In a move to unify their Xbox and Zune platforms, Microsoft announced on June 1, 2009, at E3, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, in Los Angeles, CA, that the Xbox 360 video marketplace will be renamed the Zune Marketplace. According to the press release issued by Microsoft, the marketplace would be the first in the world to offer instant on demand 1080p movies and TV high definition direct to Xbox 360 consoles (Ed: although how they will manage this in limited bandwidth situations remains an open question).
As noted in the Microsoft press release: “Starting this fall, a broad selection of movies and TV shows from Zune video on Xbox 360 will be available to start and stream instantly, in the highest video quality and at the push of a button. No discs, no waiting for downloads, and no delays. Get the selection of a video mega store, the best video clarity available, and the convenience of on-demand, only on Xbox 360”.
The current Canadian Xbox Live Marketplace lets Silver and Gold Xbox Live subscribers download older titles, also known as Library titles, in SD (standard definition) and HD (high definition) formats for 300 (~$4.80 ) and 440 (~$7.04 ) MS Points, respectively. Current SD releases (recent movies) go for 440 MS Points (~$7.04), while HD movies will set subscribers back 580 MS Points (~$9.27).
After the initial download, consumers have 14 days to view their content before it expires, and they have 24 hours to complete their viewing after they’ve started playing the media (Ed: note that the expiry is less than half of what Apple TV debuted with and the 24 hours after you’ve started viewing was doubled by Apple after lots of user complaints, so hopefully these numbers will change for Microsoft as well).
The Zune Marketplace is scheduled to launch this Fall in North America. No word yet on how many movies will be available at launch and what will be the cost for the content.
Ed: So what do people think – is this going to be a major competitor in the space or just an also-ran?
Thanks to decabled.com contributor, Andre Barriault from GamingCult.com, for the story! If you’re interested in contributing to decabled.com, please email…
jeff INSERT_THE_AT_SIGN_HERE commandn.tv
Hey, Apple, its called the Appletv. Please go out the garage and do something with your poor little pet project, it needs you!
Great news for the 360 owners amongst us though, like moi. Haha I loved the demo at E3, what they don’t tell you is that they are using 100Mbps fiber connection, funny how they leave that little detail out:P.
I totally agree, Adam. Apple TV works for me but for most people it could really use some extra TLC – so many things they could be doing with it and it just seems to sit there.
For sure about the 100 Mbps fiber – not a luxury most of us have!
Netflix adds live streaming HD MLB.TV Premium Service to Roku Player
http://www.hackingnetflix.com/2009/08/roku-adds-live-streaming-hd-mlbtv-premium-service-to-roku-player.html
Jeff, why don’t you update more?
BTW, if your Microsoft ZunePass covered both audio and video, I would drop cable in a minute.
Love to leave Rogers, but their HD on demand movies are less then $9.00.
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