360 TV & Movie Service

danbhala

Hey check this out! a new movie/tv service coming to xbox live in a few weeks for the 360,

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/community/news/2006/20061106-moviestv.htm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6124042.stm

http://www.majornelson.com/archive/2006/11/06/full-versions-of-tv-and-movies-coming-to-the-marketplace.aspx

some screenshots here

http://i.n.com.com/i/ne/p/2006/CBS_xbox_550x309.jpg
http://i.n.com.com/i/ne/p/2006/movies_xbox_550x309.jpg
http://i.n.com.com/i/ne/p/2006/TV-Shows_xbox_550x309.jpg
http://i.n.com.com/i/ne/p/2006/Video-Market_xbox_550x309.jpg

all we need is a decent hard drive now!

Kenny_D

"As of November 22, US Xbox 360 owners will be able to take advantage of digital distribution of high-definition (and standard def) TV shows and movies via Xbox Live Marketplace."

"We are also working with content partners in other regions, but don't have any news to announce at this time"

Dont think we get it. Only americans for now. Looks promising though

ondafly

but as with game demos, you are able to change your region, so you can get "US" & "Japanese" trailers/demos etc. Hopefully this trick will still work, if its US only.

unklerosco

It looks fairly cool... 2nd that HD.. Those 13gigs r gonna fill up damn fast

danbhala

I've got a 2nd live account set to US. I can use it to get content only available there... would you say i could access this content with this account?? hopefully it will!

Furp

It would be really cool if we were able to get this, but the way TV rights work is complicated and a very backward system designed in the days when VCR's let alone internet did not exist.

I also have a US account but if this works, which it might well do to view the content list how are you going to pay for it. You can't purchase points with credit card unless you have a US credit card and the only option I can think of is buying US prepaid Microsoft Points cards from eBay.

Kenny_D

I doubt it will be as easy as switching your gamertag. I reckon there will be some kind of encoding that locks each download to its version console. If you had an ntsc console then you could probably do it but tv companies usually have strict rules when it comes to downloads of its programs. Would be great if you could do that but I seriously doubt it

ondafly

to be fair, in the screen shots, nothing seems to be too new TV wise, i.e. first seasons of CSIs etc ?

calex71

waste of money imo, unless they let you transfer to mobile devices like creative zen etc and to pc for back up. Though maybe with the new zune software due next week it may add some features for that (probalby not though)

Ciaran500

You're only renting them so you won' be able to back them up to anything.

danbhala

long video rundown at xbox-scene

http://www.xbox-scene.com/xbox1data/sep/EEyklyZyyyztIKYAZT.php

Kenny_D

Ciaran500 wrote:

You're only renting them so you won' be able to back them up to anything.

Thats only for the movies. When you download a tv episode you get to keep it

shanethemofo

screw the points... they should just bring in like a "pay 60 euro and get unlimited tv shows for a year" kind of thing. but have the movies seperate which would be understandable

shanethemofo

p.s looks one step closer to live tv recording

omalleyTown

I was actually pretty excited about getting some cheap, consistant and on-demand content for my HD tv, but its going to take more than region locking, time restrictions and the inability to back up downloads to attract me away from my laptops "download service"

If got a feeling that this service (at least initially) will be swamped with DRM and restrictions in an attempt to nail jelly to the wall (ie, prevent piracy)

I really dont see european broadcasters like sky, who actually pay a lot of money for exclusive distribution rights, just sitting back and letting us cut out the middle man either. But thats nothing new. Europe always gets the shaft.

Anyone else bored of companies deciding what we can and cant watch based on the opinions of the ignorant masses?

scrapland

This will be USA only, same as the iTunes movie store.

Due to different licencing they would have to negotiate in EVERY country in Europe, the chances this will come to this shore is slim to none.

Also having a US silver account will only give you access to trailers, you would still need a US GOLD account in order to hire / purchase movies. Somthing we cant do with a Irish CC.

danbhala

Well the service just went live in the US.

Anyone see what they can access with an american account yet? In work so I cant test it..

kensutz

Yeah it works, just need to have unlimited downloads because the films range from 1.5 gigs on SD to 7gigs on HD

dave oc

What are the prices like?

Clank

Now the next thing to find out is, can you set up an american account(in doing so getting gold for free for a month), and download some HD movies.

kensutz

350 points in and around that.

xbox360dublin

All you need to do to set up an american accounts is as follows.

Hot to hotmail, set up a new account, choose a zip code in america.

Now go online and find any company in that zip code and get their address and phone number.

Finish your registration with hotmail. go to xbox live, set up a new account with the new hotmail account, it will automatically pull your info down from hotmail, it will assume your in america, and then you can download tv, movies, and so on.

CiaranC

How do you all propose fitting these on your crappy 13GB HDDs?

Ciaran500

Delete some demos and game videos?

Not much point keeping TV eps for long anyway.

xbox360dublin

as per microsofts suggestion!!! buy a second hard drive !!
Nice customer focus really!!

CiaranC

Wow, a service where I have to delete media Ive paid to keep in order to download more media I pay to keep?

Wow, sign me up. Or actually, thats retarded.

lee_baby_simms

xbox360dublin wrote:

Finish your registration with hotmail. go to xbox live, set up a new account with the new hotmail account, it will automatically pull your info down from hotmail, it will assume your in america, and then you can download tv, movies, and so on.

Funny, when i originally signed up to xbox live i used my longtime hotmail account that i only use for msn messenger.

The country in my profile was set to United States (honestly don't know why) and now i cant change it. I cant use my credit card or prepaid points card but thankfully my 12 month gold membership prepaid card worked.

I rang microsoft and i was put through to some outsourced call centre where everyone had bad english and even worse cop on.

They're getting back to me but i'm pretty sure it can't be changed.

Now THATS retarded....along with the tv thing.

xbox360dublin

what i dont understand is, they are advertising films in HD. Now these films werent originally filmed in hd, so how the hell is it hd now??? like the original star trek series , that was filmed with a camcorder with the quality of a motorola phone, how is that all of a sudden hd

CiaranC

Shhh! You'll give the game away.

I mean its not like this is just an excuse to sell you the same old content again, now with added DRM!

And they wonder why people pirate the stuff!

lee_baby_simms

Incidentally, BBC are showing the original star trek series on Saturday afternoons. Free of charge I believe.

Just thought I'd throw that in.

fifth

CiaranC wrote:

Shhh! You'll give the game away.

I mean its not like this is just an excuse to sell you the same old content again, now with added DRM!

And they wonder why people pirate the stuff!

Have you forgotten where the Playstation board is?

CiaranC

funkyflea wrote:

Have you forgotten where the Playstation board is?

Oh Jesus, not again.

lee_baby_simms wrote:

Incidentally, BBC are showing the original star trek series on Saturday afternoons. Free of charge I believe.

If you cant download the eps onto a €100 13GB HDD only to have to delete them soonafter, then count me out!

danbhala

they really should have released a larger hard drive today to go along with it... bold MS, BOLD *slap*

i wounder if you could transfer the vids to your pc with this yoke for later viewing

http://www.play.com/Games/Xbox360/GENBRW/3-/1021322/Xsata/Product.html

then i suppose you could transfer them back if you wanted to watch them again...

fairly mucky tho

CiaranC

Id say the 100GB HDD will be announced shortly after christmas. I imagine they dont want people holding off from buying the HD-DVD addon to buy it instead.

100GB still isnt enough though. I have 500GBs in my xbox and I have to keep deleting games to fit media on, and thats without HD file sizes. If they want us to pay around €100 blips for 13GBs, I shudder to think what they'll charge for 100GB.

fifth

They have to sort the HDD situation and promptly. I doubt they'll leave us hanging with 20 (13)GB storage. I like the idea of this service as I don't subscribe to Sky/NTL or any of that, so the odd film / tv programme would be welcome.

That's if we ever get this system over here.

Ri_Nollaig

danbhala wrote:

they really should have released a larger hard drive today to go along with it... bold MS, BOLD *slap*

i wounder if you could transfer the vids to your pc with this yoke for later viewing

http://www.play.com/Games/Xbox360/GENBRW/3-/1021322/Xsata/Product.html

then i suppose you could transfer them back if you wanted to watch them again...

fairly mucky tho

from ign review

Sadly, what you can't do is transfer pictures, music, or movies to the 360's HDD. While it would be nice to dump a chunk of your mp3 collection into the 360, the 360 won't take it. To get media like that into the 360, you'll have to stream it via Windows Media Connect or use a USB HDD to get the 360 to accept the media.

so i guess not

JM MARCONI

M$ have said they will be selling a larger HDD very soon. Also, when you download something you own it forever. I know it would be a pain in the ass redownloading things but at least you wont have to pay again

CiaranC

M$ have said they will be selling a larger HDD very soon.

AFAIK MS have denied the existance of the larger HDD. Do you have a link?

Also, when you download something you own it forever.

The movies are rentals arent they? They auto delete after 24 hours.

Ciaran500

They auto delete 24hrs after watching them, but IIRC you can keep them for 2 weeks without watching them.

digitaldr

Signed up with a zip code etc - worked a treat. I tried buying a virtual visa card at http://www.wwwcard.co.il but unfortunately there seems to be a problem with the site at the moment. Will post here if I can manage to successfully buy microsoft points if/when I buy one.

Stokolan

Right I decided to give this a try. I already had a US account and bought some US Marketplace points off eBay. They entered in perfectly. I am currently downloading an episode oh CSI in hd and will let you know if it played ok.

It might take a while seems to be going real slow

digitaldr

Any update stokolan?

Stokolan

well after nearly 11 hours I am at 75% of a 2 gig download. so if its going to be like this i doubt ill be getting much more. I have seen blogs about it that they are working on fixes for it so will wait and see hwo it works out. I'll post up when the download is finished

Stokolan

just to show you. this is the speed its coming down at. I'm on 3mb metro. I stopped it at 86% as I'm off to bed and don't fancy leaving the 360 on.

m83

About the hard drive concerns. Is it not possible to get an external PC HD of 100GB or so and plug it into the USB drive on the 360 and save cotent directly to it?

Stokolan

Well heres the story so far. Seems like the downloads go quicker when America are in bed. finished off the last 14% in about 20 - 25 min this morning. The content plays on my Japanese console on all my accounts. So it looks like its not restricted to accounts. Will check my pal console in a bit.

Only one thing tho. It said it was finished downloading but when i sign out of my account it flagged up that the download was stopped and when i signed in with my main and went to play it I got a message saying that the content was not fully downloaded and might stop before the end. But it played ok. watching it now.

m83 wrote:

About the hard drive concerns. Is it not possible to get an external PC HD of 100GB or so and plug it into the USB drive on the 360 and save cotent directly to it?

I Don't think thats possible at the moment.



Hmmm.. ok I just tried it on my PAL console at first it wouldn't work on any accounts. I was not connected to live so as soon as i did it work on only my US account. got an error saying that the license was missing or not for this profile on my main account. But then when i went back to my Japanese console its working fine on all accounts... confusing! oh and im still getting the error about it not fully downloaded.. might be something to do with the license??

ok seems that you can play it on any machine as long as you use the account you downloaded it with and it is connected to live.