Review: Playstation Network Movies

khanbm — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 01:33:37 +0000

Introduction

Recently, Sony released a movies store on their Playstation 3 where you can buy or rent the latest and not so latest movies. I was able to test this service out just recently and here is my review of it.

Pros

Easy, inexpensive delivery service
Integrated into the PSN store without an additional download
Has both HD and SD movies for people with not enough download limit
Movie rental service is convenient
Decent video and sound quality

Cons

5.1 channel surround sound is not activated by default
HD movies are not 1080p

Review

I rented three movies, Surrogates, Invictus and 2012. I found the delivery method was easy but on my 2Mbps connection, the movie took about 8 hours to download which is a bit of a pain. This means you have to plan ahead of time. Conveniently, Sony does give you an option to play the movie while it is downloading but the download is so slow that it will keep pausing the movie. It is better to just wait for the movie to reach at least 80% before you start watching it. Once I did get the movie, it said once it was opened I had 48 hours to watch it which is quite reasonable. I only tried out the HD movies and although they weren't full HD, the quality was very decent. I was quite impressed. Originally it was playing in stereo sound and only after fiddling around in the settings and changing the audio track could i activate the 5.1 channel surround sound. I can't imagine non tech savvy people being able to work this out especially since there are no clear instructions telling you you have to change the audio track to get surround sound. This is a real pain but once you do it, the sound quality is also amazing.

The price for renting a HD movie is reasonable at $5.99 - $6.99 which is around the same price as my local video rental store but many of the latest movies can't be rented at must be bought at the less reasonable price of $24.99. It really is a shame that when you are purchasing the movie with credit card, the minimum amount you can add to your wallet is $10. This means that everytime you buy a movie for $7 you have to give Sony $10. Only after your 4th movie will stop having to add funds. I don't know why you couldn't just pay the exact amount you needed for the movie. The other alternative is a PSN network card which has a minimum of $20 $30. So both ways you cannot pay an exact amount but only add amounts to your wallet. It means later on you might be forced to buy something you really don't want but need to to use up the funds in your PSN wallet. Another bad thing is that they haven't followed the Foxtel IQ method where if you don't watch the rented movie at all you don't get charged for it. This was good because if you changed your mind, you can simply delete the movie and you won't get charged anything.

Overall, I like the new movie service. The video and sound quality are very decent and the whole concept is excellent. If the download speed was improved and the files weren't so large it would be more accessible to people with lower download limits. Unfortunately, buying the latest movies can become an expensive affair especially when the Blu-Ray can often be bought for less than $25 and the DVD for less than $15 even for new movies. I don't think this is going to deter movie piracy either but those who want an alternative to the video rental store have a great one here.

The iPad. A magical, revolutionary device in a category of its own. But what's the point?

Apple created their own category of device. A device which has more capabilities than a smartphone but is not quite a laptop. The device seemed pretty slick with the ability to use apps similar to the iPhone but on a larger screen. Using iWork on this thing seemed pretty cool when it shown off at Steve Jobs' keynote and how awesome would it be to watch videos on a device like this if you were travelling on a train or in the passenger seat of a car. You could have hours of entertainment right at your fingertips. On top of this you could browse the internet in a new, revolutionary way. This seemed like a dream device.

Then you found out about the limitations. No USB port to export your iWork documents, an additional adapter so you could connect your camera and the fact that you could only install things Apple wanted you to install. Then there are the obvious things such as a front facing camera for video chat. This seemed like a no-brainer, to be able to talk to your friends with an iPad would be an awesome experience. But it seems Apple left this feature out, probably to release it in the second generation. Next, it raises the question of where will you use it? Sure you could take it to school or work and take notes at a meeting but the touchscreen keyboard kind of limits it as you have to be looking at the screen to get your fingers in the correct position. You could use it on the bus or train to watch movies or read books. Firstly, reading books on a screen this bright and vibrant, although implemented well, will just not work. The backlight will cause eye strain and this cannot be avoided. Reading whole novels on this device will lead you to ruin your eyes even if you think it is fine in the beginning. Secondly, why would you want to fork out so much for a device where you can only watch movies. That's what a portable dvd player is all about and you can buy one for about $50 now.

So you have this device, something which was supposed to be magical and revolutionary but it wasn't. Its the tiny limitations of the product which make you realise how awesome it could have been but just wasn't. What is the point of buying a device like this? Can you name any uses specifically for this device which warrants the need for a new category of device?

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