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Hara maheshvara shulapani pinakadhrik pashupati shiva mahadeva
Movie downloads coming to PS3
CONTINUING WITH ITS PLAN to re-establish its position as world leader in videogames by aping every trick Microsoft pulls out, Sony has announced that it will be bringing movie downloads to the Playstation Store.
Speaking in Tokyo of his company's plan to revitalise itself, Sony's Kaz Hirai said that details of the movie downloads would be revealed next month, presumably to tie in with the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles.
Also on the cards are TV show downloads, almost certainly in HD. This does, however, point out a glaring flaw in Sony's strategy - if movies and TV shows are available for download, why buy them on Blu-ray? Microsoft doesn't have this problem, but for Sony the move looks like a conflict of interest.
Sony also said that by March 2009, its gaming unit would be back into profitability, having subsidised the sales of the PS3 console to the tune of billions. ยต
Full deets here.
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Quote, "as a vast proportion of the 360 userbase has no HDD.... "
Let me add that a vast majority of 360 owners have broken machines in their closet and are now using the PS3 that actually works. All my friends are that way except one but this is his 2nd or 3rd 360, imagine that.
Call me materialistic but I for one would rather have the nice Blue Ray disk in my hand along with box art that comes with it. Maybe thats why I don't do music downloads either and buy CDs the old fashioned way.
@Matt

Inq made an article about this some time ago after a huge discussion sparked about their use of "Vole" for Microsoft. They explained the meaning of Vole (aka. rat-like rodent), if you do a search on Inq, you should find the article (or wikipedia it and you'll see what a Vole is).
Does not matter which way the market goes, or what your prerference is.

PS3 can do digital downloads and Blu-ray.

Shame the same can't be said of the 360, as a vast proportion of the 360 userbase has no HDD....
Since every broadband supplier in the UK (perhaps with the exception of Be) can't suply even a fraction of the bandwidth they've sold to their customers, how on earth can this possibly work in the UK?
You would have to start your download days in advance for a decent length HD movie, or are the offerings only SD.
I can't see this being a goer in the UK until Ofcom decide to get off their arses and start earning their cash, of which there is no chance.
Who wants to download 30GB for a HD movie over her/his internet line?
And account has 20GB limit....
Ive got a PS3 and a Virgin Media V+ box at home, so I watch both Blu Ray and stream movies over cable with Virgin.....

There is no conflict of interest for Sony, I will be able to stream movies from Sony instead of Virgin which would benefit Sony. Plus, the quality difference between HD streams/downloads and a BluRay disk are still substantial. Sony are simply increasing their reach in terms of providing greater access to movie content via PS2. I really don't understand why you seem to think Sony a conflicting with themselves..... If that was the case then Warner releasing a film on DVD/Blu-Ray and on iTunes would also be seen as a conflict.....
Well it's quite easy why you should buy Blu-Ray disks.
You are not buying the movie itself. It's a download file protected by DRM which will only play for a couple of hours/days/weeks(dependant on the scheme they are using) on you're playstion. So if you want to see it again or lend to a friend you cannot.
I've been reading inq for a long time now an I'm still none the wiser for why you guys refer to MS as Voles. Anybody care to enlighten my fragile little mind?
"Ive got a PS3 and a Virgin Media V+ box at home, so I watch both Blu Ray and stream movies over cable with Virgin.....

There is no conflict of interest for Sony, I will be able to stream movies from Sony instead of Virgin which would benefit Sony."

But don't forget you'll only be able to stream them for around 30 minutes before Virgin's shockingly bad traffic shaping kicks in. I haven't seen any 30 minute feature films.... oh dear.

Wikipedia must not yet be your friend haha. look it up there.
Well first of all HD movies don't have to be 30GB. I know you can download full length 720P HD movies and they are around 4GB. I'm sure with compression and such they will make it stream even smaller. I would like this service if it worked with Netflixs as part of the subscription. But if yo have to pay $3 or more per download forgetaboutit. I like with netflixs u can get blueray or stream all part of one flat rate per month. That si the way to go. I'm sure sony is greedy so they won't partner with netflixs or anything. Owell I will continue to enjoy my blueray and such till the future arrives. Also I think these ISP's need to get real. You need unlimited download and no caps as more and more HD content will be on the internet and people will be using these services moe and more eating the bandwith,
At a time when here in the USA, providers are pushing for download limits and extra costs for over 20 gigs a month, it seems a contradiction for the media companies pushing more and more availability of media on the internet.
Unfortunately, Movie Downloads currently take a hell of a long time to download, whether via laptop or PS3. However, with BT recently announcing plans for super fast broadband by 2013, downloads will take minutes rather than hours which will make a huge difference. Until then, I would still rather rent a Blu-Ray movie from Love Film.