Xbox Live gets 1080p Zune video store, Netflix browsing, Twitter and Facebook integration
By Nilay Patel 
posted Jun 1st 2009 2:12PM
posted Jun 1st 2009 2:12PM
Today from the E3 stage in Los Angeles, Microsoft announced plans to dramatically improve their HD video offering through a new technology that enables instant on 1080p streaming with 5.1 audio with Zune video on Xbox 360.
This implementation is as close to a "disc in the drive" experience as possible over the Internet. At a high-level, here is how it works:
- Video startup is nearly instantaneous because of the back-end proprietary Microsoft technology developed by Zune that seamlessly transitions between many different bitrates and resolutions of video.
- Video playback will start at a low bitrate for fast download time and then ramp up to a higher bitrate and quality, up to 1080p with 5.1 audio.
- Features such as smooth fast forward and rewind that users have only seen before with local physical media.
- Social: We unveiled Movie Party, a feature where you can go to the movies with your friends whether you are sitting on the same couch or in living rooms across the country. Starting this year, you can share a virtual theater, see your Avatars (a virtual you) on the screen – all while you listen to each other laugh and cry together at the movie through voice chat on Xbox LIVE.
- New Regional Partners: Now, for the first time Xbox LIVE members in the UK and Ireland can watch live or on-demand TV with BSkyB on Xbox. Never miss a moment of your favorite live TV shows, sports, movies and family-friendly entertainment – even share your favorites with up to seven friends in an Xbox LIVE Party.
- Global Expansion: The 1080p streaming HD Zune video experience on Xbox LIVE marketplace is expanding to 10 new regions this year, making movies and TV shows available in 18 total countries including US, Canada, UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Australia, and New Zealand. (Note: content and partners vary by region)
So long as they don't charge $10 for a 1080 movie rental, I'm all in.
Sounds good! When will we be seeing all these new improvements :) ?
When is this landing?
come on guys, we know even though its 1080p video, the bit rate is gonna be so low that it will totally negate the benefits of the increased resolution. Disc format still provides the best experience
Oh because we all have blu-ray players...
(note: I do, and HD DVD too, but thats not my point).
Right.. it's gonna look like SD.. you are totally right LOL.
Just another nail in Blu-ray coffin. Everyone is going 1080p online now and this will be in 18 countries. The quality will be just as same as Blu-ray and improve even further. Every year there's less and less reason to own anything optical.
The future is here.
Um, just cuz something is 1080p does not mean it is the same quality as blu-ray. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if it looks no better than a standard DVD. The bitrate will be so friggen low that it will look like garbage. Blu-Ray is not dead. It's not going to be dead. Get used to it. Physical media is, and will always, be king.
@Nick
Obviously, you are speaking as someone who has no clue how actual Xbox Live movies and shows looked like in 720p. With Silverlight 3 engine that offers superb clean 1080p content with 4-6mbps bitrate at streaming 1080p will look pretty much the same or so close to Blu-ray that it will be negligible.
Seriously some of you people are talking about this as if the difference is so huge between Blu-ray and other 1080p sources that it's like SD vs HD or that it's unusable. I guarantee you that 99% of people will not see difference. Hell they can't see the difference when I play them Netflix HD vs Blu-ray.
Come on, get your heads out of Sony's asses please and maybe you should actaully see things and how they look before making idiotic statements like you did.
And you need an 8Mb/s connection for the 1080p service. This means that a large portion of consumers will not be able to have this service.
@Bozster
I doubt you have a decent movie rig if you can't see the difference between netflix hd and bluray. Most 1080p HD that is highly compressed with h264 is about 10Mb average and up to 40Mb peak. I have a 1080p copy of Ben Hur that has been compressed to garbage to make it fit on a DVD (Ben Hur is what, 3 hours long?). It doesn't look HD because the bitrate is so low. I'm not saying netflix hd doesn't look good, because it looks great. But unless the impending broadband crisis is averted and we all get 20Mb connections Bluray isn't going anywhere.
The next gen of optical media? You might be right.
Low bitrate 1080p and probably 2.0 sound. Snore...
720p looked fantastic. I can only imagine how great the 1080p will look like. Sound is surround Dolby Digital. Instant HD streaming. Amazing.
Low bitrate with same quality is the future. It's called technological progress.
The online digital content in full HD is better then ever now and Microsoft is leading the way.
So exciting.
Actually the zune marketplace videos will not only be in 1080p, but it will be in glorious 5.1 sound!
I don't understand why everyone runs around like a chicken with their head cutoff screaming that streamed 1080p content will always look horrible. I've seen some 6GB mkv Blu-ray rips that look amazing.
cool mafia wars on the 360
add me-lol
Is this great? I think might be but I'm not sure. And I was JUST considering not re-uping on XBL because I work too damn much. Guess I need to break out the ole Visa.
One thing that should be mentioned is the streaming is most probably based off the same IIS Media Services Smooth Streaming tech coming in Silverlight 3. Which is available for free http://www.iis.net/media
_WHEN_ is this going live? (no pun intended) I can't find when these changes are actually rolling out. (plus the last.fm stuff).
Time Warner, AT&T, Qwest, Charter and Comcast just went piss their pants happy.
this is bullshit
final fantasy was a sony exclusive.
MOTHER FUCK*R
I formerly worked for VUDU which delivered 1080p content instantly over a 4mb+ internet connection. Granted it was coming from a proprietary peer network and not a single bottlenecked Content Delivery Network but I feel I can intelligently discuss the topic.
VUDU had it easy in that they controlled the encoding, the network and the playback set top box so they could optimize the heck out of every step for optimal picture quality, and it worked. I would assume a solution from Xbox could come close. That being said, the instant 1080p24 with 5.1 Dolby Digital Plus from VUDU would play instantly at 4mb or above. Everyone knows that its' not the resolution but the encoded bitrate that matters. The picture quality for VUDU and I would imagine the Xbox service was not Blu-ray but rated better then the 1080i or 1080p content from DirecTV or Dish network with an excellent signal.
VUDU incidentally did offer a non real time format called HDX which was a much higher bit rate encode that offered Blu-ray quality video but no lossless audio (instead they used 640kbps Dolby Digital the same bit rate for DD that is found on Blu-ray, but Blu-ray offers Lossless audio which is obviously better then DD.) These HDX encodes were about 10gb in size and would take 2hrs of downloading before you could begin watching the film, regardless of how fat your pipe was. This is because VUDU capped downloads at 4mb.
It is possible to get great looking 1080p instantly at 4mb or above but not Blu-ray quality.
You can get Blu-ray quality picture streamed but would require a fat pipe or some downloading up front.
With streaming you will currently not get Blu-ray quality video AND uncompressed audio.
You will not get subtitles and multiple audio tracks.
You will not get bonus features or menu navigation.
You will not get flawless trickplay (FF, REW, Prev/Next Chapter) Although it sounds like this has been improved in MS's implementation.
In most cases you will not get the latest hollywood releases available to RENT the same day as the Blu-ray release, but most studios do allow you to BUY a digital copy the same day. Some studios do allow for rental from internet streaming networks (Warner Bros) but most put a delay of 2-4 weeks before that new hit movie can be rented from AppleTV or VUDU or Amazon. This will hopefully change in the future to be more like Warner Bros.
With Blu-ray you do not need an internet connection let alone a fat pipe. You will not need to troubleshoot port forwarding or firewall SPI stuff. You will not need to run network connections to every TV location in your house. So it's good for non-techies.
During my tenure at Kaleidescape I had to explain to people why Blu-ray wasn't all that great because players at the time sucked and Kaleidescape didn't and still does not support Blu-ray.
While at VUDU I had to try to convince people that Blu-ray discs were a hassle because of the need for physical media where VUDU gave you instant access to 12,000 titles instantly.
Now at NiveusMedia I embrace Blu-ray because it's what our servers are based on but also for the simple fact that a lot of people out there love to collect shiny discs, love to have a hard copy backup, love being able to loan or borrow Blu-ray with their friends/family, appreciate the superior picture and sound as well as ease of use.
Having all 3 systems in my home (and a lot more) I can easily say that my preference is for physical discs (preferably archived to a network server and streamed to multiple players throughout the home)
But you can not ignore the transition to internet streaming networks like VUDU, AppleTV, XBOX/Zune, Amazon Unbox, Netflix. These services are great and can supplement an entertainment system but are not going to displace the physical disc for many years to come for the non-engadget crowd.
Brilliant...
fantastic post!! thanks!
I forgot to add, MUST get this Zune Video and Music store integrated in Media Center. Why I can not buy music or videos from within the Media Center interface is beyond me. I am way more likely to make more purchases if i can do it all lazy like with a hand held remote while sitting on the couch and staring up at a big TV.
PLEASE bring Zune store to Media Center!!!
Gesture control and whole body motion sensing coupled to voice and face recognition was the big deal for me.
No real need anymore for keyboards, or mice & or game controllers.
The sort of easy control we saw in 'Minority Report' is here.
Amazing.
So many new avenues in PC & gaming opened up right there.
Instant 1080p with 5.1 surround sound is all the mass-market will care about.
It's now here.
Digital downloads able to take the maket by storm, and it all is happening a lot faster than anyone imagined.
Has anyone got a link to a decent discussion aimed at the tech aware layman & non-profession on how Silverlight 2/3 works?
The Natal thing seems extraordinary, a bit like the Toshiba hands free demo a few months back that the usual culprits bagged for being useless, wonder if there is a tie up with Tosh?
It seems extraordinary and revolutionary, I can see it being huge.
Of course I should add that coupled to a big screen/monitor there's obviously going to be a nice application here to controlling our a/v kit, hopefully.
No more remotes and if tonight's demo is telling us the whole truth then accessing menus and controlling our audio/video content looks like it could hardly be easier (or cooler).
Talking and waving to control everything.
Wow.
Talk about the future arriving, it's a gear change up in tech for sure.
Now we just have to see it implemented with style and imagination.
all the above info sounds good (except that i cant get the EPL games in the US) but when are they going to release a patch where xp sp3 will work with the xboxs media center application?
How will 1080p playback work for non HDMI port boxes?
Xbox's VGA can carry 1080p IIRC.
Not sure how HDMI and any of the various DRM cr@p we've been saddled with will work with that but that's hardly Microsoft's fault (alone).
.......and I'm sure the PS3 fanboy gang will be only too happy to point out that surely even non-HDMI Xbox (ie early Xenon mobo one) will be dead by now?
Right?
Xbox 360's component cable will carry 1080p, it just depends on whether the TV will accept 1080p over component.
Ooops, sorry for the typo
That should have been "every non-HDMI Xbox".
I'm sure this'll be great, don't get me wrong, but everyone has been saying that "blu ray is dead in 2 years" for like 5 years. It's not gonna happen. As long as there is a market, there will be discs. If the content is the same, then it costs nearly nothing to port download to discs, and it remains profitable, so blu ray will continue to live until someone creates something far better. Period. Until 8mbps internet is available everywhere on the planet, discs will have utility, so there will be demand.
Stop saying blu ray is dead, you're an idiot.
Agreed. It just sound so stupid to hear people say that BD is dead when it's doing nothing but picking up steam. Streaming and downloads are great, however, so is BD. Why is this so hard for some people to understand??
How come no one is talking about the remote less, handsfree application for the 360, that is revolutionary, blows the wii and PS3 in the weeds!
The bit rate is going to be SO low for current internet speeds that the video quality will never reach anything near a blu-ray disc. Then there is the issue of EXTREMELY compressed Dolby Digital, probably even more compressed than a DVD, which is very compressed. It is going to be a very long time (years) before you can get a selection of movies to watch that equals the quality of blu-ray in sound and picture. Maybe some folks are fine with the lossy audio and lower quality 1080p picture, but I'll take a blu-ray disc anytime for my 150" screen and Epson 1080 projector and lossless audio for my stereo system, thank you very much.
I recently purchased (already have a PS3) the Samsung 2550 blu-ray player which was an open box at Best Buy for $99, mainly for the Netflix streaming. Sometimes, the quality is decent, most of the time the quality is awful compared to the DVD, and the sound is worse because it is compressed, according to AV Techi to 122kbps or less. That is REALLY degrading the sound worse than an MP3. Now let's look at a well-pressed blu-ray disc.....sound of DTS Master Audio at 4-6 Mbps (Megabites not kilobites), I say I will enjoy my movies on Blu until they can equal the quality, and with bandwidth and speed times, that's years away.
Not all countries get a fiber obtics connection, much less the all the 50 states. you would need at least a 7mb internet connection to stream the blu-ray quality video, and even then the A/V would sill be compressed. And the 7mb of internet would be directd towards streaming the movie while other people in the house would get a slow internet connection. What they need to do is have more support for physical or plug and play media, so everything works locally.