VidZone! First Look
The PS3's latest exclusive XMB app is here, and it's fantastic.Published 11/06/2009 at 14:00 by nofi
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VidZone! is not only exclusive to the PlayStation 3, it’s exclusive to us Europeans, too. For once we get something really cool that our friends in the States can only look on with envious eyes. Of course, everything’s half the price over there and they’ve had the movie download service for ages, but hey, let’s gloat in this while we can because VidZone! is worth gloating over.
So, first things first, VidZone! needs to be downloaded from the Store. Depending on when you’re reading this it’ll either be up there, or will be shortly. The application, which is free, is just 20MB and once downloaded will appear on your XMB right underneath the Music column, meaning the last Firmware must have prepped your PS3 ready for this.
Once in, VidZone! is your typically slick SCEE affair, with a gorgeous (and intuitive) menu system giving you easy access to your playlists and, of course, the music itself. Sony have worked wonders with the day one artist list, there’s over 4,000 of them on there and although quite a few of them are from independent labels, VidZone! at least carries two major distributors from the off, with more to come.
These 4,000 artists constitute 10,000 music videos, which is an incredible amount, and span a wide range of genres including Alternative, Bollywood, Classical, Comedy / Themes, Dance, Hip Hop, Jazz / Blues, Pop, R&B / Soul, Rock / Metal, and World. It’s like browing through iTunes but faster and on your TV rather than your iPhone.
You can search artists by letter, and for the lazy you can quickly browse through three categories: The Chart, Recommended and Dance Hits, and of course navigating these and selecting tracks for streaming or adding to your playlist works just the same way as you’re familiar with from using the PlayStation Store. Once playing music videos can be paused, fast forwarded, rewound and skipped like magic.
Songs can also be downloaded for your mobile phone as a ringtone for £1.50. In addition, there are options for downloading the video or just the music track for your phone, however, these are currently unavailavable. The service does have a small amount of advertising and the adverts themselves can be clicked on. For example, an advert for Battlefield 1943 will take you to the PlayStation Store where you can download the latest trailer for the game. You can watch the videos in full screen, however image quality does suffer and they do not actually fill your screen.
So, yeah, it’s pretty cool. There’s a massive selection of music on there which should cater for all tastes and with the built-in options to download tracks to your mobile phone and the promise of more labels popping up soon, VidZone! has come out of nowhere and totally revolutionised your XMB and transformed your living room parties for ever. Wicked stuff.
Comments
Please note that all comments are the opinion of the individual author and not TheSixthAxis.« Previous 1 2 3 4 ... 6 Next »
hosepha | 11/06/2009 15:02
Member
134 TSA Points | Member since: Nov 2008
Hmmmm..
Will it have the full video to Benny Benassi’s Satisfaction I wonder??
AddictedAndy | 11/06/2009 15:04
PS3Addict
490 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
‘Call on Me’ FTW
3shirts | 12/06/2009 14:21
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2487 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2008
It even has a ’sexy videos’ playlist. It’s good
ManeoriX | 11/06/2009 15:04
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1561 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
Finally something good comes from SCEE and it only comes to a few countries in the EU. BS!
BoyDay | 11/06/2009 15:10
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902 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
They’ve said already though that they’re working hard to bring it to more countries ASAP, it’s not like other things where they release it in the US and then don’t even bother mentioning the rest of the world.
TctclMvPhase | 11/06/2009 15:11
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818 TSA Points | Member since: Nov 2008
Any news on whether this is IP Locked?
Lanselta | 11/06/2009 15:17
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527 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
Cristine Aguilera with the volume muted, over and over again….
2ofclubs | 11/06/2009 15:25
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606 TSA Points | Member since: Sep 2008
Looking forward to giving this a shot when I get home. Also extra excited because Dizzee Rascal’s Bonkers song advertised it so I’m hoping that’ll be on there too. What a choon! Also yes pelase to the Rise Against, great live band.
p.s. I think there might be a slight spelling error in there: ‘It’s like browing through iTunes’. Is this meant to be ‘browsing’ rather than ‘browing’. Sorry to be picky but feel free to put me in my place if I’m wrong.
2ofclubs | 11/06/2009 15:25
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606 TSA Points | Member since: Sep 2008
I am aware I can’t spell please. Pelase is the way forward!
Aitrus | 11/06/2009 15:27
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1488 TSA Points | Member since: Sep 2008
Sounds great. Hope it gets to the rest of EU soon.
deepmenace | 11/06/2009 15:30
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264 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
anyone know what resolution these are coming in at?
am dreading full screen old skool you-tube style lo-res with mega-compression!
djdustb | 11/06/2009 16:13
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1308 TSA Points | Member since: Nov 2008
it’s not far off to be honest.
Snebjnr | 12/06/2009 00:44
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1612 TSA Points | Member since: Feb 2009
The resolution when its full-screened is still impressive
jacklum | 11/06/2009 15:37
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990 TSA Points | Member since: May 2009
“everything’s half the price over there”
Not really true anymore. There are a lot of games that work out cheaper on the UK PSN store and you can find some retail games much, much cheaper on amazon.co.uk compared to amazon.com.
Shrui | 11/06/2009 15:40
Member
261 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2008
I just started using it. Very nice!
Just finished watching the Pendulum video for ‘Slam’! An essential watch!
Erroneus | 11/06/2009 15:41
Wanted "Trophy Hunter" but was too late.
2979 TSA Points | Member since: May 2009
Hmm no Vidzone here in Denmark, looks like large part of the EU is excluded
ManeoriX | 11/06/2009 15:47
Member
1561 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
Yeah it sucks
djdustb | 11/06/2009 16:08
Member
1308 TSA Points | Member since: Nov 2008
obviously it is having first day nerves, but seems a bit slow and bit flaky when trying to load.
Think I should just turn the PS3 off for a few hours and go back to work, the disappointment of this day is too much.
double-o-dave | 11/06/2009 16:08
Member
995 TSA Points | Member since: Nov 2008
I don’t like the actual song much but I hope they’ve got ‘mason v princess superstar – perfect’ on their.
There’s something about that video – i think its the 3 nice elegant ladies sitting on the big medicine ball type things.
midnite_blaze | 11/06/2009 16:10
Member
80 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2008
Installed, although it’s taking a lifetime to load up… oh, and I hav had about 6 error messages so far… is this going to be a buggy P.O.S. like Home was for the first couple of weeks?!
gazo69 | 11/06/2009 16:10
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1152 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
Fantastic, very pleased with vidzone, this is a great edition to the ps3, and something i will use quite alot
Dlaf42 | 11/06/2009 16:27
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259 TSA Points | Member since: Mar 2009
is anyone having trouble with vidzone,as i have just installed it and it is giving me a fatal error message
djdustb | 11/06/2009 16:35
Member
1308 TSA Points | Member since: Nov 2008
Yeah it seems a lot of people are having issues with it at the mo, once demand dies down it will be fine.
Manorhowze | 11/06/2009 16:37
Driving God
2032 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2008
Same for me too, im just gonna leave it till tomorrow to see if its better then.
BryOnRye | 11/06/2009 17:01
Member
814 TSA Points | Member since: Jan 2009
Yup keep getting the fatal error message.