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Sony To Launch PS3 Video Download Service
An anonymous reader points out a Los Angeles Times report that Sony is planning on making movies and TV shows available for download through the PS3 "as early as this summer." Sony hopes to make use of the roughly 4 million PS3s already sold in the US to compete with similar services such as XBox Live, which began offering video downloads over a year ago.
"One of the service's greatest obstacles may be Sony's own culture. Sony Chairman and Chief Executive Howard Stringer has been battling a corporate silo mentality in which divisions within his company work in isolation, undermining new initiatives. The PlayStation group in Foster City, Calif., has been notoriously aloof. Once, a former executive said, it scuttled plans for a movie subscription service for the PlayStation Portable even though Sony Pictures had supported the initiative. What is more, the company, looking to safeguard its film, television and music holdings, has been an aggressive champion of copyright protection, often, critics suggest, at the cost of technological innovation."
The PS3 has an officially licensed DivX decoder, along with support for generic MPEG4 (think Xvid) video.
It can play those files from over the network via a UPnP server, from a USB hard drive, various memory cards (if your PS3 is so equipped), or from a optical disc.
A) True, not all 360's have hard drives. However, there have been 3 times more 360's sold than PS3's and approximately 80% of 360's do have hard drives, so there are still more 360's with hard drives out there than there are PS3's.
B) People may prefer watching shows on their TV to their PC, but that doesn't mean they won't settle for their PC is services for their TV aren't available, which is currently the case. According to Job's Jan 2008 keynote, Apple has sold 125 million TV shows and 7 million movies. That's a lot of content for just those 200k Apple TV's out there.
The PS3 HDD is standard, and can be replaced. There are instructions that come with the console.
Not so for the 360.
ps3 has a bluetooth remote.
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Nah, they support three main download types for the videos on the PSN Store:
- SDTV
- 720p
- 1080p
I don't see why they wouldn't stick to the same idea for Movie downloads.
There are pros and cons to that approach. The big benefit is that the silo's can operate more flexibly and often can react faster to changing market conditions. The biggest con is the one you pointed out, the lack of 'synergies'
I have to say that the summary makes sense in at least one area - the design interface seems really half-assed. Coming from a MAJOR corporation like Sony, that would lend credence to the accusation that Sony is in some ways its own worst enemy.
:)
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I admit that I bought the PS3 for one reason - Blu-ray won. I do not own an Xbox360, but I have several friends who do. The difference between the Xbox XBL interface/experience and the Sony XrossMediaBar (worst name ever, btw)/PSN/PSN Store interface/experience is night and day. The PS3 interface is polished enough, but its terribly clunky. It feels very inconsistent, and while the Store got MUCH better with the latest firmware release (2.30), it has a LONG way to go, and they better start adding more content soon and more quickly. It seems like new content is delivered MAYBE weekly, if that. It simply doesn't feel like there's much interesting to DO with the PSN at this point. Granted, I don't play MP games (yet), so take what I say with a grain of salt. But overall, the XBL experience just feels more vibrant and certainly a lot more tightly integrated than the PSN at this point.
Now, before people start calling me an MS fanboi, note which console I said I DO own, and which I DO NOT own.
I just noticed that apparently, the XMB won an EMMY AWARD, and is used in everything from the PSP to Sony TV's to Sony Ericsson phones. So what the hell do I know, go ahead and mod me into oblivion.