I used LoveFilm streaming to the PS3 for several months but recently, I’ve been looking for an alternative. Ever since I decided that fuzzy streams of movies that had been on DVD for six months weren’t really worth paying £10 a month for. Having cancelled LoveFilm, after a blunt exchange with an offensively pushy phone operative, I started looking around for another way to get streaming movies.
The US has Netflix, of course, and apparently that’s a great streaming service which offers movies and TV series episodes. Here in the UK, we’re limited to the services provided by the platform holders, an expensive (if you’re not already hooked in with them) contract with Sky TV or LoveFilm.
I don’t have Sky TV in my house and although I’d love the sports channels, it’s not really an “on-demand” movie service and it ends up being prohibitively expensive, for me at least. So I discounted Sky via the Xbox 360 in my reckoning.
At this point in my search, I was approached by the Xbox Community Network with an opportunity to sample a few movies via the 360’s Zune streaming/download service. It was perfect timing and a great opportunity to explore what that service could offer.
[drop]The first movie I was asked to look at was Thor, Ken Branagh’s decent superhero flick that I’d seen earlier this year in the cinema. I had been looking forward to seeing it again in HD on it’s home movie release and had planned on buying the Blu-ray so this was a very welcome invitation.Unfortunately, the Zune service puts limitations on movies in terms of format and licence. So, I could only get Thor in standard definition and it wasn’t available to rent, only to purchase. Other movies can be rented and streamed in HD but it seems to be decided on a case-by-case basis. This meant that for the SD version of Thor, it costs 1770 MSP. That’s very roughly equivalent to £15. That’s ridiculously expensive. For comparison HMV, a retailer not normally known for its low prices, lists the Thor triple play Blu-ray, DVD and digital copy for £14.97.
I was impressed with how quickly the stream started (it was almost instant on my 20MB O2 connection) and the quality was certainly far greater than I had previously received with LoveFilm through the PS3 but it was still a little too fuzzy around the edges. Almost as if the whole picture had been softened to hide any blemishes. I was watching through a 37 inch LCD TV that performs brilliantly with hard copy media. I also noticed that the sound was seemingly inconsistent. It was generally incredibly quiet, so much so that the volume needed to be turned up to around 300 percent where it’s usually set. At times, usually during the action, it got incredibly loud and needed to be hastily turned down.
The movie itself is still one of my favourite Marvel superhero movies. Kenneth Branagh’s direction is as accomplished as ever, Patrick Doyle’s original score is a subtle but brilliant compliment and there are solid performances from Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Idris Elba (Heimdall) and Anthony Hopkins (Odin). Even Natalie Portman manages to put in a decent show as the Earth-bound love interest.
It’s a tale of redemption in which the Norse God Thor is given a kind of sci-fi origin story. Shamed by his arrogance, he’s stripped of his powers and banished to earth by his wise father, Odin. There he begins a journey which will see his fate intertwined with that of the Earth as he battles forces of evil to save his realm and ours.
[drop2]Of course, these Marvel movies are all working as a kind of elaborate set up for the Avengers movie that’s due next year but they are decent popcorn movies in themselves. I’m a comic book fan (although I favour DC to Marvel) and I enjoyed Thor immensely. I can also report that my wife, who knows nothing of the comics and relatively little of the Norse mythology, loved the movie too. Perhaps the inclusion of the Portman love interest plot thread serves its purpose in that respect.All in all, Thor is solid movie and the Zune Video Marketplace via Xbox 360 is a solid service. There is very little excuse for the price of an SD stream (which is also available to download for later) being so high and picture quality needs to see some improvement before I would recommend the service without hesitation but if those two points are addressed, Zune might be my streaming service of choice for the future.
Next week, I’ll be looking at Senna and giving the Zune service another look.
For more movie and television reviews and opinion, visit our sister site, ScreenDemon.com
teflon
How has the quality compared with Lovefilm’s streaming?
Another avenue you could look at would be Apple’s iTunes rentals, which can be watched they download I believe. Not sure if Amazon’s DL options are all in the US and handled by LF in the UK (now that it’s wholly owned by Amazon).
colossalblue
I addressed that above ;)
In short: much better than LF but still not good enough.
Murdo
Virgin has a lot of on-demand stuff too, if you are signed up. I remember my mum used it to watch Corrie while we were in Boston.
Tuffcub
Also: Chris Hemsworth is hot.
Kevatron400
Interesting read – although potentially a Screen Demon article instead? I guess it depends on if you want anyone to read it ;)
I like LoveFiLM just for the physical media-based rentals – their streaming is indeed a little bit naff.
colossalblue
It was an invitation to TSA, rather than SD. Unfortunately.
Ben
Peter is right though, the LoveFilm phone operatives are ‘offensively pushy’, they were on Watchdog last night for bad customer service.
Blayney
Enjoy Senna, it’s a brilliant film.
SpikeyMikey23
you sure you arent giving this xbox thing you speak of too much love cb? haha.
Good read, i havent seen thor and am looking forward to seeing it sometime soon. Red State today tonight though!! YASSS!
colossalblue
oh, I really want to see Red State, didn’t realise it was opening tonight. I’ll take some of my imaginary bribe money and see if I can find a screening!
My advice with Thor is to rent the Blu-ray. It’ll look great in HD ;)
SpikeyMikey23
it hasnt been well advertised, i saw it during an advert for the 20 shocking football manager appointments on it4 a few days ago
Jim H [Teabags]
I tried the 30 day trial but there just weren’t enough stream-enabled movies to be honest.
RudeAwakening
Didn’t know ye’s had a sister site in Screen Demon, must check it out.
Kevling
Nice write-up Peter, and a good film too. I picked up the triple-play disc from Sainsbury’s for £14.97 (HMV’s in-store price was £17.99 I think), so I now have it on three formats for the price of Microsoft’s one. I haven’t checked the PlayStation store for comparison, but I imagine it’s similarly expensive.
Amphlett
Price, price, price, price, price. The five things that all of the movie streaming services need to sort out. Get that right and people will flock to your service. Keep the prices high and the services end up with a split market where people buy in to the service, go looking for torrents or don’t bother at all.
Tuffcub
: Few weeks ago I met with my Hollywood producer chum, Don Murphy (Transformers, Real Steel, Natural Born Killers etc) and I asked him why film studios are insisting on pricing digital films at the same levels as physical copies.
“No fucking idea, it’s ridiculous and stupid, you would think would of learnt from what happened to the music industry”
Klart
The usual reply (for mvies & games) is they can’t/don’t want to undercut retailers.
I think it’s BS. People wil always want to pay more for the physical object.
And your chum is right: it’s incredible they are still so stupid after what happened to the music business.
colossalblue
*CLANG* Sorry TC, you seem to have dropped a name ;)
Yes, I completely agree. The movie studios seem intent on repeating the same mistakes that almost killed off the music industry.