The Live Marketplace movie rental download service is a hit -- besting Amazon.com's Unbox service. Says an article on Variety.com:

Though there are fewer than 3.5 million 360s in the U.S. by last count, movies available from Warner and Paramount, as well as content from CBS and MTV on the TV side, are doing at least as well and, in some cases, better than on competing Web sites, which are available to anyone with a PC and high-speed Internet connection.

I tried out the service for the first time this week and I'm pretty impressed. Within two minutes my movie was ready to play, and just under an hour into watching the download was complete. The picture quality was sharp (on my plain-Jane SDTV), but not quite DVD with a tendency to stutter on shots with a lot of movement.

Still, it's hard to beat the convenience of never leaving your couch to rent a movie, and with prices as low as three bucks a flick it's easy on the wallet. I would like to see Microsoft loosen the chain on usage rights, though: just 24 hours to watch after I hit play? Make it three days and I'll be a lot more likely to not make it a Blockbuster night.

via GamesIndustry.biz