Microsoft has confirmed this weekend that the Zune HD is now available in Canada, years after its launch in the United States.
However, the Zune Music Marketplace is not available as a choice, yet, even though the video store is available.
It is unclear when the licensing issues will be corrected.
Available via Zune Originals, the 16GB model is $170 and the 32GB version is $200.
Canada is now the second country to get the Zune HD, as Microsoft has moved most of its development towards Windows Phone 7.
Result for: video store
Microsoft and Paramount have announced a new partnership in which the movie studio will offer films via the Live Video Store beginning on February 19th.
The first Title to hit the service will be the blockbuster “Transformers” and new and existing titles will continue to trickle in. New titles from Warner Bros. will also be hitting the service including Beowulf, and The Assassination of Jesse James.
“We’re very excited to announce this new relationship,” Paramount’s Alex Carlos added. “We have lots of great content that fits this demographic. We’re excited about digital distribution, especially being on a platform as elegant as Xbox 360.”
And Robin Burrowes, Xbox Live UK marketing manager, continued, “This announcement gives our Video Store customers in the UK an even greater choice of entertainment, with a great level of HD movie quality, as always.”
The store launched in the UK in December and allows users to purchase digital downloads of Standard Definition or High Definition movies. You have two weeks to watch the content or 24 hours to finish it after you’ve begun watching.
Each title will cost 250 Microsoft Points for SD and 380 Microsoft Points for HD.
The full list of titles are as follows:
Transformers (SD and HD)
Goodbye Bafana (SD and HD)
Intersection (SD only)
Primal Fear (SD only)
Clear and Present Danger (SD only)
[More]>>
Result for: video store
The large British retailer Tesco has announced that it will be launching Tesco Downloads, a digital and video store.
The service will be similar to that of Amazon and Wal-Mart which offer a “web-based interface”. The service will offer 3.3 million songs initially with about half being unprotected MP3 versions that will work with all media devices including iPods. The other 1.6 million tracks that have DRM will be available as MP3s by the end of the year, added the company.
Pricing structure is the same as it is in the UK, with £0.79 per track and £8 per full album. As an added bonus however, Tesco will “tie the online store to its physical presence and will offer clubcard points for each download that translate to discounts either on other products or content at retail shops.”
The store is accessible immediately but the store will formally launch in May with the full music catalog. Movies and TV episodes will be available later in the year, promises the company.
