PlayStation 3's P-TV video download service in photos

Our crew out in Japan gave us the 411 on the P-TV video download feature; it seems that all of the content currently being offered on P-TV is anime clips and movie trailers -- nothing full length -- and it's all free. Think of the iTV trailer blade we saw at Apple's last big event. One accesses the P-TV store via the PlayStation browser -- there's no in-system interface (lame) -- wherein users can snag H.264 video to their internal drive or a USB drive. Thankfully, the video is un-DRMed and can be played back on a PC, although it doesn't really matter since it's mostly promo stuff anyway. Apparently there's also an account registration and payment method screen in with a shopping cart interface in the PlayStation Store, so it's entirely possible full-length downloads might happen in the future, a la Xbox Live Video. But for now, it's all about quick clips and trailers, with no option to buy the big content.

This last one is the PlayStation Store. Nice!

[Manny @ Nov 12th 2006 4:25PM]

Is it me or is that video in the 4th picture 14GB!!?? And it has a 72GB Hard drive?? I'm confused

[Storm9 @ Nov 12th 2006 4:34PM]

1080p content is very large.
I think they probably swapped the Ps3 HDD with a 80Gb one?

[HunterXI @ Nov 12th 2006 5:07PM]

If you guys looked closer, it's named "USB***" (not sure what characters those are). Therefore, it looks like it's an external 80GB HDD.

[PreGHz @ Nov 12th 2006 5:17PM]

Wait just a second...

USB HDD? As in, large capacity USB drives are recognizable? Sweet. I knew jump drives were read, but I didn't know if the PS3 put a cap on external media size.

Doesn't this mean that someone could theoretically have a 1TB drive outside the system "archiving" games?

[Nomi @ Nov 12th 2006 5:21PM]

Now if only it could act like a PVR...

[Porsche 911 @ Nov 12th 2006 5:46PM]

You mentioned PVR, which is a great idea. They should create a USB HD television and a radio tuner. It should also be bundled with an upgrade CD, which contains the installation files and other special features, such as, TV guide, and 1080p up-conversion software for television recording.

[Alvin Ong @ Nov 12th 2006 5:35PM]

Xbox360 seems to be losing out, this is just the beginning for PS3.. haha

[Me @ Nov 16th 2006 4:19AM]

how is the 360 losing out, they also have a video/tv show downloading service,

Are PS3 fanboys getting more stupid the closer PS3 release date becomes?

[pl4t @ Nov 12th 2006 5:52PM]

the one at the top says
- harddisk(video)
free space 14GB
so i think it's the 20GB model one
i cant see the bottom one but i think it's true it says USB, probably it was on USB Mode.. (like psp)

[Porsche 911 @ Nov 12th 2006 6:01PM]

For PS3 to succeed over internet content downloads, it needs to have all these features:

1. movie download
2. movie trailers download
3. television programming download
4. game demo download
5. classic game download
6. music download
7. eBook download
8. news
9. weather
10. TV guide
11. internet radio
12. internet Sirius satellite radio
13. broadband content sharing (not downloading)
14. Skype
15. AIM
16. YouTube

[Nomi @ Nov 12th 2006 6:13PM]

you forgot itunes...

[Tech^Cellfish @ Nov 13th 2006 4:06AM]

As far as I can see, it has and can do all those things. Mainly thanks to it's web browser with flash support.

[Porsche 911 @ Nov 13th 2006 12:06AM]

iTunes� I guess we think the same. Actually, iTunes was number 14 on my list; however, I took it off because Xbox360 fans might say something stupid about it, since Sony has its own SonicStage, but Sony is now considering AAC instead of its ATRAC.

[Andy @ Nov 12th 2006 6:39PM]

I'm wondering how devoted Sony will be to this with so much invested into Blu-Ray. How would Sony's network/datacenters stand up to Microsoft.

[Andir3.0 @ Nov 13th 2006 9:07AM]

You apparently have never seen nor heard of Sony Online Entertainment's datacenter and infrastructure. They have probably put more time an energy into it than Microsoft up to this point alone. XBL's infrastructure is still small in comparison.

[theflew @ Nov 12th 2006 7:17PM]

Andy very good point. Sony loses if download content becomes popular since the main draw to the PS3 in their mind is the Blu-ray drive.

[lou @ Nov 12th 2006 7:53PM]

wow thats crazy. just 5, long days left

[Ferny @ Nov 12th 2006 8:40PM]

ha ha ha I wonder what apple is thinking now that it has come alternatives to about the same idea?

[major @ Nov 12th 2006 8:53PM]

Alvin Ong said:

"Xbox360 seems to be losing out..."

Losing out to what?? Obviously you've never experienced Xbox live, else you'd know never to make such a comment. Sony has a looooooooong way to go, my friend, before they catch up with this online gaming service. If there is one thing that has proven to be a qualified success for Microsoft, it's Xbox Live.

[Porsche 911 @ Nov 13th 2006 12:12AM]

PS3 should feature iTunes/QuickTime for its 1080p HD movies, movie trailers, TV shows, audio books, and music downloads. They should also add Divx and Xvid playback.

[FuRinKazan @ Nov 13th 2006 12:20AM]

What's so special about XBL? Online gaming? Voice chat? Instant Messenger? Rip-off microtransaction? Any company with big budget can do this. (not to mention PC has them for years)

My point is if Sony or Nintendo has a better console with "a decent online service", they'll win Xbox easily.

Now let's see if the consoles are better or not.

[PreGHz @ Nov 13th 2006 2:23AM]

I don't think that the PS3 needs all that to succeed. XBL sure didn't need it. As long as the Playstation can be on equal footing with the 360 in terms of the online function, then competition will be fine.

You don't need to stomp the competition with the internet. It's an important factor, sure, but the games and the solo experience are what counts.

Remember, there are still plenty of kids out there without broadband, let alone networking capabilites.

You Tube would be nice, sure, but isn't necessary (or even much of an issue) in a console war.

[Andy @ Nov 13th 2006 3:25AM]

Movie studios will not go for saving movies to a regular external hard-drive from which they could be copied and distributed. XBox 360's security is still pretty solid last I heard. That's what the studio's want. And when/if the time comes, MS will release HDMI one way or another. This is just another distraction of Sony to take attention away from Microsoft's recent announcements for HD movie downloads. MS is in a perfect position because they're not as invested into HD-DVD as Sony is into Blu-Ray, and they can validate their super-compressed HD-WMV format at the same time (which looks excellent at standard DVD file sizes). As an XBox 360 owner this is nothing that makes me jealous in any way. I'm yet to see anything of the PS3 which outdoes the 360 in any significant way. I have two HDTV's and watch every movie that comes out, and I don't see any real purpose to getting HD-DVD or Blu-Ray...I'm very picky but my DVD's still look great (upscaled and re-sampled from the PC). If I can download my movies without having to take more time out of my busy day to go physically get them...awesome!!! What Sony is offering is nothing more than what I can get for free from my PC which is running MS Windows...which integrates with the XBox 360. Sony is confused, they expect to put the PC in the living room with the PS3/Linux, but in the end the PC does not fit in the living-room until it can fluently understand our words and no keyboard is needed, which will not happen in the life span of this generation of consoles. Anyway, I'm getting off track...Sony is not in a position to provide full movie downloads as MS is, technically or financially. It's that simple.

I'm not associated with MS, but I say, save a little money and get the XBox 360 ;P

[EdZ @ Nov 13th 2006 3:49AM]

Erm, technically the PS3 already plays quicktime movies. Quicktime's proprietary .mov container actually just contains a standard h.264 video (which the PS3 plays) and usually conforms to the open MPEG-4 standard (so a good amount of the time, you can change the file extension from .mov to .mp4 and have it play).

[Me @ Nov 16th 2006 4:21AM]

More fanboy comments, Microsoft was running Xbox Live before Sony even had a thought of copying what Microsoft had done.

[Andir3.0 @ Nov 16th 2006 7:34AM]

Ah...more fanboy comments indeed!

"Microsoft will launch its Xbox Live online game-playing service on Nov. 15 [2002], a year after the video game console entered the market"
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-949489.html

"SOE began operations in summer of 1995 as an online collaboration between Sony Pictures Entertainment and Sony Corporation of America. In May of 2000, SOE acquired and fully integrated Verant Interactive to further strengthen Sony�s position in multiplayer online gaming. In April of 2006, SOE became Sony Online Entertainment LLC, owned by Sony Pictures Digital and Sony Computer Entertainment America."
http://www.station.sony.com/sonyonline/

SOE is the basis for the Playstation Network. It's Datacenters have been running full bore before Microsoft even got into the online gaming market.

"Sony kicked off the next era of the Internet gold rush Tuesday, selling a network adapter that will allow its PlayStation 2 video game console to tap into the Internet." - Published: August 27, 2002
http://news.com.com/PlayStation+2+enters+online+arena/2100-1040_3-955538.html

Sony - August 27, 2002
Microsoft - Nov 15, 2002

"Fanboy comments" - How ironic that you say that.

[amish.gramish @ Nov 20th 2006 7:27PM]

"Ala Xbox Live Video"?
Sony announced they would have full video downloads long before Xbox Live took it from Sony.

[elan @ Jan 3rd 2007 9:02AM]

i have ps3 u can copy trails to an exernal device put u cant play blueray trails on quick time pro but it is an mp4 fileunless im doing something rong it would be nice to multie task and take advantage of the cell procsor

[reality @ Jul 10th 2007 3:21PM]

Ok - am I smoking something or are we just duplicating services already offered through cable (wow there is a novel concept) and trying to catch gaming up to the computer still? C'mon people - who cares about watching movies on a game system anyway - for the same price as a PS3, you can have a computer... and we all know computer games are so much more addictive than arcade trends (i.e. Mortal Combat versus WOW).