Xbox NXE Fall Update 2009 (with E3 announcements)

For my last post to the board I just wanted to say, as one of the few that purchases video content from the marketplace, that the redesign gives a much better experience than the previous versions. When I am finished watching one of my tv shows I can horizontal scroll to one of the informational panels where I can go directly to that current season and purchase another episode and watch instantly. Before when I was done watching a show I would have to Guide >> Video Marketplace >> TV >> Networks >> choose the network >> scroll and choose show >> scroll and choose Season >> scroll and choose episode >> purchase and download episode >> wait until enough of the episode had downloaded and then begin to watch.

Today, while looking for a family movie to watch I had the option to buy the movie (not for the faint of pocketbook), I did not see if you could buy with credit/debit because I prefer points, but what interested me was that you can purchase either SD for 1200 points or HD for 1600 points. I bought the HD version for 1600 and was able to stream instantly. Pay close attention to the "warning" if you choose to stream, my video said in the info panel that I should download it before 2015, like the last preview program, xbox.com does not reflect these changes as of yet.

What Microsoft needs to do now is ensure a seamless video experience by making sure ALL tv shows, movies, previews and trailers are instant play as well, ceasing the need for end-user downloads. One of the tv shows I watch, while still available for download, was/is not instant on.
 
I just got both a system update and an update for Forza 3. Anyone on the up-and-up on this?
 
AzBat said:
You can download video content straight from http://zune.net/. Just log into your Gamertag/Live account. No need to install the Zune Player.

Tommy McClain
Click to expand...

My question was can I purchase from marketplace.xbox.com the answer to that is "No", taking what was formerly a seamless experience and breaking it into silos. For the record, you cannot download straight from zune.net, you can purchase your license but you do in fact have to install the Zune software to perform downloads to the PC (and I do mean PC :mad:). Only the items I purchased since entering the preview are available for download to my machine but worse than that is that none of my hundreds of items are available for "instant-on" either and many of the items I have already purchased, if I go to those items from zune.net, are asking me to spend another 240 points on them (HD TV Show).

My purchase history from xbox.com does not match my purchase history from within Zune Software. Because I purchased the V pilot from marketplace I cannot download it to my computer nor can I "instant-on" it to the 360...download only and 720p. I would have to repurchase this item from Zune to be able to perform a download (1080p) to my computer or "instant-on" it. There is one redeeming feature of Zune software and that is the Buy All button but outside of that, I cannot help but wonder who the hell decided to take giant leaps backwards.
 
It looks like the Zune video marketplace is 'finally' available in New Zealand! Not that I will be getting anything, but it feels less 'left behind' now on our Xbox Live.
 
zune video marketplace seems pretty cool. The price is not great in Canada, when you convert the points, but the 1080p quality looks really nice, and the streaming is instant. If you bring up info you can see your connection quality. Doesn't show the bitrate though. Seems like some movies have a higher max bitrate looking at the download size vs the length of the movie.

Many of the previews are in 1080p with 5.1 audio, so you can check it out without buying anything.
 
NavNucST3 said:
My question was can I purchase from marketplace.xbox.com the answer to that is "No", taking what was formerly a seamless experience and breaking it into silos. For the record, you cannot download straight from zune.net, you can purchase your license but you do in fact have to install the Zune software to perform downloads to the PC (and I do mean PC :mad:).
Click to expand...

Yeah, you're right about that sorry. I was thinking since you wanted to download from Marketplace.Xbox.com you just wanted to queue your Xbox downloads there for later retrieval on your Xbox, not download straight to your PC.

I can understand why older downloads are not grandfathered in. You bought those titles with a different license. The new licenses now available(works on Xbox, PC, Zune) just can't be re-applied to all your older content.

So I can see why somebody might think that new software is a step backwards, but for a lot of people I don't see it becoming that big of problem. Myself included since I've only really downloaded the free videos(The Guild currently). The only thing I've paid for was 1 or 2 movie rentals, but since I've started using Netflix & Hulu I don't even look in there anymore. Why buy, when you can get it for free?

Tommy McClain
 
AzBat said:
Yeah, you're right about that sorry. I was thinking since you wanted to download from Marketplace.Xbox.com you just wanted to queue your Xbox downloads there for later retrieval on your Xbox, not download straight to your PC.

I can understand why older downloads are not grandfathered in. You bought those titles with a different license. The new licenses now available(works on Xbox, PC, Zune) just can't be re-applied to all your older content.

So I can see why somebody might think that new software is a step backwards, but for a lot of people I don't see it becoming that big of problem. Myself included since I've only really downloaded the free videos(The Guild currently). The only thing I've paid for was 1 or 2 movie rentals, but since I've started using Netflix & Hulu I don't even look in there anymore. Why buy, when you can get it for free?

Tommy McClain
Click to expand...

I'm well aware of the licensing issues, you are talking to someone that licensed a movie with a game (nightmare). But therein lies the exact reason that I don't mind buying and downloading to my computer, licensing. Hulu, for many of the shows we watch is about eight+ days behind marketplace or the individual networks sites, Netflix (full disclosure: I am a shareholder) has lost most of the licenses for current season shows that we watch and the biggest licensing issue is that I have no clue when or if those items (show licenses) will expire.

Your other point about "older downloads" while I understand what you mean falls apart in the sense that I "had" to re-purchase the V pilot because I bought it from xbox.com and not from Zune so the licenses were tied to where I bought it from not the actual content so it doesn't matter when I bought it. But you are right in assuming me wanting to queue, now it isn't about queuing for downloads (to the 360) as much as having the items paid for so when we get home we can just watch said items but again this is now a disparate site.

This marketplace is a step-backwards, many of the previous bullet-point items from updates are gone: one location for all web based purchases for queueing, sorting, press "Y" to play, ratings, HD moniker, purchase history (the damn PURCHASE HISTORY!). Of course it isn't going to matter to those of you that don't use it, that goes without saying but then why offer input if you are going to continue to not use it, get at me when this new one draws you in in ways that the previous one didn't.
 
I was taken by surprise today to see a Dutch commercial for a movie, saying 'out now on BluRay, DVD and Digital Distribution' (or something of the sort in Dutch) ... !

Even more surprised I was when it was closely followed by a 360 commercial stipulating that the Digital Distribution was 1080p streaming from Live.

So far we've not gotten much at all in terms of video content (if you'd round it off, it'd be exactly nothing), and I hadn't heard much about this from anywhere, really. So I guess I'll be booting up the old 360 and see if it's there.

EDIT: Yep, looks like we got the "Zune" marketplace also. Not bad. From the trailers it looks to work nice and smoothly. Quality seems to be slightly lower than say Filmnet HD but it's certainly good enough for most purposes. I may want to try this on the livingroom TV just to see how it holds up there. All in all though, pretty good.

EDIT2: just reading that the Euro PS3 service goes up this Thursday too, though only in the four big countries, not mine. They're really competing here, good stuff. ;)
 
Hey Azbat, how does the facebook friends thing work :?: I've got the app on my 360, but it's not recognizing you... It seems to check the facebook-only or the facebook + XBL list rather than... the XBL list of people who have facebook. :/
 
Arwin said:
I was taken by surprise today to see a Dutch commercial for a movie, saying 'out now on BluRay, DVD and Digital Distribution' (or something of the sort in Dutch) ... !

Even more surprised I was when it was closely followed by a 360 commercial stipulating that the Digital Distribution was 1080p streaming from Live.

So far we've not gotten much at all in terms of video content (if you'd round it off, it'd be exactly nothing), and I hadn't heard much about this from anywhere, really. So I guess I'll be booting up the old 360 and see if it's there.

EDIT: Yep, looks like we got the "Zune" marketplace also. Not bad. From the trailers it looks to work nice and smoothly. Quality seems to be slightly lower than say Filmnet HD but it's certainly good enough for most purposes. I may want to try this on the livingroom TV just to see how it holds up there. All in all though, pretty good.

EDIT2: just reading that the Euro PS3 service goes up this Thursday too, though only in the four big countries, not mine. They're really competing here, good stuff. ;)
Click to expand...

My comments notwithstanding the Zune 1080p video quality is really good, the feeds are progressive so it may take a few minutes to get to full quality. It takes about 30seconds to a minute for me to reach full quality but I'm on 50Mbps so I'm not sure at lower speeds.
 
NavNucST3 said:
I'm well aware of the licensing issues, you are talking to someone that licensed a movie with a game (nightmare). But therein lies the exact reason that I don't mind buying and downloading to my computer, licensing. Hulu, for many of the shows we watch is about eight+ days behind marketplace or the individual networks sites, Netflix (full disclosure: I am a shareholder) has lost most of the licenses for current season shows that we watch and the biggest licensing issue is that I have no clue when or if those items (show licenses) will expire.
Click to expand...

Ahhh. See, I don't have that issue with any of my shows on Hulu(except maybe for "V"). Don't really care since it's still free.

NavNucST3 said:
Your other point about "older downloads" while I understand what you mean falls apart in the sense that I "had" to re-purchase the V pilot because I bought it from xbox.com and not from Zune so the licenses were tied to where I bought it from not the actual content so it doesn't matter when I bought it. But you are right in assuming me wanting to queue, now it isn't about queuing for downloads (to the 360) as much as having the items paid for so when we get home we can just watch said items but again this is now a disparate site.

This marketplace is a step-backwards, many of the previous bullet-point items from updates are gone: one location for all web based purchases for queueing, sorting, press "Y" to play, ratings, HD moniker, purchase history (the damn PURCHASE HISTORY!). Of course it isn't going to matter to those of you that don't use it, that goes without saying but then why offer input if you are going to continue to not use it, get at me when this new one draws you in in ways that the previous one didn't.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I miss the 'Y' to play, but I'm not sure I understand the problem with purchase history. The video purchase history is still available on Xbox.com. Also, Video Marketplace never had ratings. Only Netflix has had this. Ratings were added last update for game content only, not videos. I agree that the web experience is now woefully unsatisfactory. Hopefully they'll pull their head out of their posterior and fix that. But other than the slight problems with some older licensed content, I think I like the new service better. The biggest draw is the instant on streaming since I no longer need to download the shows to the hard drive. Could care less about 1080p at the moment, since I'm only have a 720p TV, but that could always change in the future. Anyway, post your concerns about this on Connect.Microsoft.com. That's been one good thing about getting into the dashboard preview program. You get to complain about things you don't like.

Tommy McClain
 
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