Initial impressions of Zune Marketplace movie renting...

Zune Social: tromboneforhire | By: Marques Lyons | 9/16/2009 |

So with the new Zune 4.0 update we now have movies in the Zune Marketplace. You have the option of purchasing or renting videos for your Zune HD or PC. If you purchase a movie, it will also be viewable on previous generation Zune devices. Coming soon with the inclusion of the XBOX Live Zune Video Marketplace you'll have three tuners at your disposal: Zune HD, PC or XBOX 360.

So last night, I decided I was going to put some of the rental experience through its paces. I had said over Twitter that I thought about purchasing a film, but instead I decided to go through the rental process. It was something that I hadn't even done on the XBOX 360, so this was going to be an interesting experience.

The following, however, only represents part of the full experience. I have yet to view the movie on-the-go with my Zune HD yet, but when I do, I'll let you guys know how it turns out.

The video marketplace is located when you open the Zune software and click on 'marketplace'. You see a tab for Videos. Under the video umbrella is where you'll find music videos, TV shows, movies and movie trailers. The trailers are viewable using the Zune software. Including full-screen viewing in 4.0 makes watching these trailers all the more special. Of course, this isn't as robust as the Apple Quicktime movie trailer experience -- I do think I enjoy that setup, but over time as the offerings grow you'll find yourself in front of the Zune software watching trailer after trailer.

I find it kind of odd -- unless I'm missing something -- that you can't sync the trailers to a device. It would be nice to have those on the go (for whatever reason).

One thing you need to remember is that there are no refunds available for rentals or purchases. Always be careful which movie you're choosing to view. In this particular case, I decided on the movie "Snap Dragon". Yeah, I know what that movie is about -- don't you judge me :-). In any event, when you click on the movie cover art, you'll get a screen (seen above) giving you a synopsis, run time, release date and the option to send (suggest) the film to a friend. Depending upon the contract with the studio you'll see a BUY and/or RENT button.

Choosing either rent or buy, will bring up the tuner screen. This is the screen where you're gonna decide how you plan on viewing the movie. Your options (ultimately) will be PC, Zune HD, Legacy Zune (if you're purchasing the movie) and XBOX 360. In this particular case, notice that the Hamachi Zune 4 isn't available as an option because I'm renting the movie, however the Zune HD and the PC are. For me, I'm choosing the Zune HD because I plan to test this on the go.

 
Once you've chosen your tuner, the next screen will ask you which resolution you want. Unfortunately, "Snap Dragon" is only available in Standard Definition. SD is available for 240 points (yes, I know -- points!). Note the rental agreement that you're signing. The film is available for 14 days without playing it and 24 hours once you begin playing it. Also note the "There are no refunds for this purchase" declaration.

Now here's the interesting part. My Zune HD was connected to my PC at the time that I made this rental. When I went to check my Collection -- Videos -- Movies, it wasn't there. So I initially thought that the movie didn't download. I went to my download history in the software and sure enough, the movie was there with a download button:
 
However, when I went to Device - Videos in the software, there was "Snap Dragon" already synced to my Zune HD. So my take is that if your device is connected and you rent a movie, if there's space on the device, the movie will be automatically synced. That's a pretty neat feature as it saves the extra step of going to the collection and explicity telling it to sync it to my device. Of course, I'm sure if I had chosen PC it would've downloaded to my external hard drive -- well I should probably get verification on that first.

Anyhow, now that the movie is on my device, I plan to spend *this* evening watching it and checking it out against the OLED screen. Another neat thing about this is that if you go to the movie on your Zune HD, it gets treated similarly to music artists. You'll get the album art, the running time, year and rating, plus a brief synopsis of the film (think how the biographies are done for the artists). Also, as a neat little help, you'll also see the amount of time you have left to view the film. In my case it says that I have 13 days, 12 hr to watch the movie. I'm sure once I start watching it, it will do the 24 hours or less move.

Overall, the renting of a film was a simple, smooth process. It helps now that when you go to the download screen in the marketplace and hover over the status (percentage) bar, you'll get a notification about how much time (like actual hours, minutes that sorta thing) the download has left.

Yes, I agree the selection in the Zune Video Marketplace is pretty weak right now. I would say a good 50% of those movies I have no intention of watching. I would think it's the studios saying "If you want some of our major features, you're gonna have to take these other ones too." It's like when a baseball team makes a trade and the owner says "Well, if you want one of my ace pitchers, you'll need to also accept this mediocre center fielder I'm trying to unload." Over time, I think much like the TV Marketplace, the Movie Marketplace will be a great place to browse.

Soon, I'll have an addendum with my thoughts about viewing the movie on the Zune HD and the actual purchase process and the use of the different tuners (legacy Zune included).

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