Xbox Video Download Service Succeeding By -- Gasp -- Being Decent
from the morgan-freeman-eat-your-heart-out dept
Movie download sites and services are playing out to a more predictable storyline than the most trite Hollywood flick: one after another, they all suck. Their offerings are plagued by restrictive copy protection, poor site design and usability and other drawbacks, while many of them apparently ignore their biggest problem for many people -- it's difficult to download a movie then watch it on a TV set rather than a computer. It's hardly surprising to learn, then, that Amazon's movie-download store (which covers all the bases when it comes to these problems) continues to struggle, while the Xbox Live video download service is apparently doing quite well. While the Xbox service isn't perfect, it does offer a few significant benefits, namely that the machines are typically hooked up to a TV, and that it also offers HD content. The HD video appears to be a big draw, because despite its $1 higher price and significantly longer download time, HD content is more popular than the same content in standard definition. While there are only 3.5 million Xbox 360s in the US, video content is selling as well as, or better than on the download sites, which are available to far more PC users. While it may be news to the download site owners, it's hardly surprising that users will flock to services that offer a good user experience.
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screw x box when u can wax it
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Huh?
There are certainly more than 3.5 Mil Xboxes. The 360 has over 8 Million sold...
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Huh?
There are certainly more than 3.5 Mil Xboxes. The 360 has over 8 Million sold...
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for real. i have a chip-modded xbox and XBoxMediaCenter and i watch movies of all kinds on it, streamed from my PC just like the 360, but with fewer hassles (once you get the chip in).
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Re: Huh? Idiot!!!
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very little HD content on XBox live
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I was hoping it would fail
If they had a monthly subscription that will let you download as much as you want I would pay for it but I'm not going to if I have to pay twice to download the same TV show if I miss my 24hour - 14day window.
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Re: I was hoping it would fail
The TV programs are not time limited, in fact once you buy one of the TV programs you can download it anytime you want from now on and watch it how many times you would like. This keeps you from filling your hard drive because you can watch the show and delete then re-download it, if at a later time you want to see it again.
The movies are a time limited rental. Get your facts straight before spouting crap please.
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Single company such a bad thing?
I can watch Tivo programs on my 360. I can play all 50Gb of my music. I can even play music from my iPod (Though Apple won't let them transfer music back the other direction).
What's so bad about that? Why does a company have to be the "big bad" content provider? Why is it a "Trojan Horse" to get me to stick a proprietary device in my living room? I think it's phenomenal. I'd have paid more for the 360 at launch if it had all the features it has now. Fortunately, I don't have to, because they've all come free.
And to people complaining about the "points" system: it's 80 points to $1. If you can't do that math, then you're an idiot. The points system is a way of standardizing prices across markets, and a way of making sure you spend in increments. 800pt game, then MS holds on to the extra 200pts you didn't spend and collects interest on it. $2.50 may not matter to you, but multiply it by 3M and you've got a decent float on your books.
It's a good device. Quit trying to find the evil that isn't there, just because it's Microsoft (oh, and the M$ this is very clever! No one's ever done that before!!!)
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Footnote on points
240pts / $3 for Standard
320pts / $4 for HD (on old movies)
400pts / $5 for Standard New Releases
480pts / $6 for HD New Releases
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