PSN Video Delivery Service Launches Next Month
November's just around the corner.Published 26/10/2009 at 12:30 by nofi
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Feeling left out at all the talk of Netflix on PS3 today? Well, don’t worry, the European launch of the PlayStation Network video delivery service is just around the corner. Launching this November (in France, Germany, Spain and the UK) we’re told the service will allow movie fans to download the latest releases (screenshot below) straight to your PlayStation 3s and PSPs for viewing at home or on the go.
The video delivery service will offer high quality entertainment, available to buy or to rent, from major movie studios including 20th Century Fox, Disney-ABC-ESPN Television1, Lionsgate2, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM), Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, Starz Media2, Universal2, and Warner Bros. in addition to local markets studios which will be announced closer to launch, in addition to local market studios.
Other markets will follow in 2010.
Comments
Please note that all comments are the opinion of the individual author and not TheSixthAxis.
bunimomike | 26/10/2009 12:31
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“High quality”… but High Def? Have the specs been mentioned, nofi.
nofi | 26/10/2009 12:32
Wants a custom tag.
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That’s all I got, sorry.
hazelam | 26/10/2009 13:01
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i’m not really interested in renting movies, i might buy some now you can back them up to an external drive.
what i really want to see is tv shows, but we’ll probably end up waiting at least another year for those, if we ever get them, the live video marketplace still doesn’t have them after two years and ms actually bothers with the eu market somewhat, what hope do we have with scee?
hazelam | 26/10/2009 13:03
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this was supposed to have been after nofi’s next reply
bajere | 26/10/2009 12:34
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yea, i’m really excited about this! i rent BluRay films all the time so this needs to be HD for me to bother with it…
Jas-n | 26/10/2009 12:41
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I think by High Quality entertainment, it means top films, not resolution.
dirtyhabit | 26/10/2009 13:34
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If you look at the image, the 3rd one down says ‘HD only’
So I guess It’ll be like 360 market place were SD & HD are on separate pricing structures.
bajere | 26/10/2009 15:05
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@dirtyhabit –
good spot…give that man an xtra point! lol
I didnt see that bit
BlingOnMyWrist | 26/10/2009 14:59
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I would assume that it is an identical service to that in the US. And there are HD and SD resolution available.
Roynaldo | 26/10/2009 12:35
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I honestly cant see why people want this so badly. Is it just the jealousy factor from the US having it?
nofi | 26/10/2009 12:38
Wants a custom tag.
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You can’t see why people would want to rent movies on their PS3?
Roynaldo | 26/10/2009 13:25
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Rent? maybe once in a blue moon.
Buy? No way in hell.
Physical form FTW!!
dirtyhabit | 26/10/2009 13:45
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Whats up with everyone here recently? We’ve had two great games released and reviewed (Uncharted & Forza) and two excellent services discussed (PlayTV & Vid Service).
All (almost) everyone can do is bitch and whinge. I personally am hyped for all these great things that are happening at the moment.
COME ON PEOPLE!! Cheer up a bit!!!
Roynaldo | 26/10/2009 13:54
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Yeah, I see where your coming from.
Unfortunatly some things just dont interest me….. at all.
dirtyhabit | 26/10/2009 14:00
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No worries Roy, sorry, wasn’t aimed directly at you ……..
cc_star | 26/10/2009 17:05
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The future is digital, just how far in the future is not yet know, services like this will get us there, but until there is financial benefit for buying a product which isn’t physical, and therefore has zero production costs, zero packaging costs, and zero retailing costs (apart from some marketing which exists presently anyway)
Seriously what is it with these content owners ripping us off?
In the Japan (I believe) digital products are cheaper, you can see this with PSPgo digital distribution which has game roughly 20% cheaper than the UMDs in retail stores.
And as for renting… LoveFilm works miles cheaper than US Video Store pricing and comes on Blu-ray which obviously has better quality and bitrate than a digital HD video.
Gastos84 | 26/10/2009 12:39
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I want this. No need to have to pre-think about renting or buying a DVD. Group of mates, wider choice of films, instant access. Bingo!
matty | 26/10/2009 12:43
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instant access? on the ps3 it will take ages to download.
illogicology | 26/10/2009 12:46
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If it streams then I’d imagine it would be watchable without pauses after having around ten minutes head start. That’s a lot closer to instant for most people than driving down to blockbusters.
Gastos84 | 26/10/2009 12:47
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Yeah, given that you give it some breathing time at the beginning, it won’t be too bad.
illogicology | 26/10/2009 12:43
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I think it really depends on the quality, if they’re streaming in DVD quality then I can pick up a DVD of most films I care about seeing from CEX or Amazon for the same price (most likely) and watch as many times as I please. If they stream in HD then it does open up the option of cheaper HD movies for people who don’t want to throw down £15 for a film they haven’t seen so I can suppose I can see the value there. But, in all honesty I think it’s clear that these services don’t succeed by competing with DVDs or Blu-Rays. They succeed by cornering the impulse purchase and convenience market. You’ve come home from work, you’re not planning on going out again but you want to watch a film. A glance at your shelves reminds you that you’ve seen all your DVDs a thousand times, logging on and getting a fair quality film, straight away for £5 doesn’t seem that expensive even if you’d never pick it up for that price during a shop.
Gastos84 | 26/10/2009 12:48
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As a huge film buff, I have a collection that would rival my local HMV, but if I can quickly purchase one from the store with a decent quality and low price, then I may be swayed. I like the idea of not having discs either.
Jeebers | 26/10/2009 12:51
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I think nearly all the Blockbusters have closed down near me and i rarely watch a film more than once so this will work for me. Has to be HD though.
ricey787 | 26/10/2009 13:24
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I’d want this if it was in HD…but otherwise i’ll stick with Sky Box Office/Movie channels…
mistermcee | 26/10/2009 14:32
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try having kids. Renting is mandatory then. All spare cash goes on the kids / mortgage, and going out happens once in a blue moon. Really looking forward to seeing all the films I haven’t seen in the past 2 years!
gazzagb | 26/10/2009 12:38
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Finally!
Hope its HD and not just ‘high quality’.
Soild_Nat | 26/10/2009 12:41
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Will be looking at the prices first before i decide on this. I currently have a lovefilm subscription which has proved moved useful and fairly cheap (if you watch enough films). If the price of this is the same or slightly less then i might consider renting from the PSN.
I also like the fact you can buy the films, but again i would like to see lower prices then if i brought the physical media. Do we know if the downloaded content can be moved to an external HDD for playback? I have a 640gb external HDD plugged into the PS3 and would love to use this to store my purchased films/TV series over the PS3 80gb HDD i have.
xdarkmagician | 26/10/2009 21:59
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if it’s going to be like the US store you can copy to a PSP or back up the video to an external HDD. but it’s only a back up, you can’t play from an external HDD, it needs to be on your ps3 to play. Also the videos get coded to your ps3 HDD, not your account, so if you format or change your ps3 HDD the videos no longer work and the back up data becomes worthless.
Bilbo_bobbins | 26/10/2009 12:47
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If it’s not Blu-ray Quality, whats the point???? I can rent any film released from Lovefilm (£2 Blu-ray) when I want at probably a cheaper price than Sony will want for them.
Raen | 26/10/2009 12:55
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Because sometimes people don’t want to wait for it to ship?
Bilbo_bobbins | 26/10/2009 13:17
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Good point lol, but waiting 2 days for a proper decent full HD copy or renting more expensive lower quality film online? I know I bought my Full HD TV for a reason, and that was to play the best quality I could get. Just my opinion.
Raen | 26/10/2009 13:23
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No that’s perfectly fair, but I can just picture coming home, flopping down and going “Oh I fancy watching film X and a pizza”, setting the film to download and having it ready to go by the time the pizza arrives. Isn’t that a nice thought?
Kings | 26/10/2009 13:28
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That’s such a good point you may have just planned my evening! Albeit with a cheap DVD from CeX most likely.
Kings | 26/10/2009 13:28
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Yes i meant to say thought not point, get over it.
Tuffcub | 26/10/2009 20:59
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Exactly, I hate waiting
cc_star | 26/10/2009 21:53
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Subscription TV with on-demand movies would be cheaper than doing a handful of rentals a month though, and the quality is better, and you’re not at the hands of the internet gods.
iNsAnE_gAmInG | 26/10/2009 12:48
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I’m anticipating the launch of this service. It’ll only interest me if it does indeed have HD films for download, they’re not stupidly huge in memory and they are not overpriced.
Gamoc | 26/10/2009 15:36
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Uh, HD films will be big. Slightly-less-than-DVD quality movies are usually around 700-800mb. I’d guess HD will be closer to 2 gb, if not more.
illogicology | 26/10/2009 16:46
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700mb films flood the various internet download sites, they’re a convenient size and watchable but “slightly less than DVD quality” wouldn’t hold up if you watch them on a 32inch or higher, HDTV. A DVD quality movie will be about 1,5 gigs. That’s with modest compression from a DVD source and if I remember rightly this is about the size of SD movies on Xbox Live. 2gb is a good size for an animated, 720p film of average length. That’s generally because in most circles it’s considered to be ok to subject animated films to more compression. There’s a lot less fine detail to worry about losing. However, for your average 720p movie with modest compression you’re talking about between 5-6 gigs. A 1080p movie? 8-12 gigs.
Now, depending whether their plan is to offer a faster, stream/download service or a higher quality, slower system, I’d imagine 2 gigs is very optimistic for even a 720p film. Of course, if their plan is the compress the hell out of them then it’s possible.
iNsAnE_gAmInG | 26/10/2009 23:38
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Yeah, I had a feeling your estimate Gamoc of 2gb was a little optimistic. I heard Blu-Ray films, as a file, are around 12-15GB. That’s far too much for me, with my poor and limited internet anyway. That’s why I stick to free movie download sites, as you get the films in passable quality at around 500mb.
hazelam | 26/10/2009 12:59
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you really think scee will launch this on time?
gazzagb | 26/10/2009 13:03
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I think that they will launch next month, just the availability and selection of films may be disapointing for some.
hazelam | 26/10/2009 13:04
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i agree with you on the second point, but you obviously have more faith than me on the first.
gazzagb | 26/10/2009 13:43
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No, i think coz the US already has a video service, its not asif they would discover a major bug a week before release. They already have the stuff needed for the service, they just need to implement it.
hazelam | 26/10/2009 15:10
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i’m not looking at this from a legal or technical standpoint, i’m looking from a historical standpoint, and historically, scee almost never do the big stuff on time, and not very often the little stuff either.
i have no evidence, i’m not stating facts, i just don’t believe scee will launch the video store when they said they would.
in fact i would not be surprised if we don’t get it this year at all.
gazzagb | 26/10/2009 17:27
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I agree with you that their track record hasnt been brilliant, but as this isnt exactly ‘new’, there is no reason i can see for it being delayed.
blond_man6187 | 26/10/2009 13:00
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hey, does anyone know about tv programmes?
thanks
blond_man6187 | 26/10/2009 13:00
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programs**
hazelam | 26/10/2009 13:05
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we won’t be getting tv shows at launch, and i don’t think they’ve announced when we will, just “in the future”
gazzagb | 26/10/2009 13:05
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It will only be movies, but i dont see why some tv programs wont appear on it in the future.
blond_man6187 | 26/10/2009 14:03
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cool guys.
hazelam | 26/10/2009 15:13
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they want to get the tv shows out quick, because they are the one feature of a video store that would interest me most.
i’ve thought about getting shows on itunes, but not sure about the quality and if i could play them on my ps3 or 360 hooked up to my tv and not just on my pc screen.
the total lack of any tv shows on the live video marketplace is rather annoying, the psn video store better not end up the same way.
Raen | 26/10/2009 15:24
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From a quick poke about looks like content from is up to 720p, but those figures are from 2008, it may be 1080p now. Bitrate is much lower than physical media though.
double-o-dave | 26/10/2009 13:05
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This is worrying because now I won’t have to go to Blockbuster there really isn’t hardly any reason to leave the house anymore apart from to go to work or the pub.
Raen | 26/10/2009 13:16
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Um I guess sometimes you have to go to the actual bank rather than online or phone banking? Apart from that I’m struggling.
double-o-dave | 26/10/2009 13:29
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It is a tough one and I’m sure if I took a pay-cut I could work from home too. Thank god I don’t live with a bunch of barmaids or there really wouldn’t be any reason to leave the house!
a inferior race | 26/10/2009 17:29
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I have to hang the washing out as well
skibadee | 26/10/2009 13:11
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that’s more like it
jackshiels | 26/10/2009 13:11
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Didn’t the PS website say it was coming to Ireland also? I sure hope so…
Chimpanzee | 26/10/2009 13:15
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What do the numbers after the studios mean? (“Lionsgate2″, “Universal2″, etc)
nofi | 26/10/2009 13:58
Wants a custom tag.
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Oh, there were footnotes. I’ll fix.
hazelam | 26/10/2009 15:03
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they’re not how many titles we can expect at launch then?
bunimomike | 26/10/2009 13:20
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We don’t have the internet connection here to rent even Standard Definition but High Definition would be of great interest if we ever moved house. An interesting aside is the old place I lived in. I had a 20Mbit connection with Virgin Media. Real world speeds of 19.3Mbit were constant (and lovely). With that in mind, I could go to QuickTime Trailers (on the Apple site) and start a 1080p film trailer instantly, without buffering… which was awesome fun.
Once again, real world download speeds (if the servers out there could upload fast enough) were up to 2.3Meg a second. God, I miss those days.
Anyway, yes, I’d love the service to be available to the PS3.
illogicology | 26/10/2009 16:50
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I used to get great speeds with virgin in my last house too, now I’ve moved I pay for 10meg and get 2. It’s enough to make me weep and I frequently do.
bunimomike | 26/10/2009 19:02
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We have just over a half meg service and I self harm regularly.
Kings | 26/10/2009 13:25
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This is just the PS3 getting something the 360 has had for ages. Just with the option to buy. I don’t think it’s that big a deal, but at least the PS3 is getting something new, which is always welcome.
gnipper | 26/10/2009 13:44
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Looking forward to checking this out – price dependent of course. If it worked and price was reasonable it could mean bye bye lovefilm. If LF joined up with Sony or MS to provide a streaming service linked to subscription plans then it would be a bit of a coup. Oh, and with any luck my internet speed at home will be MUCH better end of next week so these kinda things will be watchable!!!
twain155 | 26/10/2009 15:19
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This would need to be decent quality, quick buffering and have a big catalogue of films to be worth while, like most people have mentioned I can walk round to blockbuster (luckily just round the corner) and hire 4 blu-rays for 4 nights for £10.
The only problem I have is the selection at blockbuster is pretty limited which is where this service could sway me if cheap enough.
I have yet to test the zune HD instant on on my xbox yet to see how that fairs, but between my xbox and ps3 I may be getting close to the point of moving away from physical media for movies which is a pretty big deal really!
funkyellowmonkey(ps3 id) | 26/10/2009 21:25
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Ditto that!