Nice HD Download Service M$. NOT

[BlackHitachi]

Don't be TOO jealous. It costs me $65 a month..... $50 for the 10MB speed, and an extra $15 for the "Boost" to 30. (It would be $10 cheaper but I don't subscribe to cable video)

I pay $65 for 10 down and 1 up. charter in medford. i could get the 10 dollars off but cable sucks!

 

[hpman247]

Don't be TOO jealous. It costs me $65 a month..... $50 for the 10MB speed, and an extra $15 for the "Boost" to 30. (It would be $10 cheaper but I don't subscribe to cable video)

I'd easily pay that and more for that speed. And TNGTony should come by and delete the post b/c it is "off topic." I'm starting to hate this forum now too.

 

[BobMurdoch]

All righty then..... Recorded another Jericho episode last night. Standard def. Three minutes after I started the download, it let me start watching...

Service is pricey compared to just recording it to a DVR, but useful to grab episodes you've missed or to catch up on new shows that you've discovered.

 

[meStevo]

No new Jericho till 2/2007



/fidget

 

[BobMurdoch]

That's OK... I like this Stargate esque method of airing shows.... No repeats, and when they are back on you have expectations of a new episode every week....

 

[mikley28]

All righty then..... Recorded another Jericho episode last night. Standard def. Three minutes after I started the download, it let me start watching...

Service is pricey compared to just recording it to a DVR, but useful to grab episodes you've missed or to catch up on new shows that you've discovered.

Or your DVR messed up on...

 

[JoeSp]

But at least you can get that speed BOB. Where I am in N.C. cable has just now started approacing the 6mb range and they still are not down my street. 1/2 mile away and setting!

 

[BobMurdoch]

Yeah, I got quoted in a PC World article about Cablevision's top speed when I responded to a survey of theirs to my email....

It is kinda cool to download huge HD movie trailer downloads in no time flat....

I ran a speed test on a website and it appraised my speed subjectively as "Unbelievable".

 

[KwestJones]

I am disappointed MI:III is not in HD....

 

[Kaydigi]

I am disappointed MI:III is not in HD....

You are not the only one. I wonder if there is a reason for not including it.

 

[Paradox-SJ]

Is anyone else disapointed in the quality of the HD encoding? I downloaded Superman Returns last night and it wasnt barely DVD quality.


I hope this improves soon

 

[BobMurdoch]

I'm still amazed that a 5GB supposed HD download can look as good as it does.....

They'll never be HD DVD quality, unless they start supplying us with much bigger hard drives and broadband speeds get much faster....

 

[hpman247]

I'm still amazed that a 5GB supposed HD download can look as good as it does.....

They'll never be HD DVD quality, unless they start supplying us with much bigger hard drives and broadband speeds get much faster....

Well don't call it F'ing HD then. If sony was calling that garbage HD everyone would be on them and you know it. I really don't care if M$ calls it HD, but the fact that one company can do it w/o being ratted on and another can't is BS. I'm not the kind of person to do that though, but I always have to post stuff like this which seems like i'm against the 360 b/c of all those 360 die hard supporters that only want to bash.

 

[BobMurdoch]

Hey, I'm with you on this one. I had watched the first episode in HD, and the second in SD. Not a lot of difference so I just watch the SD episodes after that and saved the extra buck or so per download....

The 3 minute 2GB movie trailers look good though. It's just a mathematical impossibility to have a 5GB 90 minute HD program look as we would expect...

 

[shanewalker]

I don't have the benefit of a new 1080p monitor, but on my 2-yr-old Sony 55" RPTV (which nevertheless, still does a great job w/ HD, btw)...I'd have to say that the two HD movies I've viewed through the Microsoft download service looked pretty darn passable.

No, they don't have quite the punch of my HD-DVD titles. But they sure as hell look better than DVD. It's not perfect HD--but it's HD alright. The VC1 compression, even at 6GB file sizes, impressed me. I only saw artifacting once, and these films ('Poseidon' and 'The Wicker Man') had plenty of compression-challenging material...water, fire, light gradients, flash cuts, etc.

The speed of the download might need some tweaking--but its my ISP that holds some of the blame, I realize, as I'm on medium-speed DSL.

Overall, as I've said, I was quite impressed w/ the service. I'm just hoping they get enough of a positive response that they'll enhance/expand the service...more titles, tweaked encodes w/ mandatory 5.1 audio, etc.

 

[BobMurdoch]

A lot has to do with your ISP speed. i have 30mb downstream from Cablevision's Optimum Online Boost and I can start watching content less than 3 minutes after I trigger the download. The download speed always outstrips whatever data I am chewing through watching the content in the buffer.... (I really like being able to start watching something while the rest downloads in the background)