edited November 22, 2006 by xenomorpher

[Mendon]

I **THINK** I read somewhere on the MS website that the movies you downloaded were good for either 3 days or 3 viewings, while the TV shows were yours to use with no limits. Too early in the morning for me to research it, but I believe that is what I read.

 

Mendon

[xenomorpher]

You can keep the movies for 14 days and view it as many times as you want. After that you need to re-rent it.

[jbanes]

According to the BBC, things are starting out a little rocky:

 

Xbox's Larry Hryb has said "technical issues have resulted in a very unpleasant experience" for users.

 

Speed problems and video not being delivered is being blamed on "the extremely high number of downloads".

 

Truthfully speaking, I don't think that most consumers yet have enough bandwidth to watch HDTV as it downloads. Which can mean some rather lengthy wait times for the video to finish downloading. The comparitively small hard drive on the 360 probably isn't helping anything either.

 

IMHO, this is the type of technology that will trump both the Bluray and the HDDVD in this generation. Unfortunately, we may need to be a bit patient while they get the infrastructure updated to handle it.

[Gabriel]

You can keep the movies for 14 days and view it as many times as you want. After that you need to re-rent it.

 

Not exactly the way I read it.

 

You can keep the rental download without watching it for 14 days. After those 14 days, it automatically deletes.

 

The instant you watch the video, it begins a 24 hour timer. This timer replaces the 14 day one, and the video will automatically delete itself at the end of this timer.

 

Like all current game downloads, purchased movies and shows are keyed to your console first and your user profile second. You can watch them without restriction on the box they were downloaded onto Playing them on another box requires you be signed in to your Live profile you downloaded the purchase with and be logged in online to Live.

 

The rentals will ONLY work on the console they are downloaded to.

 

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/community/person...ameraaction.htm

[Shannon]

If anything screams bandwidth hog, this does. I'll be surprised to see it takes off. The ipod stuff is different. The file sizes are gonna be alot smaller because of the smaller screen.

[jbanes]

The ipod stuff is different. The file sizes are gonna be alot smaller because of the smaller screen.

The iTunes files are encoded in 480p. So they're not THAT much smaller. You need about 100KB/sec of bandwidth to watch them in real time. Thankfully, most people have that kind of bandwidth. 720p for the same quality would probably takes somewhere between 200 and 300 KB/sec. That's a bit more difficult to come by.

[Shannon]

How big are the files on ipod? I heard the high quality movies were something like 6gig. Are ipod movie files really that big?

[jbanes]

How big are the files on ipod? I heard the high quality movies were something like 6gig. Are ipod movie files really that big?

I have yet to download a full movie, but that is not in line with the size of the TV Downloads. The TV Downloads are about 300-400MB for 45 minutes. I expected that the movies would be encoded in the H.264 same codec, but I suppose it's possible they're using larger MPEG-2 files. (That's about what you'd get out of 6GB.) Or they could be encoding them for highest quality.

 

However, this page suggests that the largest files are ~1.75GB. Which is more in line with what I've been seeing.

 

Edit: It just occurred to me. Are you referring to transcoding the files onto the iPods? iPods are supposed to all be capable of H.264 decoding, meaning that they can view the files directly. Perhaps you're thinking of people who have ripped DVDs into MPEG-2 files, then played them on their video iPods?

Edited November 25, 2006 by jbanes

[Lord Helmet]

This is actually exactly what I have been waiting for. No more DVD's or physical media. For rentals this is perfect. Seems that they kind of beat Apple's iTV to the punch (which I am also interested in). Now MS needs to release a bigger hard drive.

[Shannon]

Hmm maybe I misread then. Here you go.... Our friends over at IGN imply that hi-def movies can be up to 5 gig.

[jbanes]

Hmm maybe I misread then. Here you go.... Our friends over at IGN imply that hi-def movies can be up to 5 gig.

That's for the Microsoft HDTV movies available on the XBox. (I'm not surprised.) The iTunes movies are still at 480p, H.264 encoded, with a maximum of about 1.75 GB per file.

[Shannon]

Hmm maybe I misread then. Here you go.... Our friends over at IGN imply that hi-def movies can be up to 5 gig.

That's for the Microsoft HDTV movies available on the XBox. (I'm not surprised.) The iTunes movies are still at 480p, H.264 encoded, with a maximum of about 1.75 GB per file.

 

Uhhh that's what I was saying earlier (read the thread) that the ipod movies are most likely smaller because of the smaller screen size. Hence less bandwidth used than the xbox. Hence more problems with xbox live movie downloads.

Edited November 26, 2006 by Shannon

[jbanes]

Uhhh that's what I was saying earlier (read the thread) that the ipod movies are most likely smaller because of the smaller screen size. Hence less bandwidth used than the xbox. Hence more problems with xbox live movie downloads.

I was only pointing out that they were television sized, not iPod sized. The iPod uses QVGA (320x200) which was what the iTunes files used to be at. Apple upgraded to 640x480, and now all the files are delivered in 480p for good quality television viewing.

[Shannon]

Ahh you mean like if you use that little adapter thingie to attach an ipod to a tv? Makes sense..