BIG Rumor: Downloadable HD Movies coming to Live

[Zeus]

Rumor has it that MS will soon be offering downloadable HD movies on Live on approximately November 22nd. While such a service would make sense, we think it's a little too early to be true.



SHSIBAE has learned that Microsoft will begin offering downloadable HD movies later this month. At launch time– rumored to be around Nov. 22–over 1100 hours of video will be available to rent or purchase through an XBOX 360 connected to XBOX Live. Feature length movies will require a ten minute caching period before viewing, which should be just long enough to make some popcorn, grab a beer, and find your favorite blanket.


News Source: <A href="http://shsibae.wordpress.com/2006/11/02/gaming-industry-news-rumors/" target="-blank">Shsibae</a>

[Umberger]

As awesome as this would be, it'd take forever to download, and would most likely cause some major bandwidth stress problems on the Xbox Live servers.

[toneedo]

not much we can download with a 20GB hard drive

[kronikdaddy]

They could launch a bigger HDD for the XNA stuff anyway and the movies could be routed through entirely differant servers then the gameing servers so it wouldn't effect LiVE at all.

A bigger HDD is coming for the 360, I hope it's sub $100 and the 20GB HDD is lowered in price and not same price on 20GB and $150 for bigger drive.

If M$ really wanted to be cool they should sell a caddy to put any 2.5" HDD in and hook it to the 360. I can get a 120GB 2.5" drive for less then $100 at newegg, Much better deal then $100 for a lame 20GB HDD.

[B4tm4n]

The ten minute cache makes it sound like you'll be streaming and not downloading, if this rumour is true.

[indierocker]

well if they plan to add the Zune MP to the XBL MP then of course there will be movies to download.

[vancitypimp]

HD Movies encoded with the right MPEG4 AVC should easily fit within 1.2GB - 2.0GB and should still look pretty good in HD.

[pCeSlAyEr]

if im not mistaked 720p encoded WMVHD is about 2.2GB for about an hour and a half... and if its encoded in h264... cut that by about 700MB...

is this the killer feature they spoke of when the 360 first launched? no wonder Live went down for over 24hrs a few weeks ago..

[InsaneNutter]

Humm its not a downloadable HD movie if it needs a ten minute caching period, still very intresting though

[Retroboy]

sure what a fab idea, youll obviously need to buy them, but whats the point if youve got a crap connection, youll be sat there for days downloading a HD movie.

One problem with MS live when downloading, it should allow you to continue doing other things for example play a game (auto disable going online with the game) because its bloody boring sat watching the download progress screen.

[Havok154]

sure what a fab idea, youll obviously need to buy them, but whats the point if youve got a crap connection, youll be sat there for days downloading a HD movie.

One problem with MS live when downloading, it should allow you to continue doing other things for example play a game (auto disable going online with the game) because its bloody boring sat watching the download progress screen.

Ummmm...they added the ability to do other stuff while downloading at least 2 patches ago, where have you been? Also, if you don't have a good internet connection, what use would live be for you since it requires a 1/2 decent broadband connection for good online gameplay and content download.

Straight off of MS's site:


After confirming a download, it will be placed in your active downloads list. You can queue up to six items, and play music, DVDs, video, or games while your items download in the background. Your downloads will pause if you play a game online or turn off your console.

[Vintage]

They ainit guna be like 11GB etc like HD movies, i should think they will stream it for slower users and maybe release a bigger HD soon after this happens.

[Havok154]

Also, 720p wmv is about 50MB/minute, meaning a 90minute movie is about 4.5GB. That means if you're streaming the movie, you'll be streaming about 850KB/s. I honestly don't see a problem streaming a movie to your machine with any decent broadband connection of 4-6mb/s download (400-750KB/s ) since they already stating they'll be using a 10minute cache which will be 500MB cached.

Of course, they may be using something that compresses better then wmv and there'll be even less of an issue, but since it was MS I assumed that's what they're going with.

[Retroboy]

Ummmm...they added the ability to do other stuff while downloading at least 2 patches ago, where have you been? Also, if you don't have a good internet connection, what use would live be for you since it requires a 1/2 decent broadband connection for good online gameplay and content download.

Straight off of MS's site:

My 360 hasnt had the update pop up for ages and still wont let me do anything when im downloading, also my internet connection will allways be crap, theres nothing i can do about it as i live in hull and Karoo are crap, i have a 3mb connection but it never runs at 3mb, and karoo say thats because theyres too many people active, which is terd im paying for 3mb and i should be getting 3mb.

theyve got a upgrade which is cheaper and is 8mb, but i know theres a catch somewhere, karoo have never offered 8mb for less than 3mb, im waiting to find the catch.

[quantum29]

My 360 hasnt had the update pop up for ages and still wont let me do anything when im downloading, also my internet connection will allways be crap, theres nothing i can do about it as i live in hull and Karoo are crap, i have a 3mb connection but it never runs at 3mb, and karoo say thats because theyres too many people active, which is terd im paying for 3mb and i should be getting 3mb.

theyve got a upgrade which is cheaper and is 8mb, but i know theres a catch somewhere, karoo have never offered 8mb for less than 3mb, im waiting to find the catch.

I thought you couldn't continue using live unless you do the update ? or am i wrong ?