Xbox 360 movie and TV downloads

Microsoft announced agreements with CBS, MTV, Paramount, Turner Broadcasting, Ultimate Fighting Championship and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment to bring over 1,000 hours of hit TV shows and movies to Xbox 360. Many of the videos will be available in HD, High Definition.

The New York Times says "With the new offerings, Microsoft is joining cable giants and Internet startups on the long list of companies hoping to profit from video downloads. But Internet-based services have had trouble getting traction because it can be complex to send a downloaded film to a television screen, and frustrating to watch it on the small screen of a computer. Owners of the Xbox have already connected it to a TV and, in most cases, the Internet.“What makes this big is that there’s no PC in the middle,” said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group."

Engadget has a nice review with screen shots.

CNN/Money says "Microsoft said it has developed a progressive download technology which will allow users to begin watching the program or film before it has downloaded entirely to the Xbox 360's hard drive. Shorter programs, such as "South Park," will be viewable instantly. Longer features, such as a high definition film, will require a short wait, so they can build up a cache."

The Xbox 360 launched just one year ago. The combination of Xbox 360, Windows Media Center, and the soon to be released Zune music device puts Microsoft in a great position for home entertainment. Games, music, TV shows, music, photos, and interactive communities all working together on one device and viewable on your TV screen. Oh, and there is more coming. Stay tuned for more Live services. It is going to be tough to keep up with all the announcements coming from Microsoft over the next few months. It just gets better every day.

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Comments

[Lloyd Budd]

I still don't think most people's own Internet tube to their home is large enough to live up to the claim that shorter programs will be viewable instantly. Bandwidth is still the bottle neck.

[Don Dodge]

Lloyd, Microsoft has developed a new progressive download technology which will allow users to begin watching the program before it has downloaded entirely to the Xbox 360’s hard drive. Shorter programs, such as “South Park,” will be viewable instantly. Longer features, such as a high definition film, will require a short wait, so they can build up a cache.

Broadband is available almost everywhere and the target market for these machines already has it installed. The market will get bigger over time.

[Lloyd Budd]

I read the part about the "new progressive download technology".

You mean sort of like how often I watch an online video overrun the download? This happens all the time to me and many people that want to show my stuff, and these are geeks with big tubes.

Broadbank? How broadband? I would like what you wrote to be true, but I don't think it is for a significant percentage of XBox 360 owners.

Apple's iTunes video downloads are small not just because the iPod has a small screen.

I think that the claim will create some disappointment, but this could be swept away by people's hunger for tv and movies to the home on demand.

[Mike G]

What about the fact that the XBOX 360 only allows you to use 13GB of the 20GB hard drive attached to your system. With the High Definition downloads around 6GB that is only max storage of 2 movies. and better hope you have nothing else on the hard drive like game demos which each take up about 1GB.