Xfinity TV for XBOX 360

Xfinity recently announced that they they are making their OnDemand content available on XBOX for existing Xfinity customers.  Looks like a cool little interface that allows you to stream their content to the gaming console.

Requirements for this new service are:

1. XBox 360 Gaming Console
2. Xbox Live Gold Subscription
3. Xfinity Internet
4. Xfinity Digital TV

Not sure what the advantage of this service is except you can watch OnDemand content without having to plug in an additional cable box.  Maybe good for the kids room.  My guess is this is the distant future of cable TV.  No more cable boxes, just apps that run on any device that will allow you to stream all content.  Looks like a direct shot at Netflix to me.

An interesting feature is that with Kinect  you can change channels, pause and rewind with hand or voice commands. 

No word on a similar app for other devices like the PS3 (which I have).  Wouldn't be very useful for me anyway as I already have a cable box.

Free Showtime On Demand

This weekend only Comcast is offering free On Demand Showtime movies and original shows.  The Freeview as thet are calling it actually started on Thursday March 25th and goes through Sunday March 28th.  This does not include the regular Showtime channels just the On Demand content.  Comcast used to offer free previews of Premium Channels quite often but it doesn't seem to happen much any more so it is nice to take advantage when it is offered.

DVD Rental vs Netflix vs Comcast On Demand

I will preface this post by saying I haven't seen a movie in a theatre in about 5 years. I spent thousands of dollars on my HDTV and surround sound system so we happily watch all movies in the comfort of our family room couch.

Up until about a year ago all of the new movies we watched were rentals from Blockbuster. At the time it was a good deal for me. I used points on my rewards card to get 8 free rental certificates every few months so I basically was not paying anything out of pocket to see new releases. Our local Blockbuster was in a pretty convenient location so it was not too out of the way to stop by and rent/return movies. Then suddenly our local Blockbuster closed and it was no longer convenient so no more blockbuster for us.

At the time it was not that big a deal because of the writer's strike there was not a whole lot of new movies out that we wanted to see. We also added a baby to our family so our movie watching time was fairly limited. When there was something we really wanted to see we would watch in on Comcast On Demand. Usually when we did this though we had a free coupon. Since the ON Demand rentals are $4.99 and I was used to renting movies for free we probably only ever paid for 2 or 3 movies in total.

A couple months ago we noticed there were a bunch of new movies out that we were really interested in seeing. A couple of our friends have been using Netflix for a while and are really happy with it so we decided to give it a shot. We signed up for their one at a time unlimited plan for $8.99/month. We usually only have time to watch movies on weekends and with our schedule we usually only watch one movie a weekend. Given this we still get 4 movies a month for a cost of about $2.25 a movie.

Compare that to Comcast On Demand's cost of 4.99 a movie and the choice was pretty simple for us to stick with Netflix. The one advantage that Comcast On Demand has over Netflix is that you can order using your remote rather than needing to mail the DVD back. But to me that is only a minor advantage. The only way Comcast On Demand is going to compete with Netflix is if they offer some kind of monthly plan structure similar to Netflix where you get 4 OnDemand movies for around $10/month, 5 movies for $12/month etc. I am sure Comcast has thought about this and my guess is the movie studios are preventing them from doing it. Another hurdle may be that they would need to rewrite the cable box software to allow for the operation of a plan structure. So something like this is probably a way off but in my opinion it is the only way On Demand is going to gain market share form Netflix. I look forward to what the future holds for Comcast On Demand but for now I am staying a Netflix customer.

Anyroom OnDemand

I was watching TV this morning and the below commercial came on advertising a new Comcast feature called Anyroom OnDemand

The gist of it is if you are watching an OnDemand program in one room you can stop it and continue watching the show where you left off in another room. I am not sure how long this has been available as this was the first time I have seen the commercial but my wife said she has seen it a few times.

Wanting to learn more about Anyroom OnDemand I went to the website (http://www.comcast.com/anyroom/) at the end of the commercial. The website basically explains how it works and says all you need to get the feature is to subscribe to digital cable. But there was a buy button at the bottom of the screen so I was not sure if there was an extra charge. I was also a little unsure that it would work with my setup as I have a standard DCT700 box upstairs and a DCH3416 with HD and TIVO downstairs. The DCH3416 has a different type of software installed so I was doubtful that it would actually work. Only one way to find out....

I went to my upstairs TV and started to watch one of the free movies and then made sure it went to my saved programs. Then I went downstairs checked my saved programs and there it was, I selected the program and it started playing where it left off. Pretty cool!!!

Not sure how much I will actually use this feature but it is nice to know that it is there and is free. My only complaint is that Comcast did not notify me of this new feature. I am on all of their new product release email lists and was not aware of it until now. Seems like it would be cheaper to send out an email to customers rather than buy commercial time.

Comcast OnDemand

I rarely go to the movies anymore since buying a High Definition Television and Surround Sound. I just can't justify paying $10 to see a movie in a noisy theatre with a sticky floor when I can watch a movie in the comfort of my home. I usually get free dvd rentals using credit card points and we watch most new releases on DVD. There are some movies that we really aren't that interested in or aren't sure if I will like. This is where OnDemand comes in handy.

I hear a lot of people complaining about the "useless" Comcast OnDemand service. I actually like OnDemand and watch the free content quite a bit. There are literally hundreds of free movies that you can watch for free. Most of them are not new releases but I always seem to find some classic that I have somehow missed watching.

If you subscribe to a premium channel like HBO you also get a few new releases a month to watch for free as well. These are usually the movies that we didn't want to spend our free rental on. If we don't like the movie nothing is lost. HBO also lets you watch old episodes of their series like Sopranos and Sex and the City.

The pay OnDemand movies are pretty competitive price-wise with video rentals. The only disadvantage I see that they have is the lack of special features and content that comes on dvds. I don't usually watch the special content so it doesn't really matter to me. I think I recently saw a commercial that they are including special content with the latest Harry Potter movie so it is probably something they are starting to include. The biggest advantage I see with OnDemand is not having to leave the house to rent and return the movies.

New OnDemand movie releases are $3.99 and New releases in High Definition are $5.99. I have watched a couple of the pay OnDemand movies but have never paid for them. Every few months we seem to find free OnDemand coupons in our local paper, so we use those whenever we get them. We also have a book of free coupons that we got when a Comcast rep came to our door taking a survey of what Comcast services we have.

I have yet to watch any of their High Definition movies OnDemand but plan to soon as I am interested how the quality compares to the standard definition movies. Unfortunately the only network show you can watch in High Definition is CSI. CBS is the only network that is currently providing shows OnDemand in my area. I seem to remember a while back the other networks were offering content as well but they don't seem to be available anymore. I think I also remember they were charging $1/per episode which seems pretty reasonable to me. Obviously it wasn't profitable though since they discontinued it. Too bad.

Overall I think OnDemand is a pretty valuable service, they seem to be continually adding content which means there is always something new to watch.