On November 22nd, 2006, Microsoft will begin offering movie and television show downloads. On the xbox 360's first year anniversary, people will be able to download tv shows to own, and movies to rent, in both SD (Standard Definition) and HD (High Definition) format.
If initial reports are correct, HD movies will be priced at 480 points ($6) while SD movies will be 320 points ($4) while both HD and SD television shows will be 240 points ($3).
Standard Definition movies will be appx 1.2gb, while HD versions are around 4.7gb. These videos will be time-limited. You'll have 14 days to start viewing the movies, and after the movie has been played, 24 hours to finish watching it, before it is deleted off of the hard drive automatically.
Examples of what will be available before the end of the year include:
Robot Chicken and Aquar Teen Hunger Force, CSI, Survivor, Remastered episodes of classic Star Trek, South Park, Chappelle's Show, The Real World, Pimp My Ride, Spongebob, The Last Airbender, Skyland and nicktoons network animation festival, Mission Impossible III, Nacho Libre, Jackass: the movie, Carpocalypse, Raising the Roofs, Race Rewind, Ultimate Fighter Championship, Breaking Bonaduce, Hogan Knows Best, The Matrix, Superman Returns, and Batman Forever.
Microsoft still denies that they have plans for larger hard drive for the xbox 360 console, even though it seems like it'll eventually be needed if people want to use their xbox 360 to their fullest extent, no ifs ands or buts about it.
XBOX 360 now has movie and television show downloads, as well as some music videos. Not many are available in HD yet (I didn't count the exact number.)
All of the music videos out as of this morning as free downloads, while movies are rentals, and I believe the tv shows, you actually buy.
When I downloaded a sample music video, which was around 50mb in size, it took over 30 minutes to download. I suppose this is due to their new launch and many people downloading movies and tinkering with the new updates. I've downloaded 1gb files in around an hour or less on there before. So, it might be worth waiting a little while longer to rent or buy any of the videos.
The HD movies I saw on there were all 720p resolution and around 6gb in size, while the same standard definition movie may have been 1.8gb.
I have not had a chance to download and check out any of the HD content, nor do I plan to any time soon.