Microsoft To Compete with Apple's iTV

Microsoft has maybe learned from the iPod success story that it might be dangerous to let an innovative company such as Apple to launch a new product without monitoring its evolution. At least it could explain why Redmond's giant has decided to launch an online HD video store dedicated to Xbox 360 owners. From November 22nd, via the Xbox Live service, HD movies as well as TV series will be available for renting or purchasing. As usual with Microsoft, digital contents will be loaded with DRM (named VC1) while sound quality will be a standard 5.1 format. One would not be able to store so much HD videos on the Xbox 360 HD, as its storage capacity is limited to 20GB.
The good point for potential consumers is the HD format for video, a much higher quality that what is currently available from the iTunes Store.