Blog: Zune, Twitter and Facebook revisited

Last week I shared some preliminary thoughts on the features included in the latest system update for the Xbox 360 – namely the Facebook and Twitter integration and the Zune movie service. I’ve now had a good week or so to play around with everything (as most of you probably have by now), so I thought I’d revisit this update. It turns out some of my initial thoughts have changed considerably.




I tried to test out the Zune service in the middle of last week at around 8pm at night on my home ADSL2+ Xnet connection. I live in Central Auckland, so I’m presumably rather close to my ADSL exchange (and I generally enjoy fairly quick speeds). My girlfriend suggested that we watch the 1986 film Pretty in Pink. I reluctantly obliged (provided I got to choose the next one). Pretty in Pink does offer an HD streaming option at 420 MS Points (NZ$7), so it was as good a test as any as to how well the service performed. Once you’ve chosen the HD streaming option, the system performs a quick connection test to see whether your network conditions are sufficient to stream the film in high definition. As I predicted, high-definition streaming wasn’t possible on my connection at that time of night (when local internet activity is generally at its peak). Zune suggested that I download the file to my hard drive instead. Not only was it fairly off putting at close to 8GB of data, but my 20GB Xbox 360 hard drive is very nearly full to the brim. Unfortunately, HD wasn’t an option.

So we immediately opted for the standard-definition option (at 360 MS Points, or NZ$6), and I was dismayed to discover that my set-up failed the standard-definition network test as well! The standard-definition file download suggested by the Zune service was still too large for my hard drive at 1.2GB. I was pretty disappointed to be honest, as the previews I watched days earlier streamed flawlessly.



It wasn’t until after a night out late last Friday that we decided to give the service another shot. It was approximately midnight, and with very little network congestion at that time of night, the standard-definition stream worked a treat. The film looked great 95% of the time; there was the occasional dip in quality – presumably owing to dips in our connection speed – and not once did this force the film to pause in order to buffer. My girlfriend actually fell asleep roughly halfway through the film (it was stupid o’clock in the morning, after all), but thankfully she could rewind the cached download the next day and watch what she had missed. You see, you have 48 hours in which to watch the film as many times as you’d like once you’ve pressed “play” the first time.

We tried it again on Saturday night, this time with a film of my choosing (Shaun of the Dead), and we had a similar experience even though we began watching at a much more reasonable hour. The film didn’t stop to buffer once, although the standard-definition quality became fairly pixelated on the odd occasion as it adjusted to our connection speed.

I’m encouraged by the Zune service, although I think it’s a stretch to call it an on-demand service at this point. The fact that we were forced to wait for low internet congestion levels means it falls short of that claim by default. In fairness, I think it will take a few more trials before I can confidently rate its performance. But if the service improves to a point where I can truly watch the content I want at a time of my choosing and (most importantly) the content expands considerably, then it could well spell the end of trips to the video store for me personally.

Although the pricing is consistent despite the age of the film in question, you’ve got to bear in mind that many of them are available in 1080p HD. This automatically trumps some of the DVD deals you might get at your video store if you’re an HD enthusiast. The only thing is you’ll need a fairly extraordinary internet connection in order to stream at this quality. Oh, and you’ll also have to factor in the cost of the extra data relative to your internet plan on top of that; if you’re on a plan with a low data cap, then the Zune on-demand service is probably not for you in its current state. Until some kind of ISP partnering deals are cemented where Zune traffic doesn’t contribute to your data cap (a la the arrangement between TiVo and Telecom), then you’d best steer clear in order to avoid hefty ISP bills.

The available content is still a long way from presenting a compelling on-demand solution, with only a handful of the 100ish titles on offer interesting me (personally) enough to view them in future. And as it stands, there are some gaping holes in the available content (for instance, Rocky and Rocky V are available, but nothing in between), but I’m sure that’ll change as the licensing red tape is negotiated and more studios come on board.




I’ve come around a little on the two new features I was least interested in. A little. As predicted, I still think that both of these social networking platforms are mostly only useful on the Xbox 360 when used passively. It’s great to be able to access all of your Facebook photo albums and all of your friends’ photo albums on your living-room television (the photos translate fairly impressively to the big screen too!), and it’s nice to get a quick update of your friends’ Facebook and Twitter updates at a glance. To top it all off, the interfaces look pretty nice. Other than that, though, I think entering a lengthy string of text into a status update or otherwise is too clumsy and drawn out using the Xbox 360 controller. And I’m not convinced enough by the merits of the service on Xbox 360 to fork out for one of the Xbox keypads.



I guess I have to bear in mind the circumstances in which people will make use of these platforms on the Xbox 360. Personally, I think I’ll use them very little, except perhaps to browse photos on Facebook with others. If I’m using my Xbox 360 and I ever feel the urge to update or check my Twitter account, I’ll probably do so with my phone while I’m waiting in a multiplayer lobby. I guess it won’t be the same case in every household, though, and it could be a good way to access your social networking accounts if the household computer is occupied, for instance. At the end of the day, it’s nice to have Facebook and Twitter available on my Xbox 360, even if I may never use them myself. After all, it’s not like it’s costing me anything (other than requiring an Xbox Live Gold subscription to access them). But in future I can’t see myself tying up my console and cutting even further into my gaming time to do what I can do elsewhere.