Starting November 22nd, you're going to be able to download and store movies and TV shows in HD. There's already ads up in the Xbox Live Marketplace touting the feature. No word on pricing yet, but hopefully it'll be competitive and cheap, since you're not really buyig the content it seems, but renting it. Yet another good reason to get your ass onto XBOX live.

Of course, since digital information is no longer gotten without a healthy amount of strings attached, here's the breakdown.

• -Microsoft has not yet disclosed pricing for downloads, but it will be in Microsoft points.

• -Movies will be "rental" only, TV for "purchase" only.

• -At launch there will be over 800 hours of SDTV, and 200 hours of HDTV.

• -Neither TV nor movies are streamed; they are only downloaded, although you can stream short preview clips from the Live interface.

• -You can only download content to your Xbox 360 drive -- not to an external drive.

• -Your "purchased" TV programs can be downloaded an infinite amount of times to an infinite amount of consoles; you may also play them back on friends' 360s with your removable drive.

• -Deleted TV shows can be re-downloaded later; HDTV shows can be re-downloaded in either HDTV or SD.

• -Movies can be watched an unlimited number of times the first 24 hours. Plays after that period will cost the same as the initial download, although the movie data isn't necessarily deleted. You can keep the movie data on your drive up to 14 days without re-downloading it.

• -Downloads are in VC-1 (aka WMVHD) at 720p, 6.8Mbps video with 5.1 surround.

• -An average HD movie download should be between 4-5GB, and a two hour SD movie would be 1.6GB.

• -An average 1 hour (44 min) HDTV download should be about 2.2GB, and an average 1/2 hour (22 min) HDTV download should be about 1GB. A 1 hour SDTV download should be about 600MB, and a 1/2 hour SDTV download should be about 300MB.

• -This service will not be available for MSN TV users, Vongo subscribers, or any other Microsoft partners. It is Xbox Live only.

• -You cannot download programs through the Xbox Live web interface -- they can only be transported to your 360's removable drive.

• -There aren't any drive announcements being made, so if your puny 20GB Xbox drive is near or at capacity, you're out of luck, kid.

Read on for a list of content available at launch

Launch titles

• -Aqua Teen Hunger Force

• -Avatar: The Last Airbender

• -Batman Forever

• -Breaking Bonaduce

• -Carpocalypse

• -Chappelle's Show

• -CSI

• -Hogan Knows Best

• -Jackass: The Movie

• -Jericho

• -The Matrix

• -M:i:III

• -Nacho Libre

• -Nicktoons Network Animation Festival

• -Numb3rs

• -Pimp My Ride

• -Race Rewind (NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series races)

• -Raising the Roofs

• -The Real World

• -Robot Chicken

• -Skyland

• -South Park

• -SpongeBob SquarePants

• -Star Trek (original)

• -Superman Returns

• -50 fights from Ultimate Fighting Championship, and some episodes from The Ultimate Fighter

(At least it's HD, unlike the new iTunes video downloads- though you don't own it)

[via Engadget.com]

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