Xbox Live Video Marketplace downloads stalled by glitches

The two biggest questions since Microsoft announced its Xbox Live Video Marketplace have been: 1. does anyone still has enough space on their Xbox 360's 20GB hard drive for movie downloads in high definition? and 2. does anyone -- even the guys at Redmond -- have enough bandwidth to feed the HDTVs of millions of Xbox Live subscribers? Since launching two days ago those questions have been answered with a yes and resounding no, respectively. Users have complained of slow downloads that time out, receiving different files than the ones they requested and being charged twice when trying to complete timed-out rental downloads. Major Nelson has chimed in on the issue, letting us know that the company is aware of the problem and will refund Microsoft Points to all those who call 1-800-4MYXBOX for assistance. Good luck with that, though, as at least one person was told there aren't any managers available to refund customers until after the holiday weekend. So while network engineers and management sleep off yesterday's turkey and camp out for cheap plasmas, you may want to hold off trying to download Clash of the Titans in 720p 'till things get straightened out.

[Thanks, WiFiSpy]

Read - My Xbox 360 video rental nightmare
Read - Video Marketplace Status

[delerious @ Nov 24th 2006 2:45PM]

You know what's funny? I've been downloading Clash of the Titans in 720p for three days now. I hope this gets situated. I payed for a service, and I hope customer satisfaction is what M$ is about.

[Rick @ Nov 24th 2006 2:51PM]

Color me shocked. I wouldn't be surprised if their downloads were laced with ebola.

[Tim Cuculic @ Nov 24th 2006 3:03PM]

I started downloading V for Vendetta Wednesday night at 8:00pm. As of right now (Friday 3:00pm), I'm at 43%. (Cable modem hooked directly to xbox)

[LJKelley @ Nov 24th 2006 3:09PM]

I just got my 360 today, and I have noticed that Game Demos download a bit slow.. (considering I have a really good connection).

That being said... its a big launch and appearently more demand than MS anticipated. I'm sure it will be worked out in time...

I'm still amazed at how the games look on my 42" Plasma... I'm really blown away.

[sideshowRaheem @ Nov 24th 2006 3:16PM]

this is most likely being cause by the holiday week everyones home with nothing to do. Microsoft realy should look at this as almost a good thing, people are into this enuff to crash there servers.

[Will @ Nov 24th 2006 3:37PM]

A rental begins??? after the completion of a successful download or at the time of purchase?

The former makes most sense.
Being in Canada I can not yet use the Video Market place... I just wanted to thank our American cousins for debugging this system before it comes to the frozen North.
;)

[chris @ Nov 24th 2006 5:16PM]

A rental begins after you start watching the video.

[Lee Gibson @ Nov 24th 2006 4:02PM]

"I hope customer satisfaction is what M$ is about."

Uh huh. Let me know how that works out for you. You must be delerious [sic].

Oh wait, you are. Says so right there. Carry on!

[MarkZ @ Nov 24th 2006 4:20PM]

""I hope customer satisfaction is what M$ is about."

Uh huh. Let me know how that works out for you. You must be delerious [sic].

Oh wait, you are. Says so right there. Carry on!"

Have you ever actually /dealt/ with MS customer service, or are you just basing that on nothing at all?

[delerious @ Nov 24th 2006 4:51PM]

I'm sorry if I have delirious mispelled. I already knew this. I call myself delerious because I prefer it to be that way. (Toss the Grammar Nazi uniform, please.)

If you had understood how I wrote my sentence, I wrote out of sarcasm.

I called M$ two nights ago, and they didn't know how to resolve the problem that I had with my THX1138 purchase. I bought the movie three times, and I never recieved the rights to it. Customer support didn't know what to do, and then he walked to a guy that sent in my problem to Microsoft. I was told that M$ would contact me 4-5 days from then for a refund. I don't know if this will happen, and I highly doubt it. But, I hope I get my $9 back.

[HobbesIE @ Nov 24th 2006 4:09PM]

Could MS not implement some sort of P2P process for this problem a la Bittorrent?

When a user downloads a file from their server, should it not automatically be seeded to all other Xbox live users? There are a number of reasons this would work:

The people using Xbox live probably have super fast connections to the net with generous transfer allowances - gamers after all

There is a strong sense of community among Xbox users

Perhaps if the process was incentivised - seed a gigabyte of data - get a free demo game - something like that...

MS - feel free to use this - just gimme a nice free xbox!

[Eric @ Nov 24th 2006 4:26PM]

HobbesIE I understand what you are suggesting, but I think it would be wrong for any company to charge as much as MS does and rely on users seeding downloads. MS just needs to open their wallet and spend what ever it takes to get the problem solved. Maybe in the process of solving this problem they'll be able to provide us all more value for our money.

[Desdichado @ Nov 24th 2006 4:15PM]

It took me three days to get an HD CSI episode. Game demos still seem to be coming down at a decent (still too slow, but like normal) clip though.

[Justin Williams @ Nov 24th 2006 4:36PM]

Video Marketplace stalled when I saw how much of that 20GB hard drive each movie took up. Need. Bigger. Drive.

[qbert @ Nov 24th 2006 4:48PM]

I started my download on V for Vendetta about 5pm Nov 22nd. Currently im at 55% (1pm Nov 24).

[ciscomancer @ Nov 24th 2006 4:49PM]

I actually got hit with the double charge but still no movie. I called Xbox twice and got both of my refunds today. The second time I called this morning they were saying it is a networking issue and placing my 360 outside of my firewall will allow the download.

I have authenticated DSL so Poisedein in HD is not worth the PITA of configuring PPPoE on my 360.

[Tonicboy @ Nov 24th 2006 4:56PM]

Well, I for one have had a nightmare experience with the Video Marketplace. At 10am on Wednesday, I began to download "V for Vendetta". About 6 hours later, I received a terse message saying "Can't download V for Vendetta". Luckily for me, I was actually on my 360 at the time or else I wouldn't have seen even that paltry message. I went back to the item in Marketplace to see if I could fix or resume the download, but saw no such option. Afraid that they may not refund me if I repurhased the movie, I called Xbox Customer Support and spoke to a CSR for 15 minute, then was put on hold another 15 minutes while they waited for a Supervisor. When I talked to the supervisor, he took down some details then told me that they would refund me my points and that I should delete the movie and then repurchase it. A far as I was told, there was no option to resume an incomplete download. As a note, he also mentioned that many other people were calling to report the same problem.

Well, I deleted the incomplete movie file and repurchased the movie. But this time, instead of downloading for 6 hours, I immediately got the message "Points have been deducted from your account for this item, but media usage rights could not be downloaded. Please contact Xbox Customer Support. Status code: 8015000a". Oh, great, an even different problem. Well, I was done for the night and didn't feel like dealing with the issue any more that day, and then the next day was Thanksgiving of course. So this morning, I called them up again and again was put on hold 20 minutes to wait for a supervisor. Well, this supervisor told me that I should have kept the incomplete video because then I could redownload the movie. Huh? What? There is no such option. But he said he would go ahead and refund for one of the purchases anyway. WHAT?!?!?! Just ONE of the purchases?! He said that he couldn't help me for the first one because I deleted a movie that was downloaded (hello buddy, were you listening, the movie never finished downloading). Well, let's just say that I was EXTREMELY persistent and finally convinced the guy that I had done nothing wrong and he credited me for both failed downloads. I am now downloading the movie for a third time and let's just say that if it doesn't work now, they will never have me as a Video Marketplace customer again, ever.

[Eugene @ Nov 24th 2006 5:31PM]

Yep, this is exactly my experience. I tried downloading Star Trek II the other day and it started downloading at a whopping 30 K/s. After a few hours the download stalled and didn't complete, leaving me with an unusable temp file...and no way to redownload without deleting it...and forcing another charge.

[sideshowRaheem @ Nov 24th 2006 6:02PM]

Looking at Tonicboy's comment I think everyone should know that if your download times out or fails don't delete the parchaly downloaded file becaue you can restart the download from where it left off. Just go back into the maketplace as if you where downloading for the first time there should be a check mark next to the movie you where downloading just select it again and confirm the download agian you will not be charged again the download should pickup where it left off (at least it did for me the 2 time my download timed out).

[Tonicboy @ Nov 24th 2006 7:27PM]

@sideshowRaheem-

I briefly thought of doing what you said. However, when I went back to the Movie page and selected the HD version, the page showed that I would be charged the full price again and asked me to "Confirm Download". Not "Redownload" or "Resume Download". So, I didn't want to click Confirm in case they would charge me again and then customer support may claim that I downloaded it twice so they couldn't refund me. Are you saying that you were not charged points at the point it asked you to "Confirm Download"?

[Njoli @ Nov 24th 2006 7:41PM]

@Tonicboy

yes i went to confirm download again, i knew i would be charged because i didn't have enuff points for them to charge me again i figured it would download again for free or the marketplace would ask me to purchace more points, it fist showed 0% downloaded but i guess its smart enuff not to overwright an existing file with the same name so it then jumped to 65% downloaded.

[Matt @ Nov 24th 2006 7:28PM]

They should talk to my Buddies at Peer Impact who offer Movie Downloads ,Music and PC games via p2p combinded with thier own servers and give its customers a system credit for seeding .

http://www.peerimpact.com

[Njoli @ Nov 24th 2006 7:52PM]

BTW i am sideshowRaheem i just posted the reply under my real name. im not sure if this has worked for anyone else but me.

[keith waddington @ Nov 24th 2006 8:36PM]

in the common vernacular: microsoft sucks and you people are suckers.

Oh, if the download doesn't work on the THIRD attempt, I suggest you call them, argue for another 15 minutes, and then after you get your "points" refund, try all over again. Oh, yes, that's what I'd do.


Long live the Zune
waddo

[Rick @ Nov 24th 2006 8:56PM]

Dumb-da-dumb-dumb-DUMB!

[_man1c_ @ Nov 24th 2006 10:26PM]

yea its been bout 2days now and almost finally done dloading V for Vendetta.. :(

[pollya @ Nov 24th 2006 11:51PM]

give my husband one now

[Matt @ Nov 24th 2006 11:57PM]

Yup, I tried it Wednesday night and got taken for 160 MS points, wrote them an email, I'll call them on Monday. What a pain, I was curious and thats what I get for it.

[Jason Dorsey @ Nov 25th 2006 12:30AM]

Hang in there I'm sure they'll straighten everything out.

[willieboy @ Nov 25th 2006 4:46PM]

Wow, kind a like the old video arcade days.....What the hell is this token maddness....???? Points? Why? Why? Why?
Makey no sensy that we put up with microsofy shitty.....

[willieboy @ Nov 25th 2006 4:49PM]

I hear Xbox Service Pack 2 is coming out zune.....Sorry, could not help myself....