Any Advice For Watching HD Movie on XBL?

[eric_ruck]

So they finally suckered me in. "Fido" is available in XBL, what should be a fantastic movie that was in something like 6 art theaters in NY and LA for a whole weekend, which needless to say I didn't get to see. Yet. So I'm going to give it a go.

 

Anyone try this yet? Do I have to download the entire movie before I watch it, or can I watch it while it streams? Say I want to watch it at 9p on a Friday night, and I already know bandwidth to my house is not going to be a problem, what time should I start it downloading?

 

Thanks,

Eric

[Atari5200]

it will download to a certain point and then allow you to watch it while it downloads the rest of the way. So far with what i've downloaded, I bought an hour long episode of the Twilight Zone and it caught up to the download so it was annoying to get about 35 minutes into the show and then it stop as you wait for more to download. other episides, standard 21 minute long episodes, i've never had a problem with it catching up. But if your running straight cable or dsl to your system, probably won't be a problem, i lose a little speed because i'm wireless and it travels through 2 walls.

Edited November 30, 2007 by Atari5200

[Lord Helmet]

One thing to keep in mind is that most of the movies are available in both standard def and HD...Obviously the standard version will dl faster.

[Starscream]

When you start the download, it usually takes less than 5 minutes until you can start watching it, standard def, or HD.

Edited November 30, 2007 by Starscream

[moycon]

I've only bought TV shows and haven't renting any movies, but Starscream is right. The time from when you push the button till when you can watch is pretty quick. Anyways, I think you have a certain time frame where you can watch the flick as many times as you can stand, but not until you start it. So you could download the flick Tuesday in it's entirety and not watch it until Friday at which time your countdown timer of 24 hours (or whatever it is) will start.

 

Here's an overview that might make it clearer...

 

Usage Rights

 

Rentals are a new concept for Video Marketplace, so I want to be very clear about how this works. Think of it as a combo rental/pay-per-view deal. When you rent a video, you have 14 days to watch it. Once you start watching it, you have 24 hours to finish watching it, so long as it's still within those 14 days.

 

When you look at the info for a rental video, you'll see that it's tagged with an expiration countdown clock. When you first confirm the video download, the 14 day countdown will start. This countdown starts the moment you confirm your rental, whether you start the download or not. Once you start watching the video, it switches over to the 24-hour countdown clock. You can watch the video as often as you like until it expires.

 

One note about rentals: You have to watch them on the console you originally downloaded them on. You can't watch it on another console through your profile like you can with purchases. Also, if you delete a rental before the 14 days are up, you'll have to rent it again.

[eric_ruck]

I wasn't sure how long it would take so I started the download well in advance. Over all it took less than an hour to download the entire HD movie. I wound up saving it for a few more days before my wife and I got around to watching it.

 

While I've used the game controllers before to operate playback (pause, fast forward, etc.) it didn't work at all for me for the downloaded movie. Ultimately for some reason the picture paused but the sound track kept going, and I had to restart the machine to get normal playback. I've used the controllers before to play DVDs just fine, but I guess not this time.

 

Once I dug out the playback remote control all was well with the world.

 

I guess if you download a lot it might be worth an HD upgrade. I have a release day unit with the 20GB hard drive, and with the movies at 4GB or so for HD, might be worth an upgrade.

 

By the way "Fido" is a blast. They have a nice selection of movies available, ranging from new stuff like "300" to, uh, "Shaft in Africa". Oooo.

 

Eric

[+Cobra Kai]

They must have sped up the speed for dl's quite substantially. When I downloaded Crank in HD way back before the update, it took 7 hours to download, and I get great dl speeds on my connection. If HD movies take only an hour or two now, I might consider renting them again.

Edited December 3, 2007 by Gunstarhero

[Metal Ghost]

Gunstar - if you downloaded Crank shortly after the movie service started, then the download speeds are MUCH better now. Back then it was an issue with XBL not running the movie download service on enough servers, because they simply underestimated the demand for such a service. For example, I think the first XBL movie I downloaded was Lady in the Water HD. It took like 4 hours for it to completely download. That was well over a year ago though. Shortly after that HD movies downloaded within an hour (on FiOS). I think the last one I downloaded was Wild Hogs HD about a month or two ago, which was ready to play within 15 minutes and probably completely downloaded in about an hour.

 

As far as the bigger hard drive is concerned, it may be a good idea if you're downloading a lot of Xbox Live Arcade games or TV shows, since you actually own those permanently. And even then, if you erase them from your hard drive you can always re-download them again for free anytime in the future (which I have done on various occasions). But I don't know if it would make sense for a lot of movies. Because the movies are downloaded on a rental basis anyway. So when you're done watching them, there's no reason not to simply erase them from your hard drive anyway.

[eric_ruck]

I would second a guess that they improved the servers on their side. My 360 is hooked up by wireless, and I was probably streaming music on another machine at the same time, so the restriction definitely wasn't bandwidth to the house.