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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."
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!
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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...
Sony just wants control of the market., IMHO usually are clueless when it comes to such maneuvers. The NetMD was an abortion. They always try to push their proprtietary formart/device to th market thinking that it will gurantee them market dominance. What the stupid buggers do not realize is that they LOSE market share because of such stupid tactics. Same thing here. They will try something in a similar vein with proprietary stuff, and another apple will come along and take over the market with non-proprietary standard. Like you said, Read between the Lines. They just want to gain control of the market, but are clueless on how to do it.
A UMD burner would be very cool, but it would also lead to rampant piracy of both Games and Movies. Will Sony do it?
:(
I doubt it
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.
...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.
>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'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.
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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.
8) People realize it's better to watch movies in the comfort of their living room with friends, and sales fall off. :-)
9) Apple comes out with iFlix and delivers DVD quality movies to the Mac Mini in your living room via a Netflix-like queue and with TiVo style recording features.
10) Netflix and TiVo sue Apple
I was talking to a guy from Sony a little while a go at an IGDA event. As I understand it, not even PSP developers are getting hold on UMD writers, instead each game gets shipped on to Sony. Nice way to keep the royalitys in check I guess.
User content goes on to memory sticks, limiting a film to 1gig.
Wow, I should not post when knackered.
I think you make a very good point in your comparison of the PSP to the evolution of portable music systems. However, I find it hard to believe that portable television and movies will ever be as big as the iPod.
When we listen to music, it is often as an accompaniment to whatever other activity we happen to be engaging in at the time. I often use my iPod while I am reading, going for a run, studying in the library, or working in the lab. (I used it on my bike, too, until an officer pulled me over... but that's another story.) Television and movies, on the other hand, demand the use of both your eyes and ears, and thus your full attention. The utility of portable video as opposed to portable music therefore seems greatly diminished.
This is not to say I think there is no market for such a device, but - and maybe I am just suffering from a case of tunnel vision here - I doubt that ten years from now we will see as many people that drag portable video players along with them wherever they go, as there are who keep their MP3 players in their side pockets today.
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!
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?
Remember when Apple announced the mac mini and one of Sony's key people was there?
This prompted speculation about Apple and Sony collaborating for a Tivo-like service?
What if Apple and Sony were combined for this movie-related service effort? Download movies from sony (using apple software) onto your mac mini (or viao) and if you like sync with your PSP for on the go viewing.
The PSP and ipod, while both being able to play MP3's are distinct enough devices that each shouldn't hack too badly away at the other's market share, no?
Although Apple and Sony's respective product lines have a lot of overlap and are in direct competition, (and may not encourage much co-operation between the two companies), they could both gain a lot if they were able to combine their expertise. Perhaps that is a bit naive on my part.
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.
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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.
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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
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Actually, many people I know, myself included, use both terms, depending on the product.
Films are generally meant to be of a higher 'quality', rather than a blockbuster made purely for mass consumption, to earn large amounts of money.
Movies tend to be your standard Hollywood fare, big explosions and popular actors doing nothing really innovative.
To put it bluntly, films aspire to be art, movies aspire to be money-makers.
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..