Welp, I've been thinking about reviewing this service for a while now and decided it's as good a time as any.

For those of you that are gamers and use xbox live with your xbox360 you may already be familiar with this. This review isn't for you.

Xbox live has a feature that makes it useful as a on demand set top box for movies and TV shows. The service works great, prices are reasonable, and the video quality is nice. This is what TV should be. I don't want to be encumbered by program scheduling, I'd like to watch TV when its suitable for me to do so, and this method is a great start.

The xbox live marketplace uses "Points" as currency. The exchange rate is something like 1.25 for 100 points. These are the same points that can be used if you have a Zune to buy songs etc. Movies cost around 320 points for standard definition movies and 420 for HD movies. Those are average prices for movies, shows can be had for around 180 an episode depending on series.

The selection is pretty good but not the best. It's more than adequate for my needs. Myself, B, and Moe enjoyed a few movies this weekend from the Xbox video store. I paid for standard def because I can't really see the point in the upcharge to HD. Standard def looks great as is. Especially on my setup with the projector and surround sound system.

We watched a SciFi movie called "Cube Zero" and the completely CGI "Beowulf". The picture quality was great, the download took a while for Cube Zero, however thats because we waited for it to download completely before we watched it. Beowulf started downloading, and in around 10 minutes it was ready to play. The system continued to download the movie as we watched it and that was just dandy in my opinion. Yes I said dandy.

The rental process is pretty good and most have terms like the download is valid for 14 days from the purchase and the viewing window is 24 hours from the time you press play. You may watch it as many times as you like within that window. Now worries, it just works. 24 hours is fine, and a 2 weeks in which to watch it is more than adequate.

The ability to just buy points online is handy. They sell various denominations of points either retail, in brick and mortar or online, but that seems to be a pain in the ass. I just plugged my credit card information in and bought whatever points I wanted to get a movie. Too easy.

There's apparently a whole world of crap you can do on xbox live with a 360, but since I'm not a gamer I'll probably never bother. but the video store built into my 360 is a huge bonus for me. I used to rent movies a lot, then I went to Netflix, then I just outright started buying the DVD's. Now I can sit on my ass and pull all kinds of movies from the comfort of my couch. I'm sure to those of you who have used on demand this is no big deal. For myself however, who doesn't watch TV because I shut off my cable because I realized I was spending over 120 a month on a service I didn't really use, its great. I can watch what I want when I want. The only downside though is selection.

They have a lot of movies available to rent most of which can be previewed for free, like a trailer or what not. There are movie trailers there to access. There are TV shows available for download and those can also be previewed. I saw shows like Chuck from NBC and the Sarah Connor Chronicles from Fox. I just wish it had more TV shows, like Heroes. Oh yeah, did I mention that there are no commercials? It would also be nice if had the kind of selection of new releases that places like, say for example, Blockbuster Video would have. The trouble is that you actually have to get up get dressed and go get the movies physically and then return them physically with a brick and mortar like them. The problem with Netflix is the time it takes to get the movies once you choose them. The only problem I have with the Video store on Xbox live is the lack of selection. They have a good selection, don't get me wrong, but its not as intensive or as deep as I would like my to be. My personal DVD collection eclipses it a bit I think, and I have the DVD extras to boot.

I'm not downplaying the service at all mind you, I think its great and to quote B "I can't buy one of these 360's, this is where I'd spend all my money if I did". I'm not so much going to spend all my money on it but it is a handy thing to have access too. All in all I'm pretty impressed.

Now all we need is to have movies that come out on opening day also come out there also. Have shows available to download as soon as it airs. Give me the selection to download and watch what I want, whether its "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes" or "Debbie does Dallas". I need more.

But I will make do with what they have. The only thing I can think of I'd like to change is to have something like a movie queue like NetFlix, where as you go through the selection you can add it to your queue and then have that list handy and be able to purchase movies from your list. There is so much there that as you go through and find movies you like you need to make a not to yourself so you don't forget it as keep going. It took us a while to remember what movie we thought might be good 10 minutes after we scrolled by it.

Microsoft has to get on  the ball and make some bigger deals to get the content online. The downside is Sony owns a lot of great content and I doubt they'll make it available to their competitor for their market. I don't think the Xbox live video store is going to be the ultimate top dog though in this arena. But they have a product that is well on the way and it gives a good glimpse of whats possible. The future of TV is bright indeed.