Comments on: Xbox 360 as Video Platform– Will It Work?

By: Bleam » Blog Archive » Will Halo3 help Microsoft secure the Digital Living Room?

Fri, 08 Jun 2007 17:47:51 +0000

[...] Enter Halo 3, the jewel in their gaming crown, and the franchise the company hopes can not only boost online membership to higher levels, but bait gamers into purchasing additional downloadable content such as movies, music, TV shows, and episodic game content. [...]

By: GigaGamez » Archive Will Halo3 help Microsoft secure the Digital Living Room? «

Sun, 13 May 2007 13:46:55 +0000

By: GigaOM » Will Halo3 help Microsoft secure the Digital Living Room?

GigaOM » Will Halo3 help Microsoft secure the Digital Living Room? — Sun, 13 May 2007 06:36:00 +0000

By: J

Thu, 09 Nov 2006 19:40:25 +0000

What about movies that are just renders or the game content from the game disk? That’d be small and probably just as enjoyable as a normal movie.

Also, what about MSFT’s IPTV stuff? That may figure in here.

By: Deano

Deano — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 12:14:47 +0000

I just got a warning email from my ISP about downloading too much data. The main culprit? My downloads from Xbox Live.

I wouldn't welcome having to re-download HD movies because I ran out of space. I think alot of users would experience these sort of bandwidth issues in any case but a small hard drive just exacerbates the problem.

By: Mark B

Mark B — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 23:51:32 +0000

Provided downloading movies to XB360 sees a decent take rate, you can bet MSFT will make available a new Hard drive with larger capacity to avoid the “what should I delete now”.

Perhaps we will see a deal with MSFT and a consumer network attached storage maker (Lacie, Seagate, Ximeta) to provide more storage and additional revenues. That would fit with the traditional Microsoft practice of making users upgrade hardware to get new capabilities.

By: Vista eBooks

Vista eBooks — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 08:56:34 +0000

The 360’s tiny hard drive doesn’t make this very appealing and when you look at the # units shipped in the US, I can’t see this doing very well. As for the Halo movie…

By: Swissfondue

Swissfondue — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 08:50:37 +0000

The fundamental difference between Apple and Microsoft is that “iTV” out-of-the-box expands the distribution of your existing multimedia content to your TV (from your computer or iPod) whereas Xbox with Urge video store (or whatever it is called) restricts it to one specific hardware box. In this scenario, Xbox is a sealed system, whereas “iTV” is the enabler for greater redistribution.

I’m betting on “iTV”.

By: Jarod

Jarod — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 07:31:07 +0000

All I know is that you have to be a complete idiot to buy anything from MicroSHIT.

By: Graydon

Graydon — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 03:49:25 +0000

I can see an accessory play here as well. The 2007 Holiday Season (for Halo game) might be too early for a fully upgraded XB console… but it wouldn't be too soon to launch an external "media storage device" fully capable of working with the XBox.

Something in line with BuffaloTech's TerraStation Home Server…

Make it networkable so that the Media Edition PC could use it to store the tv shows, movies and music… plus they already have MS branded networking gear… full home entertainment manager coming without being seen.

Hell, they could just give away the Halo movie with modified DRMM just to get people to buy the hardware and get hooked… download via the XB, watch on the PC and any computer in the house, transfer to the portable… even share clips with friends.

Of course, if they hadn't thought of all that, then they should.

By: William Spaetzel

William Spaetzel — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 01:30:49 +0000

While it is unplesant that you would have to delete movies that you have downloaded, you won't have lost the content forever.

Anything that you buy over the Xbox Live Marketplace you can download again for free. There is no limit on the number of times that you can redownload the content.

So it isn't too bad that there isn't room for lots of content on the drive. Just delete the stuff you have watched already. If you want to watch it again, just go into your download history and download it again.

By: Wagner James Au

Wagner James Au — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 00:47:28 +0000

You’re right, Michael, I’ve corrected accordingly based on this paragraph from the Times:

“The video downloads, especially those in high definition, will take up a lot of space. Microsoft says a one-hour television program in high definition will take up about 2 gigabytes of the console’s standard 20-gigabyte hard drive.”

By: Michael Griffiths

Michael Griffiths — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 00:22:40 +0000

As much as I appreciate the analysis, you could at least give believable size estimates. It's WMV-HD (VC1) compression.

Engadget has a good summary, but:

An average HD movie download should be between 4-5GB, and a two hour SD movie would be 1.6GB.

An average 1 hour (44 min) HDTV download should be about 2.2GB, and an average 1/2 hour (22 min) HDTV download should be about 1GB. A 1 hour SDTV download should be about 600MB, and a 1/2 hour SDTV download should be about 300MB.

You can fit 4-5 full length HDTV movies, 20 HDTV TV episodes, or over 60 SDTV TV episodes (30 mins).

Yes, the drive is too small. Yes, download time will be a problem.

But the numbers in your writeup are a gross exaggerations and as far as I can tell, entirely un backed up.

Pricing isn't mentioned, but licensing terms are already widely known: TV episodes can be downloaded and unlimited amount of time, while movies are on a 24 hour rental basis.

Pricing should also be competative, so you're talking ~$3 for a movie and maybe $2 for a TV episode.

By: r.pad

r.pad — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 00:14:45 +0000

“With just 20 gigs in the console’s standard hard drive set-up, you’re talking about 10 TV episodes, or five movies, or one high definition movie.”

Well clearly the company is banking on selling larger hard drives. Last month there was that photo of a slide from an MS Korea meeting that showed a 100GB drive. There are plenty of rumors about an 80GB drive just from yesterday’s announcement.

I agree with the previous poster that this makes MS seem like a leader in the space. Personally, I’m happy that it’s being progressive and changing the way people use consoles. With XBL, the Achievements system, and the video capabilities, I’m doing much more with a console than ever before.

And no, I’m not an MS shill. I wasn’t a huge fan of the first Xbox and I’m surprised at how much I’m enjoying the 360.

By: tf

tf — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 23:14:55 +0000

I would say the biggest stumbling block is that the Xbox360 represents a market smaller than the original XBox (less than 20 million). Yes, it is a strong move and makes them look more attractive than the other consoles. But the reasons that the same number of people (if not more) will buy a Wii and that 3-5 times as many people will buy a PS3 has nothing to do with the lack or the presence of a video download service.

And even if it’s already in place and already connected to the web and TV, it doesn’t really compete with Apple’s media strategy. Whether or not the iTV sells well or if the 60 million iPod owners are purchasing digital downloads, Apple’s market is everyone that owns a Mac or PC.

This, even if it is Microsoft’s best platform and makes them look like a leader with the components in place, is limited to a very small base that is not likely to grow beyond it’s core market. The market that represents only 30% (and maybe less) of the overall console market.