Microsoft Movies & TV

Microsoft Movies & TV (US only),^[1][2] or Microsoft Films & TV (Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand),^[3][4] previously Xbox Video and Zune Video, is a digital video service developed by Microsoft that offers full HD movies and TV shows available for rental or purchase in the Video Store as well as an app where users can watch and manage videos from their personal digital collections stored locally.^[5] The service is available on all Xbox consoles beginning with Xbox 360, and all Microsoft Windows computers beginning with Windows 8.^[6] Movies & TV is also accessible on the web.

Microsoft Movies & TV

Screenshot of Movies & TV app in Windows 10.
Launch date	October 16, 2012; 11 years ago (2012-10-16) as Xbox Video
Platform(s)	Windows 8 and later Windows Server 2012 and later (optional) Windows Phone 8 and later (defunct) Xbox 360 S and later Windows Mixed Reality
Website	www.microsoft.com/movies-and-tv

Zune Video Marketplace was released in 2006, and was replaced by Xbox Video on October 14, 2012. Renamed Movies & TV in 2015, the service now generally competes more directly with similar online video stores including iTunes Store, Google TV, Amazon Video, and Vudu.

The Microsoft Movies & TV video player app was superseded by Media Player in Windows 10 and Windows 11. The update was rolled out to Windows 10 users between January and June 2023.

History

 

The original emblem of Xbox Video.

Xbox Live Marketplace's original video store was replaced by Zune Marketplace on September 15, 2009.^[7]

At E3 2009, Microsoft announced their 1080p streaming video service, which allows users to stream video over an internet connection.^[8] This technology is a key part of Xbox Video for their video streaming service.

With the announcement of Xbox Music services which would replace the Zune Marketplace music service, speculation arose about "Xbox Video", a potential service that would offer movies and television series, because the term "music" in the name of the service gave the impression that Xbox Music will offer strictly music, thus excluding films and television series.

With the launch of Windows 10, Xbox Video appears under the name of Film & TV in the apps, with the shopping for the content merged into the Windows Store as a whole as part of Microsoft's universal apps initiative.^[9] However the name and branding of Xbox Video remains active on all the previous platforms and the official website.^[10]

On September 17, 2015, with a system update for the Xbox 360, the name of the app changed to reflect the new branding.^[11] The Xbox One app had also changed in a previous update.

After previously being linked with Movies Anywhere in the past, Microsoft Movies & TV announced that they would be rejoining the service on August 6, 2018.^[12]

On August 17, 2023, Microsoft announced that the Microsoft Movies & TV app on Xbox 360 will no longer function as of July 29, 2024.

Geographical availability

List of countries where Microsoft Movies & TV is active^[13]

Country	Movies Store	TV Store	Closed Captioning
Australia	Yes	Yes	Yes
Austria	Yes	Yes	No
Belgium	Yes	No	No
Brazil	Yes	Yes	Yes
Canada	Yes	Yes	No
Denmark	Yes	Yes	No
Finland	Yes	Yes	No
France	Yes	Yes	No
Germany	Yes	Yes	No
Ireland	Yes	Yes	No
Italy	Yes	Yes	No
Japan	Yes	Yes	No
Mexico	Yes	Yes	No
Netherlands	Yes	Yes	No
New Zealand	Yes	Yes	No
Norway	Yes	Yes	No
Spain	Yes	Yes	No
Sweden	Yes	Yes	No
Switzerland	Yes	Yes	No
United Kingdom	Yes	Yes	No
United States	Yes	Yes	Yes

Supported formats

The app in Windows 10 supports a number of formats, including:^[14]

• .m4v
• .mp4
• .mov
• .asf
• .avi
• .wmv
• .m2ts
• .3g2
• .3gp2
• .3gpp
• .webm (on Windows 10 version 1809 and newer)^[15]

See also

• Groove Music
• Windows Media Player
• Media Player (2022)

References

1. Microsoft Movies & TV, microsoft.com. Retrieved August 1, 2015.
2. Movies & TV – Apps on Windows, microsoft.com. Retrieved August 15, 2015.
3. Microsoft Films & TV, microsoft.com. Retrieved August 15, 2015.
4. Films & TV – Apps on Windows, microsoft.com. Retrieved October 28, 2015.
5. Your movies, microsoft.com. Retrieved August 15, 2015.
6. Makuch, Eddie (September 9, 2013). "Xbox Music app hits iOS, Android". GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Retrieved March 30, 2014.
7. Wingfield, Nick (June 4, 2012). "R.I.P. Zune". The New York Times Bits Blog. The New York Times Company. Retrieved December 19, 2012.
8. Simpson, John (June 1, 2009). "Xbox gets 1080p video service". Engadget. AOL. Retrieved September 28, 2013.
9. Warren, Tom (March 31, 2015). "Windows 10 new Music and Video apps finally drop the Xbox naming". The Verge. Vox Media. Retrieved July 30, 2015.
10. , Microsoft, archived from the original on August 4, 2015, retrieved July 30, 2015
11. Hryb, Larry (September 17, 2015). "Xbox 360 System Update Adds New Features Including 2GB Cloud Storage". Major Nelson. Retrieved September 17, 2015.
12. Moon, Tim (August 6, 2018). "Microsoft Movies & TV rejoins Movies Anywhere". Neowin.
13. . Xbox.com. Archived from the original on June 9, 2015. Retrieved March 20, 2014.
14. "File formats supported by the Movies & TV app in Windows 10". Microsoft Support. Retrieved September 23, 2019.
15. "Windows 10 1809 Built-In Apps: What to Keep". Vacuum Breather.

External links

• Official website
• Microsoft Movies & TV app on Microsoft Store