The new Xbox Video Marketplace is one my favorite new developments of 2006. Launched just before Thanksgiving, Microsoft's new service lets you download HD and SD movies, TV shows, and video clips to your Xbox 360. While not without its hiccups, the service works well, based on my viewings over the past couple of weeks (hey, I only have this phenomenal Pioneer PRO-FHD1 50-inch plasma a couple more weeks, so needless to say, I'm watching a lot of TV).The service is accessed via the Xbox Live Marketplace on the Xbox 360 console and takes about 15 to 20 seconds to load up each screen, but once I got the selection going, I was impressed with the overall selection of movies: around 48 titles, everything from Akira Kurosawa's Dreams and Rosemary's Baby to THX 1138 and Batman Begins. Unfortunately, just a handful of those movies (Clash of the Titans, The Perfect Storm, V for Vendetta, among others) is available in HD.
The TV show selection is okay—a partial selection of series from CBS, NBC, ABC, MTV, Comedy Central, and a few others.
Though I was able to see if all the fuss around Jericho is merited (it isn't), I'll be happier when I see a larger selection of TV shows. NBC only offers Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (where's 30 Rock?), and ABC offers only The Nine (and now that it's on hiatus, why would I want to get involved with that show?). Again, not all of these shows are offered in HD.
The nice thing about the HD downloads is you get a free download of the SD version, too. The SD versions take just minutes to download, versus the HD shows, which can take anywhere from five hours (a one-hour episode of Jericho in HD) to all night (a different one-hour episode of Jericho in HD), depending, presumably, on how many other Xbox Live members are downloading movies at a particular time. You can usually start viewing a movie once it's downloaded about halfway, but this is little consolation to anyone who's been waiting half the night to watch Exorcist III: The Heretic (in which case, you might have other problems).
Why would you want an SD version, too? I'm thinking it's handy if you decide to delete the show from the Xbox 360 to make space on the hard drive but decide you want to watch it later—an SD download of the show is better for instant gratification. TV shows like Jericho you buy the rights to forever, so you can download the same episode indefinitely; movies, on the other hand, have a Movielink-like deal where you get up to 14 days to start watching a movie, then just 24 hours once you start watching. Like Zune, the service uses the Microsoft "points" system, so HD downloads cost 240 points (about $4.50), and SD downloads cost just 160 points (about $3). Another cool feature: You can download purchased content onto any Xbox 360, provided you sign in under your Xbox Live account.
I experienced a couple of semi-nightmarish problems on the first download—namely, my movies didn't finish downloading and they disappeared off of the "Active Downloads" screen. There was no record of my having purchased the movies, and yet my Microsoft Points account was still 240 points down. I waited about a day and, at a certain point, was prompted to download a patch/update. After that, I simply restarted the download and everything has been peachy since then.
As for quality, the HD content I watched—three episodes of Jericho and Clash of the Titans—looked perfectly clear and colorful and sounded perfectly surround-tastic. I could discern no difference between the downloaded Xbox stuff and what I get via my cable service on HDTV, though, needless to say, Clash of the Titans does not age well in HD, special-effects-wise.
All in all and despite the hiccups, it's a great service. Now if they can just up the HD offerings, I'll be watching more and more of my TV shows and movie rentals on my Xbox 360.
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