300 In HD For Only 100 MS Points!

BNC

Dont think its been posted already so....

For 24 hours starting midnight 28 December, anyone with a broadband connection and Xbox LIVE membership (Silver or Gold) can take advantage of this terrific limited offer. “300”, critically acclaimed as the “Citizen Kane” of cinematic graphic novels, can be yours to rent in HD for the bargain price of 100 MS Points. Why? Because the Xbox LIVE Marketplace Video Store is now open for business, and you really must experience it for yourself to know fantastic it is.

I'll be downloading to see what the HD looks like.

dazftw

Unless you have a good connection its going take ages.. What it is like 7GB?

TheDoc

worth the experience though

Riesen_Meal

I have it on HDDVD, no use to me.....

dazftw

It would be so much easier just to rent it lol

How much is 100 MS points though like 80 cent? Suppose its only worth it if you don't mind waiting!

BNC

Download overnight while you sleep...you wake up...hey presto, its done! It should only take a couple of hours to download.

ShaneU

100 points is €1.20

GrumPy

dazftw wrote: »

It would be so much easier just to rent it lol

Eh wait, how?

Get up, get dressed, jump in car, drive to local rental place, find parking, find 300 dvd, pay person at till rental charge, (how much is a rental? €6?) hands over disc, back to car, drive home, put disc in drive, watch 300 in SD. Within 2, 3 nights, repeat process to return disc.


Buy 300 for 100 points on xbox LIVE, goto sleep, wake up (no need to dress) watch 300 in HD without the need of actually getting out of bed.


I rest my case.

KTRIC

Its meant to be sh!te in HD anyway. I wouldn't bother.

GrumPy

KTRIC wrote: »

Its meant to be sh!te in HD anyway. I wouldn't bother.

True, sure the whole film is grainy orange style crap. Still great though.

dazftw

Irish GrumPy wrote: »

Eh wait, how?

Get up, get dressed, jump in car, drive to local rental place, find parking, find 300 dvd, pay person at till rental charge, (how much is a rental? €6?) hands over disc, back to car, drive home, put disc in drive, watch 300 in SD. Within 2, 3 nights, repeat process to return disc.


Buy 300 for 100 points on xbox LIVE, goto sleep, wake up (no need to dress) watch 300 in HD without the need of actually getting out of bed.


I rest my case.

Someones very lazy :P

blu-ray tbh anyway lol

shanethemofo

dazftw wrote: »

Someones very lazy :P

blu-ray tbh anyway lol

Your only sayin that because u got bannz0red noob :P

dazftw

shanethemofo wrote: »

Your only sayin that because u got bannz0red noob :P

from where?

GrumPy

dazftw wrote: »

blu-ray tbh anyway lol

elaborate

dazftw

Irish GrumPy wrote: »

elaborate

have you seen 300 on HD and Blu-ray?

Riesen_Meal

I have, theres no difference?

dazftw

Fieldog wrote: »

I have, theres no difference?

Ah there is blu-ray is alot sharper! At least its my opinion of it anyway! My friend had it in HD and was like WOW but he got a PS3 and got blu-ray version of it and thought it was better aswell.

BNC

dazftw wrote: »

Ah there is blu-ray is alot sharper!

Thats interesting because they both are 1080p/VC-1 encoded.

McDermotX

There's no doubt that if you want to try out the Video Marketplace, then at that price, its definitely worth a shot..
However, IMO, its offerings like this that are the enemy (so to speak) of the emerging HD formats.
There will be a time (when the broadband infrastructure is there to support it) when downloading will become a viable medium for home entertainment......I seriously doubt it'll be in the form of the 360 marketplace (or Sony's similar effort next year), more along the lines of VOD over dedicated home servers, which by then, will allow for high quality encodes..
Speaking as a home theater enthusiast, I can appreciate new media forms, but I think you'll find that most supporters overwhelming prefer physical media over the current E-media alternative..
What the current implementation offers is a low-bitrate, bandwidth starved alternative to the real HD offerings, which is (at least MS hope) directed towards the mass rental public.....and is also nowhere near as convenient as people believe. It also opens the future to a DRM controlled, rent only future, which although fine for most people, is, quite frankly, offensive to enthusiasts..
If 720p, sub-bitrate, artifact-riddled, DD5.1 encodes of films are good enough for most people then so be it, but I would stress that if you have the means to purchase or rent infintely superior HD DVD/BD 1080p,TrueHD/PCM versions of your fav films, then choose that route. Its one way to show the movie studios that quality and value are the most important factor..

McDermotX

BNC wrote: »

Thats interesting because they both are 1080p/VC-1 encoded.

Correct,
Video encode is identical, HD DVD offers a TrueHD track, BD offers a TrueHD and PCM uncompressed option (virtually indistinguishable)..
Only appreciable difference is the IME and HDi functionality of the HD DVD version over the BD, allowing for a PiP feature during the film..
That alone makes it the more desirable version if you have both......failing that, the main feature of both is identical..
The US HD DVD release is also a DVD combo release (which can be a good or bad thing depending on how lucky you've been with combo releases thus far!!)

Any differences anyone has noticed between the video quality, is down to the users components in the chain, not the encode..

mickoneill30

dazftw wrote: »

Ah there is blu-ray is alot sharper! At least its my opinion of it anyway! My friend had it in HD and was like WOW but he got a PS3 and got blu-ray version of it and thought it was better aswell.

Lets suppose for a second that people on an Xbox forum don't have Blu-Ray players. Is it a good deal then or easier to go down to the video shop?

mcgovern

I'll be trying it out anyway.

The_B_Man

McDermotX wrote: »

Correct,
Video encode is identical, HD DVD offers a TrueHD track, BD offers a TrueHD and PCM uncompressed option (virtually indistinguishable)..
Only appreciable difference is the IME and HDi functionality of the HD DVD version over the BD, allowing for a PiP feature during the film..
That alone makes it the more desirable version if you have both......failing that, the main feature of both is identical..

BluRay also has PiP, no? v1.1 does anyway.

McDermotX

The_B_Man wrote: »

BluRay also has PiP, no? v1.1 does anyway.

The 300 BD disc doesn't though..
BD players with Profile 1.1 have functionality alright.....inlcudes PS3 since 2.10 update..
No BD discs have 1.1 features as of yet......the likes of War and Sunshine US releases will be the first, followed by the likes of 3:10 to Yuma..
Warner use the whole lack of advanced 1.1 functionalilty as a reason for delaying a number of key BD titles such as Batman Begins, Matrix etc which are already available on HD DVD

Guy:Incognito

Irish GrumPy wrote: »

Eh wait, how?

Get up, get dressed, jump in car, drive to local rental place, find parking, find 300 dvd, pay person at till rental charge, (how much is a rental? €6?) hands over disc, back to car, drive home, put disc in drive, watch 300 in SD. Within 2, 3 nights, repeat process to return disc.


Buy 300 for 100 points on xbox LIVE, goto sleep, wake up (no need to dress) watch 300 in HD without the need of actually getting out of bed.


I rest my case.

You forgot the wait 8 days bit for the 2nd part.

Ciaran500

Stekelly wrote: »

You forgot the wait 8 days bit for the 2nd part.

About 8 hrs, max

Antamojo

McDermotX wrote: »

There's no doubt that if you want to try out the Video Marketplace, then at that price, its definitely worth a shot..
However, IMO, its offerings like this that are the enemy (so to speak) of the emerging HD formats.
There will be a time (when the broadband infrastructure is there to support it) when downloading will become a viable medium for home entertainment......I seriously doubt it'll be in the form of the 360 marketplace (or Sony's similar effort next year), more along the lines of VOD over dedicated home servers, which by then, will allow for high quality encodes..
Speaking as a home theater enthusiast, I can appreciate new media forms, but I think you'll find that most supporters overwhelming prefer physical media over the current E-media alternative..
What the current implementation offers is a low-bitrate, bandwidth starved alternative to the real HD offerings, which is (at least MS hope) directed towards the mass rental public.....and is also nowhere near as convenient as people believe. It also opens the future to a DRM controlled, rent only future, which although fine for most people, is, quite frankly, offensive to enthusiasts..
If 720p, sub-bitrate, artifact-riddled, DD5.1 encodes of films are good enough for most people then so be it, but I would stress that if you have the means to purchase or rent infintely superior HD DVD/BD 1080p,TrueHD/PCM versions of your fav films, then choose that route. Its one way to show the movie studios that quality and value are the most important factor..

What the f*ck did you just say?!

j/k

I think it will be a few years till Ireland gets a good broadband infrastructure haha

dazftw

Damn I just got taking out of it by all the smart HD people... I dunno I just thought it looked better he had it on a HD player and a ps3 I don't whether that would make a difference but I just thought blu-ray looked nicer of the two :rolleyes:

When it comes down to it though to download a 5GB film is going take ages just a trip to the video shop would be so much quicker/easier

Ciaran500

McDermotX wrote: »

It also opens the future to a DRM controlled, rent only future, which although fine for most people, is, quite frankly, offensive to enthusiasts..

I can't see how this opens the future to rent only future, they could of done that with rental shops its obviously not what people want.

McDermotX wrote: »

If 720p, sub-bitrate, artifact-riddled, DD5.1 encodes of films are good enough for most people then so be it, but I would stress that if you have the means to purchase or rent infintely superior HD DVD/BD 1080p,TrueHD/PCM versions of your fav films, then choose that route. Its one way to show the movie studios that quality and value are the most important factor..

These may be lower bit rate than BR/HDDVD they are far from artifact riddled. Also if you scaled the file size of a 720p marketplace download up to what a 1080p would need it would be about 11gb. IIRC Batman Begins is about 12gb in size and held up as one of the great quality HD-DVD releases.

Besides the majority of people use a 720p HDTV and 5.1 set from Argos why should they avoid this? They aren't going to notice the difference at all.

McDermotX

Ciaran500 wrote: »

I can't see how this opens the future to rent only future, they could of done that with rental shops its obviously not what people want.


These may be lower bit rate than BR/HDDVD they are far from artifact riddled. Also if you scaled the file size of a 720p marketplace download up to what a 1080p would need it would be about 11gb. IIRC Batman Begins is about 12gb in size and held up as one of the great quality HD-DVD releases.

Besides the majority of people use a 720p HDTV and 5.1 set from Argos why should they avoid this? They aren't going to notice the difference at all.

Think about it though,
to the movie studios, at least when it comes to downloadable media it doesn't matter what people what..
In the future, the movie studio will have control over how their media is handled. How many times you can download it, what outlay people will have to pay etc etc etc..
With this level of control, they are far more concerned over the number of times they can get the public to fork out for their intellectual property....not physical media. Rather than having people own their own copies, it is far more valuable to them to have a constant stream of revenue in a new digitally delivered entertainment industry..
This could easily lead to a DRM-led, licensed future when it comes to media access (more so than it already is !)......this is far down the line, post optical, but it is certainly the most obvious way the industry will head..

Quality is relative of course, the fact is the current standard of downloadable media is nowhere near the level offered by current HD media (BD or HD DVD).....and we are already above the tolerable level of currently available distribution and convenience (and for the next few years)..
It is in MS' (and others) interest to push the boundaries of course, and their interests lie in continuing the progress of VC1, which has led to the debate of MS' ulterior motives in the HD format war. Everyone has their own opinion of course, but you don't need someone like Micheal Bay stating the obvious, if marginally uninformed view that MS ultimate aim of dumbed down and downloadable is going to become a reality and in their best interests..
As it stands, the best and most convenient method of pure HD media delivery at the moment is the two competing optical formats (of course, we should have only one, but that debate is long gone and off-topic)..

Services such as the Video Marketplace are in their infancy, and by the time a proper method of quick, reliable delivery via downloading is available, 720p sets will be an extremely budget option if at all. Sticking your head inside a store or newspaper for two minutes this Christmas only demonstrate how far prices around decent 1080p sets have fallen and their infiltration is only going to become more and more widespread over the next 12 months to such a degree that it will become financially unviable to continue 720p panel production..

I'm not suggesting that people avoid the video marketplace at all (especially with the price their asking for 300 with that deal if just to check it out), just that they should appreciate that there is already a far higher quality alternative out there right now which, as strange as it sounds given the format war, is more in the publics interest. Downloadable media's time will come, but it certainly won't be in this current format or quality, or with the current broadband infrastructure limitations..

BNC

^^^^^

So you won't be downloading then..;)

savemejebus

dazftw wrote: »

Damn I just got taking out of it by all the smart HD people... I dunno I just thought it looked better he had it on a HD player and a ps3 I don't whether that would make a difference but I just thought blu-ray looked nicer of the two :rolleyes:

OT: If it's any consolation you weren't the only one who thought that way. The blu-ray version won best HD title while the HD-DVD version won best best bonus features at the first ever high def disc awards. Go figurehttp://www.homemediamagazine.com/news/html/breaking_article.cfm?article_id=11663

Back on topic, it's a good offer from MS but can't envision it being a hook to get people interested in the video marketplace at the moment.

Guy:Incognito

Ciaran500 wrote: »

About 8 hrs, max

IT's not available till the 28th is what I meant.

TheDoc

remind me never to have a row about tellies with that bloke above..

he sounds too smart...

hes obviously a computer....obviously

johnny_ultimate

Not a particular fan of the film (had about as much plot as a newspaper one panel) but I do have 100 spare points left over from my SotN download months ago, so may as well give the service a test drive to sort out the queries I have about it. Thanks for the heads up OP.

Blackdragon

Will be trying this out also - for 100 points i cant see any reason not to.
Many thanks OP for the notice

Axwell

Obviously there is an advantage of being able to download the HD version in that you dont need to have an actual HD Disc player to watch the movie, a trip to xtra vision isnt much use if you dont have a HD player sitting there to play it on making the 100 microsoft points seem like little or nothing to pay to have a look at the quality of a HD movie on your xbox.

Ciaran500

McDermotX wrote: »

Think about it though,
to the movie studios, at least when it comes to downloadable media it doesn't matter what people what..

If people don't want it, people don't buy it.

McDermotX wrote: »

In the future, the movie studio will have control over how their media is handled. How many times you can download it, what outlay people will have to pay etc etc etc..
With this level of control, they are far more concerned over the number of times they can get the public to fork out for their intellectual property....not physical media. Rather than having people own their own copies, it is far more valuable to them to have a constant stream of revenue in a new digitally delivered entertainment industry..
This could easily lead to a DRM-led, licensed future when it comes to media access (more so than it already is !)......this is far down the line, post optical, but it is certainly the most obvious way the industry will head..

As much as I'm sure the studios want it I still can't see it happening. Everyone I know loves buying DVD's and having there collection sitting there for whenever they want. These people won't be willing to rent all there films and pay for them as they watch them.

McDermotX wrote: »

It is in MS' (and others) interest to push the boundaries of course, and their interests lie in continuing the progress of VC1, which has led to the debate of MS' ulterior motives in the HD format war.

But with VC-1 being used on Blu-ray and HD-DVD so MS is in a great position no matter what format wins the "war".

McDermotX wrote: »

Everyone has their own opinion of course, but you don't need someone like Micheal Bay stating the obvious, if marginally uninformed view that MS ultimate aim of dumbed down and downloadable is going to become a reality and in their best interests..

Of course, and its Sony/Toshiba's interest that their format wins

McDermotX wrote: »

just that they should appreciate that there is already a far higher quality alternative out there right now which, as strange as it sounds given the format war, is more in the publics interest. Downloadable media's time will come, but it certainly won't be in this current format or quality, or with the current broadband infrastructure limitations..

But for someone like me it seems perfect. I have a 26" 720p TV, a reasonable set of speakers that doesn't support any of the fancy lossless formats and I have trouble with downloading very large files. I know alot about the alternative formats but I don't see any reason to make the extra effort to get them if I don't want to buy the film.

McDermotX

Ciaran500 wrote: »

If people don't want it, people don't buy it.

As much as I'm sure the studios want it I still can't see it happening. Everyone I know loves buying DVD's and having there collection sitting there for whenever they want. These people won't be willing to rent all there films and pay for them as they watch them.

Like I said Ciaran, I'm talking about a future post optical. In the downloadable era, the public will not have the end user access they enjoy now. The convenience of downloading a new title will be opposed with the fact that you have just bought a license to view the movie studios' intellectual property and you have to abide with their terms. Which, as you can already see with current VOD standards, means an, in effect, rental policy which is the bane of all enthusiasts.
They will have control over what you watch, how many times you can watch it, expiry dates and such and such..
I'm glad to hear you believe people won't be willing to pay for films as they watch them as you sound opposed to the idea as well.........I'm fully oppposed to the idea as well, but it's an increasingly likely business model in the digital future I'm afraid

Ciaran500 wrote: »

But with VC-1 being used on Blu-ray and HD-DVD so MS is in a great position no matter what format wins the "war".

MS' position with VC1 is more like a great experiment......how to provide a HD experience with increasing compression standards. Its not a question of licence fees to MS from whichever HD format wins, as either one is going to have an extremely tough job replacing DVD before we all move to the next delivery standard.
The argument that MS' involvement with HD DVD is solely to effectively still-born the latest optical formats, is actually quite a compelling argument if you've followed to format war for the last few years. It is most certainly in their interest for the mass public to move to a downloadable era and therefore bypass an optical HD age which they will possibly not have a direct level of control over. If Blu-ray prevails, the downloadable era might well be delayed with minimal licence fee involvement from MS (assuming of course VC1 continues to be the most widely used encoding standard and they also have a nominal interest in other optical fees relating to DVD)
If HD DVD emerges as they new standard (maybe the less likely scenario), they have a direct level of involvement with the HD DVD standard, far beyond their creation of the VC1 encoders. Their relationship with Toshiba has led to a subsidized nature of the format, despite their protestations, and has also alienated the majority of the CE manufacturers such as Pioneer, Panasonic and to a lesser extent, Samsung..

Ciaran500 wrote: »

But for someone like me it seems perfect. I have a 26" 720p TV, a reasonable set of speakers that doesn't support any of the fancy lossless formats and I have trouble with downloading very large files. I know alot about the alternative formats but I don't see any reason to make the extra effort to get them if I don't want to buy the film.

Actually the one good thing to come the format war has been the drastic drop in prices of both formats.....for the sake of argument, I'm going to leave out extortionate racket of the Irish and European market as, chances are, this format war is going to be settled in the US markets..
Anyone who's been involved since both format's launches couldn't have predicated how far the cost of players has tumbled since, certainly in HD DVD and, for the last 6 months or so, Blu-ray.
Both formats now have players under the $300 mark, and in HD DVDs case, well below that with multiple offers of 5 and 10 discs free etc etc etc........a far cry from $800-1500 only a year and a half ago..
At that price range, they represent a great investment if you have the equipment to support them to their potential. Also, the price of high end displays, amps etc do not stand still, and more and more people are taking advantage of consumer designed kit which will allow them the experience what these formats can offer..

Everyone of course has a different opinion on the worth of the likes of the Video Marketplace, and some people will like it and some people won't..
Its up to the individual to decide whether they like the idea of an extremely basic video service which, although it is at their fingertips, is far from immediate and in its current form, not worth it IMO compared to what is already available for people to own as their own property with a small investment..
If you have the MS points to spare, and the time, then by all means take advantage of the service, but I would hate to think that the majority of the public will accept quality such as they're offering as the de facto HD standard..

McDermotX

[DM]-TheDOC- wrote: »

remind me never to have a row about tellies with that bloke above..

he sounds too smart...

hes obviously a computer....obviously

Just a fan of gaming, technology and HD entertainment like the rest of you lads
The whole digital media argument is a common thread running through my hobbies so to speak

mossym

Ciaran500 wrote: »

I can't see how this opens the future to rent only future, they could of done that with rental shops its obviously not what people want.


These may be lower bit rate than BR/HDDVD they are far from artifact riddled. Also if you scaled the file size of a 720p marketplace download up to what a 1080p would need it would be about 11gb. IIRC Batman Begins is about 12gb in size and held up as one of the great quality HD-DVD releases.

Besides the majority of people use a 720p HDTV and 5.1 set from Argos why should they avoid this? They aren't going to notice the difference at all.

they should avoid it cause it isn't even in any type of 5.1, it's in stereo...which even their bought in argos systems won't sound as good with...

way better going to the dvd store for that reason alone..

Ciaran500

Are they all stereo? I haven't heard anyone confirm if its only some that are in stereo.

mossym

have been keeping track of it over on avforums...none so far in anything other than stereo.

dealbreaker for me..have both blu-ray and hddvd and will buy and watch once before paying for stereo rental...have invested too much in my cinema room to settle for stereo

Fingleberries

Between this issue with the movies being in Stereo, and the Wii version of Guitar Hero only coming with Mono sound it looks like some companies have really taken a step back in time.

JM MARCONI

I just checked the marketplace and its only the SD version thats 100 points.:mad:

Daysha

****

eoin2nc

How do MS get away with false advertising? It clearly says on the xbox website that the HD version is 100 points :mad::mad:

vasch_ro

it is the HD version for 100 points, I just can't seem to download it, think live is a bit wonky at the moment

Ciaran500

They admitted they ****ed up and the HD version will be 100 points soon.