3 things I would quickly change about Xbox Live Videos

Well, after a few interrupts during the download, I woke up this morning to find the HD version of "V for Vendetta" on my Xbox 360. I haven't watched it but I have 14 days to watch. Or do I? Now Microsoft has been responding to the various issues folks are having, but there's still room for improvement. Here's my suggestions:

1. Don't start the 14-day window for a movie viewing until I actually HAVE the movie. I don't know when my download completed but I know when I started it because I snapped a picture. It was two days ago at 10:57 a.m. I saw my download completion this morning at 8:55 a.m. and saw that I had "12 d and 2m" to watch the film. I'm no math major, but that means the clock started when the download started. No good.

2. I really like the idea of downloadable TV episodes. It's great that the XBox Live Marketplace tells me the name of the episode and the number, but how about showing the original air date? "CSI, Happenstance, Episode 8" might be the one I want from last week, but then again, how the heck do I know? You're not going to make me surf over here to find out are you?

3. I realize the downloads are large, especially for high-def movies that can top out over 6 GB, but there needs to be a better distribution system that's highly scalable or this will fail before it gets off the ground. Folks are saying they started downloads three days ago that they still don't have and my own experience was two days. A scalable, quick fix has to be implemented and soon. I won't say "P2P" out loud, but it's worth considering.

4. If an Xbox 360 is a Windows Media Extender for a Windows Media Center, hows about we get some video transcoding for the Zune? Yes, I know I said "three things", but if you want to compete with the iPod video offerings, you have to let us take our content with us. I can live without the movies since we're renting them on demand (provided you don't demand a movie for a day or three), but if we own the right to keep the television episode files, how about we carry 'em around too?

Comments

[Robert]

Pretty funny... 2-3 days to download a movie. It's faster to go to the video store, watch the move and return it then to use an "on demand" delivery system. Thanks for a good chuckle :-)

[Tablet PC User]

I agree with #1, and #4.

As for #2. Telling me the day a show aired is useless for me since my weeks go by days and not dates (ex. Saturday is for cleaning; Monday is for the family). Hence, the "preview" is more useful since I can see if it is the episode I wanted.

#3 - P2P? You mean I have to share my bandwidth with other people and pay for the movie?!?! HAAAH! Never going to happen! I suggest that MSFT uses some sort of pre-caching (Akamai?) where several servers are hosting these movies.

@ Robert...

Yes it maybe faster to go to the movie store but here are the advantages of "on demand":
1- I don't want another subscription service to rent movies
2- No late fees ever!
3- No scratches from the previous renter that doesn't know how to use a DVD player
4- HD Movies without having to pay for the XBOX 360 HDDVD add-on (that's about 33 movies I can watch before I spend as much as the HDDVD add-on!)
5- No need to be hit by a car due to the silly drivers out here! :P