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Amherst Bytes #37: HD On Demand for the Xbox 360

I know you’re all probably getting sick and tired of columns about the Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii, but trust me readers, they’re more important than you may think. These systems, along with the Xbox 360, will be the last consoles to be released during this decade. Two of them will be significant factors in championing new HD disc formats (HD-DVD in the 360 and Bluray in the PS3). The Wii will serve to bring rudimentary virtual interactivity into the living room with its gyroscopic game controls. All of these consoles will have lasting impacts on the future of consumer electronics, so forgive me if I spend too much time discussing them.

As for the upcoming launch of the PS3 and Wii, nothing much has changed since I last wrote about them. To repeat: There is an expected shortage of PS3s (because Sony couldn’t make enough of them) for the remainder of 2006, and nearly four times as many Wiis. If you haven’t yet ordered a PS3, you’ll either have to wait until next year or spend thousands of dollars on eBay.

Microsoft, not to be one to let their competitors hog the press, is also planning some new tricks for the Xbox 360. On the first anniversary of the Xbox 360’s launch, November 22, they will be a launching a video download service for the 360 that is similar in scope to Apple’s iTunes store, the big difference being that this store will also offer HD video. While iTunes has made the business of legal downloadable content feasible, it still fails to offer any sort of high quality video. When you download a television episode or movie from iTunes it’s actually formatted for the iPod with video, thus making the video quality crap.

This service will make Microsoft the first company to offer high-definition video content for download. While the demand for this sort of thing is potentially low among general PC users, the same is not true for the 360’s user base. We can pretty much assume that, for the most part, 360 users are more tech savvy than average folk and more likely to own HDTVs—making them the perfect market for this new service.

360 users will be able to purchase these videos with Microsoft points, the same virtual currency they use to purchase arcade games and extra content for the 360. They plan to allow users to rent movies, meaning that they can be downloaded and watched an unlimited amount of times the first day of purchase, and users will have to pay again to watch it anytime after that. TV shows will be treated differently: When you download TV shows you “own” them. They can be watched an unlimited number of times, and re-downloaded for free. Microsoft plans to have 800 hours of SD (standard definition) content available at launch, along with 200 hours of HD content.

Given that the Xbox 360 only comes with a 20GB hard drive, this service will most definitely eat up that space fast. An HD film will average around 4-5GB, so you won’t be creating any rich libraries of video on your 360. This doesn’t matter much for movies though, which you’ll most likely delete after watching them. Of course we can expect a larger hard drive upgrade from Microsoft eventually, but from their tone it seems as if we won’t be seeing one until late next year.

There’s no doubt that this video on demand service is a big “frak you” you to Sony and their Bluray format. Not only does Microsoft have an HD-DVD drive for the 360 (currently available for $200), but they now have HD content available for download. Coupled with a recent upgrade to 1080p for the Xbox 360, Microsoft is quickly chipping away at everything that Sony advertises as exclusive to the PS3.

That Microsoft was able to keep this video download service a secret until this past week is even more telling: They wanted to screw Sony in the worst possible way at launch, and I’m sure this announcement has Sony executives fuming. Mission accomplished folks.


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