Sony criticizes Microsoft's TV/Movie downloads

[DarkSora]

Microsoft recently announced that they would be allowing Xbox360 owners to download TV shows and movie content onto their systems. The catch of course, is that in order to do so owners must have a Xbox360 with a hard drive. This deal targets the owners of the premium version and can be viewed as a ploy by Microsoft to encourage Xbox360 owners with the core version to spend $100 on the 20GB HDD upgrade.

Sony views this deal as a marketing ploy and critics Microsoft by saying, "PlayStation 3's content is designed for everyone to enjoy right out of the box, no matter which configuration you purchase. We would never segregate or shut out any of our consumers from our entertainment experience because they didn't buy the top of the line system. Both PlayStation 3 versions available on November 17 include hard drives for downloading content."

It's fairly clear that Sony is taking advantage of Microsoft's announcement to make the PlayStation 3 more appealing to the masses. As the nex-gen war rages on, PS3Land expects to see these two giants exchange many more blows in the coming months. Microsoft has yet to release a counter statement.

taken from PS3land

[Naluka]

Yeah but isn't it really common sense that if you want to download a movie or TV program to watch then your gonna need somewhere to save it.. Comes with the terratory really you want to save something you need somewhere to save it, Sonys statement could be used against them in the way that what if people dont want 20/60GB of space for demos and the like, they have no choice do they and end up forking out for the cheapest one they can get anyway, sorta having wasted space (although it would be needed for pre-loading some games)

[Dr. Winston O'Boogie]

Sure they don't shut anyone out from the best experience because they didn't buy the top of the line system, but that's only because they don't give anyone a choice either way....

They're not wrong, per se, but they make it seem like those people with the core systems didn't choose to buy that particular configuration.

This deal targets the owners of the premium version and can be viewed as a ploy by Microsoft to encourage Xbox360 owners with the core version to spend $100 on the 20GB HDD upgrade.
Right, and this statement is simply a ploy by Sony to encourage consumers to spend $200 extra to get the PS3.

[ehandlr]

The real problem IMHO is the size of the proprietary HDD of the 360. Average movie download is 5 gigs and the free space empty on the HDD is 13 gigs. That means you can download 2 movies if you don't have many demo's/trailers saved already.

The downloading time would make me hesitant as well. I remember one downloaded trailer that was less then a gig that took almost 30 min on a high speed internet connection. At that ratio, a movie would take 2 1/2 hours to download.

[Naluka]

The downloading time would make me hesitant as well. I remember one downloaded trailer that was less then a gig that took almost 30 min on a high speed internet connection. At that ratio, a movie would take 2 1/2 hours to download.

Full-length high-definition movies push 5GB in size, which, as any gamer who has downloaded a demo from Marketplace knows, will take a while to download. Fortunately for those who want near-instant gratification, videos can be viewed while downloading once an ample buffer is established. Microsoft said that standard definition television programs were "ready to play within minutes" of the download beginning.

So a while after you should be able to start streaming it anyway...

[ehandlr]

No that probably isn't true. This won't work like a streaming movie/show/trailer from the internet. It won't be buffered etc. It will be much like downloading a movie from the internet in its raw form. You will have to wait for completion to watch it.

[Dr. Winston O'Boogie]

These movies are only rentals, and you can only have them for 2 weeks, or 24 hours after you first start watching it. You'll just delete them after you're done and then you can download another in that same space.

[ehandlr]

Easy for you to say...but this is something I deal with everyday. Through Comcast we supply 120 gig DVR's to customers. We also offer Video On Demand. People exceed their 120 gigs of space within the first week and many people have rented up to 5 DVR's to hook up to one television for this purpose. Thats 600 gigs.

We also have an 80 gig DVR that customers complain about everyday for being too small to hold their shows.

As far as Video On Demand goes....I've seen customers with $1000 dollars a month cable bill (and they pay it too) just ordering movies. Just on normal $4.00 downloads, thats 5-6 movies a day.

Ofcourse these are extreme cases, but until you have seen entertainment whores in the wild, nothing is a safe bet...even common sense.

[Dr. Winston O'Boogie]

Difference is though, that those DVR'd shows are free, while the ones you download over XBL will cost money. It's much easier to press a button and let a show record then to part with $3 of your money and then wait for the download. Those movies are on demand too, so they're more impulse buys (that's how I rent movies on-demand, I hardly ever go looking for a movie there, I just use it if I'm bored and want to watch something right now) but if you have to download the movie, there won't be a lot of people that rack up download after download.

Though I agree actually, it'd be a much nicer service if we had more than the 20 gigs to play with. I've heard a rumor that they'd let us play the movies off of a portable HDD, just like how you can play mp3's off of them, but I don't know if that's true at all.

[ehandlr]

Now they get to deal with my next nightmare. The nightmare phone call of ...

"I DIDN'T ORDER THAT MOVIE....NOBODY HERE DID...I WANT A CREDIT FOR ALL OF THOSE MOVIES RIGHT NOW OR I WILL SUE YOU GUYS!!!!"

Yes this happens....yes its normally porn....yes most wives are too nieve to believe their son/daughtor/husband/uncle/sister would EVER watch those kind of movies.

"My son us 13 years old and he would NEVER watch that crap!"

...but nonetheless...they have to deal with that whole ordering crap complaints...