What can you do in 15 minutes??

Well some have said you can make a sandwich, do a quick load of laundry, partially install DMC4 on your PS3, and now according to Virgin and MS, you'll be able to download HD movies.

http://www.techradar.com/news/home-cinema/high-def-movie-downloads-in-15-mins-270136


"Xbox Live high definition movie downloads should take between 15 minutes and half an hour to download by the end of the year on some broadband services, according to Virgin Media and Microsoft today.

A Virgin Media spokesperson informed us that the company's 50MB broadband service will be made available to over nine millions homes by the end of 2008 - over 70 per cent of Virgin Media's entire network."

I think the big news here is that the "networks can't handle it" and "would take too long" arguments have now been voided in the U.K.. And its not a matter of "if" this will happen in other European countries and NA, but "when"?

I don't see this killing the Blu Ray, but its just one more thing they'll need to compete against.

I wonder how happy you were to post this?

Also, I love the thread title... It's full of win.

is it free ?

if now, how much do you pay ?

and how many time are u allowed to see ur movie ?

people prefer paying offline over paying online

people prefer material media

and finally, it is limited to the Xbox360 AND only the model Premium/Elite
(Yes, arcade has no hdd)

when will it happen to Europe ?
in 2-3 years, at best.
peole just dont know Xbox name ...

>"Xbox Live high definition movie downloads should take between 15 minutes and half an hour to download by the end of the year on some broadband services, according to Virgin Media and Microsoft today.

keyword: SOME... wake me up when I can do over 100kb/s download via my $40+ monthly cable internet with 25GB quota.

do you realize how much a 50mbps connection would cost?

Also this wont effect sales of disc media at all. Look at the music industry there will still be another 10 years before itunes and the other download services take over the music market.

Both in Portugal and in Sweden, I can download movies pretty quickly even with P2P programs. With a decent content distribution network, this is not surprising for some European countries, broadband tends to be good and cheap here.

There are three problems here. Microsoft overcharges customers for their content. They have no system in place for discard and reacquire. You need truly massive hard drives if you want to use them as high definition video libraries.

The music story is a completely different scenario then video. Downloads of music have incredible advantages among them. You do not have to buy an entire CD to get two or three songs you want. That means it is far cheaper. The removal of media makes listening to music far more convenient. Having a thousand songs on a MP3 player is incredibly convenient. None of these things apply to video formats.

Until Microsoft ensures the right to unlimited downloads of items you have purchased. Provides a compelling price point, and at some point actually provides a means to burning your download only material to a disc. The concept will never overtake physical media. Honestly I do not see the latter two ever happening out of Microsoft, but here is hoping they do get around to the first. That would make data management a little less harsh on consumers.

@Dodece
I don't think this thread is meant to promote microsoft's downloading service. It is to say that internet networks are beggining to handle HD downloads in 15-30 minutes. If microsoft doesn't adapt with the change, they will not be the leader in that industry.

 My 100mbps connection costs just over $35 ;-p

wow....50 meg internet? Yeah...blu ray isn't being clipped, because I have 30 meg ResNet here at Purdue, other than DC++, my downloads from a site with a GOOD SERVER top out at about 1 mbps. Now considering that HD movies are about 5 GB.....that would take 5000 minutes.....which translates to about 3.5 days.

Now, take into consideration that my internet was relatively cheap ($65 a year) because MY SCHOOL pays for part of it. If this were a home service, then you're talking about $1000 a month. Now increase the speed to 50 meg.....yeah, I doubt Blu-ray is gonna be effected by this, especially since you're talking about Xbox live, and the PS3 has been outselling the 360