Film Studios Fail PSN Video Store
A friday afternoon rant - but not at Sony.Published 27/11/2009 at 14:00 by Tuffcub
Today’s new releases on the UK PSN Video store are Terminator Salvation, Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. What happened to the 50+ movies we were promised every week? Annoyingly the rest of Europe has also got Transformers Revenge of the Fallen and Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince, Transformers is out in the UK on Monday so why is this not on the UK PSN store? Also, why are new releases only available as a standard def purchase rather than rental? According to the EU Blog,
“Usually new releases are available to buy first and then couple weeks later for rental.”
Why is this different to the ‘real world’? Blockbuster has movies for rental before they are available in shops, why should the ‘digital world’ have a different arrangement? The problem is that Sony can only sell or rent movies which film studios have approved and only in the format the studio allows. Star Trek is only available as a SD purchase which annoyed the hell out of me (and you). A quick glance over on the Zune video store run by Microsoft reveals their version of Star Trek has the same problem, only available as an SD rental. Matt F from the Zune video store says,
“I understand the frustration on not being able to watch Star Trek in HD, but we’re at the mercy of the Studios/Networks and licensing deals.”
Whilst these licensing deals are in place I can see little use for the PSN, Zune video or any other service. To be told by Paramount that we cannot have Star Trek HD on the PSN yet we can buy it on the more expensive Blu Ray format is just insulting. Whilst we as consumers are embracing the digital age the Hollywood film studios are not, until they do there is no point checking the PSN video store, Zune video store or anywhere else online for new releases.
Comments
Please note that all comments are the opinion of the individual author and not TheSixthAxis.
Arjun_2K8 | 27/11/2009 14:01
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Wow, thats BS!
BiosNova | 27/11/2009 14:02
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Because SCEE think they are doing an amazing job, when in reality they are doing total shite
Arjun_2K8 | 27/11/2009 14:03
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I wouldn’t say that, I mean we got a lot of movies at launch so they’re not doing ‘total shite’.
Severn2j | 27/11/2009 14:09
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Although, a lot of the movies that were available at launch were ‘total shite’.. ;)
carlosfilippsen | 27/11/2009 14:13
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They’re doing ‘total shite’ until they get their act together and update their servers so people dont have to wait 6 hours to download a film they purchased.
dirtyhabit | 27/11/2009 14:47
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The comments sections on this site are really starting to get on my tits!
What do you want from these people? Read the frickin’ article.
cc_star | 27/11/2009 15:01
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I agree with your sentiment, but some people probably want a 2 hour movie to download in less than the 6-16 hours they’re currently finding it taking, even though the slow download time is nothing to do with this article which obviously points out the first week’s update has fallen somewhat short of Sony’s promises.
dirtyhabit | 27/11/2009 15:13
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lol yeah. I suffered a 17hr download for Watchmen HD! I was mostly refering to the licencing issue.
Plus to pour salt on the wound, I thought the film was a bit crap.
(Thats probably Sony’s fault to)
Sympozium Gro Mak | 27/11/2009 18:24
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Silence demon
Raen | 27/11/2009 14:04
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Hint. It’s the “more expensive Blu Ray format” part that’s keeping that as the HD source of movies. Specifically the “more expensive” part. Then again for that to be worth while the studios cut of the digital content can’t be good.
MyLeftTesticIe | 27/11/2009 15:36
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Just FYI SCEA has Star trek HD to buy, I picked it up @ the beggining f the week for $19.99usd
weegi | 27/11/2009 15:48
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Is it possible to buy off the US PSN Video store if your are in the EU tho? As far as I’m aware we are stuck with the UK VDS and therefore we need pay OTT for SD releases
hazelam | 27/11/2009 18:28
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unless of course you live in the us.
seems like some of tsa’s readers do.
iiekka | 27/11/2009 14:07
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agreed, until all the films are rentable this is a waste of space, why should i “buy” a film on the psn when its cheaper to buy it on dvd? as long as renting is still cheaper than buying on dvd then it will be worth using
Severn2j | 27/11/2009 14:08
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I think its a real missed opportunity, especially as something like this would go along way towards dissuading people from just downloading an ‘unofficial’ version from Mr B. Torrent.. Also, If I cant get the movies I want in HD (being as Im watching it on a HD player on a HD screen), then I’ll rent from somewhere else, like lovefilm or blockbuster. Whats the point in this service if it doesnt compete with the others out there? Its just more halfassedness from the industry…
jimmy-google | 27/11/2009 14:14
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Lovefilm have been talking about launching a service on the ps3 though it could still be sometime before it ever launches. Competition would be good assuming Sony let it happen.
IOMDutch | 30/11/2009 09:29
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Lets Hope so….I have used LoveFilm for years so if they do get involved I am sure that it will be a success.
bunimomike | 27/11/2009 14:12
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And they wonder why people download from BitTorrent, Rapidshare, etc. Seriously, when you (the industry) raise your game, I’ll finally sit up and pay attention. Tossers.
I pay a small fortune on PSN games, etc, and would love to have a good quality video store to enjoy.
cc_star | 27/11/2009 14:12
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Protectionism
Sony are put off offering the best possible service because of it cannibalising their other revenue streams and formats
Other studios will be reluctant for Sony to have to much power over their content
Still the US gets comfortably 50+ every single week, so if a department is driven enough to provide the best possible content it obviously can be done.
rht992 | 27/11/2009 14:15
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well its me B day in a couple of weeks so i’ll just hope i get star trek then. But that sucks they provide the movie in the best format they can
dude18wl | 27/11/2009 14:24
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I tried to get a film for last night but it took 348 minutes to download. was quite disappointed. Hoping that the service gets a bit better with film titles in the coming weeks!!
cam the man | 27/11/2009 15:11
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Hope that was 348 mins to download a HD movie.
Chimpanzee | 27/11/2009 14:32
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Studios only have themselves to blame that piracy continues to be prevalent. The only way to really combat piracy will be to make their products available as quickly, as easily and in as good as or better quality than they are through other means. If they make that service available legitimately, more people would be willing to pay a small fee to watch their films legally. If they continue to say ‘no, you can’t download this movie in HD’, people will continue to say ‘Yes we can, just not from you.’
hazelam | 27/11/2009 18:31
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it like, before the whole digital thing wasn’t ET the most pirated movie ever?
there’s a reason for that, because it took them something like four years to release it on video.
Dlaf42 | 27/11/2009 14:34
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This is a missed opportunity for sony, what with the kids breaking up in a couple of weeks for xmas. and it would have been easy to just download a movie and keep them quite. its hard having to buy rather than rent them the rate they would go through the movies would cost a fortune. Guess i will stick to blockbuster or skys Christmas hd movie channel now
skibadee | 27/11/2009 15:18
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they are always behind things & wonder why piracy happens.
Demibeard | 27/11/2009 15:31
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For me it’s just another reason to buy the disc based editions, for my £17.99 (play.com) Star Trek comes on 3 discs, has a bonus digital copy, a whole host of extras, a nice box, and is physically mine. Oh it’s also, not gimped on the audio side of things either, and in a couple of months, I’ll probably be able to get it for less than the £11.99 they want to charge me for the SD version.
I still can’t see a benefit of digital distribution, but then I’m old, grumpy and cold.
bunimomike | 27/11/2009 16:48
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Nothing old, grumpy or cold about your comments. When you put it like this *looks to comment* it makes for a compelling argument to never touch the download service at all. Ugh.
funkyellowmonkey(ps3 id) | 27/11/2009 21:58
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Agrees.
daveydaver34 | 27/11/2009 18:00
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Blu ray, MORE expensive, yeah right. It’ll cost you £11.99 just to own some films in SD from the store, which is an utter rip off. The rental service is fine, but you CANNOT justify buying them to own. Also why would anyone want to buy HD videos to own when you can’t use them with anything other than a PS3 since the fat32 format USB connection can’t copy the files to external devices? The store is purely a rental service at this point and you’d have to be an utter idiot to buy them to own.
hazelam | 27/11/2009 18:36
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as far as i’m concerned the video store holds no interest from me until they get some tv shows on there.
i see pretty much all the movies i want for a flat fee in the cinema, and i can rent them on demand on virgin often for less then the ps store and no waiting to watch them either.