Sony signs up all six major studios for HD movies on PlayStation Network
By Donald Melanson 
posted March 9th 2010 2:10PM
posted March 9th 2010 2:10PM
Well, it looks like Sony has a little treat for PS3 users now that they're able to turn their consoles back on -- it's just announced that it has signed up all six major studios to deliver HD movies on the PlayStation Network (the first company to do so, as Sony is happy to point out). That includes 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros. and, of course, Sony Pictures Entertainment, which combined have an initial slate of 19 HD movies available to buy or rent -- including "Fantastic Mr. Fox," "Star Trek," "District 9," "Inglourious Basterds," and "The Wizard of Oz," to name a few. Those are only available in the US at the moment, but Sony says it plans to also roll them out to the U.K., France, Germany, and Spain "soon."
@thatsme it's just the convenience of it all. They have something similar where I live in Japan. When you're in the PSN store, click on the video button, find your movie, and watch.
...except that they have the option to buy or rent the movies as well as SD or HD versions.
Erm, which studio(s) was just recently added?
Of course Microsoft won't be able to get all 6 when SONY runs a competing platform. I'm pretty sure Sony Pictures will NEVER be allowed to sign with Zune Marketplace. Seems somewhat anti-competitive if you ask me..
I'm pretty sure the other 5 studios have already signed up with the Zune marketplace already.
@Rask They already have columbia (which is a division of sony pictures). I believe the only studio they are missing is sony pictures proper but they do work together atleast somewhat. I imagine it wont be too long until all the rental services have all the studios.
We just need somebody to do something about the price..... content really isn't the problem its the $6 charge for a 24 hour rental.
@Rask Sony Pictures is already on Zune/Xbox Marketplace. You can rent movies like District 9 and ZombieLand right now in HD.
All of the major studios are renting movies through Zune/Xbox in HD.
As much as I love all of my PS-machines (and I do mean all), I have this to say to you Sony: Get your grip together and PRIORITIZE global launches.
Norway have been screwed over so many times! Where's the VAIO's? Where is Norway on the list of this service? When will we EVER get Play-TV?
Cablevision Rentals are costly, Netflix takes time but reasonable price, I wonder what extra benefit PSN will give ?
My only gripes about movies on PSN are:
1. Expensive (at least more expensive on average than others)
2. Too restrictive. Movies are heavily DRM'ed, for obvious reasons. But that DRM is tied directly to your machine. So if your machine dies - so do all of your purchased movies (backups won't work on a new machine)
3. Sound. Currently all movies are 2-channel aac (with DPLII down-mixing)
So for those who have been wondering, initially XBOX Live's service had Universal films while PSN didn't at the launch of their store. Universal was the one studio holdout for the longest time during the HD-DVD/Blu-ray war.
Eventually though recently Universal films have slowly showed up on the PSN network, though not in great quantities. My thoughts are this announcement simply means that there's enough in there for Sony to boast about.
On the other hand, XBOX Live never had Sony/Columbia Pictures films (which includes the Spider-Man trilogy, District 9, among others) and it's likely Sony will never license these to MSFT.
So in a nutshell: XBOX has every studio except Sony. Sony has all of XBOX's studios, as well as their own.
@xolan99 Live DOES have columbia pictures.... just not sony.
http://social.zune.net/movies/District-9/5ad31393-7464-4990-a079-0e1e018ec463
@xolan99
Whoops, I stand corrected. I think District 9 was technically Tri-Star which is an even smaller division of Columbia.
But yeah, not sure what Columbia films counts as "Sony" and what's not.
@xolan99 Yeah its a mess.... because they don't have spiderman and some of the other sony staples. But they do have some contact with sony just not everything like I'm guessing PSN does.
@jagowar
It's funny how they say Sony Pictures in their listings though (Check District 9 studio label on Zune). I wonder if Sony knows.
@xolan99
Also, I noticed all the Sony movies on Zune are rent only and have no previews, whereas everything else you can rent or buy. Also, HD content is very scarce for movies, which isn't great. And no Disney films.
bring it to canada for fucks sake
I guess this is cool but the only way I'm ever paying for movies for my PS3 is blu ray or if someday they start making movies currently in theaters available.
The ZUNE marketplace on 360 is still pretty light in Canada, but they've really been stepping things up on a monthly basis. And the 1080p streaming is instantaneous. I love it. I'm wondering how long until the PSN stuff gets to Canada.
I thnk this will get me to buy a PS3 in few months up here in Canada!! It sucks how they always leave us last and we always seem to buy shitload of stuff..Oh wait they don't care about Canada lol!!
yay. let's fragment the content distribution even more! it won't be long before you need a Roku, Xbox 360, Playstation, a TiVo, and an Apple Tv just to be able to stream HD content. score!
(this is one case where all of this "competition" is not, in fact, benefiting the consumer).
Good to know, although downloading an HD movie over my DSL connection is going to take longer than I'm likely to wait
It seems whoever offers a good way to stream SD/HD videos to Canadians will make a fortune. Bought my PS3 back in 2007 thinking they will bring their PSN Video Store to Canada fast (as it was quite logical). Still waiting for zip.ca to offer such service since they signed a technology deal with some US company.
Unfortunately we have to blame our government for creating the most strict copyright rules and a variety of copyright managing groups each collecting their duties. On top of these there is a Fascist CRTC that thinks that Canada need to be the least technologically developed country in the world and imposes ridiculous Canadian Content rules on anything it can have control over. In addition to the things above government (CRTC again) supported oligopoly of telcos that can scam consumers with very limited connectivity options and high prices.
SAD
@SurgeArrest You mean like Zune Marketplace on 360? It streams 1080p right now movies and TV. For like 6-8 months now.
@watership Unfortunately I do not own XBox and I don't play games. Bought PS3 because of Blu-Ray and Media/Photo playback functionality, really wanted to have rental available on PS3 and for me it does not make sense to buy XBox. Does XBox require you to have paid membership just to access store?
@SurgeArrest No Xbox only requires you to pay if you want to play games with other people over the internet. You can buy whatever you want from the store as long as you have an Xbox Live Silver membership (which is free). If you already have an Live, MSN, Hotmail or any other Microsoft account, you already have access to Xbox Live.
@SurgeArrest Oh brother!! I couldnt say it better!! Lets hope that there's gonna be huge changes withing CRTC soon!! Bcoz then it will make it worthwhile for me to buy a huge HDTV if not 3D TV and a PS3 and enjoy awesome content!! But until then, we Canadians can just sit back and watch as the world enjoys everything..man we are always last to get things..from phones to TV models to MP3 players.. F@@@@@ccckkk
Sweeeet. Very happy about that. Inglorious Basterds was awesome.
I've been doing this on my Xbox 360 for like 3 years now??? WTF? Who cares.
The longer they leave us other europeans out in the cold the more we get accustomed to getting our fix from Pirate Bay. What´s wrong with these people? I´ve never understood why someone would work so hard to NOT make more money.
I use the Xbox Live Zune video service A LOT more now that it has instant streaming and the quality craps all over netflix instant streaming.
This could succeed. It all comes down to price.
Yary Sony! No one cares
I'm pretty confused. Because movies on both PSN and Xbox have been labaled as "HD"...Is there something I am missing here? I've downloaded movies in 1080p on both services.
What movie is the pic from?
@AlfaCat
District 9
Yeah I'm with Alfacat... What movie is that still from?
Sony goes right way, but, unfortunately, movie business is the only business Sony makes money with today...
Microsoft also has all six studios in 1080p/HD. Fox was added a few weeks back and Sony (yes Sony), was added I believe late last year ... I watched Zombieland last night for example.
Not all movies are available as HD purchases, but all are instant-on streamable, which is really nice.
Knowing how "HD" looks via Amazon VOD and Apple TV/iTunes, I can't help but ask the question of how the PSN HD movies look compared to Blu Ray.
Not that I mind media from the internet not looking as good, but for the times I value quality over convenience (which is most of the time I want to own, not rent a movie), I'll buy the disk.
Also, digital copies appeal to me more when I can take them with my on my iPhone, thus I'll still be an iTunes more than PSN purchaser.
That said, good for Sony! I hope this is a step toward a future of more pervasive digitally distributed content.
i would buy movies off sony for my ps3 they want almost the price is the same as buying it on disc and all you get is the film none of extras that you get on disc it is a complete rip off
Just for the info, Inglourious Basterds is actually available in germany.
Note they did not mention what HD format. $10 bucks they continue to limit their HD offerings to 720p. If the same movie is offered at 1080p on Zune, that's where I'm going to watch it.