Microsoft Xbox Problems Report

Early users of Microsoft Corp.'s new Xbox Live online TV and movie service have been reporting widespread technical problems, including unusually long download times, undelivered content and repeat charges.


Microsoft acknowledged the difficulties Friday, promised refunds to people experiencing trouble and said it was on track to resolving the situation.

The company said usage of the service over the holiday exceeded its projections and weighed down its infrastructure.

The Xbox Live Video Marketplace debuted Wednesday.

The demand was "significantly beyond what anybody ever expected," said Aaron Greenberg, the Xbox Live group's marketing manager. As of Friday afternoon, he said, the company was "optimistic that we will have a good solution in place soon."

It's nonetheless an inauspicious start for the service, which Microsoft is seeking to use to help differentiate the year-old Xbox 360 in the competition with the newly launched Sony PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii game consoles.

On blogs and other online forums, users reported downloads taking hours longer than expected, if they were delivered at all. Particularly difficult to download were the large high-definition movie and television files offered by the service.

"The service stopped my movie download halfway and wouldn't download more unless I bought it again," wrote one contributor to the gadget blog Gizmodo, under the headline, "I Was Mugged by the Xbox 360 Video Store."

Some other users of the Xbox Live service reported spending dozens of hours trying to download individual movies, without success.

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Although times were to vary depending on connection speed, Microsoft had said high-definition movies, the largest video files offered through the service, would download overnight.

People who bought standard-definition shows were expected to be able to start watching them within minutes, while they were still downloading.

Greenberg said Microsoft would offer refunds to people even in situations where the content was ultimately received, if it took longer than it should have. He said users experiencing problems should call the customer service line at 800-4MYXBOX.

For people charged more than once to rent a movie, refunds will be automated, Greenberg said.

The service offers television shows for permanent ownership, not rental, so multiple charges shouldn't have happened in those cases, he said.

Microsoft's Xbox Live Marketplace system requires people to buy points that they can then use to purchase content online. Standard-definition TV shows cost the equivalent of $2; high-definition TV shows $3; standard-definition, new-release movie rentals $4; and high-definition, new-release movie rentals $6.

Greenberg said the Xbox Live online multiplayer gaming system runs on a separate infrastructure and wasn't slowed by the video-download problems.>