Sony to start US movie service for the PS3

[GlocksRock]

http://movies.yahoo.com/mv/news/ap/20080626/121447908000.html


Sony says it will start a movie download service for its PlayStation 3 home console this summer in the U.S.

Kazuo Hirai, who heads Sony Corp.'s video game unit, said Thursday the service will be offered in Japan and Europe at later dates, although details won't be available until next month.

Hirai said the company will strengthen its network services and further cut costs to achieve profitability in the Sony gaming business in the current fiscal year ending March 2009.


"Please expect more from our evolving PlayStation business," Hirai told reporters at the company's Tokyo headquarters.


Looks like that's one less thing the XBOX 360 will have over the PS3.

 

[aberkowitz]

I want to see more details, but I would be very interested!

 

[j_garcia]

They've been talking about it for a while, so it is good to see that it is coming sooner rather than later. The question is, what level of quality can we expect to be downloading? SD DVD, better, worse?

 

[aberkowitz]

They've been talking about it for a while, so it is good to see that it is coming sooner rather than later. The question is, what level of quality can we expect to be downloading? SD DVD, better, worse?

One would hope at least SD DVD, but I'm not going to hold my breath!!

J- quick question for you. Do you just have an external HD hooked up to your PS3 or did you replace the internal drive? I'm thinking of getting another drive to hook via USB- any recommendations on specs or will any old drive work?

 

[GlocksRock]

I asked about adding an external HDD to a PS3 and found that pretty much any external drive will work, no limit on size. But it was reccomended that for greatest compatibility that it be formated using FAT32 and not NTFS file system. You can get a 500 gig external hard drive for $99 if you look hard enough, so I see no real reason to go through the hassle of upgrading the internal hard drive, considering how much it would cost to get a large sized notebook hard drive, and even then you are most likely still only getting a 5400 rpm hard drive... and even if you did get a 7200 rpm drive, you are most likely only going to create more heat inside the PS3.

 

[j_garcia]

External drive MUST be FAT32 or it won't recognize it. Not all items can be ported over - meaning you cannot copy downloaded or installed games or demos - certain installed content and game saves yes, but the games themselves no. Music and downloaded video content can all be dropped on the external, which is mainly what I use it for.

 

[GlocksRock]

I plan on eventually getting a second PS3 for my bedroom since I like the way it handles music files/folders better than my xbox 360 plus it will serve as a blu ray player. Hopefully it will stream music wirelessly better than my 360 is doing right now, otherwise I'll be investing in an external hard drive for it, but I really hope I don't have to go that route.

 

[j_garcia]

I've had a few minor issues streaming (drop outs, randomly skipping to next song), but they seem fairly random and don't happen all the time. I don't stream all the time either.

 

[MinusTheBear]

They've been talking about it for a while, so it is good to see that it is coming sooner rather than later. The question is, what level of quality can we expect to be downloading? SD DVD, better, worse?

There is a download service for movies on the xbox 360, correct? I would imagine sony will emulate what they have done and try to make it bigger and better. Does microsoft offer hd quality movies with their service?

 

[chuck10553]

if they did go with hd movies then an external drive would pretty much be a necessity since a blu ray movie what 25 gig single layered so even the 80 gig one would only be able to hold 3 movies and that would be a tight squeeze with all the other software on it... if this does happen i am pretty sure ill be seeing a 500 gb external if not a 1 tb next to my ps3 soon!