A comparison of PS3 and 360 as media players

I'm not real worried about PlayOn and Hulu making nice. PlayOn has been pretty decent at keeping up with them. As long as I can continue to watch Hulu on Xbox via PlayOn for free, that's all I care about.

BTW, evidently Microsoft has made an announcement regarding their Hulu plans...

Like ESPN, Hulu Plus on Xbox 360 will take advantage of the social connectivity possible with our 25 million member Xbox LIVE community as well as the magic of Kinect for Xbox 360. We are committed to delivering signature features to the Hulu Plus experience on Xbox 360, like controller-free navigation with Kinect and Xbox LIVE Parties so you can watch with friends no matter where they are. These are custom entertainment experiences for Xbox 360 that you can't find anywhere else. More details will be announced at a later time.
Click to expand...

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/06/29/hulu-plus-on-xbox-will-be-a-custom-experience-restricted-to-x/

Kinect support might entice me, but not Live Party support. That's already available for Zune & Netflix and I've never used it.

Tommy McClain
 
Hulu is marginally interesting, but I can get most of their stuff elsewhere and, particularly if that other source is the airwaves being recorded by MythTV, with substantially better quality. I'm not saying I don't watch Hulu - I do and I have PlayOn to stream to my consoles - it's just that I watch it less and less. Compression artifacts are horrible compared to Netflix or airwaves HD.
 
Hulu Plus is supposed to be HD. If they want to charge $$$ for the content, they will have to maintain a minimal service quality to differentiate from the free SD option. Perhaps this is what the preview period will address.

If this is like any other paid service, they will make sure little things like fast forward work too. Very often, if we stream via a middle man such as a DLNA server or PlayOn, it may introduce inefficiency. They also can't do anything to change the basic quality. That's what I meant by they cannot control Hulu's business direction.
 
patsu; said:
If you have an iPad or iPhone, the added capability is mobile TV. Then when you're back at home, you can watch it on the big screen.
Click to expand...

You can already do that with slingbox for no monthly fee. Just pile all your shows on your dvr and watch them anywhere.
 
Not if I don't have Cable or DirectTV for the SlingBox to record and sling. As far as I know, SlingBox is only a device, not a content provider.
 
I'm not paying a subscription to watch ad-infested TV programming, which will also reduce my internet speed at the time, and use up my bandwidth allocation. At least with cable I can watch an HD show and download a file at the same time at full speed.
 
Or microsoft and sony have costs in bringing this to their network service, that they feel can be recouped this way? Maybe even both. Point being, they may well not have done the Hulu PSN thing if it wasn't for Plus. We don't even know for certain you need both the Hulu Plus and Playstation Plus subscriptions, although that seems likely.
 
obonicus said:
So you're supposing these platform holders have to somehow pay for Hulu to sell its service on their platforms?
Click to expand...

Yup. Just like Facebook, Twitter, etc. get paid by MS for having a portal to their services in Xbox Live. It's one way to keep the services a in the red.

Rather than offering a premium service and charging users they charge the device makers.

Although there is a distinct possibility that Hulu is offering it's services free, in the hopes that Hulu+ will be enough.

What makes it really horrible with Hulu especially though is that with the revenue streams for Hulu+ and possibly getting cash from Sony/MS, they are STILL pushing advertisements. It should either be free with advertisements or paid with no advertisements, IMO.

Regards,
SB
 
Silent_Buddha said:
Yup. Just like Facebook, Twitter, etc. get paid by MS for having a portal to their services in Xbox Live. It's one way to keep the services a in the red.
Click to expand...
Huh? How do you know they get paid? It's just a one-time software development cost for MS. Apple doesn't pay facebook and twitter for their free apps. Actually it'd be in facebook/twitter's interest to be offered in as many platforms as possible, so I really don't think they're getting paid at all.
 
Silent_Buddha said:
Yup. Just like Facebook, Twitter, etc. get paid by MS for having a portal to their services in Xbox Live. It's one way to keep the services a in the red.

Rather than offering a premium service and charging users they charge the device makers.
Click to expand...

Besides corduroy's point, you understand there's a fundamental difference, right? You don't pay to use facebook or twitter. You do pay for Hulu+.

Arwin's speculating that the part of the reason Hulu+ is for PSN+ users only is to help pay for some sort of cost Sony is incurring by providing a service that they're not really providing. By that logic, is that why MS restricts Netflix to Gold members? And if so, does that mean that Sony is so stupid that they lose money on their Netflix offering?

Hulu is using Sony's platform to sell their service. If Sony is actually paying for the privilege of letting someone else hock their wares (an untested product at that!) at their userbase, then holy moses, Stringer might as well put SCE out of its misery.
 
The relationships between Hulu Plus, NetFlix, PSN Video Store, QrioCity (not released yet) and PS+ is indeed intriguing. By right, PS+ should be a wrapper/umbrella layer on top of all the media services. Right now, if the rumor is true, only Hulu Plus is affected by PS+. QrioCity remains under wrapped.

Perhaps this is due to the chronological order of events unfolding, but it's a peculiar (and confusing) arrangement nonetheless.
 
Well it could be a reason for why Netflix on PS3 currently uses the BluRay disc. Maybe now with PS+ we'll see an XMB app appear as well ...
 
patsu said:
The BR disc requirement is said to be a mechanism to bypass MS's exclusive arrangement with NetFlix.
Click to expand...

Yes, Netflix could release a BD disc for BluRay players in general, that just happened to work also with the PS3. But it could also be that NetFlix got money from Microsoft for that exclusive arrangement, that this arrangement had a limited time, and that Netflix thought 'hey that's a nice way to make some additional money, I want more of that' and therefore negotiate with Sony to get money for Netflix on PS3 as well. It's all speculation though, but I'm sure there are people trying to get Netflix on XMB as an app rather than a disc you have to put into the machine.
 
The Canadian PS3 video store just opened which means that I only just got to read this lovely document:

http://www.playstation.ca/ps/videostore_faq.aspx

Apparently Sony wants to punish anyone that owns two PS3s. . .and everyone else with crazy pricing ($3 for a crap resolution 22 minute anime?)

How's the Canadian MS video store compare? Is the DRM and pricing equally messed up?

Cheers
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

J
The Life Cycle of a Gamer - is gaming changing forever, or eternal?
2
Replies
21
Views
2K
Tkumpathenurple
T
Z
Can we really judge a console's power on exclusive games or multiplaform games?
4 5 6
Replies
111
Views
7K
Davros
D
B
  • Locked
Game devs on trial - considerations on current game technical quality and causes *spawn
2 3
Replies
47
Views
4K
Andrew Lauritzen
A
M
Batman Quest 3 is a graphical showpiece and a great game
Replies
2
Views
388
mavox01
M
Cyan
Playtron : new Linux based platform-agnostic open gaming OS
Replies
10
Views
2K
MfA
M
Back
Top