A comparison of PS3 and 360 as media players

[AzBat]

Could this have something to do with it?

U-verse TV is delivered via IPTV from the head-end to the consumer's Total Home DVR or standard set-top box.[2] U-verse uses H.264 (MPEG-4 AVC) encoding which compresses video more efficiently than the traditional MPEG-2 codec. Broadcast channels are distributed via IP multicast, allowing a single stream (channel) to be sent to any number of recipients. The system is also designed for individual unicasts for video on demand, central time shifting, start-over services and other programs desired by only one home at that particular time. The set-top box does not have a conventional tuner, but is an IP multicast client which requests the stream desired. In the IP multicast model, only the streams the customer uses are sent. The customer's connection need not have the capacity to carry all available channels simultaneously.

Source: Wikipedia

The one thing most sources haven't said about is that the Xbox U-verse kit also includes a USB dongle. One would assume is that the USB dongle is used as an authentication method. The DVR might work like how Media Center works by generating an authorization key that needs to be entered on Xbox U-verse software.

Tommy McClain

 

[patsu]

http://gizmodo.com/5022574/the-future-of-tv-according-to-att

It's acting as a final tier client (media extender box) in a client-client-server arrangement. The box handling all the backend interfacing (including authentication and authorization), program guide updates, ... is the DVR. According to that link, AT&T's Whole House DVR can stream content to up to 8 TVs.

That way the 360 doesn't have to do what the Torne/PlayTV peripheral does. The recording (e.g., when a game is playing) will be performed by the DVR. In the link above, they also set up a TVersity server to serve the same video to PSP, iPhone and other devices.

H.264 should not be an issue. MS patched in H.264 support for 360 earlier. Probably don't need to play video and game at the same time.

 

[BRiT]

I wish my cable provider would enable the same IPTV features and functionality, but I don't have high hopes of that occurring.

 

[cal_guy]

You don't need an DVR only another standard STB for the Xbox 360, but obviously you won't have recording abilities without an DVR.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

LoveFilm on PS3? It's insane, to keep rolling out completing platforms all serving the same purpose! just have one video portal with the films on to either buy, rent as a once off, or offer a subscription service for free streaming.

 

[Arwin]

LoveFilm on PS3? It's insane, to keep rolling out completing platforms all serving the same purpose! just have one video portal with the films on to either buy, rent as a once off, or offer a subscription service for free streaming.

I agree. I think we should only have one single TV network on sattelite, cable and whatnot too. And there should definitely not be competitors to youtube on the internet - there's just no point. Hopefully google will just buy all the competitors and consolidate the market once and for all. Then perphaps Netflix can buy LoveFilm and all these rubbish small services and whatever else exists on the global market, and so on!

I see what you're saying, but at this point in time it's not realistic, and I think that the choice you have on the web coming to PS3 is not necessarily a bad thing.

 

[patsu]

It's because many companies own different rights. I guess that's why Sony invested in Qriocity. It's supposed to pre-negotiate all these deals for digital distribution ?

The LoveFilm video has been removed. I was going to see how similar it is to NetFlix and Hulu Plus Preview.

Seriously, at this point, I'm more interested in foreign films. I already have iTunes, NetFlix, PSN Stores, Hulu Plus, Over the air, and Blu-ray for mostly US productions. YouTube looks promising for an all-in-one video service. Someone needs to negotiate the mother-of-all foreign film distribution in US.

 

[tuna]

LoveFilm on PS3? It's insane, to keep rolling out completing platforms all serving the same purpose! just have one video portal with the films on to either buy, rent as a once off, or offer a subscription service for free streaming.

Will it work in Sweden?

 

[NeoTechni]

LoveFilm on PS3? It's insane, to keep rolling out completing platforms all serving the same purpose! just have one video portal with the films on to either buy, rent as a once off, or offer a subscription service for free streaming.

agreed

its like how ps3 now has 3photo viewing apps

 

[TrungGap]

I see. Is it still expensive ? Most chinese I spoke to said it's not worth it. May be their spending power has increased to a level where they want a better experience than pirated movies ?

EDIT: Wait, I didn't mean to imply only lovers go to the cinemas. But I was told they do have love seats for couples and it's common. Is this still true ?

Yes, going to the movies in Shanghai is pretty expensive. I went to see Toy Story 3 (3D) and Inception. Toy Story was way after the release, but I was pretty surprised to find the seats are 2/3 full and Inception was nearly sold-out (this was about 1 week after release). The ticket is about 15 ~ 17 USD. That's pretty expensive. Sure the seats are larger than the US...and a lot cleaner, but to me it's not worth it. I guess a lot of Chinese have a lot disposable income, but when talking in percentage...probably not too high.

I guess one of the reason why theaters can charge so high in Shanghai is the number of people with huge disposable income might not be a large percentage of the population, but enough demand to make the price sky high.

PS Didn't see any love-seats, but the seats are very comfortable and large. And you can always lift the arm rest, to get better access to the popcorn in your girlfriend lap.

 

[jeff_rigby]

It's because many companies own different rights. I guess that's why Sony invested in Qriocity. It's supposed to pre-negotiate all these deals for digital distribution ?

The LoveFilm video has been removed. I was going to see how similar it is to NetFlix and Hulu Plus Preview.

Seriously, at this point, I'm more interested in foreign films. I already have iTunes, NetFlix, PSN Stores, Hulu Plus, Over the air, and Blu-ray for mostly US productions. YouTube looks promising for an all-in-one video service. Someone needs to negotiate the mother-of-all foreign film distribution in US.

http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=57930&page=6 post #150 has the first link to an active video of Lovefilm.

Also a link to the company that provides the Cross platform media player, Widevine, for both Netflix and Lovefilm

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Anyone know about encoding and PS3 issues? I've created a movie in Magix Movie Edit Pro on PC in 1080p, 30fps. I output it as MP4, h.264, lots of mindboggling options, but when played on PS3 it chops off the top and bottom. I've tried PS3 in 720p and 1080p outputs with no difference. There are no picture scaling options for 1080p. I checked the aspect ratio was definitely 16:9 when output, and the source material is all 1920x1080, 16:9, so this behaviour is quite bemusing!

 

[patsu]

About Tourne...
http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2010/10/20/ps3_dvr_kit_torne_update/

from April to September, the ¥9,980 device sold 420,000 units.

Torne was actually released in March. The site did not provide specific life to date figure. However, initial sales in late March appeared to be strong, suggesting that the device may have actually topped the half million mark.

Similar to the PlayStation 3 itself, Sony has been upgrading Torne's functionality. In late June, it released the device's first major firmware update, which added triple speed recording and the ability to watch programs while recording.

Sony Computer Entertainment Japan Studio's creative director Manabu Nishizawa hinted at more updates for the device, telling Sankei that Sony is reading additional functionality for the end of year.

 

[patsu]

Engadget surveyed user feedback about PS3 NetFlix:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/19/netflixs-new-ps3-app-includes-new-features-new-headaches-vide/

Among other oddities...

One major issue that a few are experiencing is that the app is region locked, and will only work on consoles purchased in North America, unlike the disc which worked on any PS3 as long as you were logging in from the US. Netflix confirmed to us that it's aware of the issue and it expects to have it taken care of by an update in the next month or so.

Also for the earlier NetFlix 1080p question, it seems that NetFlix already serves them:

Other questions we've heard concern the video quality, and whether it is 1080p or 1080i, we asked Netflix and were told the following:

"As for the 1080i confusion - Our 1080 sources are either interlaced or progressive. All of our 1080 encodes are progressive. This means that we do perform conversion of 1080i sources to 1080p at encoding time. We use industry-standard tools to execute the conversion."

As far as being able to tell if you're getting a 1080p stream, as we mentioned in our video walkthrough, hitting the "select" button on the PS3 controller shows the video and audio quality, with X-High indicating the highest quality stream available, although there's no way to tell specifically if that's 720p or 1080p. We can say from the video we've checked out, some streams definitely appear sharper than they did previously in 720p and with few compression artifacts. While it's not Blu-ray quality, it's on par with the best video we usually get from cable or satellite.

 

[AzBat]

Rumor now that Hulu will drop the Hulu Plus subscription rate to $4.95 a month...

http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/20101021/hulu-plus-take-two-hows-4-95-a-month/

That's a bit more realistic & easier to stomach. I'll re-evaluate it once the Hulu app comes out for 360. Maybe by then it will be free.

Tommy McClain

 

[patsu]

Good news. I might just continue the free preview after March. ^_^
[size=-2]Their advertisement slots helped offset the subscription fee ?[/size]

 

[BRiT]

Maybe it's their [Hulu] large lack of Plus content?

 

[patsu]

Back in April…
http://www.csmonitor.com/Innovation...d-library-by-building-a-subscription-pay-wall

Hulu is a success. Over the past two years, this partnership between News Corp., Disney, and NBC has pulled in $100 million from advertisers. Now the second biggest website for streaming video in the United States, trailing only YouTube, Hulu has turned an operating profit for the past six months. But according to the LA Times, earning money isn't enough for Hulu's corporate parents.

"That doesn't come close to matching the revenue that these companies are accustomed to raking in from their more established businesses," the Times writes. "That's why Hulu is under pressure from its owners to collect a subscription fee."

…

Hulu will experiment with subscriptions – starting with $9.95 a month – to see what users are willing to spend.

"Television executives don't want to suffer the same fate as music industry or newspapers, which saw users flock to free access to songs, stories and classified ads online -- and revenues plummet," reports the LA Times.

More here, from June: http://newteevee.com/2010/06/29/hulu-plus-vs-netflix-instant-who-has-the-advantage/

Going through the 40-plus shows mentioned by name (of the hundreds promised), Hulu Plus’s advantages over Netflix are pretty clear. When comparing the list of shows whose current seasons will be available via Hulu Plus with those in Netflix’s listings, all programs mentioned as being available on Hulu’s subscription service are either DVD-only or entirely unavailable on Netflix.

...

… but the picture will likely evolve quickly.

 

[patsu]

Meanwhile…
http://www.dvdinformation.com/pressreleases\2009\DEGUSf_Q32010.pdf

DEG: The Digital Entertainment Group released year-to-date U.S. sales figures for the home entertainment industry today. Consumer spending for the first three quarters of 2010 in the home entertainment window for pre-recorded entertainment, which includes DVD, Blu-ray Disc and digital distribution, reached $12.6 billion, off four percent compared to the same period last year. Consumer transactions for home entertainment products were flat for the year.

Blu-ray Disc continued to make significant contributions into the third quarter, with sell-through up 80 percent to $1 billion year-to-date. Packaged media sell-through, which includes DVD and Blu-ray Disc, declined eight percent year-to-date. However, the considerable growth of electronic sell- through helped offset this decline, bringing overall sell-through up two percentage points, off just six percent year-to-date.

Digital distribution, which includes electronic sell-through (EST) and video-on-demand (VOD), is firmly established, having made up 13.5 percent of the overall consumer spend in home entertainment year-to-date. EST climbed 37 percent to $432 million and VOD was up 20 percent to $1.2 billion year-to-date, a combined growth of 23 percent to $1.7 billion.

Blu-ray hardware sales continued to climb in the first three quarters of the year as well, selling more than three million set-top units, an increase of 104 percent over the same period last year. This brings the total installed base of Blu-ray Disc playback devices in the U.S. to 21.1 million units.

..

“Blu-ray continues to show strong growth in every category, new release packaged media sell-through is up, and digital distribution is gaining significant momentum as we move into the fourth quarter.”

So DD + Blu-ray could (finally) make up for DVD sales decline. These should be US figures only.

 

[AzBat]

In the United States, Netflix represents more than 20 percent of downstream traffic during peak times and is heaviest between 8-10 p.m.

http://www.sandvine.com/news/pr_detail.asp?ID=288



Tommy McClain