Do you download movies on PS3 or Xbox 360?

[landzw]

moviepro net is my main source of downloading , its not perfect but its getting there , you can download films and store them to a usb device and play through your xbox 360 or you can use your windows media player to stream films to your xbox, or if you have a mac you can download software to stream films

The only one problem you will have if you download HD films with DTS ( sound ) you may need to convert the file unless you have an optical running to a DTS decoder from your xbox 360

 

[Tom Moreno]

The Missus and I watch a lot of movies. The primary source is from our ever-growing Blu-ray collection and Blu-rays rented from Lovefilm. We also watch films on Sky Movies and, from time to time, Xbox Live. I'd say quality-wise the rentals on Xbox are at the bottom of the pile and we would never choose to watch the same film downloaded over a Blu-ray, but Xbox Live has given us an easy last minute "want to watch something random" ability that means we've not walked into a blockbusters in years. We recently watched a 1080p film off of the new Zune service and it was better than the 720p quality, but just cannot compare to the bitrate you get on Blu-ray. I would say that in my experience pixel count probably accounts for 30% of picture quality with 70% being a result of bitrate. The beauty of the Xbox Live Video Marketplace, though, is the instant access for impulse viewing, and lower quality HD is an acceptable tradeoff for the times that you just fancy something off the cuff.

 

[landzw]

I'm suprised you watch films from normal Tv Tom as i bet the bit rate isn't very good ,

It seems to me people are blinded by the quality of blue ray and seem to think people shouldn't use a lesser quality of media

Not everyone wants to use blu Rays , some still love the DVD , some love using apple Tv , some use only Sky+

Some people can't afford to keep up with tech like i use to find when i was into gaming Pc's spending £600 - £800 a year on new gpu's / cpus and faster memory , it would be like me telling you your computer isn't good enough so why are you using it ? you should have one of these

The hole idea of a forum is to help people to use what they have and to give advice not to keep going on mindlessly about bit rates and you could have a better product if you spend an extra £100 on a blue ray player then £5 for HDMI and then £18 per blue Ray Discs it doesn't make sense to some of us , Not to mention if your TV isn't up to it like mine was to Run Blue Ray smoothly , so i sold the player

I now downloaded films , divx and 720p from a separate internet source which the 720p quality is better than a dvd with picture and sound for less than a quarter of the price of a blue ray , not only that my Tv can handle this media with no problems . I admit its not blu ray but it does the job i require

 

[sc1]

Downloaded Grosse Pointe Blank from PS3 store. 720p only, stereo sound only, HD can only be rented not purchased, took over 24 hours to download on supposed 8mb broadband (actually 2mb). Quality not very good, barely, if any better than dvd played on same machine. Also had to load on credit in £5.00 amounts when films cost e.g. £3.49 to rent or £8.99 to buy. No wonder people download illegally when only other legal alternative is apple, which is massively overpriced and limited to being played on their dedicated hardware which has a paltry hard drive.

 

[Gimp67]

As mentioned above, it horses for courses. Some people want the best of pic/sound or nothing at all. Others are content to accept compromise for convenience.

As to watching movies on Xbox360, I regularly watch US TV shows downloaded from P2P sites (Battlestar/Clone Wars/True Blood/V 2009 etc). Rather than download the standard def AVI files, I hunt out the larger 720p MKV files (about 1.3GB per 40 min episode as opposed to 350MB for SD). As the Xbox 360 does not recognise MKV files (though the MS Media Player does - crazy eh?), I convert the files to AVI using XenonMKV freeware. This gives a good picture in my view, but dumbs down the sound to 2 channel.

I know the P2P legality issue raises it's ugly head here, but the way I see it, if you are watching a show that has already been aired across the networks what's the issue? I do see movies on offer as well, I just choose not to download them. It's like owning a kitchen knife and choosing not to stab your neighbour with it. If someone does, do you make all kitchen knives illegal?? Discuss ...

 

[landzw]

I agree with Gimp69 if you haven't already noticed , there is a little more to life than worrying about a degrade in quality in picture and sound , The picture and sound quality maybe not the best but are still very good from downloaded media and perfectly watchable .

I also download mkv 720p films and then convert them for the xbox 360 but keep the originals for when i get a media player i can stream to directly

For anyone using a MAC , Emicsoft MP4 Converter is the software i use , this also converts media and audio to anything you want , you can download any film and convert it to apply Tv or maybe your media phone