So, Microsoft launched its new movie download service yesterday, and -- since I've been engrossed in Gears of War, I figured we could try it out and see how V for Vendetta looked.

My user experience? Multi-minute delays just trying to get a response from the server when attempting to buy the "Microsoft Points" that I still had yet to actually redeem to rent the movie. I hadn't even yet attempted to download the movie, and after that delay, decided not to bother. I'm glad I hadn't, considering Kotaku's experience of a 10 hour ETA on movie download. This, of course, has been downplayed by Microsoft, but it's pretty clear these guys didn't actually do any capacity testing before launching this service on -- wait for it -- the day before Thanksgiving.

I'll still try the service out, once stuff calms down, because I'm interested to see if this is a viable alternative to obtaining an HD DVD player. Still, so far I'm underwhelmed. Let's review the strikes against it, shall we?

• Only rental, not purchase, of movies. Rental terms are 14 days to start watching the movie, and 24 hours to watch the movie as much as you like once you started watching it. All for the low low price of $6 for a HD movie. Gosh guys, that's... awesome.
• One movie takes up roughly 30% of your XBox's 20G HD, so you're really only ever going to be streaming these things anyway. Plus, even if it was purchase and not rental (like with the TV shows you can purchase) how are you supposed to archive this thing off of your 360?
• You can't use real money to buy it. No, you have to buy Microsoft Points with real money (at the weird exchange rate of $1 == 80 points), and then use MS Points to rent/buy your content. Ohhhkay.

There are two upsides: hidef, and the 360 is already connected via hidef cables to the nice TV. Frankly, though, this just whets my appetite for the iTV and for iTunes to hopefully start offering hidef content.