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Bugs Plague New Xbox 360 Video Service
eldavojohn writes "The BBC is running a story on problems with the Xbox 360's HD video service that went live a few days ago. I have wondered quite a bit how Microsoft runs the proxy caches for this service and how they are ensuring that their end consumers are not creating high amounts of internet traffic while downloading HD video." From the article: "Gamers can buy TV programmes but the movies are rented and are automatically deleted from the console's hard drive after a fixed period. 'We've made progress over the past 24 hours, and the team is dedicated to fixing the issues and continues to work as fast as they can around the clock to get the service running as seamlessly as you have come to expect,' wrote Mr Hryb, who is Xbox Live's director of programming, on his Major Nelson Xbox blog.
I'm surprised there aren't a million "Zomg! Microsoft is teh sux, x rullzz" (where x is the name of their console of choice) comments already. The troubling thing is that Nintendo seems to have the same problem, and I bet once Sony has stuff to sell in their online PS3 stores they'll suffer from it as well. It is obvious that there is a demand for online movie/ television sales, but this raises a damn fine question, are ISPs really able to dish out enough bandwidth? I think that while we are entirely ready to receive these services it is evident that our ISPs and Microsoft's/Nintendo's/Sony's server farms are not ready to provide us. I see in the news all the time that in the UK and Japan 10MBit/S connections are fairly common, but here in the US and Canada a 1 to 3 MBit/S connection is fairly uncommon. (Keep in mind I'm talking about home connections, not business or corporate)
It's like our ISPs are keeping their services low, their profits high, and their pockets lined. . . But that's a whole other ballgame. . .
disclaimer: I've been known to store numbers in my ass for which to dig out when quantities are required.
The God's honest truth is that the general bandwidth available and the 360 hard disk size conspire against downloadable HDTV content. If you're using this service, you're basically trying a beta service that going to have difficulities until the consumer infrastructure is updated.
That said, this is the future. Pure and simple. IMHO, Bluray and HDDVD disks will not gain traction in this generation, and will end up losing to download services like iTunes and 360 Videos. So keep an eye on this space, but expect a few bumps until the technology is ready.
(Not that Bluray and HDDVD isn't without their own bumps...)
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What resolution are the shows and movies? I've read that they sell them in HD and SD, but it is like Apple's definition of HD, which is something ridiculous like 640 pixels wide? How is the compression?
I don't have a 360 yet but this service interest me very much. Info would be much appreciated.
But.. if this was another one of Sony's screwups, they'd be vilified as being "evil" here on /. at this time. Or if it was Nintendo, people would be claiming that Nintendo's screwups just make things more fun or some such nonsense.. =P
Yeah, so this does in fact suck for people wanting to use this service. OTOH, it's a hard problem, and I don't see any other company offering a similar service. I didn't expect this to go off without a hitch.
So, I take it you'll give Sony an equally easy pass when their HD movie download service has similar growing pains?
Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
Currently most rental places have eliminated late fees (with a small restocking fee after a week)
Please explain how a "small restocking fee" after returning a movie after a fixed period of time isn't a "late fee." Just because they're calling it something else doesn't change what it is.
Isn't a full HD rip of a 1 hour show a few gigs?
19.4Mbps (MegaBits) max. ~8.25GB/hour including any commercials. Then again, that is using MPEG2 with the ATSC (Broadcast DTV standard). Microsoft could be compressing the movies with WMV9 or h264 or one of the other compression standards and achieve a better compression ratio for the same quality. Theoretically, h264 and WMV9 could achieve a full hour in 4GB with the same quality, it would require a lot of adjustment, but given the amount of computing power MS has, they could do it.
Fly me to the moon Let me sing among those stars Let me see what spring is like On jupiter and mars
I wonder when the time out starts:
.... downloading .... .... 5 days later ....
1) pay for movie, expiry time set to 4 days, download begins
2)
3)
4) download complete.
5) Your movie has expired. Would you like to renew your rental for 4 more days?
6) Profit X 2
most late fee are per day late the restocking fee is the same if you are 1 day late or 20 days late
Yeah, well that's certainly not a restocking fee. It's a flat rate late fee.
1) Yes, Amazon needs to "wootify" their servers. (Actually Woot.com goes down every day also...) I also missed out on the $100 Xbox deal, but it's no biggie since I already have one. (Was trying for a friend of mine.)
2) The fact that Microsoft's servers are literally OVERLOADED with people trying to use a gaming console for video shows that there seem to be a good many people wanting to do that. I mean, I know the whole "everybody thinks exactly like me!" disease is rampant here on Slashdot, but when the *article itself* shows that you're wrong, you'd think you'd hold-off posting it.
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