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Sony to Make an "iTunes for Movies"
dAzED1 writes "After years of complaining that the RIAA and MPAA were missing the boat, and should have embraced things like Napster instead of supressing them, we got iTunes and the like. Now, Sony has announced it will 'make its top 500 films available digitally in the next year' according to a report on the BBC, with Sony's iPod replacement being the PSP."
Walkmovies, since they already have the Walk-thing down?
Not with the expensive memory stick duos or w/o a umd burner it won't.
What will the prices be like? If anything like iTMS, it should be about $10 a movie, which I think is too much. Of course, when I say iTMS, I refer to the individual songs and not the whole album, which would almost cost the same on iTMS and buying the album. Anyway, should be interesting...at least for those on broadband!
A blog like any other.
Nothing for you to see here. Please move along.
Now the real posting, is this just because its "breaking the law" to rip a dvd, recode it and put it on a psp? Being a ipod replacement i dont think so. 20 gigs vs what is the largest car 4 gigs? And the 20 gig ipod is cheaper.
Its about time we say something like this, though I haven't RTFA yet.
From TFA
Sony and other movie studios, say Cnet news, are keen to wrestle power, and financial gain, from any single technology giant - like Apple - which has had success with iTunes for music downloads.
Hmmm....
I can just see this being as successful as their minidisc players cripled with DRM. They will come out with it sure, but someone will come latter and release a better version not near as gay (Apple maybe?) like the ipod when compared to the ultracool now dead minidisc. Kevin
PS: Nice logo!
always 10 years behind the porn industry
I doubt movies formatted for the little PSP with it's 480x272 screen would be popular targets for piracy. Especially when the movies are already released as DVD's which are presumably much higher quality and easy to rip.
some quick clues to get you started:
1. Apple's AACs don't *need* an iPod to work
2. don't make the download more expensive than just clicking on Amazon next-day delivery
3. don't only make new films available to download 6 months after general availability
Maybe eventually they will come out with a more entertainment-centric PSP, with a hard drive for storing movies instead of dinky and expensive Memory Sticks. They did it with that limited edition DVR PS2. On the other hand, Sony has a 10 year history of making very stupid decisions...
I still prefer the Theatre. And, I have here in my hand, a ticket to Sin City, opening tomorrow. Big screen still owns the little ones. Though a nifty idea, I doubt it'll take off with peeps like myself -- movie buff / historian types.
I don't even watch movies on my 21" LCD monitor, let alone a small PSP screen.
I, for one, will be sticking to the theatres.
But how will I watch it on my iPod?
I know us geeks would like it. I think it should have been done a long time ago.
But without the power of the iPod (Or portable audio players in general) pushing the mp3 stores (Mainly itunes, really the first successful one) will it take off at all?
If a subscription model was offered, let's say 10 movies watches a month for $20.. I think it could really do well! We all know it would be DRM'ed to death, though.
Excuse me, I don't mean to impose, but I am the ocean
Now that Sony has a proprietary format, its time to "make available" all that media!
No thanks. I'll stick to DIVX.
------ The best brain training is now totally free : )
...top 500 movies?! Who gives a rat's ass about their top 500? You can buy those at the store anyway. How about a huge backcatalog of obscure and indy films (kinda like iTunes has a large catalog on non-Britney music)? They might actually get some money from me then.
They will never stop until somebody makes the
- How long will it take to download? Maybe it's a smaller file size, as it's target is a smaller screen. But...
- Who wants to watch a movie on a 3" screen? Can you hook PSPs to a TV?
- How much will it cost?
- Does the PSP even have media that the download will write too? Or will you be expected to dl to a computer, buy a media burner just for the PSP optical media, and then watch it on that?
Naturally, I didn't RTFA. Maybe Sony thinks folks will spend $20 to buy mini-optical media versions of their movies that only work in the PSP. If that's it, they'll have another think coming.--
$tar -xvf
Sony has gotten a partial clue... once they figure out storage, they'll have a whole one. And kick Apple's butt. Why carry an ipod and a PSP when the PSP will do everything the iPod does and more? And it's pretty clear Apple's not going to make something that can compete with the PSP, their desktops don't have the games the PSP does. ;) The funny thing is for all the complaints about how expensive a PSP is, compare it to an iPod with a screen...
With luck, this'll drive down memory stick prices or get someone to make a UMD burner, because I'm not betting on Sony obtaining a full clue by itself with no outside help.
I wonder if an external hard drive is possible with the PSP...
I can't see this working unless Sony allow people to burn their movies to DVD. After all, people still want to watch this stuff in their loungeroom. Penetration of media boxes is still low. If the only thing most people (ie not geeks) can do with their DRMed Sony movie is watch it on their PC or their PSP I imagine they will stick with DVDs.
What they need to do is take the efficient delivery system that's already in place, and mobilize it with a small fee and "on the fly" encoding in any format desirable. Having access to the master is a flat-fee, and each time you want a new encode, it's another fee. I would pay the price of a movie ticket to download movies I want in high quality. If you won't give money to the companies that make movies happen, and indirectly, the artists and actors behind them, eventually, the shit coming out now will even be worse.
We are one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively. Back to you with the weather, Bob!
New SONY Topic? They've been adding all kinds of new ones lately...
A digital media player program with a bit torrent client built in so that purchasers of the same content seed the download of purchasers to follow.
good to see such innovation in making you pay for movies/games that you probably already own
maybe if they spent some of their cash on creating new content we could actually progress, at the moment its the same 1960-2000 's conetnt rehashed over and over and over again
originality is all but dead, it must suck to be a kid today
I've read some comments saying "Oh the PSP screen isn't big enough, memory sticks are too small"
My guess is that sony will make this as an option for the psp via an addon accessory. Some kind of cartridge connected to a base unit that connects to a hard drive that snaps onto the bottom of the unit.
It will probably have video out, stereo out via a Y cable plugged into the headphone jack.
Also folks aren't taking into consideration the modern codecs we have availiable to us these days. As an internet broadcaster, I know just how nice on2's vp6-7 series codecs look at low bittrates. I'm able to push out a full D1 res stream (720x480) at 15 FPS with stereo AAC 64kbps sound(cd quality). Altogether the stream runs at 360kbps, or about a CD for 4 hours of video.
How long until a FairPlay clone for Sony's service comes out.
Personally, I'm betting a month after the initial service release, with an additional 2 weeks every encoding update.
It's only an insult if it's not true.
How do I make my own UMD disks containing my home movies I shot with super-nifty keeno buttload expensive Sony video camera that I want to show grandma on our long car trip this summer on my cool new PSP? Once I find out how Sony is gonna' help me with this, I'll begin to commence to anticipate contemplating to start taking this seriously.
1) Sony's format won't be DRM free at all, so people will continue to make their own DRM free versions.
2) Jon will break the DRM about a month after it's available
3) Sony will sue Jon under DMCA (even though it's not applicable where he lives)
4) Napster will try to get in on the act
5) Apple/Sharman/Somebody will sue Sony for patent infringement
6) Sales will be great but copyright infringement won't take a dent.
7) Retail sales will take a dent and Sony will blame that on P2P instead of their own better-than-retail sales mechanism.
Am I missing anything?
I am government man, come from the government. The government has sent me. -- G.I.R.
How many of these products went out that claimed to iTunes and iPod killers? The PSP is going to try to do to movies what the iPod is to music.
And I bet it's not mac compatible. Just like Napster, which was supposed to be an iTunes killer but isn't even competition because it won't work with my computer.
I think the pay-per-view model is pretty much owned by the cable companies, the only people that will buy this are people who use their computers to download movies.
Who's going to pay $9.99 for a DRMed PSP-only movie?
I still don't get why you would want to watch movies on a PSP. The screen, while being fairly large for a portable game console, is WAY TOO SMALL for movies. Really. People need to stop trying to make game consoles All-In-One devices. Did the PSX teach people nothing?
--The universe will not be altered by forum threads, even those which are very wry. --Tycho Brahe (Penny Arcade)
I think there are far too many problems with this. The first is the size of a movie. Any high quality movie is going to be several gigabytes of data. Even on a truly fast connection, a download of that size takes more than a few hours; that is, more than the time it would take to drive to the store and rent or purchase the movie for oneself. Futhermore, Sony has a history of being much less lax about its DRM advocacy. (Seeing as how, unlike Apple, they are actually involved in the production side of the movie industry, this is not suprising.) Sony isn't planning on making the UMD a home-burnable format for that very reason; if you want to carry around 3 movies, you'll need 3 giant memory sticks,or, probably more convenient, just buy them on UMD. (Or, at considering the price of the PSP, simply buy a portable DVD player.) iTMS hasn't stopped music piracy; why should Sony's proposed online movie store stop movie piracy? Lastly, I'm not too keen on the idea of watching movies "on the go". When I watch a movie(which is exceedingly rare) I like to be sitting down, and with as few distractions around as possible. Listening to music may be a mobile phenomenon...I doubt watching movies will become one.
Going back to school for entry-level jobs?
There is no way this venture can be as successful as iPods and iTMS. Far fewer people want mobile video than mobile audio. If this weren't the case, those portable DVD players would have been as much of a must have item as portable CD players were. The demand just isn't there.
If they take the focus off of mobile devices, then they might have something. The demand for watching videos in the home has been present for a long time, and anything that makes that easier and cheaper will be successful. The potential road blocksare insufficient broadband penetration and meager broadband speeds where it is present. Once you can download movies in an hour at DVD quality, everyone will want this.
...of Sony to want to be out on front of the business model and not just the tech. ie; Betamax, Memory Stick based MP3 players that require conversion to Sony's proprietary format, etc; I pretty much expect to see some gotcha, catch, whatever that will destroy any chance of Sony sucessfully attaining market leader status. Sony is a great technology firm with beyond solid quality mfging and design but they always some how screw up the bidness side of things.
Who are you? The new #2 Who is #1? You are #617565. I am not a number, I am a free man! Muhahaha.
- if they are available as UMD-Rs (they could lock down the PSP to make the media open but the player closed/DRMed... to keep their medai wing happy)
- if they price them right (both pre-loaded UMDs and UMD-Rs)
I see that a lot of people saw what Apple did, and are trying their own entry into the digital media market. I wonder how these will pan out. Note however, noone is taking on Apple. They pretty much see no cash in the business... thus, they move on to the "next iPod possibility" aka Video. I wonder what Steve Jobs would say to those who make possibly flawed assumptions (ie, does "audio market" == "video market">)Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
How many regular people really want to take their movies with them and watch them on a small screen?
It's like mobile phones that allow video calls - still not a large market because audio will do - portable video is a novelty.
How long will the batteries last watching a full length film?
With audio, it's different - audio is more "portable friendly" as an application.
Plus the battery time with audio players lets you get through a substatial number of tunes - how long would the battery power last before a recharge when watching full length films.
"Who says nothing is impossible? Some people do it every day!" - Alfred E. Neuman
still have to get them on the psp, and 2000 songs vs maybe 2 movies doesn't make this a very compelling combo at the moment.
The only way it'll ever gain significant market share is if it competes with the home DVD renting.
This means fighting Blockbuster and NetFlix on their home turf.
The only solution? Undercut Blockbuster and NetFlix on price for a SUBSCRIPTION service that allows you to pay monthly, not by # of movies.
Good luck to Sony on coming up with a DRM scheme that can ensure you only have 3 movies out, ala the way physical media can be tracked.
Isn't that the dream of DRM after all? Find a way to make digital media work just like proprietary real objects?
A major part of the success of the iTMS and iPod is the quality and ease of use of iTunes, which creates a nicely integrated package that is painless to use. Sony had better come out with something comparable for this to have a chance of really catching on.
General idea:
1. hardware by Apple, to make it small & fashionable (not geeky/bulky/complicated)
2. OS5 by Palm (for all the existing apps & games already available even if the OS itself fails to give geeks/programmers any wetdreams). In 2-3 years, Apple can dump Palm OS for Linux because there will be a solid Palm OS emulator running Linux (Palm is stupid enough to be working on this). Only PocketPC will come close to Palm in this area--but I doubt Apple would choose that.
3. multimedia content by Disney or other studio(s) because content is king--and obviously itunes support too
Device MUST be smaller than PSP while keeping screen size similar. Don't waste space like PSP.
Device MUST provide decent connectivity and communications (sd card slot, usb2, easy-to-use email, instant messaging, etc.). We'll see if apple can invent an easier data-entry method.
I was wondering when someone would catch on to create a iTunes for movies and maybe a iPod movie. But, I think this is a pretty good idea. But then again, it could fail badly.
In America, you spam computers In Soviet Russia, computers spam you!
>I think there are far too many problems with this.
>The first is the size of a movie. Any high quality
>movie is going to be several gigabytes of data.
>Even on a truly fast connection, a download of that
>size takes more than a few hours;
Do you know what the "streaming" technology is?
Forget PSP. Release your '500 movies' to PC owners.
If I could spend $20 to buy say Revenge of the Sith when it gets released, download an encrypted DVD image via an internal Bittorrent service controlled by the studio (to save it bandwidth costs), use a program developed by the studio to burn the encrypted DVD image (saving it packaging, distribution and middleman costs) and watch it at home, why not? Is that a bad thing?
I'm a bootlegger with a large collection of MP3s and .avi's, and I can tell you that 64kbps isn't anywhere near CD quality audio, and 360kbps video at 720*480 looks like shit.
I think that's exactly what grandparent was trying to get at. He was suggesting Sony use an open format, instead of some closed format only Sony knows about (ATRAC, anybody?).
This makes it easier on Sony, because more programs will be able to utilize the files, and users will be happy that their files are more easily moved around. Yes, the files will probably be crippled with DRM, but at least multiple DRM-supporting programs will be able to use it, instead of just Sony's program.
I've been playing with my own PSP for about a day now, and after spending another $80 for a 512 MB stick, I'm in the process of converting my unwatched episode of Battlestar Gallactica so I can watch it on the plane tomorrow. (Today Battlestar - tomorrow some anime ;) ).
:) ), then you'll have a winner.
One thing that the iTunes Music Store (iTMS) did right is how they went to *all* of the major labels before launch and got them onboard. Sony's online music service, I believe, has at least Sony music. Their online movie system? Sony movies. Microsoft has MSN and - other stuff.
When I see a iTunes Movie Store (and it doesn't have to be from Apple, really - I don't give a crap) that offers a good line of major studios (Disney, Miramax, Fox) as well as some independants (there are some documentaries that would go great with this system), let me burn it to a DVD to watch on my television or convert to a format I like (such as the PSP MPEG-4 format - then again, if I can burn my own DVD at least I could rerip it for the PSP if I feel up to it
So far, though, most of the iTMS-like movie stores are kind of half assed about it. I'm sure that Jobs is working in the backgrounds, but knowing the movie studios and all of the copyright/union issues to deal with (like how do you pay people for the online version of a movie compared to the DVD version per sale, and so on), I believe it will take at least another 4-5 years. Not for the technology, but for the law to catch up and studios to listen to thier pocketbooks and not their lawyers.
Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.
52 Weeks, 52 Religions with John Hummel
But adding their DRM to it made it a proprietary version of AAC. They chose to let iTunes and iPod play it. You'll notice that other players are free to add AAC support (and a few do), but iTunes-bought songs won't work with them.
Etiquette is etiquette. He kills his mother but he can't wear grey trousers.
I have bandwidth and computers. They're connected to my entertainment centre. I rip or encode my movies to divx and put them on a server. That way I can que a few up for my kids and not have to worry about them breaking the cd's or tapes. I also have the added bonus of removing the previews that I don't think are suitable for my little kids. (at least I can still do this for a while in Canada)
I don't want to DRIVE BACK to the video store. I'm sick of it. Let me pay a couple bucks and download a movie without restrictions. Somebody please have the balls to try this. All the download options now are for america only. It may be only the geeks that are doing this now but all it would take is for our freinds to see how easy it can be and they'd be sold.
I'm not anti-social, I'm anti-idiot.
I surely wont pay for movies I can only watch on my PSP. Get it to DVD or stream it over my home network to some device to get it into my TV for viewing.
The Doormat
If you're not outraged, then you're not paying attention.
I love watching movies while jogging. I also love watching them while driving and walking and studying.
"If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer
What kind of bandwidth are we talking here, to download a movie? They can pretty much cross of anyone still on dialup, which is quite a lot, yet. To watch movies on the PSP they'll probably require considerably less than for a TV or decent monitor, so that could help them. Obviously they have their eye on Microsoft and their media center stuff.
Sony is in a good position to make such an offering with the catalog of movies they own. Expect Microsoft, with their huge piles of cash to buy a studio or media company? Or maybe just buy enough stock to have a say.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Downloads will have to be at least 720 x 388 in order to compete with existing download services -- and maybe more to compete with pirate downloads. Which is what this is all about, coming up with a legal download service that people will pay to use, instead of pirate downloads they don't get any money for.
That model will only work if Sony's distributing their Bukkake Tentacle Pr0n archive.
"No beer until you finish your tequila!" -Leela's Dad
Does it come with a surround sound rumbling butt plug? Otherwise that small screen aint going to be too exciting.
but knowing sony it will cost just as much / only marginally less to dl a movie than it would to get the dvd...
Get your torrents...
"iTunes for Movies"... hmm... ins't that what BitTorrent is for?
I just don't see such a service succeeding. Some cable and sattelite providers already have on-demand features for all new movies and TV shows -- not just Sony's and is even available in high-definition. This so-called movies-for-the-PSP service may sound neat for about five minutes, but where's the scalability? Can I play these movies on my Media Center PC and output it half-decently to my big screen? Like many have already said, an iPod is not required to play AAC files. But even if someone hacks up a method to play these "video files" on the computer, they probably wont be that great of quality.
BITTORRENT! BITTORRENT! BITTORRENT!
Uh, I mean, uh... I can't wait to buy some movies.
Actually there is. Sony makes a glasstron which is really bulky wraparoud goggles that give you the perception of sitting in front of a movie screen. I couldn't see sitting in front of it for a long time. Been out for years.
Especially at 15 fps. 15 fps is fine for streaming video, but for DVD-quality movies? No thanks, I'll take MPEG4/QuickTime 7, thank you.
I don't really care about the size of the screen, I would just plug the movie player gizmo into the nearest TV or monitor anyway.
What I care about is the physical size of the gizmo itself!
I would much rather carry around an iPod than a PSP!
Why carry an ipod and a PSP when the PSP will do everything the iPod does and more?
The whole point is that the iPod doesn't try to be all things to all people. It pitches as a MP3 player, and does it exceptionally well. It also acts as a self-powered external firewire HDA, but that's a bonus. One of the reasons that the iPod is so successful is the simplicity of the interface. The more options you add the more complex it gets. Apple gets it, the question is whether industry pundits or Sony do too.
Sara
Designer, Gamer, Macgrrl in an XP World
If the new CEO had a technical clue (he probably doesn't) or was friendly with the engineers (probably isn't) they could do something like sell a tivo-like unit with a 500GB HD holding their top 200 titles, a thousand songs, an attachment to record from i-Link (firewire) outputs on Sony cameras, and a network connection for whatever (additional downloads, drm if they just can't let go, etc.) For a monthly fee you get tivo-like TV functionality, plus a digital VCR, an integral DVD burner, and the ability to play any movies you like, sequentially, all day and all night. This will succeed if they sell it as a tech item with iMovies online service to all other movie production companies or even indies. It would be a magnificent integration of Sony's technical ability and knowhow around the board. Why won't it happen? Because adding one management guy can't save a crippled company even if you spell it out for them. ( Willing to manage the project though! :) Well we'll see what happens. So far, Sony has proven that unlike M$, they do not learn from their mistakes. Which makes them a ripe target for the Koreans and whoever else can see the writing on the wall.
...ATRAC3 for movies? Let's look at Sony's prior attempt to emulate iTumes - it'll end up being a 320x240 pixel movie, compressed to hell so that you can get a full 2 hour movie in 200MB or less. 'Course you couldn't see or hear it at that comression rate, but hey, it's available digitally and everyone else (who actually wants to *see* the movie) are pirates!
Here is the problem with having too many pots cooking. As many people have said in related (iPod Video) threads, music is a background thing you have going while you do x, while watching video is something you *do*. Now, the only market segment this portable video model can really work with is children and public transit commuters. People who use a passive mode of transportation. But the PSP is well outside of "buy it and shut the kids up" pricing. This could have worked really really well for them with kids movies, but how many kids will get a PSP for good grades or whatever? Sony seems to be trying to straddle the success of Apple and Nintendo here, and a whack in the nuts is a quite possible outcome.
"You know why you do not see me styling wit my homies? Because I have no homies!!" -Mojo Jojo
You're the one making those Daily Shows.
According to tonight's episode, the PSP was actually created as an instrument of god. Therefore, god must intend for us to be able to download movies.
The answer is "You can download songs for any of them. Some people actually pay $1/song, but there's a thousand ways to download for free".
And then a good brother sets it up so she downloads only and never uploads so that she won't be the target of the RIAA.
Let me pay $20 a month to "own" all the movies I want like Napster does and you have yourself a deal. It would be better than Starz.
Does God treat us as servants or friends? Check my homepage.
Many have already said that Sony wanted an iTunes-styled distribution of movies for those of us who get a warm and fuzzy feeling from downloading non-pirated material from the web.
The problem has always been though that movie files have always been so HUGE. This is where, supposedly, Apple would come in and why Sony would even dream working with them (and say..not Microsoft): H.264 - the non-proprietary standard already elected by both Blu-ray and HD-DVD. It slices it dices it scales quite-nicely from 3g phones to Hi Definition televisions (Sony Cells, pun intended, both of them) and can give videos at FOUR TIMES the resolution at the same cost.
There is just tons of speculation that points to this nerd-dream one site that has a scary take on it is Neo's Macsimum News. He does make some really interesting points though:
well I could go on, but its all theory, interesting theory, but nonetheless not proven.
With the iPod I can carry my entire music collection and play whatever matches my mood. With the PSP I would have to go loaded with multiple disks that I may be interested in watching.
My iPod will let me listen to my music for an average of 10 hours. Will I be able to watch 2 or more movies on a single charge?
"Download 500 full-length DVD Quality movies today at www....."
:)
Anyone else find the phrase familiar ?
But we have different expectations for watching non-porn entertainment. And 15fps videos aren't gonna cut it.
Being entertained and being turned on have different technical requirements.
Thanks for putting on the feedbag. Thanks for going all out. Thanks for showing me your Swiss Army knife.
Jobs is right when he says that nobody wants to watch movies on a handheld device.
Of course there will be an iTunes for movies - the software will be Apple released, and the primary client will not be a handheld device, but instead the Mac Mini - I hear its max screen resolution is far greater than normal, and it will be like a set top box for plugging into a TV or cinema display.
Nobody wants to watch movies on handhelds, although remember the Mac mini has the interface on top for transferring movies to one after downloading (the internal circuit board that has been identified as the beginning of an iPod dock.)
They can call it iMovie. Oh wait...
I will bet that apple will have a similar service within the year. They have already declared this the year of HD video. I am certain that this will include a movie service. In Tiger's preview, Apple offers the following hint of a codec which I will bet be the file format:
QuickTime 7 features an ultra-efficient new video codec called H.264. H.264 delivers stunning video quality at remarkably low data rates, so you see crisp, clear video in much smaller files. Chosen as the industry-standard codec for 3GPP (mobile multimedia), HD-DVD and Blu-ray, H.264 represents the future of next-generation, high-definition DVD playback. Numerous broadcast, cable and videoconferencing groups consider H.264 the video codec of choice for their deployments. To learn more about H.264, visit the H.264 technology page or consult the H.264 FAQ.
I don't think that Apple will offer any sort of video iPod, instead Steve will either offer a larger device with a decent size display or simply sell the movies as viewable on laptops. Obviously a 4lb laptop is a pain to carry around, but I'm guessing the selling point would be the lower power consumption because dvd's drain battery so much more than normal usage... These are my bets, what do you guys think?
No wireless. Less battery life than a DS. Lame.
Oh, wait.
If someone managed to combine the Starz Ticket pricing and DRM model with the movie collection of the others, that would be close to a winner.
After having been a Netflix subscriber for 5 years, I realized that this is really the future, once people start getting it. (The vendors AND the consumers need to get it)
DRM, inability to transport your media?
I call dupe!
Get your Unix fortune now!
First problem is Sony's penchant for DRM. They really like proprietary formats and copy protection. Sure, Sony ought to be making money on their films, but if you make it too hard to deal with the media people just aren't going to deal with it. Just look at Sony's proprietary ATRAC format...
Second problem is that Sony apparently wants the PSP to be the delivery mechanism for their new media downloads... I just don't see that working very well. The iPod has a huge amount of storage and a fairly standard interface (firewire/USB). It is easy to dump a bunch of music onto it. The PSP doesn't have much on-board space, and it has no real PC interface. I guess you could do it wirelessly...or burn it to a PSP format disc...or put it on a memory card...? But none of those sound all that simple. I just don't see how you're going to transfer a movie you purchased on-line into your PSP.
Yawn... *another* iPod and iTunes killer? Maybe I am missing something here... but doesn't the PSP use some proprietary optical disk technology as well as some rendition of the memory stick? This doesn't exactly compare well to 4-40GB of versatile harddrive USB/firewire attached storage.
The top 500 movies will be available to purchase via the Internet...
But they're all Betamax!
The next comment I write will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and see it early!
So, what you're saying is, it could work, if Sony releases an entirely new system of hardware? So, people payed $250 for the value pack version of the PSP why exactly?
Ummm, most movies are already available digitally. On DVD. Does the story mean to say they'll be available as legal downloads?
Microsoft starts offering limited HDTV content on a subscription basis, and the /. community responds by complaining about it. Sony announces plans to sell/rent hundreds of movies online, and we all complain about it. C'mon!
/. crowd used to say studios should go after users who committed copyright infringement and leave the tool makers alone. Now? We were just kidding.
These things are cool, a few years late and a few dollars short. But we're nerds, we're supposed to be cutting edge & like geeky things. 500 movies available to download-- seems like a good start. Let's hope Sony improves it, or this jump-starts the whole thing.
And keep on with the cracks about getting your movies on Bit Torrent without DRM. I remember when the
Hey, Bit Torrent, Kazaa, etc. are great tools and a great way to find old or obscure content. But c'mon, if you want to watch a mainstream, rent the DVD or buy a movie ticket.
So if you'd like to steer clear of copyright infringement, and would like to download & watch movies at home, this is a good start. I'd like to see it DRM-free, and maybe someday the movie & record studios will realize it's to their benefit to sell DRM-free stuff. But it's not realistic to ever expect the major studios to rent movies or music without DRM.
After years of complaining that the RIAA and MPAA were missing the boat, and should have embraced things like Napster instead of supressing them, we got iTunes and the like.
..Except that this is not really what P2P technology was intended to accomplish. The original purpose of P2P was to enable free and efficient distribution of media content so that artists would not need to sign all their rights away to publishers in exchange for mass distribution and so that consumers could access a much larger and more diverse selection of media. Of course, before this could even be attempted, the whole idea was hi-jacked by a bunch of lamers who just wanted free crap-pop/rap major label music. (aka. original Napster, etc.) It was all massively popular because, well.. the music being shared was already popular -- thanks to radio airtime, MTV, etc. If there were any independent artists legitimately trying to make it on the old Napster, they were surely drowned out.
The fact is, iTunes and others have not really changed the music distribution landscape that significantly. They're just the new middlemen. Despite iTunes' relative popularity among other upstart online music ventures, it has made a fairly small dent in the overall market. More to the point, these new pay services do not yet offer the promise of P2P. Sure, the barrier to new artists has been lowered and that's a step in the right direction. But these services do not enable either the "sell tickets, give away music" or "give away some, sell the rest direct" business models. And why would they? That would cut them out of the game.. and there's big money in being a middleman! Of course the price of middlemen is paid by all other parties. Consumers get DRM, less-than-CD quality downloads, and higher prices. Artists lose a large percentage of their sales. The public gets an ever shrinking percentage of public domain or otherwise freely re-usable material.
If we really want to change the content industry for the better, we need to start thinking more strategically. Many good components are already out there.. Creative Commons licensing, FLAC and other lossless audio codecs, Bittorrent and copious other P2P technologies, companies like Magnatune and CD Baby, etc. But nothing combines them all into a single powerful tool!
What we really need is a true P2P service designed from the ground up to be a channel only for freely licensed content (of all types). It ought to have an indexing and searching service like the original Napster, but which only tracks legit free content and which uses hashes to validate original, unmodified content for those who want it. Then, add a user-feedback ratings and review system so that the inevitable crappy content does not waste everyone's time. Finally, make the whole thing commercially supported via artist services like online ticket and merchandise sales (linked through the index / artist database system.) All the software can be Open Source because there's no DRM involved, but don't allow contributions to the official project which add support for exterior searching. Trademark the name so that knock-off projects can't dilute the marketing. Make sure the original is so high-quality that nobody wants to fork it otherwise.
Incidentally, the whole indexing / artist services system could be run by a not-for-profit organization. Think of it as an "RIAA" for independent, freely-licensed content. Artist services could certainly be provided by outside businesses as well.
sony leverages their popular hardware to force their proprietary movie format and drm on the world =(
sum.zero
or does /. really have a separate category for "Sony"?
Must be some sort of pre-April-fool's joke. But I guess on the east coast it's already April 1...
http://www.walkingtaco.com
Anyone know how long a 480 x 272 pixel mov could fit in 512 or a gig memory stick duo? Or if it is streamable (803.11 B?) over wifi at a decent frame rate? Remember the PSP has useable WiFi. And any memory within could merely be used as a buffer space.
If Sony wants to tie an "Itunes for Movies" model into the PSP, it may very well be a rental or subscription model.
Or to sell a gizmo that can play DVDs or UMDs to the PSP (or any TV monitor) via WiFi. If the buffer is large enough, you might even be able to pause for "intermission" if viewing in a group of PSP users fed from a UMD/DVD wifi server.
Is that the PSP _STILL_ leaves room for Apple to release a proper portable video playing device, with USB connection to a PC and something like a 60 GB hard drive. If they did that and offered TV shows for download at reasonable prices while also giving it an ability to play AVI, MPEG and several other formats, they'd win _AGAIN_. That is, presuming that people are interested in portable video at all - we'll be able to project upon that based on PSP movies' success, I guess. Although Sony's system is as lame and not with the times as it ever was.
I have this strange feeling that Sony has already failed. The problem is that their product is *already* being compared to Apple's iTunes, people *already* have great big expectations. And Sony is handling the situation in a very un-Apple way.
I now understand why Steve Jobs is so secretive. Besides being a control freak (and that's not a bad thing when you're so obsessed with getting it right) - Apple typically announces products when they are ready for sale. The iPod Shuffle - announced at MacWorld, ready for sale almost immediately. iTunes? BAM! There it is. The way that Sony has already said "we're going to do this grandiose thing" - AND DOESN'T EVEN HAVE A WEBSITE UP - tells me that it's going to be dead on arrival.
Apple consumer disapointment through the lag between products being annouced and being made available == zero. (Besides, of course, those that couldn't get something because it was out of stock).
But now people are talking about it, building cynical expectations of what *they* think their ideal online movie service should be (especially with the dirty little software industry secret that sometimes consumers don't know what they want) - and there's no way in hell that anybody could deliver on the overhyped, chinese whisper expectations of a product that doesn't yet exist and is already being compared to iTunes!
What Sony should have done is to launch their online movie services at the same time as the PSP . In my mind, this is the only way that they could have generated a significant market in a way that would be difficult for a competitor to overcome. Their online movie sales would have ridden the PSP wave and pushed the buzz even higher.
By coming out and annoucing "iTunes for Movies", they're probably going to spawn a tidal wave of competitors (most likely from other movie studios).
(And - critical point - the PSP is missing a TV output if it wants to be taken seriously as a movie playback device, S-Video at the minimum).
Basically what I was thinking. Sony has the ability to cost-effectively produce (or contract out) itty bitty hard drives and would likely use one if DRM could be enforced on the hardware level. I'm betting on a usb connection that would only work if the serial number (or similar identifier) of the PSP and the content on the drive matches up. It would have to use a seperate battery and may even come with a not-stylish Sony carry case.
starting this coming monday, danish TV station, TV2, will announce 250movies for download on their widely successful www.sputnik.dk TV2 station. Prices pr movie will likely be around $6, which is what is costs to rent a movie in Blockbuster here. They will add 250 movies each year until 2010 (obviously, this will likely change, but that is what they're currently saying). The movies will be streamed in in WMV format.
I will blog about your incompetence @ http://www.barelyadraft.com
"Obviously a 4lb laptop is a pain to carry around, but I'm guessing the selling point would be the lower power consumption because dvd's drain battery so much more than normal usage... These are my bets, what do you guys think?"
Perhaps...
Why don't laptops have a "DVD-only" mode, wherein the cpu isn't activated at all? My toshiba laptop does that with CDs so clearly someone's thinking about these kinds of features.
Is there any thing SONY wont try doing. Some companys are best at what they started to doing in the first place. Obviously SONY hasnt realized this.
One day.
Huh, that is an interesting idea. I hadn't heard of that feature, but it would definately be nice for planerides. I wonder if it has to do with the dvd-decoder which may require the cpu.
every content provider is looking to incorporate more and more DRM as the quality, cost, and ease of creation of copies improves.
the music industry doesn't care about people copying songs off the radio. it didn't even really get its panties in a bunch when CD-Rs first hit the market. or when mp3s hit the ftp servers. It went ballistic when anyone could download a single application and instantly find a never ending stream of perceptibility loss-less perfect digital copies.
likewise with the MPAA and DVD encryption, likewise with the new Cable Set-top standard.
They want to cut out MythTV, Tivo, splitters, H-cards, and cable descramblers. It's becoming too easy to get at the current data, so they want a change.
with the analog system working (fairly) well as is, why else would they create a new 'standard' for the digital system? It certainly isn't in the interest of the consumer.
Why doesn't Sony support the Blu-Ray with its stock rewritable feature?
Why did Disney/Circuit City/et al try to push (the bad) Divx onto the market in the first place?
It isn't because consumers are clamoring for less control or cheaper movies.
The time is coming when content producers are going to have to realize that their profits will no longer come from format-updates (repurchasing 8-tracks as CDs, VHS classics as DVDs, etc), and will -not- come from service-style access to data. Classic TV advertising may even have to give way to pure product-placement campaigns.
Cable will realize that a move to pay-per-channel is the way to support content without advertising in our new time-shifted digital reality. Some people -will- pay $1/mo for TLC. Home Depot will still pay for product placements in Trading Spaces. Maybe the Super-station will go away - but the cable companies, and popular channels, need not.
the film industry has already shown that the theatre experience is not losing out to cheap cam copies. they've learned that feature-rich dvds or dirt-cheap dvds are preferred to the customer over hacked-together recompressed copies on filesharing networks.
The record companies will need to realize that to win with digital music requires providing the best quality, with the least hassle. They will need to realize that they must beat file-sharing on features. People will give up hunting around for a good (not mislabeled)256kbps rip of Britney's newest song - if they know they can just hit iTunes or its ilk and cough up $1.
Fair Use needs to win out. These purported 'losses' from file-sharing need to be revealed to be grossly overestimated fabrications. (A PSA from a supposed union set painter claiming that file sharing is killing the movie industry, and threatening his job - airing during it's highest grossing year of all time is particularly tactless)
DRM is the tool of the content dinosaur. If they concentrated on actual content piracy rings - where big money is being made off black-market copies, and abandoned their fruitless DRM research - their profits could be higher than ever.
But such is not the reaction of anti-competitive cabals. Being forced to -compete- is not what they do. Suing, threatening, bullying, bribing - these are the blunt instruments they wield instead of the precise tools of innovation, imagination and competition.
So in the meantime - expect every advance to carry DRM in the fine print.
'I am become Shiva, destroyer of worlds'
Did anybody check that side article out?
I sincerely hope that knob had that apple logo photoshopped onto the back of his head and didn't actually get a haircut like that. If so, this world is indeed a pathetic place that deserves to be destroyed.
I belive that H.264 is supported on the PSP too.
-- I like the cut of your thinking, young man. - me.
You could do it with VIVO!
The Farewell Tour II
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Music is great on the go, heck, I carry my ears with me wherever I go and headphones fills them up with sound. But a tiny tiny puny mini-screen like on the PSP is doing absolutely nothing for me visually. Heck, TVs are getting bigger and bigger, projectors are getting affordable to more and more people. When are they going to release _high quality_ downloadable TV series and movies?
The is after all one of the four points with downloading, the quality. The other three is convenience (see when I want to, without stupid commercials for products I don't buy anyways), getting it before it comes to the horrible Swedish channels, and last price. They can't compete with price (because let's face it, it's a no cost:)) so they have to make it better and easier.
Unlike music, people are already used to paying to see (not own) movies.
Any such conditioning theaters have applied has been more than offset by the flood of cheap DVD's...
Consumers are for more used to buying, and ownling, and loaning DVD's than they are used to going to tehaters (which might happen a few times a month for most people, or even less often).
They might pay to see a movie once, but if it's any good the end result is the pay to OWN the movie. Witness the rush on the Incredibles DVD.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Look at what Real have had done to them when they tried to make their DRM match the "open AAC DRM" that iTunes uses (as you incorrectly state).
Adding their own DRM, including the DMCA/EUCD restrictions makes apple's AAC propriatory while they don't have to pay licensing for the codec/wrapper.
Apple is NOT the good one here, boys.
And it's not even to watch movies on the road. I don't travel much.
:P
Thing is, I'm lazy. I'm not ashamed to do that. In fact, I'm even proud of it. I even learned good coding patterns and techniques, because it was getting to be too much work to fix a spaghetty mess.
In this case, I'm too lazy to drive through half the town to a DVD rental centre. I'd really like to watch more movies, but I'm hard pressed to justify a 1 hour trip (total for driving both ways) for a 1.5 hour movie. Actually, make that 2 hours, since I'll also have to take a trip the next day to bring the movie back. So it's 2 hours wasted for a 1.5 hour movie. It's not a very efficient use of my time.
Or you could call it "time management" or "planning" instead of "lazy", if that feels any better.
Would I pay a few hundred bucks to save those hours? Damn right. My time is valuable. After the first dozen movies, the PSP and memory stick will have paid for itself.
I suspect there are others like me too.
Pretty much the most successful inventions were those cattering to the lazy. We all have washing machines because we're too lazy to wash clothes by hand. We have vaccuum cleaners because it's less effort (and causes less dust) than using a broom and weekly taking the carpets out to beat the dust out of them. We have remote controlls and digital tuners with memory because we're too lazy to walk to the TV and twist knobs to switch the channel. Etc.
In all those cases, we pay more money to save work and time.
So don't underestimate the market potential of cattering to the lazy
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
Funny "PSP" and "Replacement" were in the same sentence. After now having returned four PSPs and settled for a full refund (though I am stuck with the games I purchased) I was actually considering buying an iPod (or other music palyer).
They aren't really in the same league, no, but at least I can be reasonably sure a music player won't break on me.
My luck with the PSP has been less than perfect, I suppose you could say.
"Everything you know is wrong. (And stupid.)"
Moderation Totals: Wrong=2, Stupid=3, Total=5.
I don't see people sitting down to watch an hour and a half to three hour movie on their PSP's. Thats far too long to be sitting squinting at a tiny screen. I'm thinking the killer product would be something like the PSP or iPod with an online TV Show shop. Where you can download an episode or a series at a time, sync it to your handheld device and watch an episode or two on the train to work, while you're having lunch. Whenever you have a quick 20 to 40 mins spare. Charge a dollar an episode or $10 a series and you've got a winning product!
Bittorrent!
How does Sony releasing all its movies relate to iPods in any way shape or form? The insecurity shown by iPod users is amazingly extreme. Sure the PSP will have some music, movie, web, email and gaming capabilities, but surely its not the same as the iPod market (since I dont know many you can play movies, games on). So why even have issues with this little news item? My guess, is that 200 odd dollars spent on an iPod seems a little rich compared to a 249 dollar PSP that has a few more features? Or is it just genuine Apple v Sony fan boy wars? In terms of hardware they are both so different in features..
Sony is to make its top 500 films available digitally in the next year.
Atleast 9 months to encode 500 films, a praise there encoding technology.
Gaylord moderators...
Why drive two hours? Join netflix and have them delivered by mail.
I've converted numerous movies to Xvid/MPEG4 to fit on my Palm's 320x320 screen (comparable to PSP). With this size you can easily get a full length movie in GREAT quality and sound at only around 150MB. Bump up to 640x480 and it would only be about 3-400MB.
For more info on movies on your Palm using Xvid, check out mmplayer and numerous Palm message boards.
On Topic:
That said, I think I know why Jobs hasn't pursued the hand-held media player thingy. Remember Sony's (former)[0] President standing next to him at the launch of the imac? [1] What do you bet that those two know very well what the other is up to?
Sony gets to try be the iTMS of the movie biz, without jumping through the hoops that Apple would to convince movie studios to go along. (The are a move studio!) Apple gets to watch Sony take all the risks. (Dead pixels , anyone?) Meanwhile, they can continue to focus on the minaturization tech they've got going for the ipod. Why would Jobs want to produce an ipod for watching movies on a tiny little screen, when he could make an ipod in a year or two that lets you watch High Def movies on any screen in your house? Sounds like this could fit rather well with the miniMac as a home entertainment PC.
Okay, stop reading. I'm going to relentlessly connect the dots now, and I know you've probably heard all this before.
You know the drill: the miniMac plus a broadband connection plus a computer monitor becomes a platform for watching downloaded movies...particularly HD movies, since Jobs has a thing for them, and people who can afford really good broadband tend to have HD tv's anyway. So, you get the miniMac as a user-friendly Tivo-iTMS combination.
But wait! There's more! Now, for a low, low, price, (heh) you can get a iPod-Video! Take your rental movies, and play them on any screen, anywhere! Show grandma your home movies by just hooking up the (included) rf adaptor to her 30 year old TV! Show your boss footage of the latest progress on the big engineering project! Keep your kids occupied in the SUV with an endless loop of Barney! (And no pesky DVD's in the van to get lost or scratched!) If you are really bored on that 20 hour plane ride to Japan, you can squint at the small OLED screen that covers the entire surface of the ipod. (No ipod tatoos for you! One year!)
oh, and if that doesn't blow your mind, think about the kind of PDA Apple could make with an ipod covered in a high resolution OLED skin.
____________
[0] President Kunitake Ando, replaced by Ryoji Chubachi. Not to be confused with the new Chairman-CEO, Howard Stringer. AP press release here.
[1]see this Ars Technica article.
I'll argue that the movie-watching market is very different from the music-listening market. I certainly don't do the two things the same way at all.
I have no interest in watching movies on a handheld device. Zero. Some people have some (the people who use DVD players in cars and such), but a videophile and long-time Sony customer such as myself really doesn't want that.
Portable music, on the other hand, is a great idea. The Walkman has been the joggers best friend (and biggest distraction) for decades.
I have very little interest in watching movies on a computer. Outside of pirates and people who live in really tiny spaces, I've never seen the point. My 40" CRT HD television (a Sony, natch) blows the doors off any display I've got or could afford for my computers. Besides, they've got work to do.
I play music in the backgound when I work- at a computer- so iTunes is great. I don't watch movies in the background. I want it to get my full attention.
I listen to songs many more times than I watch the average movie. I have a large video collection (if you count things I've taped from television, almost certainly larger than that of anyone reading this), and I'm glad to have it, but I don't need to carry it around with me and would get little benefit from doing so.
So what would an iTunes-like movie store do for me? If I could get things I couldn't get elsewhere, that'd be nice. If I could get hidef content, that'd be a feature. If it were significantly cheaper than alternative delivery methods, I could go for that.
But do I much care that things would be delivered more quickly? Not really. Getting a DVD in the mail only takes a couple of days now. I'm sure my cable company could VOD me stuff if I were the impatient sort.
The iTunes store gives away a single every week, and I've bought an album or two (though not from ITMS, yet) because of it. That's a Good Thing, but I don't see it happening with movies.
I just don't think the upside is as big as it is with music. I spend a lot more on movies than I do on music (and I don't steal either one), but I doubt I'd use this as much as I use ITMS or iTunes- and I don't even have an iPod!
ab
Nobody is whining, everybopdy is speculating.
Given Sony's recent history fumbling it when it comes to gadgetry, I think most opinions are wholly justified.
Obivously you did not have the displeasure of dealing with Sony's first digital music players. Or the disappointment of using a Sony MiniDisc player just to be confronted by its limitations.
The company that invented the VCR and the Walkman should have known better.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
It is true that good DRM is no worse than renting DVD's today.
However studios want a future where there is noi such thing as ownership, as people know it today. That people will not like at all. The inability to move movies between devices, to share them, etc. etc. will really turn a lot of people off.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
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are there any places where it's being offered for free like their music service in some colleges http://www.suntimes.com/output/tech/cst-nws-dorm03 .html
if i'm not immortal, what's the point of living?
...te?