The long delay until Sony launched its video download service (actually more like a few hours), is over. HD and SD rentals, and SD purchases from an assortment of movie studios is now available in the Playstation Store by selecting the video button at the top left. Need to know what's available in your region but aren't near your PS3? Check out the website for a list of what awaits.

[Via PS3 Fanboy]

When Apple announced the new VGA res for all iTunes videos the other week -- including new versions of their current QVGA catalog -- we were definitely stoked to be getting 4x the pixels for our video dollar, even if we were a bit miffed at having to re-purchase some of those videos which we'd already bought. Unfortunately, it looks like the offer might not be quite as rosy as we would've hoped. It seems that for certain videos, Apple has simply up-sampled the flick from its formerly compressed QVGA version, the disastrous results of which can be seen above. So, instead of paying $2 for a second time around for what should be a high-res video sampled straight from the original source, you might be paying through the nose for a file that doubles the pixels and megabytes, but severely lessens the general quality of the picture. Friendly tipster Paul C. was kind enough to alert us to this problem, and screencapped a few videos to demonstrate the sitch, all of which can be seen after the break. If you're experiencing similar quality problems, please let us know in the comments so we can figure out the extent of this issue, and bring the appropriate smackdown upon Apple.

No surprises here, but Amazon has taken their fancy new Unbox video downloads store live, and it's looking... download-ey. Bad news first: prices are kind of xtreem, with our personal fav Rumor Has It going for $19.62, and the 1999 cult hit Office Space topping the download charts at $13.45. Luckily, the price fluctuations have an up-side, since you can catch boy wonder Elijah Wood in Everything Is Illuminated for a mere $8.99. TV prices, however, sit solidly at the $2 price predicted. As for download format, the full-length and preview videos are standard .wmv fare, but can only be played by the Unbox player. A third file is downloaded in a ".amzn" format for playback on mobile devices, but Amazon claims it's just a straight PlaysForSure DRM-scheme. They've tested the files out on the Zen Vision, Zen Vision: M, Gigabeat S, Archos AV 500/700 and the iRiver PMC, but we're guessing most devices shouldn't have much of a problem. As for the full quality flicks, we can't get an exact number, but we're just going to assume "DVD quality" means 720 x 480, and we did note that sound is 5.1 surround. With rights management, rentals allow you a 30 day window to start watching the movie, but once you've begun you have 24 hours to enjoy before the file gets deleted. Purchased movies can reside on up to two computers, with each computer being allowed to sync with one portable device, and it does seem that re-downloading will be allowed in case your HDD crashes. DVD burning is allowed for backup, but you can't burn playable DVDs, and the only way to get video to your TV is through a video out plug from your PC or media player. Now if you'll excuse us, we've just dropped a Jackson to see what crazy antics Jennifer Aniston has gotten herself into this time.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]