July 19, 2008

Microsoft Winning Digital Living Room War on Paper, but Failing to Lock It Up in Practice

Few people wrote as bullishly as I did this past week about Netflix partnering with Microsoft to bring its “Watch Instantly” service to the Xbox 360. I think it could be a game changer and makes Microsoft the favorite to win the battle for the digital living room.

But that is on paper. In practice, there’s a different story. As I found out last night.

I haven’t rented a movie over Xbox Live in a long while, but seeing as I’m all excited for the Netflix titles to come to the console this Fall, I figured I’d start getting into it more. Last night I sat down to download The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. I figured it would take 5-10 minutes to get enough information to start playing and then go. Wrong.

2 hours later I was still waiting as the download pushed past 40%. Fucking ridiculous. I shut it off and went to bed.

How exactly Microsoft plans to use any service called “Watch Instantly” with wait times like this is entirely unclear to me. Why can you rent a movie on Apple TV and have it start playing within a few minutes, but on the 360 it takes several hours?

I just went from bullish about the 360 to extremely bearish. I’m tempted to sell my 360 and just get an Apple TV and a Roku box instead. In fact, I think I would if I didn’t mind having 700 goddamn boxes in my living room.

To me, waiting several hours before you can start watching a digital movie is utterly ridiculous. I mean, I may as well have gone to Blockbuster. It would have been MUCH quicker.

The fact that movies rented over the Apple TV start almost right away AND are cheaper than ones over Xbox Live, makes me wonder what on Earth I am paying for with Xbox Live’s $50 a year price. I don’t play games all that often and I like every Wii game better than any 360 game I own, so maybe I should just dump it.

Naturally, Apple TV’s interface runs laps around the 360s as well. It’s hard to find movies on Xbox Live, though a revamp is coming for it.

I’m sorry Microsoft, I tried to give you love for the great things you are doing with the Xbox 360, but like I said, that’s on paper. In practice it’s a much different story, and an extremely frustrating one. I’ll stick it out until the Fall to see if these issues improve any, but if not, I’m done with you.

I know that’s harsh, but that’s the way it is. Either you work, or you’re gone. And the current digital download offerings on the Xbox 360 just don’t work for me. Roku is faster and cheaper. Apple TV is faster, cheaper and offers a better experience. BitTorrent is faster and free.

These next few months will be a critical time for determining who can get the first real foothold for digital distribution in the living room. As John tells Jeremy in Wedding Crashers, “you better lock it up.”

[photo: flickr/aditza121]

 Posted at 2:15 pm by MG Siegler
Posted under: Entertainment, Technology Tags: , , ,
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  • Tim F.
    Shouldn't you test it BEFORE buying into a company's press release and proclaiming it a leader?


    Sadly, nowadays you get props for eventually getting around to it instead of just talking out of your behind. AND... you get TWO posts. Yay!
  • MG Siegler
    @tim - Microsoft's current offering is something completely different than what they are doing with Netflix. As I mention, if that service is as slow as it currently is now, it won't be the market leader.


    Unfortunately there is no way for me to test that now as it won't be out until late Fall. So calm down, last time I check I can write whatever I want. You're under no obligation to read it.
  • Tim F.
    I'm aware that the current offering is not the same as the NetFlix deal. (The NF content does start almost immediately, but it sucks.) That doesn't really change the fact that in your NF post you said you saw no reason to use anything but the 360. Turns out a reason was: you hadn't tried it.


    I never said you couldn't write whatever you want. But does that mean I can't comment that you are wrong?
  • MG Siegler
    @tim - no one knows how the NF content will be on the 360 - I assume you're judging by either the PC version or the Roku box version. One would have to imagine that it will be immediate, but why would Microsoft be able to do that for Netflix and not for its regular movies that customers are paying for?


    In fact I have used the 360 to rent movies before (which I note), but as I recall it did not take this long. I see no problem in making a new commentary based on this new experience.



    As the title indicates, I still think MSFT is the leader on paper, but it will have to lock it up in practice. It has some time before NF titles come in the late Fall, and that's why I note I'll stick around until then.



    I fail to see how the makes me wrong, it's just a commentary based upon a new experience. It certainly doesn't mean Microsoft won't be the leader in the field, I have to believe they'll correct this - I'm just noting that if they don't, they won't.
  • Anonymous
    This may be one of the more ridiculous bloggers I've hit from the Techmeme page. Since when do content-less, thought-less rants warrant front page on techmeme? Is the state of blogging really this bad? Jeez David Pouge is better than this.
  • Anonymous
    I still can't get over how damn loud the Xbox360 is just sitting there in the room with the power on. I had high hopes for it being the center of my multimedia center, but they are going to have to work on the hardware first. Its fine for games, which are interactive, but sitting there trying to watch a movie with that fan whining? Pass.
  • Devindra Hardawar
    The big difference is that the Xbox rentals/purchase get downloaded to your machine, whereas the Netflix watch instantly features are entirely streamed. While you're supposed to be able to start watching the Live video after only a bit has started downloading, it's obvious that's not always the case.


    Still, this isn't telling of how their Netflix integration is going to work. Most likely the 360 will be communicating to Netflix servers, not MS ones. (Honestly, MS wouldn't want to replicate their library, nor deal with the bandwidth costs) In that case, I would expect the same sort of speeds that we're seeing with the PC/Roku. At worst, it's taken me 2 minutes to connect to a Netflix watch instantly film.
  • TDavid
    MG - time to get some bigger pipe. We rent movies through the Xbox 360 and can start watching within 10-15 minutes typically.
  • Wade
    So let's be clear... you have an XBox 360, but do not have an Apple TV, and do not have a Roku? In the second half of the article, it sure shoulds like you've got one, but before that you said you're "tempted to sell your 360 and get an Apple TV instead."


    Get one, put it on the same connection, download that same movie at the same quality, and get back to us.
  • Lionel M.
    MG: As far as what to expect from the Netflix agreement, and how it will work, I think there are already some clues out there: the vmcNetflix add-in: http://yourblog.direct2dell.com/2008/06/25/alte... video quality needs and movie selection needs to improve, but it works without much of a delay.



    In my view, Microsoft's current problem with how they handle movie rentals and downloads is that it's tied too closely in the Xbox 360 blade structure. And I really hate that it's tied to the goofy point system and that there are seemingly several price structures. It makes it hard to figure out what you are actually paying for a given movie.



    That said though, I also use my 360 as a Media Center Extender, and for that it works flawlessly: IMHO, it blows away Apple TV in the music + slideshow interface, and it streams recorded HDTV content smoothly over Ethernet from my Dell XPS 720.



    Here's my point: I hope that Microsoft also builds the movie rental and Netflix streaming functionality into the extender part. It's interface is slick--probably even slicker than Apple TV with a LOT LESS menu clicks required (there are benefits to having a real remote to use, instead of the Apple TV one).



    I know MS will still also develop Netflix streaming in the Xbox 360 interface since only some of us use it as a media center extender... maybe that's why the new blade refresh is coming in the Fall timeframe.



    Lionel Menchaca,

    Chief Blogger, Dell Inc.
  • thomashawkaim
    Netflix Watch Now works great and fast on IE7. I have no reason to believe it will not be just as good an experience on the XBox 360.


    There are problems with Netflix Watch Now on the XBox 360. Lionel correctly points us to the VMC plug in which allows watch now on a Media Center PC today. The problem is though that for many people (including myself) this plug in is worthless because Microsoft's DRM will not allow you to play legitimate fair use paid for "Watch Now" from Netflix. Another example of Microsoft's DRM getting in the way of customers seeing content that they pay for legitimately. Makes you just want to go out and endorse BitTorrent all over again.



    "Watch Now" officially won't be coming to the XBox 360 until later this Fall. But even then someone made the idiotic decision to require a "Gold Live" package in order to get it. I have no use for Gold Live nor do I want it on my XBox 360. I'd especially prefer it *not* be on my XBox 360s as I'm not too keen on the idea of my young kids having access to chat and other services on the XBox 360 just yet. But in any regard it seems like a dumb tax for Microsoft to charge people to give them something that they can already get for free today on IE7 -- especially when they paid for the XBox 360 free and clear.



    My guess is that the content people at MSFT are not too keen on seeing "Watch Now" compete with other paid content on their box and so this "Gold Live" tax is a way to slow down it's actual adoption.
  • Anonymous
    I rent movies on the 360 all the time and its never taken more than 5 minutes for a Standard Definition movie to start. Ive also downloaded HD movies and they do take several hours to download, which is annoying but its also 5 times the size of a SD movie. So if u downloaded an HD movie you should have expected it to take several hours.
  • Toph
    Hold on a second--before you sell your Xbox, as a few other people have mentioned, you're waiting longer than you need to. That progress bar shows how much of the movie has downloaded so far. But you can start watching while it continues downloading. After a moment, maybe a minute max, you should get a notification saying your movie is ready to begin playing.


    It works very similarly to any other on-demand movie box, it's just that the interface is kind of clunky. I haven't really had a problem with it, but in any case, that's why they're doing the whole redesign--to fix exactly this problem. So if I were you I wouldn't give up hope yet. There's tons of great content now (and a ton of HD), a huge install base, and a fix to the interface woes on the way.
  • MG Siegler
    @devindra - good points, i'm sure the 360 will be talking to netflix servers too.


    @TDavid - just ran a speed test. 8 Mbps, if that isn't fast enough for Xbox's service, a lot of folks are in trouble.



    @toph - i know, but the 'play now' option still has not illuminated (i'm past 60% now after turning the system back on today). i assure you, i cannot play the file yet for whatever reason.
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