How will this ever be a viable option for watching movies ? I started downloading my first movie the other day ( Superman HD) and it takes forever. I dont know for sure, but I have been downloading this thing for atleast 18 hrs and its still only 80% done.

I know Superman is like 3 hrs long, but man. Why would anyone choose this over going to BB or McDons (redbox) and just renting the movie ?

How fast is your broadband?

One important reason is that Blockbuster stores don't offer HD discs for rental. I don't know about McDonalds, but suspect they don't either.

The answer to the thread question is obvious: movies are available on the marketplace via Xbox live because Microsoft sees a potential revenue stream there.

Since you've downloaded Superman HD, will you please share with us your impression of the quality of the image and the sound?

Also, are you connected via WiFi or Ethernet to the Xbox?

With my cable connection and a direct ethernet conneciton from my router HD movies went pretty fast (before my 360 crapped out).

With a fast connection, movie downloads are pretty quick. More importantly, I've been able to start playing the movie before it actually finished downloading. The 360 simply said done and ask if I wanted to play it and I knew it was no way it could have finished. Later on in the movie, I got a download complete notice. This was a 480p Beerfest title and not HD. Also not the unrated version. :-(

I downloaded V for Vendetta.

Watched it in 1080i on a 32xbr450. Looked FANTASTIC. No stutters during playback, no hicups. I downloaded it then watched it a week later when we had some friends over. The download time wasn't too bad, but I honestly dont remember how long it took.

The colors show so much better in HD on my TV than standard DVD. This is my only source for HD movies at home.

I want Cars HD now. Its a good idea.

Does anyone have any idea as to when this service will be available in Canada?

How will this ever be a viable option for watching movies ? I started downloading my first movie the other day ( Superman HD) and it takes forever. I dont know for sure, but I have been downloading this thing for atleast 18 hrs and its still only 80% done.

I know Superman is like 3 hrs long, but man. Why would anyone choose this over going to BB or McDons (redbox) and just renting the movie ?
you have a slow connection.

i can download a HD movie from there in under 2-3 hours

netflix takes 5-7 days to return a HD-DVD and get another

My stuff downloads pretty quick and you don't have to wait until the thing is done to start watching.

Thanks for the replies guys. To your questions.

I have cable through Comcast. 5mbps service. Hooked up with an ethernet.

It usually goes quite fast for anything I DL. Large game demos ect...... never have any lag on XBL.


I will post back how the PQ looked tomorrow. I assume when I get home today the DL should be complete.


I guess until BB and other stores offer HD movies this is a way to watch HD films.

I downloaded V for Vendetta.

Watched it in 1080i on a 32xbr450. Looked FANTASTIC. No stutters during playback, no hicups. I downloaded it then watched it a week later when we had some friends over. The download time wasn't too bad, but I honestly dont remember how long it took.

The colors show so much better in HD on my TV than standard DVD. This is my only source for HD movies at home.

I want Cars HD now. Its a good idea.


You have a Blu-Ray Player?

you have a slow connection.

i can download a HD movie from there in under 2-3 hours

netflix takes 5-7 days to return a HD-DVD and get another


What kind of service do you have ? That seems impossible. 2-3 hrs and I wasnt even 10% done DLing Superman.

I would have to have the kworst connection in the world for that kind of diperity. Or you have T1 or something.

Heres a thought. Ive been playing the 360 while its DLing. Could this slow things up ?

Seems there's quite a bit of variance on download times that may NOT be attributable to ISP connection. I have 100mbs cable that downloads demos and clips at around 30meg/minute. I downloaded v for vendetta on initial release and it took three days to download. That's right, 3 days.

First and last download movie for me. It did look good though but I picked up an HD dvd for the 360.

Heres a thought. Ive been playing the 360 while its DLing. Could this slow things up ?

I am not sure if all games does this or if it is a configurable option, but I know that when I start TDU and CoD2 and connected to live all of my downloads stop until after I stop playing the game. This happens for both Game Demos and movie d/l's.

It only takes me 3 - 4 hours to d/l HD movies when not playing games.

Thanks
Rick

I haven't downloaded a movie from marketplace, but I love hd-dvd. Marketplace is a 7GB 720P file, hd-dvd is 30GB 1080P file.

But the marketplace is exciting, just the start of big things to come. Do you think today's bandwidth is all you will ever have? I think 07/08 will be good years where we can see our bandwidth double or triple.

I haven't downloaded a movie from marketplace, but I love hd-dvd. Marketplace is a 7GB 720P file, hd-dvd is 30GB 1080P file.

But the marketplace is exciting, just the start of big things to come. Do you think today's bandwidth is all you will ever have? I think 07/08 will be good years where we can see our bandwidth double or triple.

I haven't downloaded a movie and not really planning on it ( I like to own the disk). Anyways, is the HD versions really 30g downloads? How is that possible when we only have a 20g HD? Just curious.

I haven't downloaded a movie and not really planning on it ( I like to own the disk). Anyways, is the HD versions really 30g downloads? How is that possible when we only have a 20g HD? Just curious.

HD-DVD IS 30 GB. HD-DVD is an optical disc format from Toshiba.

Marketplace downloads are around 7 gb.

What kind of service do you have ? That seems impossible. 2-3 hrs and I wasnt even 10% done DLing Superman.
verizon fios 20mbps downstream

i was measuring 2mpbs with comcast for comparison

verizon fios 20mbps downstream

i was measuring 2mpbs with comcast for comparison

yeah...most folks don't have FIOS, so 2-6 mbps is probably the norm right now.

After the download how long can you keep the movie, or many times can you watch it. I read somewheer that it expires eventually.

Does Anyone Know How To Get Into Fleabay?
Thanks

It seems to me its the XBox Marketplace that's giving the slow speeds. I have 8 Mbps cable and I normally download a gig in roughly 20 minutes. I do this on a regular basis.

I downloaded Superman Returns HD as well and the 7 GB download took at least 18 hrs or so. Honestly I lost count after overnight etc.

While I love the idea of having movies and tv shows on the marketplace, I'm just not sure MS has the server infrastructure and bandwidth in place to accomodate the type of download speeds most folks are going to want to see when the demand on the marketplace gets high.

After the download how long can you keep the movie, or many times can you watch it. I read somewheer that it expires eventually.


After you DL you have it for 14 days. But after you watch it you only have 24 hrs.


Chinch- 20mbps ? holy cow!!! Ive got to check on fios in the Twin City area. how much does that run you per month ?


You can probably DL a game demo in like 1 min with that kind of speed huh ?

I download V for Vendetta. The picture quality wasn't great but it was acceptible. There were a fair number of visible compression artifacts and it didn't really pop like other HD sources.

Still, it was cheap and it came down quickly, and as a rental is was great. i like the service but it's not a replacement for a good HD movie library.

They do need to sort out their bandwidth issues for new releases, though. If the movies don't download quickly then it really kills the process.

I d/l'ed the HD V for Vendetta before I left for the holidays, and it didn't take too long. I started it before I went to bed and when I woke up the machine was off (the 6hrs auto-off) and the entire movie was there. I also d/l'ed one of the HD Start Trek episodes, and that didn't take long at all, maybe an hour or so, and that was right when the service debuted.

I d/le'ed the HD Superman Returns after coming back from the holidays, and it took two days. Both nights, the machine shut down overnight, but the d/l wasn't complete. When it was finally finished, the license had 12 days left on it! I contacted support, and they sent me an email telling me to call, but by the time I got that email, the movie was completely d/l'ed, so I didn't bother.

Point is, I've had a variety of experiences with the service. Demos and game videos d/l faster than they did at the beginning, and the updates have improved this overall. But clearly some content has issues, whether that's due to too much traffic, or whatever.

Chinch- 20mbps ? holy cow!!! Ive got to check on fios in the Twin City area. how much does that run you per month ?
$10 less than i was paying for comcast cable. :) i $35-39/mo i believe.

upload is 5mpbs whinh makes ftp/remote desktop fantastic.

You have a Blu-Ray Player?

no but the 360 scales everything to 1080i, so technically I was watching 720p scaled to 1080i.

Just to let you all know. The license expires exactly 24 hours after you start the movie. Starting watching V for Vendetta after work, but had to go back into the office. Next night I started the movie again and watched it for 4 minutes before the dashboard eclipsed the screen and said "The license for this content has expired".........end of movie for me. I watched it until right before the first big explosion where he and the girl are on the rooftop. Looked pretty good so far, but I guess i'll never know.

Does anyone have any idea as to when this service will be available in Canada?

It's available now in Canada. Just create a US hotmail account and with that a US gamertag and you're set. I have full access to these vids from my couch here in Toronto : )

One important reason is that Blockbuster stores don't offer HD discs for rental. I don't know about McDonalds, but suspect they don't either.

I rent both Blu-ray and HD DVD movies from my local Blockbuster.

$10 less than i was paying for comcast cable. :) i $35-39/mo i believe.

upload is 5mpbs whinh makes ftp/remote desktop fantastic.


Wow, that's pretty incredible.. Must be nice..

Chinch- 20mbps ? holy cow!!! Ive got to check on fios in the Twin City area.


Fios is not in Minnesota yet. I wouldn't hold your breath. I suspect by the time it gets here, our options will be completely different than today anway.

For the record, it took me 4 hours to download V for Vandetta through 5mps Comcast cable over wireless to my 360.

I haven't downloaded a movie and not really planning on it ( I like to own the disk). Anyways, is the HD versions really 30g downloads? How is that possible when we only have a 20g HD? Just curious.

HD-DVD disk capacity is 15Gb per layer. They have single, dual, and triple layer disks so the disks can hold up to 45Gb each.
Hd-DVD movies, however, are a different story.
The spec supports encoding via MPEG4 H.264, MPEG2, and VC-1 (descended from WMV-HD); pretty much all HD-DVD releases to date use VC-1 and a typical movie runs 11-13Gb or so as 1080p24. (Marketplace movies run 6-9Gb at 720p/60.) Anyway, HD-DVD movies run directly off the HD-DVD disk without using the HD. They can be played using a core system, as a result...

I've downloaded (don't laugh) Clash of the Titans and Unforgiven (great Oscar-worty pic) in HD over cheapie 768kbps DSL overnight; best guess, it took 6-8 hours. I tried a CSI HD episode and it took a bit over an hour.

As pointed out, your mileage may vary.
Do keep in mind that cable connections are communal so big d/ls tend to get throttled down by many operators at the back end; that could account for the differing stories.
Also, *some* games do stop background downloading while you play (I assume the ones that do online gameplay); I've only seen it with Halo2, but...

The point of movies on marketplace is get people used to using 360 for non-gaming functions and build up a Netflix-type operation. The recent IPTV announcement builds up on it so that the 360 is clearly a full-function *entertainment* console; not just a gaming console...

The value of Marketplace (which already eclipses its PC-based competitors) will increase as more companies come on board and MS grows the library. Notice, BTW, just how much of the content they offer is well-known *old* movies that aren't readily available via cable On-Demand or rental stores. There's a statement being made when MS offers Barbarella and Superfly right next to Kurasawa's Dreams. And that is a statement I like.

Great things lie down this road.

Finally, don't neglect the SD-only content; the 360 upscales it, too.
Some places, that is the only way you're likely to find the movie short of buying it...

Cheers!

They were having a prob with Superman HD. I think too many people were downloading it too much and they couldn't handle the requests so it took forever to download. Once its been out for a while it will becoe a faster download.

They just need to make it so that when somethign new and good comes out they can be faster.

Makes sense. Took me 3 days to get Superman HD on my xbox from live. First and last movie download for me!

I haven't had any problems with it. downloaded superman returns in about 3.5 hours the other night. It was ready to play after about 2 hours.

I rent both Blu-ray and HD DVD movies from my local Blockbuster.

I'll have to double check mine. That's about the only reason I haven't picked up the add on drive yet.

Or you have T1 or something.

Heres a thought. Ive been playing the 360 while its DLing. Could this slow things up ?

Uh, If you're playing most games on 360, it will shut down any downloads in the background (and should throw up a notification that downloading has stopped!) if that game has an always-on online component. Some you can manually shut off the online portion of the game, and the download should resume.

PS: Most cable pipes and higher-end DSL connections run many, many times faster than a dedicated T1 assuming you live in an area where cable isn't over-saturated. A t1 is 1.5mbps down, and 1.5mbps up. Since you're talking about downloading, only the downstream speed matters. The standard cable pipe is 6mbps to 8mbps down, with some going as fast as a full 10mpbs down.


Also: Netflix around me takes 3 day turnaround..guess I'm lucky, but I thought NetFlix had shipping centers in every state..?

no but the 360 scales everything to 1080i, so technically I was watching 720p scaled to 1080i.

I think he said that because the only way you're going to get Cars in HD is from a Disney Blu-Ray disc. MS is a part of the HD DVD consortium, the opponent to BD.

I think he said that because the only way you're going to get Cars in HD is from a Disney Blu-Ray disc. MS is a part of the HD DVD consortium, the opponent to BD.

That makes sense. I may have mis-read his comment.

Interesting that they had a cars HD movie trailer on 360. I keep hoping that the blu-ray issue wont have an effect on the Marketplace downloads because they aren't HD-DVD or BLu-Ray format.

I can keep up hope anyway!

That makes sense. I may have mis-read his comment.

Interesting that they had a cars HD movie trailer on 360. I keep hoping that the blu-ray issue wont have an effect on the Marketplace downloads because they aren't HD-DVD or BLu-Ray format.

I can keep up hope anyway!

Well if it makes you feel any better Lionsgate who is a supporter of Blu-Ray is planning on bringing their movies to the Xbox live marketplace so having Disney films isn't an impossibility.

http://www.joystiq.com/2007/01/09/lionsgate-joins-xbox-360-video-marketplace/

Thanks for all the replies .

In the end it took me about 24 hrs to DL Superman with my Comcast 5mbps service. The games I was playing werent stopping the DL. I know some games do. But thi just took a long azz time to DL.



The results.

I have a Hit 51F59 rpcrt 1080i hooked up via component. 360 outputting at 1080i.

PQ was very nice. Zero artifacts. No choppiness or cutouts. The movie played back perfectly. I even paused a few times and no issues occured. There was some graininess from time to time on an all black screen, but thats it. I also thought the picture was a little dark compared to my HD tv channels.

I cant compare to HDDVD because I dont have a player. All I can compare to is my HD through Comcast. I say the PQ was right up there with my best HD channels. Id say right behind Discovery and NFL on CBS in terms of PQ. On par with most of the good network stuff.

I did have a problem with audio though. The special effects and music WAY overpowered the dialogue. I first was watching with just stereo through my tv, but I could barely hear the dialogue. I had to pump my volume up to 25 just to make out what they were saying. I never go above 12 normally. Then of course when music or effects happened I would have to turn it down to like 8. I tried all the different modes on my tv and nothing worked.

I then turned on my reciever and used the DD. It helped, but the dialogue was still muffled sounding. Much better then just the TV, but still the dialogue just seemed to be on a different level then anything else.

All in all its a great feature. I just dont see myself using it until the DL times are MUCH faster. Ill try some other shows and movies and see if things are different.


Oh- The movie was terrible. An embarrasment to Superman IMO. What were they thinking with that rubber suit he was wearing ? The old Superman suit looked better than the scuba gear in this rendition.

Christopher Reeves > whoever the new Superman is. lol

Oh- The movie was terrible. An embarrasment to Superman IMO. What were they thinking with that rubber suit he was wearing ? The old Superman suit looked better than the scuba gear in this rendition.

Christopher Reeves > whoever the new Superman is. lol

I actually didnt think the movie was that bad. The special effects were pretty well done if you ask me.

I actually didnt think the movie was that bad. The special effects were pretty well done if you ask me.


The special effects were good. I mean were talking 20 something year old technology on the old Superman.

I meant the effects of superman himself were bad. The new rubber suit and cape just looked so fake. Why not keep the real costume ? And the flying seemed cheesy. Like all the hovering around. Its like they did it just for the sake of showing off the special effect.

Not that the old Superman made you think it was real or anything, but it was more lifelike. The whole time watching this movie I just kept thinking how fake everything looked.

It's much quicker than netflix.

sorry... misread post :)

no chance... i waited a few weeks from netflix and had to dump my entire queue but 2-3 other "high demand" movies to get it

please don't post misinfo as fact.


What are you talking about?

Downloading a movie to your 360 is much quicker than netflix.

Please don't post misinfo as fact.

What are you talking about?

Downloading a movie to your 360 is much quicker than netflix.
absolutely.... sorry, misread & edited. :)

What are you talking about?

Downloading a movie to your 360 is much quicker than netflix.

Please don't post misinfo as fact.

Depends.

Cable download took me 3 days. Netflix turnaround in two days here.

Faster to send snail mail sometimes.

Depends.

Cable download took me 3 days. Netflix turnaround in two days here.

Faster to send snail mail sometimes.
hehe... true but for most people download is quicker.

netflix will throttle down new releases like mi3, king king, v for vendetta and send other movies if you have alot of movies in your queue :(

hehe... true but for most people download is quicker.

netflix will throttle down new releases like mi3, king king, v for vendetta and send other movies if you have alot of movies in your queue :(

I have about 40 movies in the queue and put mi3 and got it right away. could be because it's hd dvd and not a ton of demand yet, though the disk was pretty badly beaten. It had to be washed before it would play through.

I live about 30 miles from the warehouse here in Massachusetts, so if I mail today, they get it tomorrow and I get it back the next day, sometimes the day after to be fair.

Still, will be interesting to see more content and bandwith available in the near future. If MS wants my $, the service/cost ratio needs to be better than competition. I think they're just sticking a proverbial big toe in the home entertainment waters, but are liking the warm temperature...

to be honest I didnt think I would download movies or shows from marketplace and guess what I have to say this is the coolest thing I ever done. I dont have to go out and hassle with traffic and rent a movie I just go to my market place and rent me a movie or show its awesome.....downloads are fast to me I can download a south park movie in 3 mins a full HD movie in like 10mins, but once I got like 5mins worth of download I can start to watch the movie...while downloading. :D

Seems the marketplace is hot or miss as far as the download speed is concerned. I have 7mb DSL and the most I can get off the marketplace is about 180 k/s on a good day (I timed it.) where as others report they download at their full connection speed. MS has some serious work to do if they ever want to make it a viable option for renting movies. I'll never rent one off there with that download speed.

Seems the marketplace is hot or miss as far as the download speed is concerned. I have 7mb DSL and the most I can get off the marketplace is about 180 k/s on a good day (I timed it.) where as others report they download at their full connection speed. MS has some serious work to do if they ever want to make it a viable option for renting movies. I'll never rent one off there with that download speed.
Does DSL get bogged down easy? I have cable modem at 8mbs I know when I had DSL I got bogged down between xbox and computer doing things.....with cable I do not.

Just fallowing up on this since I pretty much ripped the process originally because it took me 24 hrs to DL Superman HD. But........


I actually like the movie downloads more for the 480p stuff after giving it a shot. They look as good as DVD and they download almost instantly. You can start watching it 2 minutes after you start the download and the entire DL is complete in like 10 minutes using my Comcast 5mbps service.


Im not sure how often I will use the MP for HD movies, but for 480p movies I can see myself using this a lot.

I like the fact they have inline previews of the videos, nice touch.

Why go through Xbox360? On Demand is light year ahead; movie starts playing instantly.
All those CBS TV shows are free on Comcast....New release movies costs the same as Xbox360 Marketplace.

I don't believe Comcast offers 5.1 over OnDemand anymore.

Its MS's servers that are slow, most of the time. I have a 10mbps connection that consistently tests ~8mbps through dslreports. With the bit rate MS is using for their HD movies that is fast enough to watch them in real time. 8mbps = 1 MB/sec. Movies are ~7000 MB and two hours is 7200 seconds. Then why does it take an hour to dl a 100mb trailer? I should be able to start the download, let it buffer for a few minutes, and then watch.

Its MS's servers that are slow, most of the time. I have a 10mbps connection that consistently tests ~8mbps through dslreports. With the bit rate MS is using for their HD movies that is fast enough to watch them in real time. 8mbps = 1 MB/sec. Movies are ~7000 MB and two hours is 7200 seconds. Then why does it take an hour to dl a 100mb trailer? I should be able to start the download, let it buffer for a few minutes, and then watch.

It's never taken me longer than a few minutes to download an HD trailer. That's odd that it's so slow for you.

Why go through Xbox360? On Demand is light year ahead; movie starts playing instantly.
All those CBS TV shows are free on Comcast....New release movies costs the same as Xbox360 Marketplace.

Not everyone can get Comcast.

Personally, though, when I miss a TV show, I head to torrent.

So has there been any official word on a subscription service? I'd bail on Netflix if I could get two movies a week at ~ $14.99/month.

So has there been any official word on a subscription service? I'd bail on Netflix if I could get two movies a week at ~ $14.99/month.

I am hoping they get a subscription method going. I am not paying $6 a rental in this lifetime, but I would pay a flat fee.

Why go through Xbox360? On Demand is light year ahead; movie starts playing instantly.
All those CBS TV shows are free on Comcast....New release movies costs the same as Xbox360 Marketplace.


The 480p stuff from marketplace looks a lot better than my SD On Demand. And different movies.