Xbox360 Movie Rentals Online

[JasonA]

Hi - although im in the UK - I have a USA gamertag also and have seen the online movie service which looks very very good. You get a 2 week viewing period and some movies have HD option. Most movies are 320 points.

I just wish they'd hurry up and get the European service going!!

[Fanappy]

they just keep on giving us reasons to hate the yanks :P thats bout $3/ $4 per film not 2 bad

[Tron]

seems a little high priced for myself..

i heard movies were only 24 hours,
tv shows you own, at least thats what i thought it said on xbox.com

Its about $17-$18 dollars here in canada for a 1000 points,depending on exchange rate
320 points here in canda is about
so $5-6 bucks to download a movie, take up hard disk space and time to download, i would rather just go rent one at the local store for $2
As for the tv shows, might be good if you really miss a eposide you want to see, but if your buying a lot, better off to get a PVR

[TwoXist]

So i tried to download a movie yesterday but the LIVE was being all glitchy kept giving me errors. But everything eles worked fine i was able to get previews and crap like that without a issue. As for the price it does not bother me its cheaper then going to Blockbuster by a buck or two and i dont have to drive.

[Sir SpankalotUK]

Rentals are a new concept for Video Marketplace, so I want to be very clear about how this works. Think of it as a combo rental/pay-per-view deal. When you rent a video, you have 14 days to watch it. Once you start watching it, you have 24 hours to finish watching it, so long as it's still within those 14 days.

given some of the rentals are 5.2gig, I dont think I'll be using the service much.

[Chris]

V for Vendetta HD was 6.1GB I think.

[TwoXist]

V for Vendetta HD was 6.1GB I think.

6.1GB :( thats the end of my HD right there. Damn FFXI ate so much space..but its so fun :)

[Praetorian]

thats only for HD! :P

Normal definition is like 1 or 2 gig.

[TwoXist]

Didnt think about that. ok maybe its not the end of my HD yet...just maybe

[Colby]

I just got through watching a SD movie on my LCD. I must say the quality is shockingly good. Almost makes me wonder if HD would be a noticeable improvement. Although I was watching it on a 19in so that is something to consider.

[Voyager2k]

Everything will look great on a 19" LCD at normal viewing distance or even greater distance. That's the way our eyes and brains work. Fortunately with video (read: motion picture) there's much room to cheat our eyes, much unlike audio where our ears are able to pickup even the smallest disharmonic or disturbance (well, at least some ppl do).

Generally tho, the quality of any wmv video material offered by Microsoft is outstanding and ranges to jawdropping when it comes to hd content. So I am not surprised that even the SD stuff does infact look great.

I haven't tried to use the Video Marketplace yet but I will as soon as the problems die down and you can actually make use of it. I won't be using it frequently until the pricing comes down significantly but I definately want to give it a few shots. Of course, should they put up shows like Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis and Battlestar Galactica ...... there would be no choice but to start buying M$ shares for cheaper points :)

[Rival24]

Once they start offering a service like "download whatever you want for $30 / month", I'll be the first to join. Right now I don't feel like paying for something I'm not allowed to keep.

[TwoXist]

Once they start offering a service like "download whatever you want for $30 / month", I'll be the first to join. Right now I don't feel like paying for something I'm not allowed to keep.


Very true a month to month deal would be nice but so would a biger HD as well.

[Chris]

What happened to our Direct Tv blade? :(

[Rival24]

Who cares?

[Chris]

Direct Tv subscribers who also have an Xbox 360.

[Voyager2k]

Once they start offering a service like "download whatever you want for $30 / month", I'll be the first to join. Right now I don't feel like paying for something I'm not allowed to keep.

That doesn't sound too bad. I'd probably go for that too.

I spent some time thinking about several implications this new service brings with itself. There is one major concern to be had actually, depending of course on how US law works in that area.

TV shows you purchase you OWN, yet you actually have no way to store or archive the shows you purchase. Of course, you can always redownload and watch again if you desire so. Microsoft does in fact say you can which puts them in a somewhat awkward position I think. It's basically a lifetime debt for storage and bandwidth beeing available to you 24/7

Now, like I said .. I do not know how US law works in this area but common sense tells me that M$ could simply turn the XBOX-Live service or any subdivision of it into it's own company and let them go belly up to get rid of the debt once this service is longer in demand.

This would mean that your purchase is lost, plain and simple. Of course, Microsoft is a big company and it's unlikely that this will happen anytime soon but it is very possible and not that unlikely that this is how this service will end at some point in a couple years.

Also, how do you access your property should you have no sufficient internet connection at some point after the purchase ?

[AugustusBot]

seems like the download speeds are a lot faster now than last week.

and after watching half a season of jericho that i know i can watch on cbs.com (but in lower quality / w/ stutters and buffering), ... i wish i got achievement points for this.

[Balloonenstein]

Just watched my the first episode of Star Trek, it was delicious. It looked a lot better than a cable broadcast as well.

[Chris]

HD or SD?

[Balloonenstein]

They only have them in SD

[CJ35]

any idea on releasing movie service in the uk? when?

[Rival24]

Nope.

[TwoXist]

It kind of sucks that they cant get the USA and the UK on the same page. Since the UK is kind of like a mini America ish

[Fanappy]

It kind of sucks that they cant get the USA and the UK on the same page. Since the UK is kind of like a mini America ish

:X where do u get ur infomation :X

[TwoXist]

i said mini America ish didnt mean 100% the same lol

[Kicker]

Apparently the movie marketplace has been doing really well so I hope they expand into other areas (Canada). I still have yet to watch a movie in HD and I dont want to invest in a hd-dvd player yet just incase it winds up to be a waste of $200.

About the space issue. Couldnt you store episodes on your computer using xsata

[screamidge]

it would be great if us europeans got this service i have HD TV so it would be awesome8)

[JasonA]

I did watch movies on my US gamertag that I created, I had to buy points cards to redeem - BUT I've noticed now that it will not redeem my points cards on the US tag, but the points can be redeemed on my UK tag...

Im guessing now that I have to find points cards that were distributed in the US on ebay, before it never used to matter.

Movies in HD are - WOW!!!!! I don't have the HD player but I saw some with the rental service, although the download is a nightmare. No point transfering to PC with xsata as no pc can read the file. As they are date coded downloads, when you transfer it back to your xbox it's still out of date. You just have to delete it. BUT bigger harddrives are needed as with HD movies you can't put no more than 2 on your Harddrive because I've only 9MB space.

[screamidge]

I did watch movies on my US gamertag that I created, I had to buy points cards to redeem - BUT I've noticed now that it will not redeem my points cards on the US tag, but the points can be redeemed on my UK tag...

Im guessing now that I have to find points cards that were distributed in the US on ebay, before it never used to matter.

Movies in HD are - WOW!!!!! I don't have the HD player but I saw some with the rental service, although the download is a nightmare. No point transfering to PC with xsata as no pc can read the file. As they are date coded downloads, when you transfer it back to your xbox it's still out of date. You just have to delete it. BUT bigger harddrives are needed as with HD movies you can't put no more than 2 on your Harddrive because I've only 9MB space.
thats harsh man u should be able to use the Redeem points in any country really its just a code,i downloaded the South park episode and that looked amazing in HD,cartman looked even bigger lol

[Thryon]

Since I am located in Canada, the only place I can get HD DVD movies is from Zip.ca. If Microsoft can extend their service to Canada, I will drop zip.ca in a flash and gladly pay for thier HD content....

Hear that Microsoft....free money from me $$$$$

[Curry]

The main problems are with the movie studios though, not MS. The studios still shun this whole 'downloading' thing, and wish back for the days the regioncodes on DVDs were invented :r

[max2663]

well they should probably expand it as i believe more than haly of live gamers live outside the u.s.a. so they could make a hell of a lot of money;)

[JasonA]

Well I am STILL in the middle of downloading '300' in HD and god I forgot how slow these movie downloads are ! - I kept my 360 downloading all last night and awoke for it to say '300 0% downloaded, I freaked - but then when I came back from work it said 49 % had been done and the rest is resuming now.

The preview seems to never load too !!!

Hi - although im in the UK - I have a USA gamertag also and have seen the online movie service which looks very very good. You get a 2 week viewing period and some movies have HD option. Most movies are 320 points.

I just wish they'd hurry up and get the European service going!!

Wow... more than 1 year later !! and I no longer rely on good ol' USA JAY :P

[max2663]

'300 0% downloaded, I freaked - but then when I came back from work it said 49 % had been done and the rest is resuming now.

my 360 and whoever is in charge of the xbox division of microsoft would have been strapped to train tracks

[Fetter]

300 is a good movie. :)

[JasonA]

good job they give you 14 days to watch it...its STILL downloading...

[_Chris_]

How many times can you watch them? I heard you can only watch them once? The previews took about two seconds to buffer and play completely on mine, so maybe its your connection Jay?

[JasonA]

How many times can you watch them? I heard you can only watch them once? The previews took about two seconds to buffer and play completely on mine, so maybe its your connection Jay?

Once you downloaded it, if you've not pressed play you have 14 days to watch it, and then once you've watched it - you have 24hrs before it expires.

[screamidge]

It kind of sucks that they cant get the USA and the UK on the same page. Since the UK is kind of like a mini America ish

dont insult me ;)

[Fetter]

Once you downloaded it, if you've not pressed play you have 14 days to watch it, and then once you've watched it - you have 24hrs before it expires.

Not to mention... if you wait 13 days 23 hours and 50 minutes to play. 10 minutes into your movie it will stop and you can't watch it. Trust me...