PSN Video Download Store (NA)

[Gradthrawn]

Rather surprised to see no thread for this. Especially considering that its out right now.

Quick Impressions:

The Bad

Search:
They need to contract Google out for this, because its currently borked. A title search for "clover" does not yield Cloverfield, or anything else for that matter. A search for Cloverfield does, fortunately.

Rentals:
Rentals last 24 hours after the initial viewing, or 14 days after the initial purchase, whichever is shorter.

Portable Transfer:
Only SD videos can be transferred to the PSP. Up to 3 registered PSPs can be used. Rentals and Purchases can both be transferred. Same limitations apply to each.

Purchases:
Purchases can only be downloaded once. So, if your PS3 crashes, you're SOL, unless you transferred it to your PSP. In which case your HD purchases are still gone. Since its is protected material, the backup/restore utility will not restore said content on a different PS3.

Episodic Content:
A lot of the TV Show and Animes are episodic. It would be very nice if I could just buy an entire season, in addition to being able to buy additional episodes. that way instead of 24 individual purchase, there would only be one. But with each episode downloaded separately. Preferable with meta-tag Album data for easy XMB sorting.

Previews:
A lot of content is missing preview clips.

The Good

Look and Feel:
I just like the overall look and feel. Its obviously a unified experience as it is simply a separate tab from the game store. The included search function will be a nice addition when it becomes a bit more robust. Although a lot of content does not have previews, I do like the way they're handled. Pretty seamless integration (plus full screen support).

Organization:
I like the way content is organized. From my experiences its pretty easy to find the content you're looking from multiple approaches. TV shows are broken into Series -> Season -> Episode. Making it logically organized.

Content:
To have just launched, I feel the content there has a nice variety to it. It is by no means the biggest library of media, but its off to a good start, IMO.

Portable Transfer:
I own a PSP. The fact that I can take my downloaded movies with me on my PSP is a huge lure. I suspect this will be a draw to many others who own a PSP.

Exclusive Content:
The only exclusive content I saw was what is apparently a new Anime that's debuting on PSN. I put this under good because I would like to see where they take this. With Sony Pictures, Columbia, and MGM under the same roof, they could do a lot with this to bolster their download service. *cough*ToReturnaCertainFavortoSCE*cough*


Overall I'm pleased. I think they're off to good start. Not sure if I want to jump in just yet. The portable copy is a huge lure, but the size of the files is so damn big (up to 2 GB) it would be difficult keeping multiple movies on my PSP. This is more of a limitation of the PSP itself and the MS media, but, still, its a concern that prevents me from diving in. Pricing is reasonable, IMO, but far from great. Limitations on purchases concerns me.

I would like to see a lot more of the content have SD and HD rentals and purchases, because its a bit of a mixed bag right now. But considering the hassle with securing distribution rights, this is understandable.

The portable copy and exclusive content are 2 things they could really leverage on because they're in such a unique position to do so. It will be interesting to see if, and how, they take advantage of this.

 

[Arwin]

I bought a 4GB card for my PSP, but ended up using it in my camera as even with some tv episodes on the PSP I'm ok with 2GB, whereas on the camera I also do video recording, which racks up (AVC encoding on that thing would have been nice ).

This would be a big plus for me as well, even just for watching in bed.

 

[Jugix]

Is video store blocked from those IPs that are outside of NA? I tried to click videostore banner at the USA store but it just did not do anything. I live in Finland BTW.

 

[Gradthrawn]

I. I think with a PSP price drop I would use it more and transfer to PSP which might increase my usage.

To clarify, are you saying you would buy a (cheaper) PSP just to use it for the video download store? I only ask because its something I've been wondering. I can see the immediate appeal of the PSN Video Store to PSP owners, but I was curious about the appeal of the PSP itself to non-PSP owners because of the video store.

 

[StefanS]

Is video store blocked from those IPs that are outside of NA? I tried to click videostore banner at the USA store but it just did not do anything. I live in Finland BTW.

Yes, but there might be a way around this by using a proxy server (haven't checked if this is even possible on the PS3).

 

[patsu]

Rather surprised to see no thread for this. Especially considering that its out right now.

Quick Impressions:

The Bad

Search:
They need to contract Google out for this, because its currently borked. A title search for "clover" does not yield Cloverfield, or anything else for that matter. A search for Cloverfield does, fortunately.

Eeeew ! They definitely need to fix this asap. The product management guys shouldn't have missed this because title search is usually the first and most important step. It shows that their methodology is not user centric.

Purchases:
Purchases can only be downloaded once. So, if your PS3 crashes, you're SOL, unless you transferred it to your PSP. In which case your HD purchases are still gone. Since its is protected material, the backup/restore utility will not restore said content on a different PS3.

This is another thing that must be fixed before they will get much sales. I suspect most people who want to buy a movie will most likely get Blu-ray though.

I rented one to check out the service, it's not too bad but I have a very fast connection.

 

[DrJay24]

I can see the PSP thing being useful for trips, but I'm not paying $6 for a HD rental from either PSN or Live, I'll stick to Netflix BDs.

 

[deepbrown]

I thought there was going to be a LOT more content, especially Sony Home Entertainment, but for the most part the Sony owned studios have mostly the same content on Video Marketplace that they have on PSN with PSN having less.

In comparison to Live Marketplace, most of it overlaps, however, you will notice that Fox on 360 does not have 24 while PSN does. I haven't bought anything yet (I just bought 10,000 points on 360) but I am going to rent a movie when I get home tonight and maybe a TV Show or two. I found everything easy enough, but a synopsis of the movie or TV show was missing on almost everything I looked at yesterday and I had to drill down to get the description of the movie, just a minor quibble. Overall, I don't know if I consider this as big as Sony made it out to be previously, given my extensive use of Video Marketplace, but it is not bad by any means. I think with a PSP price drop I would use it more and transfer to PSP which might increase my usage. Having to pay taxes on PSN and not having to pay it on Live does bum me out though because the amount I spend on digidistro the taxes would far exceed my Live subscription costs.

Overall, thumbs-up for delivering it, now it needs a lot more content.

Didn't it launch with 300 movies and 1200 episodes? No movie sharing

 

[archie4oz]

Search:
They need to contract Google out for this, because its currently borked. A title search for "clover" does not yield Cloverfield, or anything else for that matter. A search for Cloverfield does, fortunately.

No, Google is pretty bad in this regard. Actually, searching a content schema within a specific domain is pretty easy. Looks like the front end is unfortunately using the same search indexer as the admin apps (which makes sense if you know how the platform works), however there's definitely some work that needs to be done on that part.

Rentals:
Rentals last 24 hours after the initial viewing, or 14 days after the initial purchase, whichever is shorter.

That's pretty standard, same as MS Live Video Marketplace (14 days although 30 days is also pretty common).

Purchases:
Purchases can only be downloaded once. So, if your PS3 crashes, you're SOL, unless you transferred it to your PSP. In which case your HD purchases are still gone. Since its is protected material, the backup/restore utility will not restore said content on a different PS3.

That's an unfortunate part of content agreements. I would've liked it to have been similar to the Connect music store where you could re-download all your purchases (same as games as well). It should be too hard to eventually provide an update that allows you to archive videos to an external drive, however while that would work fine for SD content, HD movies won't work unless the system is updated to support an FS that can handle files larger than 4GB.

Episodic Content:
A lot of the TV Show and Animes are episodic. It would be very nice if I could just buy an entire season, in addition to being able to buy additional episodes. that way instead of 24 individual purchase, there would only be one. But with each episode downloaded separately. Preferable with meta-tag Album data for easy XMB sorting.

That may be a future update. At this point its a bit messy doing bundle purchases in the PSN.

Previews:
A lot of content is missing preview clips.

That should probably be fixed shortly...

I bought a 4GB card for my PSP, but ended up using it in my camera as even with some tv episodes on the PSP I'm ok with 2GB, whereas on the camera I also do video recording, which racks up (AVC encoding on that thing would have been nice

You might want to pick up a 4GB card. There's quite a few movies that exceed the 1914MB capacity of the 2GB card.

Eeeew ! They definitely need to fix this asap. The product management guys shouldn't have missed this because title search is usually the first and most important step. It shows that their methodology is not user centric.

Methodology isn't relevant. It ultimately boils down to "this is going live on X day, come hell or highwater," and you basically have to guarantee some level of functionality. The video store is way too late as it is...

 

[patsu]

Methodology isn't relevant. It ultimately boils down to "this is going live on X day, come hell or highwater," and you basically have to guarantee some level of functionality. The video store is way too late as it is...

I see. Thanks for bringing out the service. Look forward to more content and enhancements.

 

[eastmen]

its still new , they will fix the problems over the next month or two . Still they should hae said it be launching at GC and given themselves another month. Mabye this was done to counter nextlifx

 

[wco81]

Definitely, I would love managed copy and be able to put on my iPhone, but I would have no problem buying a PSP for this.

Couldn't you just buy content from iTunes?

How does the selection, price and quality (file size/bitrate/resolution) compare to iTunes?

I thought iTunes had rental deals with all the studios and it had 30 days expiration instead of 14?

Some DVDs and Blu-Rays are including "digital copy" which is compatible with iTunes, meaning you can sync it to iPhone/iPod.

 

[patsu]

its still new , they will fix the problems over the next month or two . Still they should hae said it be launching at GC and given themselves another month. Mabye this was done to counter nextlifx

Sony hinted that they will launch the video service in 2008 last December. In April when the new PS Store was launched, they narrowed it down to Summer 2008. E3 would make sense as a platform. It's more likely the result of a long chain of planning and work.

 

[Carl B]

Backing up the PS3's HDD is drama you don't want anyway to begin with. I say get a larger hard drive sooner rather than later either way; ~$65 on Newegg'll get you to 160GB. $90 will get you to 250GB.

That should give some forward piece of mind as you go deeper into the gen, as I wouldn't imagine you need any HDD upgrade beyond that. Being said, I do hope that you're able to effectively re-download so long as the PS3 registers as the same 'device.'

 

[patsu]

Yap... or buy the promo BD / DVD editions. Hopefully they add Portable Copy to all.

 

[SedentaryJourney]

Not seeing the video tab. No-go for Canada I assume.

 

[ninzel]

Not seeing the video tab. No-go for Canada I assume.

Yep, and I don't know why I expected any different.It was the same thing with Xbox Live video marketplace.

 

[Arwin]

Backing up the PS3's HDD is drama you don't want anyway to begin with. I say get a larger hard drive sooner rather than later either way; ~$65 on Newegg'll get you to 160GB. $90 will get you to 250GB.

That should give some forward piece of mind as you go deeper into the gen, as I wouldn't imagine you need any HDD upgrade beyond that. Being said, I do hope that you're able to effectively re-download so long as the PS3 registers as the same 'device.'

I backed up to a USB drive before I installed LInux. That works pretty flawlessly I must say, but of course you do need to have one available that is large enough. The redownloads are only going to be an issue to a different PS3. That's still an issue in some cases of course, but there has to be a way around it, or Sony couldn't replace your system under warranty.

Hopefully they can change to locking content to your account, though moreso than with games I do understand the danger of people sharing a special account to watch stuff. The lockout period of 24 hours now used for some games is probably not enough in these cases. I'm sure they'll find some solution though.

It's coming for Europe, I just read on Eurogamer, but it won't be until 2009. They mention they want to work for localised content (which means dubbed versions in some countries, subtitles in others, etc.) Understandable, but VERY annoying.

 

[tirminyl]

I very much dislike the download again aspect despite being able to copy over to the PSP, it is media that I purchased therefore I should be able to download again if I so choose. I downloaded 2 episodes of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" last night and thats when I noticed that neither showed up in my recent downloads tab.

Also, they really need HD tv shows. I am not sure how I sat through a non hd episode. The screen was so small, lol.

 

[whome0]

Having to pay taxes on PSN and not having to pay it on Live does bum me out though because the amount I spend on digidistro the taxes would far exceed my Live subscription costs.
Overall, thumbs-up for delivering it, now it needs a lot more content.

Why is taxes on PSN purchases but not on XBLive purchases. What makes it go different?

About the same movies or tvshow titles between services, how is comparing prices?

(no, I can't check prices i'm in Europe).