HD Movies on XBOX LIVE

kmick

It seems I can now download HD movies on XBOX360. I have my hotmail account registered in the US for size reasons and it seems to allow me to download movies. Also I can buy a years sub to XBOX Live for $39.99 instead of EUR59.99. Anyone tried this?

CarefulNow

How much are the movies?

kmick

They seem to be around a fiver - you need points to buy them and I think I worked it back to be about 5-6$. The range is not brilliant but I was tempted to get V for Vendetta for a fiver in HD? Cant remember if it was 720 or 1080 tho. Plus If I start downloading at 6 Gb a pop my harddrive will be full after one movie and I doubt you can save them off?

monkeyfudge

6 GB seems a bit small for a HD movie. You could fit that on a regular DVD.

kmick

Yeah I was generally suspicious that it was probably a cut down 720 movie must doa google and find out.

kmick

mmmm
http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/06/microsofts-xbox-live-video-hdtv-and-hd-movie-downloads-for-you/
Seems to be kosher - only available in US tho. Jus reregister your hotmail and you should be fine.

* 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.

monkeyfudge

How long are those HD Viva Pinata episodes? They work out at about 600mb for about 10 minutes don't they?

kmick

Dont know some issues!
http://digg.com/gaming_news/My_Xbox_Live_HD_Video_Rental_Nightmare

ntlbell

god help people on a capped service

projectmayhem

does this not completely put the kabosh on the general idea behind buying the hd-dvd player though?

i'm all for it, don't get me wrong, but if microsoft wants hd-dvd to reign supreme is this not a bad idea?

Ciaran500

monkeyfudge wrote:

6 GB seems a bit small for a HD movie. You could fit that on a regular DVD.

They're WMVHD, so much more compressed than .264 on HD-DVD but still look fantastic.

rip2roar

You dont buy the movies, you rent them

Stokolan

I tried this back in November when it was first launched. Theres a whole thread about it if you search back.

I didn't grab a movie just a CSI episode it was 2 gigs for the HD.
It took me 16 hours to download 2 gigs! which should have only taken 2 hours. They were supposed to be working on this.
You didn't need a gold account not sure if that has changed. The live sub will work here I have bought a few.
The MS points had to be bought from America as the points are region locked.

Microsoft where supposed to put a ban of some sort on IP address that weren't US ones, not sure if this has been implemented.

A lot of the Movies where only SD and not HD there were very few HD ones there. The one i did see was 9gig I think. and what rip2roar said the movies are only rented but i think the TV series are bought.

clonedmonkey

So what's the story with xbox live over here? I topped up some MS points and want to download a HD movie but don't have the option here? This sucks... do MS have plans to improve the xbox live content over here in europe? The online gaming is great, it's a just a pity you can't BUY and download a HD movie yet...

robinph

clonedmonkey wrote:

it's a just a pity you can't BUY and download a HD movie yet...

It's going to be due to the movie studios trying to decide how much extra they can get away with charging for exactly the same content when they are selling it in Europe. In the mean time though your only option is to create a fake US account to download the movies and assume that MS don't actually care too much about where you are when downloading until the movie companies kick up a bit more of a fuss about it.

clonedmonkey

That's perfect, cheeers!