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Vid Marketplace on 11th Dec News
Xbox 360 News by Tom Bramwell
Microsoft has announced that the long awaited European launch of Video Marketplace on Xbox Live will take place on 11th December.
Called "Xbox Live Marketplace Video Store" in line with Microsoft's new naming convention, the service will allow you to rent films in standard- and high-definition, although there's no mention of TV shows.
Films will cost 250 Microsoft Points (GBP 2.13 / EUR 2.91) in standard definition and 380 MS Points (GBP 3.23 / EUR 4.42) for high definition, and early examples include 300, The Matrix trilogy, the first two Harry Potter films and Clash of the Titans.
As of 11th December, the service will have been launched in six countries - the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, France and Germany - to varying degrees. It is likely that the same US usage restrictions govern control of content downloaded here - i.e. that films are only usable until 24 hours after hitting play or within 14 days of download. (Update: Microsoft has now confirmed that this is the case.)
In the UK, Xbox Live's Video Store currently features music videos from the likes of Ministry of Sound and Sony BMG.
The full list of launch films (albeit subject to change) is as follows:
- 300
- Analyse This
- Clash of the Titans
- Dead Calm
- Demolition Man
- Eraser
- Executive Decision
- Eyes Wide Shut
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
- Lethal Weapon 3
- Lethal Weapon 4
- Looney Tunes: Back In Action
- Mars Attacks!
- Ocean's Eleven
- Risky Business
- Space Cowboys
- Superman III
- Swordfish
- The Fugitive
- The Matrix
- The Matrix Reloaded
- The Matrix Revolutions
- The Perfect Storm
- Three Kings
- Training Day
- Zodiac
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Penguinzoot
04/12/07 @ 10:33
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Seems competitive compared to Blockbuster. Oh, and err, first. :-)
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most recently on 04/12/07 @ 10:33
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Monkey_Puncher
04/12/07 @ 10:36
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If you can rent SD versions of The 300, Zodiac and other more recent releases for just over £2 that really is cheap. It'd cost about £3.50 to rent them from Blockbuster or off of Virgin's pay per view service.
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GamesProgrammer
04/12/07 @ 10:41
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Can these be watched stremed, or do you have to download how many gigs?
Its all good stuff but with this and xbox originals they need to vastly reduce the price of the 120gig HDD!
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most recently on 04/12/07 @ 10:42
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Der_tolle_Emil
04/12/07 @ 10:42
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The prices really are quite reasonable. I might just rent one in HD and compare it to my DVD version so I can finally make up my mind how much better HD actually looks on my setup.
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Mentalist(air)
04/12/07 @ 10:45
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Just over a quid cheaper than Virgin's HD films. But how long do you have to wait for them to download? Demos and stuff on XBL always seem painfully slow to me compared to the 'normal' internet.
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"The prices really are quite reasonable. I might just rent one in HD and compare it to my DVD version so I can finally make up my mind how much better HD actually looks on my setup."
You may be a little disapointed to say the least. You wont have the same effect as having a true HD player like BR or HD-DVD because the video will be SERIOUSLY compressed and wont look anywhere near as good. |
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boynash101
04/12/07 @ 10:52
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@caimbeul:
Are you sure about this.. I thought that HD video that is streamed from the hard drive would be better quality as it is not reading it from a spinning disc? Hmmm. Would liked to have seen Transformers on this list though. |
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rhubarbandcustard
04/12/07 @ 10:54
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I recently imported 300 on blu-ray from the states for £16. I would have to watch the film at least 5 times before it became better value than renting it. If they expand the catalgoe of movies I would never buy another movie again. I own about 100 films and the only one I have watched more than twice is Solaris- gotta love George Clooney.
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captainrentboy
04/12/07 @ 10:57
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Superman 3? What the fudge? Couldn't they have at least stuck the first one on there too.
Talking of Superman 3, was anyone else in their younger years absolutely terrified of the fat woman with all the robotic gizmos on her at the end of the flick? God damn, she haunted my dreams. And when goody Superman fought baddy Superman I used to cry my little eyes out...... What? For a 15 yr old, scenes like that are traumatising :/ Anyway back on topic, the prices are surprisingly good, the SD rental is actually cheaper than my local Choices store. So as long as MS can actually get some quality releases on there it could be quite a good service. |
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Coughthulu
04/12/07 @ 11:00
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@caimbeul:
I assume though that MS are pushing VC-1 as the codec, and considering you can get pretty damn good 720p results at 5Mb/sec (whereas the equivalent MPEG2 (DVD) bitrate needs to be around 18Mb/sec for the same quality), I doubt they're going to change the compression at all. I've not looked so just speculating. ;) Got any figures on the US rollout that points to this? |
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asphaltcowboy
04/12/07 @ 11:05
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@captainrentboy: wrt to Superman 3, I'm right there with you man! :(
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though nothing on the release list excites me, i'm pleased the service has been dated and look forward to seeing how it expands, 'specially with TV stuff...
was there any more news on the BBC back catalogue that they were in talks to include a while back?
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most recently on 04/12/07 @ 11:16
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It's nice that this service is finally launching in Europe but it's of little use to me since I'd rather save the money and spend £10-£15 on a 1 or 2-disc DVD, £40 on a TV boxset or £18 on a BD movie that I can watch over and over again in the living room or bedroom, lend to family/friends, etc.
I suppose if there was a movie I was unsure about buying, I could "rent" it first to see what it's like but I can't honestly see me making much use of it since I cannot keep these movies on my HDD (that limits their appeal massively for me). It would be nice if you could watch the latest movies on this service mere days after they were released in the cinema though but I doubt that will ever happen. |
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Well as I said that would be the only real incentive for me to use the service as I've never once rented a movie, I always buy them as I'm a collector. Obviously if the movie was not available on DVD or BD then I'd be more inclined to watch it through my Xbox 360, but as it stands, it has limited appeal for me. I'm sure I'll watch at least one movie though, if only to see what the quality is like and how it all works.
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captainrentboy
04/12/07 @ 11:26
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And just slightly off topic, I just downloaded the new update and I'd just like to say ''Hell Yeeeeah'' to the streaming DivX playback, 'tis fooking lovely. No more DVD burning or painstaking WMV converting for me :)
And now to watch the Season 2 Finale of Heroes. Damn those American striking bastards. 11 Episodes does not make a full season, fuckers. |
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rhinoxious
04/12/07 @ 12:29
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Excellent news,
I hate buying DVDs, I only ever watch them once and then they sit gathering dust till I get round to selling them second hand. Also I find the production of the disc and packaging a waste of resources, though as a gamer I'm sure my environemntal record is pretty blemished anyway. Just hoping the high-def versions look OK. |
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rhinoxious
04/12/07 @ 12:31
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"Isn't this a bit pointless after the DviX update now can watch hd films on my xbox for free"
- That's your choice, but it isn't everyones. |
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Talking of Superman 3, was anyone else in their younger years absolutely terrified of the fat woman with all the robotic gizmos on her at the end of the flick? God damn, she haunted my dreams.
Scared the heck out of me too. Couldn't watch that part of the film again afterwards. Superman 3 is cursed though. Perhaps anyone who downloads it will get 3 Red Lights after watching it. |
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@Brogan
The quality between DivX and HD content should (and I emphasise should) be quite noticeable. DivX usually means the movie or whtever has been compressed, so there's a dip in quality. I watch DivX movies on my HD telly through a VGA cable, and there's a marked difference between those and the HD trailers of movies I've downloaded off the marketplace |
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mcmonkeyplc
04/12/07 @ 13:14
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Demolition Man, 300 and the Matrix in HD for me then!
Microcunts actually did something right for once. |
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"The quality between DivX and HD content should (and I emphasise should) be quite noticeable. DivX usually means the movie or whtever has been compressed, so there's a dip in quality."
All HD formats are still compressed. 1080p might be the best we can get now, but Super HD is in development and you could get far higher resolutions out of film beyond that! The quality of the compression depends on the quality of the codec and the bitrate selected. DivX HD could potentially look every bit as good as a BD disc, but the difference would be something like a difference in filesize. The movies on Xbox Live will be compressed as a compromise between quality and time to download. They certainly won't come close to the best HD-DVD or Blu-Ray discs.
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most recently on 04/12/07 @ 13:22
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Anyone discussing the relative merits of purchasing dvd's over rentals needs to shut up right in their face.
The business model works (ie Blockbuster chain) people obviously DO want to rent films instead of buying them, this just lets you do it with the Xbot computa innit. SO that is a discussion for another forum. As is this.... In real 3D life the only DVD worth owning is Some Mother's Do Ave Em, as it make me come over a little queer. "oooh bettie!" You have been warned. |
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@ED209 - You've hit the nail right on the head there. This Video Marketplace is obviously aimed at the same people who like renting movies from Blockbuster, etc., so the question is are the prices competitive and how long do these movies take to download?
Personally, I've never rented a movie in my life, I go to see them at the cinema and if I like them then I buy them on DVD or BD; anything else I watch on TV when it eventually shows up. Thus this service has very limited appeal for someone like me. Secretly I admit I want it to be a total flop because I fear it will pave the way toward a future where everything is download-only and I don't like that. How do I share movies with family and friends for example, how do I overcome the feeling that I no longer own these movies I enjoy collecting? It's one of the reasons I never download stuff illegally; it's just not the same as actually owning a proper disc in a proper case IMO. |
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@Greebo
I was talking more about the contrast between DivX movies and HD. A generic movie you download off the t'internet does not hold up particularly well against HD, compressed or not @ED 209 I've got a blockbusters 2 minutes walk away, and suffice to say I'll be using the Xbox service alot more than Blockbusters. Fuck walking
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most recently on 04/12/07 @ 14:17
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rhinoxious
04/12/07 @ 14:26
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Most illegally downloaded movies run to around 700MB, because they then fit on a CD-R.
The quality of the compression varies immensely, depending on the source material, codec used, the original DVD transfer/MPEG2 broadcast quality, and how much care (number of passes) the ripper put into the making the file. Unfortunately I suspect that the MS service will have an equally wide range of video quality. Be interesting to see how the 'HD' versions look compared to the standard versions. You may find they are worth having even if you are only playing them over SCART to a large CRT. |
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rhinoxious
04/12/07 @ 14:30
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Darren - 'how long do these movies take to download?'
well, how long is a piece of string. /smug mode engaged. But for me not long at all as my download speeds from Live through my 19Mbit/s broadband generally seem to be superwizzy! In theory I should be able to watch stuff as it comes, if that's possible of course. |
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Aren't these HD broadcasts Microsoft are planning on offering on the Video Marketplace only going to be 720p, not "proper" 1080p like HD-DVD and BD offer? I mean the bandwidth and filesize requirements for 1080p would be enormous, HD-DVD and BD movies are typically 20 GB+. Thus people using this service to judge what the differences are between DVD and HD-DVD/BDs aren't going to get an accurate impression at all but actually something inbetween the two.
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Penguinzoot
04/12/07 @ 15:27
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rhinoxious - "Can you start watching the movie before its downloaded?"
If you mean before the film has fully downloaded, then yes you can. A bit like Sky+ I suppose. |
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rhinoxious
04/12/07 @ 15:44
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Penguinzoot - yes I meant fully, thanks.
Darren - you're probably right, and with the vast majority of LCD TVs being 720p (or 768p to be precise) models, it makes sense to go with the that format. Then again they may be 1080i if they were encoded for the US market where that resolution is far more popular. ===for spelling===
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most recently on 04/12/07 @ 15:44
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rhinoxious
04/12/07 @ 16:14
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It's better than the initial line up for either Blu-ray or HD-DVD
Though that's not saying much admittedly! |
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