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TV and film downloads coming to US 360 this month News
Xbox 360 News by Tom Bramwell
Xbox 360 will soon allow American gamers to buy TV shows and rent films thanks to licensing agreements for standard- and high-definition content signed with major TV and film companies.
Announced last night, the deal will kick in on 22nd November and see 360 owners in the US able to download the likes of South Park, remastered Star Trek episodes and films like The Matrix and Superman Returns in either 480p or 720p resolution.
Everything will be paid for through Xbox Live Marketplace and saved to the hard disk, with estimates suggesting a high-def film will occupy 5GB of space. In the case of the film rentals, the files will stick around on the drive for two weeks, and delete themselves within 24 hours of viewing.
Browsing Marketplace, potential buyers will be able to preview episodes and watch film trailers to help make their minds up. It will also be possible to watch videos as they download thanks to buffering technology.
For now the deal only covers the US, with Microsoft striking up agreements with CBS, MTV, Paramount, Turner Broadcasting, Ultimate Fighting Championship and Warner Bros., and aiming to deliver up to 1,000 hours of content by the end of 2006 - 200 of which will be in 720p.
However it leaves some questions unanswered, most significantly those of what approach the company will take outside its homeland, and whether this will expedite the announcement of a higher-capacity hard disk add-on. (Also, on the QT, whether it will be possible to do the "US Live account" trick to gain access closer to home.)
While we wait for someone to get round to those, here are some of the highlights of the content deals Microsoft has signed:
- "Robot Chicken" and "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" from Adult Swim
- "CSI," "Survivor" and [re-mastered] "Star Trek" from CBS
- Emmy and Peabody Award-Winning "South Park" and "Chappelle’s Show" from COMEDY CENTRAL
- "The Real World" and "Pimp My Ride" from MTV
- "Avatar: The Last Airbender" and "SpongeBob SquarePants" from Nickelodeon
- "Skyland" and "The Nicktoons Network Animation Festival" from Nicktoons Network
- "Nacho Libre" and "Jackass: The Movie" from Paramount Pictures
- "Carpocalypse" and "Raising the Roofs" from Spike TV
- "Race Rewind" provided by NASCAR.COM
- Select episodes of the original season of "The Ultimate Fighter" reality series and the "UFC: All Access" shows from the UFC
- "Breaking Bonaduce" and "Hogan Knows Best" from VH1
- "The Matrix," "Superman Returns" and "Batman Forever" from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment
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Comments: 1-47 of 47 in total
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ProtoformX
07/11/06 @ 07:33
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I think to be truly effective this would require a bigger hard drive to be released. The 360 takes up about 7Gb of info on the HDD at any one time. That only leaves 14Gb of info left to be used. That's only two films, so if you wanted to download a few of them, well, you couldn't. Not with the current HD anyway.
I wonder if you can move them to a PC using that USB-to-360 HD interface device and if so would that have any effect on the automatic deletion of them? |
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Sofa, thats unbelievably cruel, yet I can't stop lolling.
What I'm more interested in is the price though. How many MS Points is this likely to use? If a film in high-def is deleted 24 hours after watching it, and you have two weeks to watch it, I don't think slapping something like a 1k+ points tag on it will win this system many fans. Sure, I'd download them- if they were more like 800, or less. Call me tight fisted, but I'd rather not pay more money just for the ability to download and watch a film once, when I can go rent it for multiple nights from a video store. |
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BartonFink
07/11/06 @ 08:13
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Great idea from MS I'm a bit worried about the size of the HDD though. Still good idea. Oh on the pricing, according to Furbs in on of the forum threads Apparently we're looking at 240pts per TV Episode, or 320pts for a movie rental
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BartonFink
07/11/06 @ 08:27
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Definitely 13G is just not enough space for the size of the movies they are talking about. Another worry is just how long is it going to take these things to download? Current BB pipes are just not fat enough at the moment.
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captainrentboy
07/11/06 @ 08:51
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Seems like quite a cool idea,and it's something MS promised back at launch and have actually gotten around to implementing so you can't complain,but the lack of HDD space is going to need to be rectified somehow though(Where the fook is our 100 GB ones MS?)And hopefully the ole US passport trick will still work for Europeans
Superman Returns in 720p is pretty sexy for me.And don't take that in a homosexual way. |
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beginning of the end for sky tv, but giving the helm to m$ damn.... ip tv was gonna happen sooner or later, but a 5gb download... that's not going to be quite hidef (unless they are using divx lol) for 25 hours? my isp would hate me (they do already, they send nasty letters)
people won't purchase these items until they are at a price where people would rather pay then download. i don't quite see this as a bittorrent killer just yet :P |
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the_dudefather
07/11/06 @ 09:05
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hope we get aqua teen hunger force, even if the internet has been my prime vessel for it so far.
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Bastards Bastards Bastards Bastards Bastards.
Just finished a 120 page report on interactive media in the home. All the way through it are comments about how MS and Sony are idiots if they don't make more of the broadband connections, hard drives and built-in payment systems on the ps3 and 360. Was obvious it was going to happen, but dammit... it should have happened the day after the report was signed off, not the day before. Now I have to go back and change every single mention. Tits. Good idea though. Bigger hard drive would be good, but with the films then you're effectively only renting them anyway - only need room for one at a time. |
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Eighthours
07/11/06 @ 09:20
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So we're likely to get different content in the UK? Curses.
My Family Season 1 for 1200 points, anyone? :) |
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chupachups
07/11/06 @ 09:21
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HD films only take up 5gb, less than a normal DVD? So why do we need blu-ray and hd-dvd then?
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If this service is to work then Microsoft surely need to release a larger hard drive for the 360 bearing in mind that a typical standard definition DVD movie will fill upto 9 GB of hard drive space and is typically 5 GB in size. And if they do release a hard drive then they need to address how people with 20 GB ones can transfer their content over to the new one as hassle free as possible.
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So MS have got their wish and now have a media portal in quite a few homes.
The original Xbox was touted as a games mahcine pure and simple up until launch when they suddenly changed tack and said 'Yes of course it's a media player. The aim is to get media portal in everyone's home and if we have to disguise it as a games machine then so be it'. Renting/Buying movies and tv shows? EA charging for cheat codes and stuff that's on the disc already? Buy half a game at a time via Live? Get used to it, it's only going to get worse. |
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Psychotext
07/11/06 @ 09:58
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I think we'll see a 60gb drive minimum from MS soon and I wouldn't be surprised if they include a 20gb with the core by default.
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crazyhorse174
07/11/06 @ 10:36
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Will many people download this stuff?
I mean, when you can pay Amazon/Blockbuster/etc a set amount a month for unlimited DVD hire, why pay an individual amount (even a very small amount) per film? |
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@chupachups and fluffy - the size of the hd file depends on the compression, bluray and hd-dvd movies will be probably less compressed than their download brethren hence taking up more storage space. All in all a good idea by microsoft and imo what the long term goal of xbox live is, to provide a media hub where you can get movies, games and music on demand. Like others have suggested though xbox 360 needs a bigger hdd to hold all the new goodies you can dload
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Bad Devotions
07/11/06 @ 10:39
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doubt i'd download movies - that's what sky/blockbusters are for. the only + as far as I can see is the ability to dl hd movies. but I don't care about that, my tv isn't hi def... yet.
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chupachups
07/11/06 @ 10:50
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"bluray and hd-dvd movies will be probably less compressed than their download brethren hence taking up more storage space"
So presumably these 5gb HD downloads would have fairly poor picture quality if they're so compressed? Sort of destroys the point of HD really... |
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crazyhorse174
07/11/06 @ 10:58
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"beginning of the end for sky tv"
I think thats taking things a bit far though saying that... |
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@chupachups obviously its difficult to say without seeing them next to each other, the quality wont be as good as bluray/hddvd but it should still be as good as the quality as the dloads on live at the moment. Also I believe that bluray/hddvd movies are stored in 1080p so that would take up more space than 720p
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asphaltcowboy
07/11/06 @ 11:47
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Zafrano: The main noise from the 360 is when the disc driving is spinning up/down. This will all be running off your HDD...
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This move is a good example of why it's silly to nitpick over whether or not Live's 4 million plus subscribers are Gold or Silver. The fact is, they have a 4 million strong market to sell music (eventually), films, Arcade titles, etc to. And when Massive acquisition enabled in-game advertising revenue comes in, the Xbox 360 business model will quickly become a profitable one. Gold subscribers or no.
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Psychotext
07/11/06 @ 11:59
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I find the noise of the 360 an interesting subject. I've seen some of them that when the drive spins up you can hardly hear yourself talk and others that were whisper quiet. Never really worked out how there could be so much difference with what should essentially be the same hardware.
Still, would be nice to see an improvement on this sort of thing when they do the die shrink next year. |
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I am missing the point, I pay for Xbox Live, I pay for the movie which is going to take a considerable chunk of whats left on my 20GB drive and then its going to delete itself off once I've watched it (or in 2 weeks). C'mon but thats taking the piss!
Also how long is it going to take to actually download it. I mean it wouldn't be to bad if I could transfer it to my PC or rip in onto a disc, but I can't even do that. |
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@freeman - i suppose that all depends on the cost, if the downloads are of a similar price to rentals from blockbuster or vod from sky/ntl then it's not much difference. And obviously the amount of time it takes to dload depends on your broadband speed. On a 10 meg connection however you should be able to dload 4 gigs in around 1 hour
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The_Programmer
07/11/06 @ 12:27
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"Everthing is coming to 360 except a decent number of games, it seems."
Are you just born dumb. There's going to be about 160 games available by Christmas. How many will the Wii have or you could always play with your PS3 over Christmas. |
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Psychotext
07/11/06 @ 13:57
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Prices seem reasonable for me. Cost less than NTL on demand and it's essentially the same service with higher quality files. Hopefully they'll be able to get the new releases on it. I watch most films when I get a spare couple of hours here and there so unlimited DVD rentals don't really work for me.
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"I like the way people are acting shocked and disgusted that they cant keep a rental :)"
I know. It has to count up there as the most retarded thing I've seen in a while. Listen, gamers are cynical. Any time sombody tries to do something innovative, you get an army of utter mongs nitpicking. Unless it's Nintendo, of course. Then everyone just dances around the campfire, singing "Kumbaya My Lord" to an gold idol of Shigeru Miyamoto-san. But anyone else, and it's cynical time. "Oh noes, I can't keep my RENTAL!!!" WTF??? |
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chupachups
07/11/06 @ 15:11
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Not only are they shocked at not being able to keep a rental, they're shocked that only three or four films will fit on the HDD.
Only one film will fit in my DVD player, should I take it back to the shop? |
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SuperGamerMatt
07/11/06 @ 15:25
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When will companys stop criss crossing trying to cover all entertainment electronics into one package. Its never going to work.
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Comments: 1-47 of 47 in total
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