As we reported earlier, Xbox Live will be offering movie downloads. Apple previewed their iTV product two months ago but Microsoft came in and beat Apple to the punch as the battle for your living room continues. Another thing Microsoft did that Apple seems to have trouble doing is getting studio support for downloading from movie studios (Disney excluded). Finally, the idea of Internet delivered content on TV will become a reality. But I have been enjoying this for over a year.

Well, I haven't been able to download commercial content , but using a "hacked" original Xbox running the open source Xbox Media Center 2.0 (XBMC) I can stream any content from my computer to my TV. And unlike the Xbox 360 which is limited to the WMV format and iTV which will most likely cater to whatever they sell at iTunes, XBMC supports everything under the sun including H.264, AVI, MOV, MPEG, and even DivX. In addition to the wonderful content I download, I can stream Internet video straight from the web including Google Video, YouTube, Apple Movie Trailers and CNN news headlines. This first generation gaming console has all of my audio/visual entertainment covered.



However, your average TV viewer will not want to even get close to the technical process of getting XBMC to work. That is where the commercial players come in. Although Apple's solution hasn't been officially announced, Microsoft has the edge here too as the 360 can not only stream content, but play HD-DVDs and games as well. Compare that to the iTV that looks aimed to simply stream media. Xbox 360 with a wireless adapter comes in at $480 while the iTV is expected to ship for $299. While $180 more, but with more features to make up for that premium, the Xbox 360 is certainly more bang for the buck. And after these mainstream devices make their first push, secondary companies will fill in the void for demands that aren't met and at a cheaper price.



Now what will this mean for you, the potential provider of content? Well this will surely be another outlet for your work. An outlet that combines the resolution and quality of TV, but the convenience of the Internet. The formats which these two devices will support will become an important factor for distribution. And while Apple and Microsoft will push their content for sale, there is no reason why you, the self-reliant filmmaker, can't sell your own download that customers can watch on their TV in HD thanks to the efforts of the big guys to push new media into the living room. There are promising times ahead and the more competition the better for everybody. So get ready to serve up some fresh media as high quality Internet video is headed for the living room.

Further Reading:
http://www.applegazette.com/itunes/xbox-vs-itv-microsoft-drops-a-bombshell/
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061107-8163.html
http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=2211