November 22nd, 2006 was a big day for the Xbox 360. It marked the first official birthday of the 360 and it also marked the introduction of the new Xbox Live Video Marketplace. With the Video Marketplace, Xbox 360 users can download and watch some of their favorite television shows and movie titles right in the comfort of their own home. The video marketplace consists of two major new features – the ability to purchase and own television shows, and the ability to rent movie titles for a limited amount of time. The launch of the Video Marketplace also marks the first time high definition movies or shows can be downloaded directly to a gaming console. It’s been a few weeks since the service first launched, so join me as I take a walk through the Xbox Live Video Marketplace and offer up my initial impressions of the service.

Cost cost cost..

Before going into the details of the Video Marketplace, let’s first go over the pricing model. As most of you already know, the Xbox Live Video Marketplace utilizes the Microsoft Points system. The points system basically boils down to the following equation. 80 Microsoft Points is equal to one dollar. Just remember that.

So to purchase and own TV shows, it’ll cost you:

  • 160 Microsoft Points for Standard Definition resolution (or 2 dollars)
  • 240 Microsoft Points for High Definition resolution (or 3 dollars)

To rent library movies (movies that have been out for some time), it’ll cost you:

  • 240 Microsoft Points for SD resolutions
  • 360 Microsoft Points for HD resolutions

Finally, to rent new movies, it’ll cost you:

  • 320 Microsoft Points for SD resolution
  • 480 Microsoft Points for HD resolution

Of course before you can do all of this, you’ll need to make sure your Xbox 360 is up to date with all the patches and upgrades – most importantly – the November 2006 update. If you haven’t already done so, make sure your console is connected to the Internet and make sure you log into Xbox Live.

A tour of the Video Marketplace

Here’s a screenshot of the Xbox Live Marketplace.

There are five buttons for you to choose from:

  • Games
  • Media and Entertainment
  • Demos and Game Videos
  • Themes and Gamer Pictures
  • Featured Downloads

What we’re concerned about today is the “Media and Entertainment” section. When you click on that button, you get sent over to the Video Marketplace screen (which is also accessible via the Media tab within the Xbox 360 Dashboard GUI).

The Video Marketplace is divided into five sections:

  • Movies
  • TV Shows
  • Music Videos
  • Game Videos
  • Clips

Movies

Within the movies section, you’ll see the following screen:

There are buttons for:

  • New Arrivals
  • Featured Trailers
  • Clips
  • Genres
  • All Movies

There is a top 50 downloads list for movies on the right hand side of the screen. If you drill down on any of the buttons, you’ll be presented with a new user interface addition to the Xbox 360 – the Twist interface. Of course users of the Microsoft Zune or the Windows Media Center UI will be quite familiar with this design style.

The Twist Interface provides menu items running across the top of the screen with additional sub menu items lined up vertically beneath each highlighted selection.

Here’s a shot of the twist interface under “New Arrivals”.

You can view the New Arrivals by “Most Recent”, “Download Rank”, “Studio”, and by “Title”. As you select each horizontal view, you can see the list of movies and each movie’s description beneath the horizontal menu.

Let’s say I want to rent “V for Vendetta”. I’ll be presented with the following screen shot.

All movies will be available in Standard Definition – 480p resolutions. Some newer movies will also be available in 720p High Definition resolutions (12/4/2006 UPDATE: Some have pointed out that there are SOME old movies with 720p resolutions). With each resolution option, Microsoft will also show you the size of the video file. Note – if you purchase the HD version of the film, you will have the option of getting the SD version as well.

Not sure if you want to rent the film? No problem. You can view a quick preview of the film on the right side of the screen.

Back up to the Movies menu page, let’s take a look at the other options. There’s the “Featured Trailers” section where you can download and view the latest movie trailers out. This isn’t really new at all for the Xbox 360 – it’s just better categorized now. You can also use the “twist” UI to change the view of the Featured Trailer section. You can view by “Most Recent”, “Download Rank”, “Studio”, and “Title”.

“Clips” is a more general category encompassing both movie trailers as well as short video clips of movies provided by the studios. Right now, you’ll see pretty much the same content between the “Featured Trailers” and the “Clips” section.

If you want to see the entire Movie collections library available to you for download on the 360, then the last two buttons will interest you the most. It’s the “Genres” section and the “All Movies” section.

Click on the “Genres” button, and you’ll see the following screen shot.

You can further drill down the genre categories and view the movies underneath the category using the same Twist style user interface. There are 11 genres to choose from.

Finally, if you just want to see all the movies available, click on the “All Movies” button. You’ll then be able to see all 52 movies currently in the movies download section. (52 sure sounds small doesn’t it?)

Movies are provided on a rental basis only under the Xbox 360. Once rented, you have 14 days from the time of purchase to watch the movie. However, once you’ve begun to watch the movie, you only have 24 hours to watch the movie before your rental period is over. I’ll be honest – I’m not crazy about the restrictions – especially the 24 hour watch period once you’ve begun watching. Why not just simplify the process and give everyone a straight up 14 days to watch the film? Sorry Microsoft, but I’d rather watch films from Netflix if that’s the case. Of course if you’re in need of a film RIGHT here and RIGHT now, then the 360’s service makes sense.. assuming you can find movies you’d like to watch.

And there my friends is the main problem at this time with the service. The selection is extremely limited and after watching a few movies, you’ll quickly run out of interesting flicks you’d like to watch.

TV Shows

The TV Shows section is much more promising that the Movies section at this time. The selection is far greater AND you keep the shows you purchase (although there isn’t a way to get the show off the hard drive). When you click on the TV Shows button from the main Video Marketplace menu, you’ll be presented with the following screen.

You’ll be able to choose from:

  • New Arrivals
  • Networks
  • Clips
  • Genres
  • All TV Shows

As you can tell, it’s very much the same layout as the Movies section. The only thing that is different is the addition of the “Networks” button which sorts the shows according to the major networks that they belong to.

Each button will also employ the same twist style user interface which helps you to easily navigate the entire collection of videos. I’ll quickly show you the snapshots of the various sections.

Here’s the “New Arrivals” section.

Here’s the “Networks” section.

Every Networks section gets their own specialized theme to show up on the UI should you select the appropriate button. If I press the Adult Swim network, I’ll see the following UI:

Each television series also gets it’s own theme. Here’s the Robot Chicken menu screen.

There’s nothing under the “Clips” section as of yet but I suspect you’ll begin to see previews of upcoming episodes or short takes of shows in this section. It’s just a guess though.

Of course, the final two buttons are similar to the movies section. There’s the “Genres” section:

and the “All TV Shows” section:

Music Videos

Microsoft continues to have a separate section for music videos as shown here. This area isn’t fully developed as of yet and it’ll be interesting to see where Microsoft takes this section. It’s my belief that the Music Videos section is going to be directly tied to the Microsoft Zune at some point going forward. For now, videos are available for download for free.. but who knows – Microsoft may consider charging for videos once they have the Video Marketplace up and running for the Zune.

When you click on a music video, you have the same options as you’ve seen everywhere else – the ability to download in either SD or HD (if available), view a preview, and view the credits.

Game Videos

Microsoft grouped all of the video content associated to games into the “Game Videos” section.

The Game Videos section has three pieces:

  • Game Trailers
  • Gaming Community
  • Game Tips and Support

The first two sections are your normal fare of gaming videos that you’ve always had access to on the 360 – except slightly reorganized.

The Game Tips and Support menu item is where things will get interesting for Microsoft. Remember – the 360 is still all about games first. To that end, there are plenty of people out there who will play a game on the 360, and wish they had some sort of help in finishing the game. That’s where the Game Tips and Support section comes in. Within this section, you’ll see strategy guides being sold to users who need the help. This is basically another vehicle for Microsoft and its partners to make money with. Smart strategy here folks.

Video marketplace impressions

The video marketplace launched with much fanfare on November 22nd. Unfortunately many users ran into all sorts of trouble on the marketplace – from videos not being downloaded correctly to wrong titles being downloaded. After day one was over, you had many MANY unhappy Xbox Live customers complaining left and right on the Xbox.com forums.

To Microsoft’s credit, they fixed many of the issues quickly and now if you log into the video marketplace, everything is as smooth as silk. Ok.. maybe that’s an exaggeration but I’ve yet to have another operational issue since the launch day itself.

Downloading Content

OK.. let’s be clear on one thing – downloading content is going to be an issue for you if you don’t have a reasonably sized Internet connection. Some of these movies are as large as 6GB in file size so you’ll need a decent download speed to get the entire flick down. Microsoft addresses this problem by allowing you to watch the movie as the video is downloaded. You don’t need to have the entire movie or TV show on your hard drive in order to begin watching it. Of course should your Internet connection begin to suffer.. things might go downhill for you. The faster your connection, the faster those movies and shows will come to you.

But how is the content?

As it stands right now, the Video Marketplace is all about Movies and TV shows. Sure, you’ve got music and game videos but that’s still in it’s infancy compared to the potential market for downloadable shows and movies.

From a price perspective, the cost of TV shows is in line with what you’d expect to pay on iTunes or on any other service. The one area where the 360 really shines is in the High Definition arena. Of course since Microsoft is the first mover in this category, they get to set whatever price they want which thankfully wasn’t that much more than SD content (and you also get the SD content thrown in).

The only thing that really seems to be missing from the pricing policy is a subscription based service similar to the Microsoft Zune Pass. Of course there needs to be much more content before a subscription service makes any sense but once the content is there, we hope Microsoft will consider making such a move.

Now let’s talk about the movies section first. On the plus side, having a movie rental platform is awesome for the Xbox 360. You’re home with your loved one and you don’t feel like going out to the theaters.. no problem! Turn on the Xbox 360, and pick a movie to watch! Great idea and fairly inexpensive too. However, at the same time, I believe Microsoft failed to fully achieve the potential of downloadable movies for two major reasons.

First, there’s just not enough content available at this time. Couldn’t Microsoft have launched with a better selection of movie titles? The Lake House? Congo?? Come on!! If you know you’re going to launch a new video download service, go make those deals with movie studios.. get the content there why don’t you. Granted, movie studios may have been hesitant in making content available but if you go to them and say there are five million Xbox 360 owners out there, they’ll reconsider! Of course there is a small problem. A large majority of movie titles belong to Sony Pictures. One wonders if they would broker a deal with Microsoft to make their movies available for the 360. Hey – it’s about making money right so maybe they would?

So as I mentioned earlier, there are only 52 movies available to rent at this time. OK.. so that means I can watch a movie a week for the coming year. Ok ok.. I’m being mean here – there will be additional titles but you get my drift right? The content’s lame.

Second.. the 14 day/24 hour viewing policy really stinks. It really makes you think long and hard about whether you even want to rent a movie from the Video Marketplace. The nice thing about having the movie right there on your console is – you can watch the movie anytime you want to – not when you’re told to. Having that dumb 24 hour viewing window really complicates matter – it’s basically saying to someone – the minute you press play, the clock’s a ticking! That’s a big turn off folks. If Microsoft just applied a standard 14 day rental window for all the movies period – then I could accept that and the whole notion of renting movies would be far more palatable.

As it stands, I can subscribe to Netflix or Blockbuster, pay far less over the course of a month, get far more movies and keep them for as long as I want. Of course, I miss out on the “on demand” feature but there’s a catch 22 there – nothing on the 360 is so important that I need to watch it right now. They’re all available for rental at places like Netflix.

With that said, I think the movies section could succeed – but it needs to be simplified. It needs to have more titles and more importantly, it really needs to be a showcase for high definition content. We’ve got HDTV’s – let’s use them to our advantage!

Now on the TV side, I think Microsoft has the real beginnings of a winner here. I love the fact that I can download and own “Make Love Not Warcraft” from South Park. Then whenever my WoW friends come over, I can play this show over and over again reminding them how much they don’t have a life when they play WoW!

On a more serious note, the TV show selection is actually decent thus far ( come on – you know CSI fans will be buying their favorite episodes from the service) and it appears all the major networks have signed on. They just need to add all of their shows to the service. My favorite shows are still not on the Video Marketplace – that includes Battlestar Galactica, Heroes, and Family Guy. Perhaps I’m biased because I actually get to own these shows. Yes it would have been nice if you could then transfer the shows to say a portable device that’s registered with the service.. (say the Zune?) but that might be asking for too much right now.

Finally, another nice feature with TV shows – you can download the same TV show on another console as long as you’re logged into your profile. You can enjoy the show as long as there’s an Xbox 360 and a broadband Internet connection around.

Summary

Downloadable movies and TV shows are finally here with our next generation console and it’s Microsoft who’s first out of the gate with this capability. Unfortunately the overall service is a bit of a mixed bag at this point in time.

With all the bells and whistles of the Video Marketplace, it still boils down to content. While the launch titles are admirable at best, they’re certainly not awe inspiring at this time. It’s great that I can download South Park and CSI episodes on my Xbox 360, but who cares about the Lake House as a movie rental?

While pricing is OK for TV shows and movies, the rental policy for movies really should be simplified. Right now, it’s honestly hard to justify renting a movie from the Video Marketplace when there are so many better alternatives out there.

However, on the plus side, this is really the first service that allows anyone with a broadband connection and an Xbox 360, access to a wide variety of HD content. If Microsoft could manage to get networks like the Discovery channel or HDNet on board, then things will really start rolling with this service.

The final piece of the puzzle that Microsoft will ultimately need to address is the size of the current hard drive. It’s clear that the 360 needs a MUCH larger drive in the near future (unless Microsoft expects us to keep forking out 99 bucks for 20GB Hard Drives). How large and how much will this add on be is the question. Here’s hoping that Microsoft does the right thing and comes out with a drive that’s fairly large and inexpensive.

The new Xbox Video Marketplace is a small step in the right direction for the Xbox 360. The initial release is underwhelming and some of the restrictions annoying, but the service introduction clearly lays out the infrastructure and ground work for a bigger service down the road – one that will most likely bridge us to the Zune as well.

Before signing off, I also have a short video review of the Video Marketplace here:

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