Movies and TV on your Xbox

[NavNucST3]

Microsoft Corp. November 6 announced agreements with CBS, MTV Networks, Paramount Pictures, Turner Broadcasting System Inc. (TBS Inc.), Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment to bring an initial lineup of over 1,000 hours of hit TV shows and movies to Xbox 360â„¢ gamers in the U.S. by the end of the year. Furthermore, Xbox 360 will be the first gaming console to bring standard and high-definition TV shows and movies via digital distribution over the Internet directly to the consumer.
Beginning Nov. 22, on its first anniversary, Xbox 360 will be the first gaming console in history to provide high-definition TV shows and movies directly to gamers in their living rooms. Xbox 360 gamers will have access to the full-length TV shows as downloads to own and movies to rent via download

So in my lust for Gears and seeing what I could see on xbox.com I came across this...please delete the thread if this has been posted elsewhere.

I think I need a bigger hdd...In my household CSI and NUMB3RS are mainstays, here is to hoping NBC will loosen the reigns on the sci-fi channel so I can get Battlestar Galactica.
Great news, and here I was bummed out that I didn't get the closed beta of Torque X today.
link

 

[dodo3]

* Aqua Teen Hunger Force
* Avatar: The Last Airbender
* Batman Forever
* Breaking Bonaduce
* Carpocalypse
* Chappelle's Show
* CSI
* Hogan Knows Best
* Jackass: The Movie
* Jericho
* The Matrix
* M:i:III
* Nacho Libre
* Nicktoons Network Animation Festival
* Numb3rs
* Pimp My Ride
* Race Rewind (NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series races)
* Raising the Roofs
* The Real World
* Robot Chicken
* Skyland
* South Park
* SpongeBob SquarePants
* Star Trek (original)
* Superman Returns
* 50 fights from Ultimate Fighting Championship, and some episodes from The Ultimate Fighter

List of launch titles from Engadget.

 

[silhouette]

From the demostration video of new features, it seems it is 320 MS point (4$) per movie rent, and 240 MS point per TV show (3$).. I guess it is a little bit on pricey side. Also, the size of Batman Forever in 720p is 1.3 gig which makes me think it is heavily compressed in VC1 or H.264.

 

[rounin]

From the demostration video of new features, it seems it is 320 MS point (4$) per movie rent, and 240 MS point per TV show (3$).. I guess it is a little bit on pricey side. Also, the size of Batman Forever in 720p is 1.3 gig which makes me think it is heavily compressed in VC1 or H.264.

Well they have to give you some incentive to buy their $100 HD-DVD add-on

Although that said, this is a pretty good move, to get these media. I think it may be a counter to the onslaught of media that will undoubtedly be offered through the Playstation network / store, but in a way that leaves a different taste by giving us TV shows instead.

 

[pegisys]

From the demostration video of new features, it seems it is 320 MS point (4$) per movie rent, and 240 MS point per TV show (3$).. I guess it is a little bit on pricey side. Also, the size of Batman Forever in 720p is 1.3 gig which makes me think it is heavily compressed in VC1 or H.264.

how did you find out that file size, sounds like the file size for the SD version

going by the link they say 4-5GB for a 2hr HD movie, which sounds like it would be a decent quality with VC-1, it should at least match OTA quality

 

[Rockster]

I would much rather rent movies this way then going to blockbuster. I'm excited, hopefully the service will do well enough for the catalog of content to grow fairly quickly. I have already ordered the HD-DVD add-on, but there are a lot of movies I don't care to own. The quality should be really good and I'm glad you can semi-stream the content. Many things seem to be coming together for Microsoft right now. A lot of rich media options between video marketplace, streaming video now from the PC, HD-DVD add-on, Vista, and Zune. And cross platform support continues to expand with Live Anywhere and accessory compatibility with wireless controllers, headsets, and wheel. XNA looks to build the homebrew community and the Arcade library continues to grow. Just check out this Small Arms Video (Right click and Save as...). We got Gears, Rainbow 6, DOAXBV, Splinter Cell, and COD3. Halo 3 hype is already starting to build, with Halo Wars, BioShock, Alan Wake, Forza 2, Blue Dragon, Lost Planet, Mass Effect, etc., etc. on the way. Not to mention online, rich presence, etc. With 3rd gen software, a ton of entertainment options, and a nice price drop, it would be a shame for the XBox platform to struggle next holiday.

 

[Mythos]

That's definitely a good multi-media service for the X360. However, I'm wondering how this will affect their HD-DVD add on uptake. On the one hand you have HD movies on the downloadable and on the other hand you have HD-DVD the hard copies movies (Rent/buy). I can see some saying I don't need to buy an HD-DVD player because this multi-media service offers my tastes.

 

[Hardknock]

Either way the content providers and MS are making money so I'm sure MS won't care.

Also HD-DVD has the selling point of 1080i and 1080p and being able to own the movie you buy. Casual movie watchers that just want to rent wouldn't have purchased an HD-DVD anyway...

 

[mckmas8808]

This is a really great thing for Live. Prices seem decent to me.

 

[patsu]

Cool ! MS is delivering what Sony wanted to do for PS3. The battle is heating up faster than I thought

 

[22psi]

How long do you get to view the content?

 

[Hardknock]

tv episodes are permenant. Movies you can hold for 14 days and watch for 24 hours.

 

[Sis]

how did you find out that file size, sounds like the file size for the SD version

going by the link they say 4-5GB for a 2hr HD movie, which sounds like it would be a decent quality with VC-1, it should at least match OTA quality

Yeah, nice call. The 720p version was actually 5.4gigs. SD was 1.3.

 

[Rockster]

nevermind.

 

[patsu]

Yeah, nice call. The 720p version was actually 5.4gigs. SD was 1.3.

Hmm... how long does it take to download a 1.3 Gig of SD movie for average consumers in US ? Is it BitTorrent based or straight HTTP/FTP ?

 

[silhouette]

how did you find out that file size, sounds like the file size for the SD version

going by the link they say 4-5GB for a 2hr HD movie, which sounds like it would be a decent quality with VC-1, it should at least match OTA quality

I watched a demo video on this page about two hours ago..In that one, you clearly see the price and file size of some of the contents. However, I can not find it now. It was under a link called "See how it works" (Major Nelson also mentioned the link in his blog). However, it seems it is removed for some reason.

Btw, if I am not mistaken, the SD file size was around 550 Meg, the HD was around 1.3 gig. We will see forsure when the video gets back.

 

[RobertR1]

I expect slightly better OTA quality on the HD movies with (hopefully) less macroblocking in action scenes, which really is the bane of OTA broadcasts. That will be suffice for many. Ofcourse HD DVD will reign as top notch quality.

It'd be a good selling point to allow them to download a few mins of the HD DVD version so viewers can demo the difference and pick up the HD DVD edition later. Double dipping.

Nice to see MS under promising and over delivering. Always impresses people.

 

[Bad_Boy]

This is pretty cool, I like the sound of it. I'm not sure sony will do the same as they have another movie format to protect, but maybe for tv episodes who knows. Seems iTunes has a big influence on both consoles. Prices don't seem all that bad either. Also this bodes well for a bigger 360 hard drive.

 

[Graham]

Well it had to happen, so I just hope it's available over here.

I'd suspect there is a very large portion of the 'pirate' market who are willing to pay for their shows, but only if the quality is up there. It will be interesting to see how popular this becomes. Having certain shows available the day after TV screening is also a good move.

I'm thinking this was the major reason the recent live maintenance too so long.

 

[Graham]

pictures are news.com:
http://news.com.com/2300-1043_3-6133032-1.html?tag=nl

Venture brothers! horrar!

*edit

actually feel kinda silly. Ever since the update there has been 'full length movies' and 'tv shows' listed in the console videos section. Even 'viral videos' ??!