HD movie downloads coming to the UK

Updated:Among the announcements at Microsoft's E3 conference came news that the movie download service currently available on Xbox Live in the States is coming to the UK.

The service enables you to download high-def movies and TV to your Xbox for viewing on your TV, and has proved very popular in the States. It'll be rolled out in the UK and Ireland, France and Germany, with Canada to follow soon after. The news came alongside that announcementthat Disney Studios (which includes Touchstone Pictures and Miramax) have joined the list of TV and movie companies providing TV and movies for download on Xbox Live, which means the lineup now includes films like Bridge to Terabithia and the Disney flicks listed above. Downloads aren't instant, but they are reasonably swift, and it's much more convenient than a movie rental service.

Microsoft also announced an ideal companion to this service: the Xbox 360 Elite, which will be arriving in Europe on August 24th. We've already featured the console in the magazine, and we liked it - it's got a bigger 120GB hard drive ready to brim with downloaded movies, and HDMI output for spectacular high-definition detail on new TVs. Plus it's black, of course, which means it'll look that bit sharper in the living room.