Microsoft and BigPond launch Australian Vista movie download service

Adam Turner
Tuesday, 30 January 2007 12:28

Your IT - Entertainment

Australians can download Telstra BigPond movies via an Xbox 360 or Vista media center PC as of today's launch of Microsoft's new Vista operating system.

The service offers access to over 2000 movies, television shows and music videos directly from the media center interface built into Microsoft's Windows Vista Home Premium and Ultimate versions - which go on sale today.

Downloaded content can be watched on the computer or on a television using an Xbox 360 as a network extender. Titles start from $AU1.95, with full length features such as the Da Vinci Code selling for $5.95.

Depending on available internet speeds, users can start watching movies within two minutes of beginning a download. Movies downloads are a 1.5GB file, taking 12 hours on a 256KB connection or more than six hours on a 512KB link - the speeds which the majority of Australia's consumer broadband users access the internet.

BigPond Movie downloads are not counted towards the monthly download limits of Telstra BigPond customers. BigPond's entry level monthly plans offer 200MB and 400MB download caps - although uploaded data also counts towards this monthly limit - with extremely high excess data charges. Such BigPond customers don't have enough monthly data to download from other movie download services, giving BigPond Movies a captive audience.

Windows Vista Home Premium and Vista Ultimate went on sale in Australia at 11.59 pm Monday, retailing for $AU455 and $AU751 respectively.