Stringer: Sony to offer movie downloads

[diogen]

Haven't seen this posted yet.
FT.com / Companies / Consumer industries - Stringer outlines vision for Sony

He said the expansion of Playstation Network, which will enable users to download video games, movies and songs
for multiple devices such as mobile phones and games consoles, would propel Sony into a software powerhouse.

Somebody tell Bay (if he is sober) that Sony is in bed with Microsoft to kill the next generation optical formats and move to internet movie delivery...

Diogen.

 

[JoeSp]

I have read from several sources that the next Playstation will not have any DVD/BD player but will come with a very large harddrive and you will only be able to purchase product for it from the internet. I personally like owning copies of my favorite movies, music and tv shows. I still think we are 10 years away from a total download market as most folks don't have access to high speed DSL or Cable. In my area 1.5 is the fastest DSL and 3.0 is the fastest cable. I think it would take too long to download a HD movie at these speeds.

 

[allargon]

A lot of the downloads will likely be 720p, bit starved POS's that make the HD-lite PPV offerings on Dish look like a studio master.

Sony wisely hedging their bets and opening a potentially new area of revenue. Good for them. That's not even giving up on Blu-Ray. That's just good business.

 

[ONUOsFan]

I have read from several sources that the next Playstation will not have any DVD/BD player but will come with a very large harddrive and you will only be able to purchase product for it from the internet. I personally like owning copies of my favorite movies, music and tv shows. I still think we are 10 years away from a total download market as most folks don't have access to high speed DSL or Cable. In my area 1.5 is the fastest DSL and 3.0 is the fastest cable. I think it would take too long to download a HD movie at these speeds.

A lot of the downloads will likely be 720p, bit starved POS's that make the HD-lite PPV offerings on Dish look like a studio master.

Sony wisely hedging their bets and opening a potentially new area of revenue. Good for them. That's not even giving up on Blu-Ray. That's just good business.

I agree with both of you... if they release anything that is "download-only" before about 2020, they might as well give up on the US market.

 

[IcEWoLF]

Well, If everyone were to get FiOS in their homes, this would have been possible, It would take many years to come to actually get their project going.
Just like VoD on cable and VoD on Satellite. VoD on cable = HD-DVD,Blu-ray, DVD, and VoD on Satellite = DishDOD and DTV-VOD.

 

[ONUOsFan]

Well, If everyone were to get FiOS in their homes, this would have been possible, It would take many years to come to actually get their project going.
Just like VoD on cable and VoD on Satellite. VoD on cable = HD-DVD,Blu-ray, DVD, and VoD on Satellite = DishDOD and DTV-VOD.

That's my point, though. It has taken Verizon years to get FIOS out to just a small percentage of their footprint. For technology like that to become prevalent will take at least 10 more years, IMO.

 

[diogen]

A lot of the downloads will likely be 720p, bit starved POS's that make the HD-lite PPV offerings on Dish look like a studio master.

Satellite hidef - any of it - doesn't look even close to what's available from XBox Marketplace.
Primarily because real time MPEG-2/4 encoder with an average bitrate under 10Mbps (what all satellite hidef essentially is)
will never be able to come close 2-pass VBR VC-1 encodings of about the same bitrate.

Diogen.

 

[IcEWoLF]

Satellite hidef - any of it - doesn't look even close to what's available from XBox Marketplace.
Primarily because real time MPEG-2/4 encoder with an average bitrate under 10Mbps (what all satellite hidef essentially is)
will never be able to come close 2-pass VBR VC-1 encodings of about the same bitrate.

Diogen.

Wrong, you have to pay when you download stuff from Xbox Marketplace.
You can download unlimited stuff (as long as you have an external HDD) from VoD on cable or Satellite and not pay for a dime other than your regular monthly bill.

 

[diogen]

Maybe you should get in a habit to read before hitting the keyboard?

Where did I say it costs the same?
The only claim I made is the quality of the downloads is higher than hidef satellite.

You want to argue with that?

Diogen.

 

[IcEWoLF]

Maybe you should get in a habit to read before hitting the keyboard?

Where did I say it costs the same?
The only claim I made is the quality of the downloads is higher than hidef satellite.

You want to argue with that?

Diogen.

Well if we want to compare, I'd say there may be a slight change between the two versions.
I dubt its something huge.
Pay per download vs VoD, VoD wins.
But lets go ahead and start the argument here, give me some reasons why you think Xbox Marketplace quality is better other than what you stated above about the encoding.
I've never downloaded any movies from the xbox marketplace.

 

[diogen]

...give me some reasons why you think Xbox Marketplace quality is better other than what you stated above about the encoding.

1. I've seen 2 movies from XBox, HD and satellite. Satellite is a distant third in this competition.
2. I've been doing encoding of satellite hidef for 3 years now. I know what the difference between real-time
(especially MPEG-2) and 2-pass VC-1 encoding is. Want more - go to doom9.

All three versions were run to a 720p projector.

Now I'd like to hear what exactly was wrong in the statement I made.

Wrong, you have to pay when you download stuff from Xbox Marketplace.

Diogen.

EDIT: You might want to read this (and this was a year ago)
HD DVD vs. Xbox Live Marketplace: Why There's No Big Difference
☆ Why Xbox Live Video Marketplace Competes Well Visually With HD-DVD

 

[vurbano]

1. I've seen 2 movies from XBox, HD and satellite. Satellite is a distant third in this competition.
2. I've been doing encoding of satellite hidef for 3 years now. I know what the difference between real-time
(especially MPEG-2) and 2-pass VC-1 encoding is. Want more - go to doom9.

All three versions were run to a 720p projector.

Now I'd like to hear what exactly was wrong in the statement I made.


Diogen.

EDIT: You might want to read this (and this was a year ago)
HD DVD vs. Xbox Live Marketplace: Why There's No Big Difference
☆ Why Xbox Live Video Marketplace Competes Well Visually With HD-DVD

Ive been burning and placing HD material off my HR10-250 on servers for a couple of years and you are dead right. Sat HD is crap.

 

[ONUOsFan]

Well if we want to compare, I'd say there may be a slight change between the two versions.
I dubt its something huge.
Pay per download vs VoD, VoD wins.
But lets go ahead and start the argument here, give me some reasons why you think Xbox Marketplace quality is better other than what you stated above about the encoding.
I've never downloaded any movies from the xbox marketplace.

Have you downloaded any HD movie trailers or videos from the PSN? Watch those and tell me they're not light years ahead of what you get on satellite or cable... I've never seen anything from Xbox, but I imagine it's similar quality to the PSN stuff.

 

[IcEWoLF]

I've seen the Trailers in HD from PSN, they look really good compared what I see on Cable/Satellite.