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70 GB hard drive spotted, HD DVD useless?
Hot on the heels of the confirmation of downloadable movies and TV shows on Marketplace comes this picture from a recent Microsoft press event. If you look closely, you'll notice that the hard drive has an entire 70 gigs free. In other words, that larger hard drive rumor has surfaced yet again. Given all the recent announcements, it's fairly safe to assume a larger hard drive is coming. It's just a matter of when. We're betting that you won't see these larger hard drives before Christmas. Microsoft might announce them -- especially in the wake of the Video Marketplace -- but we doubt they'll release them. Why not? Because Microsoft wants to sell as many 360 HD DVD players as possible, and a larger HDD plus Video Marketplace is in direct competition with that. Of course, this brings up an interesting quandary: knowing that you'll be able to download HD movies and (probably) get a bigger hard drive, are you still interested in the HD DVD player?[Via Engadget]
Xbox Live Video hands-on
We snagged a few shots of Microsoft's new Xbox Live Video HDTV and HD movie download platform tonight. There isn't a whole lot to say since there was essentially zero mystery excepting seeing the actual XBL interface in person, but you should still click on to see a screen-by-screen of how you'll be wasting all those Microsoft Points this fall/winter.Update: Microsoft called to let us know that the prices on the downloads (as photographed after the break) are actually not finalized, but are essentially placeholder values. We were told that the actual prices on these downloads would more than likely go down, so don't count on these figures being accurate at launch day.
Microsoft's Xbox Live Video: HDTV and HD movie downloads for your 360
This may sound a bit familiar to those paying close attention, but on November 22nd -- the year anniversary for the Xbox 360 -- Microsoft is announcing something fairly momentus, not for the gaming community, but for the CE industry. The Xbox 360, along with Akimbo, will be among the first mass-market devices able to download high def television programs -- and the first we know of in the states able to download HD movies. The service is called Xbox Live Video, and the fall update enables customers to spend their Microsoft points on standard and HD television from CBS, MTV, Comedy Central, VH1, Turner, and UFC, as well as HD movies from Warner Bros., Paramount, and so on. We're still a little in shock, ourselves, that Microsoft was able to in one fell swoop hit TiVo, Apple, Netflix, and a handful of others, but looking at Live over the last year, the move isn't that massively surprising. Of course, not even the vision of on-demand HD movies and TV downloads in six million homes at the flick of a switch could be without its variety of niggling concerns; being that we all know the devil's in the details, click on to get the particulars of the service.
