Sony to Offer Movie Downloads

Sources close to Sony say that the company will soon enter the increasingly crowded digital movie download market, competing with companies such as Apple Computer and Microsoft. And as with Microsoft's Xbox Live service, Sony's offering will be made available for a video game console, in this case the PlayStation 3.

According to reports, the Sony digital movie service has been in the works for about a year and a half and will go public in early 2007. It will include movies from Sony Pictures and will eventually also include content from other studios. In addition, the service will enable PlayStation 3 users to synchronize the movie downloads with the PlayStation Portable (PSP).

Sony hopes the new service will help the PlayStation 3 better compete with the Xbox 360, which began offering TV and movie downloads in November. The biggest share of the digital movie download market belongs to Apple, which provides TV, video, and movie downloads via the iTunes Store. Currently, Apple offers movies from only Disney, but other studios are expected to get on board in early 2007.

In somewhat related news, Nintendo announced this week that it will replace 3.2 million straps used with the new motion-sensitive hand controller it bundles with its Wii video game console. The straps are notorious for breaking, and customers have reported numerous incidents in which the controller has flown loose and struck people and objects.

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Wow! I guess since this is a Wee problem, it don't rate a big ole headline and negative reviews about how bad this is and how rushed to market it was. Instead it gets buried at the end of another article about a completely different though competitive product. I guess Paul doesn't want to Wii on that particular parade.

fczajka December 18, 2006 (Article Rating:

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fczajka is going a "Wii"-bit overboard. Don't be a hater.

Back to the point ... I'm still waiting for a download service to offer complete DVD packages for download (movie, extras, commentaries, etc.) and then allow the customer to burn that content to a DVD disc. Those of us who enjoy a movie in a home theater do not want to be bound to our PC screens to watch the film.

mwrisner December 18, 2006 (Article Rating:

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More Sony silliness:

http://www.megagames.com/news/html/console/sonyfakepspblogbusted.shtml

Waethorn December 18, 2006 (Article Rating:

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I need an answer to a serious question:

Does Sony sit around all day and ask, "What can we screw up in the next 24 hours?" Is the company capable of doing anything correctly?

At least the website didn't come with a rootkit. I suppose that's a measure of success for Sony's PR department.

bdkjones December 18, 2006 (Article Rating:

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Off topic: if Vista Premium is going to be the most popular version among consumers, Microsoft will be making more money per computer with Vista than it did with XP.

shark47 December 18, 2006 (Article Rating:

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I actually think this is a good move for Sony. The XBox 360 is trying to position itself as the core of your entertainment center. Sony must do the same for the PS3. To not add this component would be giving the 360 yet another leg up.

jersey72 December 18, 2006 (Article Rating:

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"Microsoft will be making more money per computer with Vista than it did with XP"

That's entirely debatable, as you have to figure what the development costs are and whatnot, as well as the success of the product (outside of "The Channel" anyway, which is just "forced sales").

The "premium" versions are going to be more popular because more and more consumers are looking for integrated digital media solutions. Microsoft, being who they are, has to tread lightly in this area because of the vast partner base that covers the same functionality. This is where Apple has it made - they can include digital media software without being classified under any part of the anti-monopoly/anti-trust laws, since their market-share is nowhere close to being a threat to it's own partners or it's competition. Microsoft, however, is always run-through with a scalpel everytime they integrate a feature that some third-party has always charged for. I guess in a way, that makes them a victim of their own success. If partners and/or competitors can't persuade the end-user that they offer real innovation & value, over what Microsoft bundles as "lite" versions for free, then it's their own damn fault that they lose in the marketplace. The world's a tough place, and if you can't distinguish yourself from your competition, you're doomed to failure.

Waethorn December 18, 2006 (Article Rating:

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"Wow! I guess since this is a Wee problem, it don't rate a big ole headline and negative reviews about how bad this is and how rushed to market it was."

I hope you hit your tv with a remote and it somehow destroys it. The audacity of people actually complaining about this, and Nintendo acknowledging it is moronic.

The strap is a safety device, and it is not intended to be active. Just like a seatbelt in a car. You shouldn't go ramming other cars just because you have a safety belt.

I swear I hate sounding like iPeople, but Nintendo _did_ go out of their way to make a unique controller and what do people do? Throw them at their sets and then complain. Grow up, or else you are going to have clone devices forever.

will84 December 18, 2006 (Article Rating:

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"Does Sony sit around all day and ask, "What can we screw up in the next 24 hours?" Is the company capable of doing anything correctly?"

Sony does design and style well, and they have pretty good hardware engineers... its just they are slightly misguided in terms of hiding their morality slips than other companies.

On a sidenote, I was a little sad about the PS3 interface... don't get me all, I'm all for the "one interface to rule them all" style of consistancy, but the PSP interface, while cute, is obviously made for a tiny screen.

When you have 50" of realestate, there is more you can do. Obviously.

will84 December 18, 2006 (Article Rating:

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The biggest problem facing downloadble videos (TV shows, movies, video podcasts) is that eventually, you want to play them on every device that has a screen. A standard television, an HDTV set, a DVD player in a car, your laptop, your desktop, your cell phone, your video iPod/Zune... and so on.

Many of the above devices accept:

1. Digital files in a generic file format.
2. DVDs (Video).

Unless the downloadble video companies can find a way for us to take a download and burn a DVD, or put it on an SD card and insert it into our other devices, I just don't see the business gaining much momentum.

Many of us don't want DRM lock-in to specific providers or devices. I own a video iPod and use iTunes. I absolutely hate it that my options for viewing DRM'd video content on my TV are:

1. Hook up a cable from my iPod to my TV, requiring my iPod for playback.
2. Wait for the iTV to come out, requiring me to keep my Mac/iTunes running fo playback.

What happend 7 years from when authentication servers go offline? I own digital garbage.

Now I used Apple as a specific example, but the same is true for Microsoft, and all the other DRM store systems out there.

Consoles are especially scary. What happens when your console HDD and/or mobo dies? You can get the console replaced, but not your downloaded content. You get to buy that again. No backup.

I'm sorry, but if I'm going to buy a movie or a game online through my console, you'd better have a way for me to copy that file to a PC/Mac so I can back up a copy of it and have a method for restoring that data later.

vandil2 December 18, 2006 (Article Rating:

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