Top Gear episodes now available on Xbox Live Marketplace
Here around Autoblog's virtual offices, there are few things on which we love to spend our down time more than watching Top Gear and playing on our Xbox 360. So it comes as a special bit of parenthetical news that the hit British BBC show has now become available directly on the Xbox Live Marketplace. Season 10, 11 and 12 are now available on the Microsoft content site, with each 570MB episode costing 160 points (equivalent to $2).
Unfortunately, some edits have been made to the downloadable installments, with licensing concerns forcing them to replace some of the music, and while the 12th season episodes remain in their full 60-minute glory, seasons 10 and 11 have had their episodes trimmed down to 50 minutes (give or take), usually at the expense of the Star in a Reasonably Priced Car segment and the news (which isn't newsworthy anymore anyway...that's what we're here for). Check it out on the Xbox Live Marketplace for all the details.
[Source: Xbox Live Marketplace via FinalGear.com]
Get a WordPress.com Blog
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
John Johnson 9:09AM (6/04/2009)
The news is funny, just because they often bicker.
I support cutting out the Star in a Reasonably Priced Car. At least the interview part. It's not relevant to the US market, we don't know who 70% of the people are. I usually just skip over this part anyways.
Reply
Tim 9:18AM (6/04/2009)
Exactly.
Without the news you miss much of Jeremy's bitching which is usually quite entertaining.
SIARPC is interesting about 10% of the time, but I could live without it.
Eldiablo 9:32AM (6/04/2009)
I'm British, and I try and skip the SinRPC segment too. Its usually c list celebrities who come down to promote their wares. BORING. Its only interesting when they have people like JK or Jodie Kidd who are uber fast and competitive.
inteller 12:13PM (6/04/2009)
puh-lease...PAY for TG? When I can get it on BBC America HD for free?
Microsoft, you REALLY need to get a video streaming pass integrated into XBL Gold. I'd pay a flat yearly fee to stream, but I'd NEVER pay $2 per ep.
Blackstar 2:39PM (6/04/2009)
@ inteller
Exactly. So the choice is pay MS $2 bucks per episode that's already been edited down plus wait for each show to download so it can take up even more of the already limited space on my xbox or...
just press the "Record Show" button on my DVR I'm already paying for.... hmmm, decisions, decisions....
lern2read fgt 9:11AM (6/04/2009)
They need to release all 12 seasons on DVD for the US.
And I always skip past the Star in a Reasonably Price Car bit anyway, so no loss there.
Reply
Lotheron 9:17AM (6/04/2009)
The news is still funny,however. It's funny going back and watching old episodes from Series 4/5/6. I watched one the other day and they were talking about the Veyron and Jeremy said it will never be built. Ha.
Reply
Clay Garland 9:17AM (6/04/2009)
Just download the torrent. Why on Earth would I pay for public broadcasting?
Reply
Clay Garland 9:22AM (6/04/2009)
On a rather unrelated not, does anyone remember when they were batting around the (terrible) idea of an American series and they, rather suspiciously, did a comparo of three American cars? Remember how they kissed the ass of the American cars saying that all three were fantastic? That, to me, just smacked of kissing corporate ass, because Jeremy would have loved to complain that the Challenger looks nice but is kind of a porker, and really just isn't that Sporty. And I'm sure he would have lambasted the ZR1 and CTS-V for having sh*tty interior trim and the suspension off of and ox-cart.
Paul 9:36AM (6/04/2009)
"Jeremy would have loved to complain that the Challenger looks nice but is kind of a porker, and really just isn't that Sporty. And I'm sure he would have lambasted the ZR1 and CTS-V for having sh*tty interior trim and the suspension off of and ox-cart."
Did you not watch the episode where they came here to the States, drove those three, and walked away loving them?
Tim 9:39AM (6/04/2009)
Top Gear America had already been canned by the time the Bonneville episode was aired. And Jeremy slagged the Challenger plenty.
The only thing I found unusual is that they stuck to the same cars they started in. They often will swap cars in their multi-car comparisons, so it was a bit strange that they didn't do it that time. You can't tell me that Richard didn't want to drive the ZR1
And there's zero chance that Jeremy was kissing anyone's ass.
Clay Garland 10:20AM (6/04/2009)
You think they record all those segments in the 6 days between episodes? I'm suggesting that when the segment was filmed, negotiations with NBC were still on, and someone told Jeremy et al that they couldn't lambast the cars like he normally would. Jeremy can normally be a dick because he is completely funded with public money, he doesn't have to fret about advertising dollars, but if the higher ups said, "Be nice." he would. Trust me.
Tim 11:17AM (6/04/2009)
I will admit that I found his willingness to minimize his typical complaints about the quality of the Vette's interior a bit surprising.
He might have been going a bit easy, but as I said, he had no problem criticizing the Challenger, and several months later he published a review of the CTS-V in his newspaper column and declared it one of the best American cars he's driven. This was after the episode of Top Gear was broadcast, after TG-A was dead, so he had no reason to go easy on it.
As an aside, I've sat in a new CTS and it has one of the nicest interiors I've experienced, regardless of brand.
Rboyett 12:18PM (6/04/2009)
If they are going to offer it, then do it right or don't do it at all. I actually like the SIARPC segments because you never know what is going to happen.
Why bother with paying two bucks for edited episodes that I can get 100% complete episodes off bit torrent for free.
Reply
UnnDunn 11:57AM (6/04/2009)
These episodes are also available on Zune Marketplace for the same price as the Xbox version, so if you've got a Zune I'd recommend buying them from there.
Reply
Turall 12:01PM (6/04/2009)
This would be great if I didn't have every episode of every season available, free of edits, on my home media server. Which I do.
Reply
BigTeebo 1:15PM (6/04/2009)
If you don't wish to pay, there's also bittorrent, myspace, Comcast on Demand, and probably several other mediums I haven't found yet. TG is a very well-connected show to watch online. I prefer 'torrent since it's unedited & comes out a few hours after it airs. Pleasantly surprised to see classic Doctor Who episodes also available.
Reply
onrails 1:37PM (6/04/2009)
I love me some finalgear.com.
I'm an X-box owner, but Microsoft needs to get over scraping every last penny from its consumers and just give up; offer free content, DL's, and 'gold live' capabilities. They're getting almost as bad as Apple.
Reply
Fooman 1:58PM (6/04/2009)
I'll stick with down loading them from final gear and streaming to my xbox thank you.
Reply
xtasi 6:38PM (6/04/2009)
One thing I don't like about "buying" these videos is that if it's gets corrupted, my xbox goes kaplut, i'm out of the shows I allegedly bought. Also, I can't loan them to my friends... like a regular DVD. I don't mind paying for them... as long as I get the convenience... otherwise, what am I paying for?
Reply