You read it here first….HDnet, the high-definition video network owned by Mark Cuban, is launching a free download service for its HD video…to start with, it is offering the 20-minute HD video from the network’s exclusive live coverage of the July 26th launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery.

The service is being launched with P2P delivery technology from Red Swoosh and RSS feed service from Box.net. The service is expected to add more content down the line. The 1080i high-definition resolution video is available in the Windows Media
Video 9 HD format…it is encoded at 11-13 MPBS, so the 1.3 GB video would take about

3 hours to arrive via the download on say a 1Mbps connection, explained Travis Kalanick, CEO of Red Swoosh (RS), in an interview. The video has no DRM wrapper, according to Kalanick.

The idea is that once you install Red Swoosh’s P2P client, then if you subscribe to HDNet’s RSS feed in your newsreader, you can automatically get the feeds with video enclosures. For now, the service is only available for IE (which is a shame). For Cuban, this is certainly an interesting move. Even though his company has tied up with CinemaNow in the recent past to offer select HDNet content, he’s maintained that in the “bandwidth versus storage” debate, he falls on the storage side. Of course, this new service is a small step with one video available for now, but it would be interesting to see whether the reception (or lack of) for this service makes Cuban change his mind.

Update: Cuban is also an investor in RedSwoosh.