Microsoft announces Disney movies in HD on Xbox Live right....now
Update 1: Check out the official details after the break.
Update 2: More info from Reuters indicates 35 titles from Disney are available now, including Bridge to Terabithia, The Queen and Deja Vu, but no Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (currently available
High-Definition Content on Marketplace
In a move that will add to the incredible popularity of Xbox LIVE Marketplace, Microsoft announced an agreement with Disney-ABC Domestic Television to make high-definition and standard definition feature films from Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone Pictures, Miramax Films, and Hollywood Pictures available for rent on demand to members of Xbox LIVE in the U.S. A growing catalogue of current and library titles will be available this July with more blockbusters to come.
Microsoft also announced the highly anticipated rollout of the high-definition video store on Xbox LIVE Marketplace for customers around the globe. Microsoft will begin bringing content to living rooms in Europe and Canada by the end of this year. Currently offering more than 2,350 hours of premium entertainment content from 28 networks and studios, and nearly 500 hours of HD content alone, this puts the U.S. on-demand, high-definition library for Xbox 360 at more than twice the size of the nearest cable provider.
Filed under: Other hardware, Internet
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
humpty @ Jul 11th 2007 1:11AM
720p for movies is not a heck of a lot better than 480p, especially if you have a competent scaler... plus its compressed like crasy to begin with.
aaron @ Jul 11th 2007 1:26AM
your crazy... there is a big difference between live marketplace and dvd. the small difference is live marketplace to bluray/hd-dvd. there nowhere near as much difference there from the jump from 480p to 720p.
and this is huge for all 360 owners who have the hd-dvd addon.... lionsgate and disney (which are both bluray exclusives) are now on there. the 360 is getting pretty damn good support and almost negates the need for bluray completely on the 360.
Jon @ Jul 11th 2007 1:36AM
Surely you jest.
First of all...480p does not even begin to hold a candle to 720p...period! Color Saturation and Contrast alone in 720p blow away 480p...not to mention the huge increase in resolution. I will say nothing more of this point as it is so utterly ridiculous.
I have the HD-DVD add on for Xbox 360 and have on several occasions rented 720p movies from the marketplace as well. While the downloads quality is not quite as good as HD-DVD...the quality certainly comes close.
You should try it for yourself before you talk trash about it. And as of this evening...the Xbox is the only way to download and watch HD movies and TV shows. There is currently no other avenue for downloadable HD content.
DeadPlasmaCell @ Jul 11th 2007 1:37AM
Whaaaat?? You sure you're thinking of the right thing?? HD Movies on Cable TV are pretty compressed, but the stuff on XBLM is pretty damned good.
hmurchison @ Jul 11th 2007 1:13AM
Good ...now I don't need a Blu-ray player.
Dave @ Jul 11th 2007 1:46AM
True, but you need a life...
Jypson @ Jul 11th 2007 1:45AM
Disney on Xbox eh? Sounds like they may be testing the waters for a little HD DVD action in the future maybe.
Paul Fernandez @ Jul 11th 2007 2:15AM
Wow, that's...huge! Like The Emperor from Star Wars (cue dark music), I have foreseen it! With Live Marketplace posting such huge numbers, there's no way other studios like Fox (with their conspicuously absent/pulled Blu-ray titles) or MGM can stay away from this PROVEN business model for long, especially since their names will be emblazoned across the Marketplace the way Lionsgate was when they began offering films. Of course Sony, haters of all things Microsoft, won't be interested, but whaddaya gonna do? We all know that any of the Spider-Man or Pirates movies would probably crash the whole network due to high demand. Let's see how long it takes the corporate bigwigs at the very top to realize this.
@ Jypson
You hit it right on the head. Since the studios know there's a cadre of Xbox owners out there with either the HD DVD add-on or a standalone player, who's to say that's not EXACTLY what they're doing? The kicker is that no one seems to care whether these films are available on physical media or not, or on Blu-ray or HD DVD; people are downloading like mad, and MS is looking very smart right now for using 720p (which any decent HDTV should handle beautifully, with 480p not looking too shabby either) and increasing the network bandwidth for faster downloads.
Bold E3 Prediction Here: MS will test the non-physical-media waters and announce that full retail versions of past or future Xbox/Xbox 360 games will be available on Marketplace during the fall, after the 4-part Tomb Raider download commences in September. If you think the numbers for movie downloads are high, just wait until Crimson Skies or KOTOR become available for mass consumption.
humpty @ Jul 11th 2007 7:04AM
Seriously, 720p does NOT look all that different than 480p. Thats what im saying. ie. if you're going to rent an HD movie at a premium, it should be in 1080p.. otherwise dont bother.
1080p >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 720p >>>>>> 480p
720p is the poor man's HD.
Matt @ Jul 11th 2007 7:18AM
I'm not going to get into the math to help you figure out how many dpi 720P vs. 1080P gets you, compared with 480P. Or the ratio difference between distance from the TV and perceived dpi at each level. But anyone with at least a 10th grade math background can tell you there's not much difference between 720P and 1080P, especially when you sit the appropriate distance away from the TV. Now if you are one of those people that get a 60" plasma and sit 2 feet away, I can see your point, but then again, you already have problems :)
timatl @ Jul 11th 2007 9:36AM
1080p is overated. do some research. I have a 57" 1080p TV and you can barely tell the difference unless you are sitting 6' from the TV. if you have a big tv you should have a big living room. the human can only see so much. if you have a 70"+ TV and sit 8' then you are probably a poor man with big tv.
peace
The Aggie CEO™ @ Jul 11th 2007 8:23AM
So is it JUST Rentals or can you BUY the Movies???
Eric M @ Jul 11th 2007 9:21AM
"720p is the poor man's HD" - Wow, another person completely brainwashed by corporate advertising.
Many reports have concluded that the different between 720p and 1080p is imperceptible at display sizes under 60 inches.
Become informed: http://blog.hometheatermag.com/geoffreymorrison/090806more1080p/
As Jon said, 720p will be A LOT better than 480p in all areas, unless the 480p version was downscaled from 1080p/720p, where it would still have the increased color fidelity.
leo @ Jul 11th 2007 10:13AM
1080p >>>>>> 720p >>>>>> 480p
1080p is about the same difference in resolution from 720p as 720p is from 480p. Both jumps are about 50% more resolution per direction, which equates to about 125% more pixels.
But as others said, you need a really big screen (i.e. 50"+) -- and you would need to sit really close to it to see much of a difference between 720p and 1080p. now if you have a dedicated home theater room with a 100" screen you'd probably see a difference (but you probably aren't going to be hooking up a xbox 360 to this screen).
Xyzzy @ Jul 11th 2007 2:25PM
> (but you probably aren't going to be hooking up a xbox
> 360 to this screen).
Umm, why not? That's what I do... Now while playing Catan and Carcassone is a bit overkill, playing Crackdown and Gears of War is AWESOME. :)
I only have a 720p pj for now, and it still looks amazing. 1080 downloads would take a LOT longer for not much benefit.
Segarsj @ Jul 11th 2007 10:21AM
This is huge.
h0mi @ Jul 11th 2007 1:11PM
You need a tv that can accept and process a 1080p signal for you to be able to tell the difference between 720p and 1080p. My VX37L accepts the signal over component but it is degraded and looks worse than 1080i or 720p (It's a 720p set). I'd imagine most other 720p TVs wouldn't even be able to process the signal in the first place, and most TVs sold are 720p sets, so I'm sure most people won't be able to see a 1080p signal.
Rob @ Jul 11th 2007 3:54PM
This is a great move by Disney to get more people to hound on MS to add a BD add on. It's also a great way to get Xbox owners who haven't bought any type of Hidef player to get a cheap wal-mart BD player this fall. Since Disney has stated a month ago that they are BD only, and that NA is the only place that a format war is even happening, that's my guess as to why they did this.
Seriously people. Funai will have a $199 BD player in Wal-mart this Fall. This wasn't reported here but http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/prnewswire/AQTU07910072007-1.htm Atmel has made an HDDVD or BD, CD, DVD, Drive that costs $5 in 10k unit orders. Pop in one of those $8 BD ONLY diodes and you have the reason that Funai can offer a $199 BD player. So for 5 million(NA) Xbox 360 owners who don't have an HDMI port, and the 4.8 million who don't have an HDDVD add on. They can just buy a True 1080p(HDMI) BD player with DVD upconverion. For who know how cheap come Christmas; that has 90% of the content from the last 4 years.. http://blog.pixelperfectproductions.com/?p=54
Not just Xbox owners what about the 30 million+ HDTV owners who haven't got a Hidef player but want to watch Hidef movies. Sony and Sammy's $299 price tag will look really good to people who don't want to "cheap out". BD will be on almost every HDTV owners wish list this Christmas. HDDVD is done, your just going to have to start accepting it HDDVD supporters. Acceptance is always the hardest step.....
Rob @ Jul 11th 2007 4:05PM
Oh and for anyone who is going to try and come back saying..... stand alone....... Here is a site that is set up by DISNEY, FOX, and Sony to PROMOTE BD.... http://www.hollywoodinhidef.com/
Xyzzy @ Jul 11th 2007 4:59PM
"Since Disney has stated a month ago that they are BD only,"
Kinda like Sony said LAST WEEK that there'd be no price cut on the PS3? :)
Bang @ Jul 12th 2007 6:29PM
I have a 100" 2.35 HD projector setup & yes Xbox w/ HDDVD drive connected.
I sit 14' from screen and can tell you that Xbox HD downloades are better than Comcast HD rentals. Both hooked up HDMI.
As for 1080 vs 720 vs 480. Above coment that says each are slightly better are correct. 720 is very good with good scaler/projector. I do love 1080 but that means buying or waiting for Netflix delivery.
I also applaud microsoft/disney on this deal as I'll bet that owners of XBox360 have kids. Majority of current movies on Marketplace are R rated. Great for me, but when I have to choose with kids watching, I usually have to swith to other rental option besides Marketplace.
hitu @ Jul 12th 2007 10:58PM
blu ray is far better than hd dvd and xbox 360 hd content.I will stick with blu ray.
JBDragon @ Jul 14th 2007 12:22AM
Blu-Ray better then HD DVD? What BS are you trying to pass around? If you mean DRM(Digital Rights Management) then sure, It's better as it adds on BD+ protection, which makes copying your Disc's much harder, or and course those extra features of being able to disable your Blu-Ray player if they want!!! Or not as drastic just not allowing you to play a certain movie. Other then that what? The extra 20 gig's? Not needed at all. In fact Blu-Ray is only recently caught up to the picture quality of HD DVD, and Sound on HD DVD still far better then Blu-Ray on many movies.
Now add all the Extra features HD DVD supports NOW, while Blu-Ray is still basically in BETA until at least October of this year to add the extra Java support so that the players can do all the things that ALL HD DVD players already do. Those of you suckers that already paid for a stand alone Blu-Ray player are out of luck for the Upgrade which means a lot of the extra Content that Blu-Ray movies will get that HD DVD already has on their movies won't play in your players! Time to buy a new one. Plus things like a Ethernet port still won't be a standard feature like on HD DVD which means you can't download new movie content onto your player if you were unlucky enough to buy a player with it missing.
Really what is so much better on Blu-Ray? Drinking the Sony Koolaid? Because we all know how THEY can be trusted, HAHAHAHA Better check out some real A/V Forums, and not the Sony ones.
If anything the news from MS getting all these Movies means Blu-Ray is even more pointless!!! If anything it may cause them to start releasing on HD DVD also. I will NEVER buy a Blu-Ray player or buy any Blu-Ray movies because I can't stand all the DRM that format has. Sony sure loves it though. All the control over YOU that they could ever hope for. No thanks. I would rather just keep using DVD then go that route.
jason @ Jul 13th 2007 7:24AM
i don't believe that walmart was going Bd only!
It was stated blu laser hd dvd. Plus this disney has little effect on me cuz in my country we don't get the XBLVM till later.
Mark @ Jul 14th 2007 3:05AM
Did anyone actually look at the titles announced? It's not "classic" Disney by any stretch of the imagination. Great press release title, just not that big a deal when you read the details.
Nfinity @ Jul 15th 2007 6:18AM
Wow, nice. Microsoft an HD DVD support in bed with Disney. Omg, is this Disney testing out alternate delivery methods as it's losing hope with Blu-Ray. Possibly. First XBox Live, after that they'll be going neutral and releasing on HD DVD. Just watch, I'm telling you.