PlayStation Video Store to Counter Netflix on Xbox LIVE

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admin

Audioholics Robot
Staff member
Not to be outdone by Microsoft’s recent announcement that it’s teaming up with Netflix on LIVE for streaming movie downloads – Sony has a movie announcement of its own. Sony one-ups the Washington based software empire with high-def downloads instead of simply streaming older sub-DVD quality movies.


Discuss "PlayStation Video Store to Counter Netflix on Xbox LIVE" here. Read the article.
 
jinjuku

jinjuku

Moderator
Some how I doubt they have 10K + titles that Netflix has available. I'm not saying all the Netflix titles are choice offerings but the key word is 'choice'. They at least have it.
 
GlocksRock

GlocksRock

Audioholic Spartan
I won't be impressed until the majority of available downloads from either Sony or Microsoft are in HD with uncompreseed sound, or at least 5.1 dolby digital.
 
MinusTheBear

MinusTheBear

Audioholic Ninja
With the introduction of movies and programming for console machines now this will pave the way for huge harddrives especially now HD movies will be available. When Microsofts and Sony's next geneartion of consoles come around in the future I am sure they will be included with uber HDD's. I am hoping atleast a 400gb harddrive to be standard in 2010 for console machines.
 
aberkowitz

aberkowitz

Audioholic Field Marshall
With the introduction of movies and programming for console machines now this will pave the way for huge harddrives especially now HD movies will be available. When Microsofts and Sony's next geneartion of consoles come around in the future I am sure they will be included with uber HDD's. I am hoping atleast a 400gb harddrive to be standard in 2010 for console machines.
And probably charge you out the a$$ for it!!! There are deals already for $500 GB drives for less than $100. 1TB drives can be found for less than $200. Let Sony and MSFT stick to making the consoles, and I'll tack the drive myself for less than 1/2 of what they'll probably make me pay.
 
P

Paul_A/V

Audiophyte
Am I missing something here. Xbox Live already has SD/HD movie and TV downloads. The Netflix feature adds to this by streaming the media and expanding the library available to subscribers. Sony has simply made available what Xbox Live has had for a while. I don't know that I would call that a one-up. I have both consoles so it's great news all around. What I can't get on one I will most likely get on the other. :)
 
MinusTheBear

MinusTheBear

Audioholic Ninja
And probably charge you out the a$$ for it!!! There are deals already for $500 GB drives for less than $100. 1TB drives can be found for less than $200. Let Sony and MSFT stick to making the consoles, and I'll tack the drive myself for less than 1/2 of what they'll probably make me pay.
It's hard to say. Hard drives are not typically expensive to begin with, manufactures can produce HDD's for very little. If they are the standard for the future and Microsoft and Sony have economies of scale in production it should not reflect in a substantial cost increase for consumers. Console makers should supply consumers with the hardware needed to run all the features that come on the console effeciently. With movies becoming a norm in the future, supplying much larger hardrives than what they have now makes sense.
 
MinusTheBear

MinusTheBear

Audioholic Ninja
Am I missing something here. Xbox Live already has SD/HD movie and TV downloads. The Netflix feature adds to this by streaming the media and expanding the library available to subscribers. Sony has simply made available what Xbox Live has had for a while. I don't know that I would call that a one-up. I have both consoles so it's great news all around. What I can't get on one I will most likely get on the other. :)
I think the major differences between Sony's and Microsofts services is that with Sony you can keep the movie as well as transfer their movies to their portable gaming system the psp. Xbox 360's movie service is just rentals. I am not 100% on this, so somebody correct me if I am wrong.
 
Gaigebacca

Gaigebacca

Audioholic
It depends, so you are partially correct. You can rent SD, HD, as well as buy SD movies to keep, and they are portable files you can move to your PSP. I am sure in the future you will be able to move it to a USB HDD, if that is not already allowed, as well as opening up HD purchases in the future as well. The pricing differs on all of the content, SD purchases are ~9.99-14.99 and HD will be in the ~19.99 range. Rentals are quite a bit cheaper ofcourse.
 
Wayde Robson

Wayde Robson

Audioholics Anchorman
Am I missing something here. Xbox Live already has SD/HD movie and TV downloads. The Netflix feature adds to this by streaming the media and expanding the library available to subscribers. Sony has simply made available what Xbox Live has had for a while. I don't know that I would call that a one-up. I have both consoles so it's great news all around. What I can't get on one I will most likely get on the other. :)

Pretty much. Sony's lets you buy some titles, not all and lets you transfer them to your portable device and lets you access PlayStation Video Store from a PC over the web.

The 'one up' comment is simply referring to announcements made at the E3. Microsoft's press release at E3 broke the Netflix story. Sony's press release broke their PlayStation Video Store. That's the only similarities.
 
These comparisons are Apples to Oranges IMHO. Netflix is about fee-less streaming in real time. Everything else (so far) is about fee-based downloads.
 
G

gus6464

Audioholic Samurai
The PS3 lets you connect USB external hard drives for extra storage. You can move videos and pictures to the external drive with no problem.

Edit: Forgot to mention that all of the HD titles are in h.264 AVC format which are 1080p and have DD 5.1. Standard 2 hour movie in that format is about 3.5 GB in size.
 
N

NeverSeen

Audioholic
Edit: Forgot to mention that all of the HD titles are in h.264 AVC format which are 1080p and have DD 5.1. Standard 2 hour movie in that format is about 3.5 GB in size.
How long with that take to d/l on your average system connected via wifi to a cable modem?
 
G

gus6464

Audioholic Samurai
How long with that take to d/l on your average system connected via wifi to a cable modem?
Well my cable connection caps out at ~800k/sec, so if I am using all bandwidth I would say around 1.5-2 hours give or take. But the system will likely buffer a bit for streaming playback. At my connection I would say a 3-5 min buffer would be sufficient in order to have uninterruped playback. People with basic DSL capping out at 1.5-3Mbits would need a longer buffer of 10 minutes or so to properly stream.
 
j_garcia

j_garcia

Audioholic Jedi
I checked it out last night and there are quite a few titles on there that interest me (as rentals) because I want to see them but not sure if they are worth buying yet. They also have a selection of anime!!! For me, it takes about 1/2hr to download about 1.5g, so a 3-4G movie would be an hour or more. Perfectly fine to me - just fire it up while we are eating, and by the time the dishes are done, the movie is ready. I am going to try out a few episodes of something tonight. Anime episodes were just ~350M a pop.
 
engtaz

engtaz

Full Audioholic
I have both sytems but what upsets me is the poor game titles for the PS3.

engtaz
 
D

D.R. Payne

Audioholic
I read somewhere that the PS3 titles were only in Stereo. It would be sweet if I read wrong. While I like my PS3 quite a bit, I have some concerns with this service as opposed to say a BD:
-I watch on a 106" screen, are the video bitrates capable of providing a good picture at that screen size?
-What are the audio bitrates and codecs compared to BD?
-Are there chapter select menus? Extra features like deleted scenes and commentaries?
-I haven't bought anything through the PSN since Stardust HD came out. Have they cleaned up the purchase process so that it's less painful?

I guess it comes down to "How much quality or perceived quality am I giving up for this convienience?"
 
j_garcia

j_garcia

Audioholic Jedi
I read somewhere that the PS3 titles were only in Stereo. It would be sweet if I read wrong.
AFAIK, it depends on the title. If it was mastered in stereo only, then that is what you will get.

-I watch on a 106" screen, are the video bitrates capable of providing a good picture at that screen size?
Certain movies are available in HD, which I would presume is at least 1080i. I think I am going to try one to find out. There are a large number of titles that are in SD only, presumably 480i/480p, for faster download because the file size is MUCH smaller.

-What are the audio bitrates and codecs compared to BD?
I couldn't tell you yet, but I would presume it is also by title as to what you get.

-Are there chapter select menus? Extra features like deleted scenes and commentaries?
No extra features or menus on the titles I tried, but you can skip via chapters.

-I haven't bought anything through the PSN since Stardust HD came out. Have they cleaned up the purchase process so that it's less painful?
Less painful than what? It hasn't changed - add via a card registered to the account, or you should soon be able to buy playstation funds cards to redeem at the store.

I guess it comes down to "How much quality or perceived quality am I giving up for this convienience?"
I don't think the quality of the video or audio will be an issue, but if you want extra features you may miss out. For many movies, I can do without the extra features, however I do watch them for movies I like.
 
J

juliusdeane

Audioholic Intern
These comparisons are Apples to Oranges IMHO. Netflix is about fee-less streaming in real time. Everything else (so far) is about fee-based downloads.
Well, Netflix streaming isn't really free on Xbox. You have to be a Netflix subscriber and and an Xbox Live Gold member. That's $14/month at best for the cheapest Netflix sub w/1 movie at a time and a year sub to Xbox Live. It's just a bonus if you have those things, but not "fee-less."

I have both sytems but what upsets me is the poor game titles for the PS3.
Not really the thread for this, but I call BS.
 

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