So this could be a long day..lol I have high speed internet here in Phoenix and I decided to try and download Beowulf. I am at 136/7051 and its been 13 minutes....:eek:

Ick. It's always possible the speed will pick up. I've watched demo downloads crawl like snails and then I turn on a video and before I know it, it's finished.

Has anyone downloaded one and seen the quality? I was wondering if it was on par with Bluray. I am assuming it isn't since it doesn't take up 50GB.

I don't think a 1080p movie takes up the entire bluray disc.

If I had to guess I would say that none of the down loadable HD movies will be on par with the original blu ray disc , they are compressed even more than what is on the blu ray disc in order to make them smaller/easier to download . They should still be better than almost any SD versions and probably equal or maybe even better than some sat/cable HD broadcasts .

-- Jason

If I had to guess I would say that none of the down loadable HD movies will be on par with the original blu ray disc , they are compressed even more than what is on the blu ray disc in order to make them smaller/easier to download . They should still be better than almost any SD versions and probably equal or maybe even better than some sat/cable HD broadcasts .

-- Jason
They're similar in size to what I get from my cable company HD channels, but they use MPEG-4 instead of MPEG-2, so they should be better quality. Since I don't have any real complaints about HBO, et al on cable, aside from a bit of softness, I'd bet that the PSN videos will look good on sub-50" displays, and decent on larger ones.

I'd like it if the price was a bit cheaper, though. Like Unbox, the only thing I'm likely to use it for is old TV shows at this rate. Maybe if they could get their partners to agree to a 36 hour rental instead of 24 I'd be more inclined to rent, as there would be an advantage over the other download services.

So this could be a long day..lol I have high speed internet here in Phoenix and I decided to try and download Beowulf. I am at 136/7051 and its been 13 minutes....:eek:

Rented/downloaded "The Day After Tomorrow" this morning. The download took less then a 1/2 hour (I say this because I started it at 6am and came back to check on it at 6:30am and it was finished...so not sure exactly how quickly it came down). This with high speed internet in Omaha.

Again, this was done early in the morning. I wonder if what your dealing with is a slow down with the psn (ie, less people online when I downloaded this morning).

They're similar in size to what I get from my cable company HD channels, but they use MPEG-4 instead of MPEG-2, so they should be better quality. Since I don't have any real complaints about HBO, et al on cable, aside from a bit of softness, I'd bet that the PSN videos will look good on sub-50" displays, and decent on larger ones.

I'd like it if the price was a bit cheaper, though. Like Unbox, the only thing I'm likely to use it for is old TV shows at this rate. Maybe if they could get their partners to agree to a 36 hour rental instead of 24 I'd be more inclined to rent, as there would be an advantage over the other download services.


$2 for a TV show is kind of pricey too - especially for shows like AquaTeen Hunger Force, or even Family Guy.

This makes me wonder if they ever update the browser to make it fully functional. If they did we could go to sites like Hulu.com and watch a lot of content for free (which would directly compete with their service).

Has anyone downloaded one and seen the quality? I was wondering if it was on par with Bluray. I am assuming it isn't since it doesn't take up 50GB.

No, it's not even close.

Blu-ray is at the top of the HD food chain.

$2 for a TV show is kind of pricey too - especially for shows like AquaTeen Hunger Force, or even Family Guy.

This makes me wonder if they ever update the browser to make it fully functional. If they did we could go to sites like Hulu.com and watch a lot of content for free (which would directly compete with their service).

$1.99 is the price that iTunes has been charging for tv episodes (Even 12 minute ATHF episodes) since the beginning. XBox LIVE, too. And, it certainly hasn't hurt them.

Only rentals for HD movies I take it??? No sale.

I want to own my HD downloads that I purchase.

I hope their policy changes soon..

Only rentals for HD movies I take it??? No sale.

I want to own my HD downloads that I purchase.

I hope their policy changes soon..

I wouldn't bet on it.

Only rentals for HD movies I take it??? No sale.

I want to own my HD downloads that I purchase.

I hope their policy changes soon..

So say we all. But I doubt it will change.

Only rentals for HD movies I take it??? No sale.

I want to own my HD downloads that I purchase.

I hope their policy changes soon..

Don't hold your breath...

Decided to take this service for a test run. I started downloading "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story" at 4:45pm (MST). It's now 6:15pm (MST), and I've only gotten 25% downloaded (392MB/1565MB). So going at this rate, it'll take me approximately 360 minutes (6 hours) to download a movie that runs 96 minutes. That's an amazing 3.75 minutes downloading for every minute watched.

I have only used the movie download service on my 360 a small handful of times. I can say without a doubt that until I can download a full movie in less than 30 minutes, I will NOT be using the Playstation store for movie rentals.

One other interesting thing I noticed about the store. If you add something to your cart in the video section, and then switch to the game section, your cart gets emptied. You can't carry it over from area to area. That doesn't make sense, and smacks of lazy programming on Sony's part.

While they want to sell BDs, I think the bigger reason they don't have HD download purchases is because they don't want you filling up your hard drive and becoming unable to spend more money. (Think about those with 40-60GB drives.) In any case, NetFlix is more than I need for rentals and download viewing, so I'm not interested in this.

I saw that Lars and the Real Girl is going to be offered. If it's going to be available in HD, that will be irritating because Fox didn't see fit to release it on BD.

That's a good point, about not filling up a hdd.

I was going to add, let's be honest here, is anything you could download in hd going to be worth keeping? Rental makes perfect sense. You are auditioning a movie for purchase or just exercising an on-the-fly purchase. If you REALLY want something bad enough to keep it, then it should be worth your while to get the proper br release. Pay-per-download is essentially born for the "one night stand" model.

My big request is to get a good system of new release episodes of popular sitcoms across the board. Perhaps, the real market is not to challenge movie rentals, but cable tv service providers and broadcast networks, themselves.

Also, if they could get HowardTV onboard, that would make me very happy. ;)

Eh, so 56 HD movies? Less than 10 titles from Disney?

I hope they are rolling out a ton of new content really really really soon, like as we speak.

My experience so far: I was hoping to get Batman Begins since Netflix didn't come through for me. Instead of giving me a great experience where I start using this new service immediately, I am left with real doubts about the usefulness of the service with such an extremely small amount of content.

I don't own a PS3, but in the case of Apple TV you can watch an HD movie rental way before it finishes downloading. In my case it is at around 2% level or in 10 to 15 seconds! I watch at least 5x as many HD movies via download rentals than buy Blu Rays.

I buy a Blu Ray ever other week, while I've been using downloads at least 3 times a week.

I am guessing Sony will have a very strong offering.

I can say without a doubt that until I can download a full movie in less than 30 minutes, I will NOT be using the Playstation store for movie rentals.


On the one hand I agree with your concern and saw this coming since the PSN has always been slow. I know there are others who don't agree but I don't know what to tell you. I have tested my connectivity speed using the exact same wire that normally plugs into the PS# many times and consistently get at least 9mbits/sec. But if I do the math on PSN downloads it is always a small fraction of that.

That said, saying 30 minutes for a 90 minute download seems like an arbitrary and unncessary rule given that you can watch the movie simultaneous with the downloading. Why would anyone need a download completion standard shorter than the time it takes to watch the movie (unless their primary purpose is to transfer it to their PSP but I can't think that is the majority of use).

Decided to take this service for a test run. I started downloading "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story" at 4:45pm (MST). It's now 6:15pm (MST), and I've only gotten 25% downloaded (392MB/1565MB). So going at this rate, it'll take me approximately 360 minutes (6 hours) to download a movie that runs 96 minutes. That's an amazing 3.75 minutes downloading for every minute watched.

I have only used the movie download service on my 360 a small handful of times. I can say without a doubt that until I can download a full movie in less than 30 minutes, I will NOT be using the Playstation store for movie rentals.


What kind of connection do you have (type, max speed, etc)?

Yea for me rental is the way to go, if i really want a movie ill buy the Bluray disc.
I want my HDD for other things..nothing really worth keeping.

Decided to take this service for a test run. I started downloading "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story" at 4:45pm (MST). It's now 6:15pm (MST), and I've only gotten 25% downloaded (392MB/1565MB). So going at this rate, it'll take me approximately 360 minutes (6 hours) to download a movie that runs 96 minutes. That's an amazing 3.75 minutes downloading for every minute watched.

I have only used the movie download service on my 360 a small handful of times. I can say without a doubt that until I can download a full movie in less than 30 minutes, I will NOT be using the Playstation store for movie rentals.

One other interesting thing I noticed about the store. If you add something to your cart in the video section, and then switch to the game section, your cart gets emptied. You can't carry it over from area to area. That doesn't make sense, and smacks of lazy programming on Sony's part.

I had the same issue with putting The Who set into my cart and then it disappearing when I went to the video section. I'm sure it'll get patched.

As for the download speed, I downloaded two episodes for a total of about 1300MB in 20-25 minutes. And, that was at 5:30pm EST.

That said, saying 30 minutes for a 90 minute download seems like an arbitrary and unncessary rule given that you can watch the movie simultaneous with the downloading. Why would anyone need a download completion standard shorter than the time it takes to watch the movie (unless their primary purpose is to transfer it to their PSP but I can't think that is the majority of use).

The only thing I can surmise from the number of people complaining about download speed is that perhaps some people are not aware that you can start watching a movie before it finishes downloading completely.

The only thing I can surmise from the number of people complaining about download speed is that perhaps some people are not aware that you can start watching a movie before it finishes downloading completely.

I have many friends who complain about download speed but are wireless. Try plugging in, its the best method to download through the PS3 by far...

Also where are these movies i coudlnt find anything in the store. I searched for hours... well 20 minutes, but there arent many places to look

I'd like it if the price was a bit cheaper, though. Like Unbox, the only thing I'm likely to use it for is old TV shows at this rate. Maybe if they could get their partners to agree to a 36 hour rental instead of 24 I'd be more inclined to rent, as there would be an advantage over the other download services.

Yeah, seriously. $5.99 to rent a movie just doesn't work when I can go to redbox. $15.99 to buy an SD DOwnload, when I can buy the DVD for $6.99 at walmart? No thanks.

Whoa whoa whoa.
Hold the phone.
I haven't seen anyone mention but I just read on an AppleTV site.
If this is true, it blows my mind...

No 5.1 sound on a HD rental?
Really?
Would anyone in their right mind, who bought a hi def entertainment system and is used to multi-channel lossless audio, would spend $5 on a 2 channel compressed audio?

Something tells me Sony didn't want to pony up for the Dolby Digital license (which AppleTV was guilty of at first).

With that news, it went from a maybe I'll try it on a HD movie not released on Blu-Ray yet to a never will even bother looking at it again.

On the one hand I agree with your concern and saw this coming since the PSN has always been slow. I know there are others who don't agree but I don't know what to tell you. I have tested my connectivity speed using the exact same wire that normally plugs into the PS# many times and consistently get at least 9mbits/sec. But if I do the math on PSN downloads it is always a small fraction of that.

That said, saying 30 minutes for a 90 minute download seems like an arbitrary and unncessary rule given that you can watch the movie simultaneous with the downloading. Why would anyone need a download completion standard shorter than the time it takes to watch the movie (unless their primary purpose is to transfer it to their PSP but I can't think that is the majority of use).

Yeah, I just used the 30 minute standard as a way to demonstrate that it needs to be faster. Sure, I can watch the movie while it downloads, but I still have to wait awhile. For example: I started downloading "Walk Hard" last night at 4:45 pm. The download finished (FINISHED) at 10:15 pm. Using my calculator-like brain, I figured that at the rate it was downloading, I would be able to start watching at 8:30. I had to wait that long in order to avoid the annoyance of watching "past" the point the movie had downloaded, and then having to wait for the next chunk of movie to download. I shouldn't have to wait almost 4 hours to begin watching a movie.

It just drives me nuts; my Xbox 360 downloads system updates in a matter of minutes; why can't my PS3?

What kind of connection do you have (type, max speed, etc)?

I've got Comcast high speed, max of 6Mbps (yes, I know it won't be anywhere near that speed).

the movie that is downloaded...is it 1080p?

the movie that is downloaded...is it 1080p?

I only downloaded an SD version; I believe that "HD" versions are 720p.

I only downloaded an SD version; I believe that "HD" versions are 720p.

how long can you keep sd version on ps3?

Yeah, seriously. $5.99 to rent a movie just doesn't work when I can go to redbox. $15.99 to buy an SD DOwnload, when I can buy the DVD for $6.99 at walmart? No thanks.

All of the HD movies I browsed through were $4.50 each. SD is less.

How many times can you watch a reneted movie? Do they only last for x amount of time before they auto delete?

How many times can you watch a reneted movie? Do they only last for x amount of time before they auto delete?

It says you have 24 hours from when you start it. I don't know if they would auto-delete though.

One thing I haven't seen asked or stated. I am new to PS3. Have had 2 360s for a couple of years. If you choose to watch while downloading will it kick in the download speeds so you are not caught buffering? I can't remember what the guy in the conference said but he mentioned something about boosting download speeds so you can watch now. Maybe they throttle back if you are choosing background downloading.

Can someone post what is happening if you want to start download and watch immediately? I know on the 360 it is just a few seconds and don't have any buffering problems. I have a 10 down 1 up connection. Before the video store was opened I was never able to start the download of a trailer for movie or game without it pausing as it buffers again. So maybe they added something new for speeding the download but you have to actually start watching it.

Too busy playing Bad Company to watch anything at the moment or would try myself:)

It says you have 24 hours from when you start it. I don't know if they would auto-delete though.

If it is like the 360 it will not auto-delete but instead prompt for you to repurchase the movie.

how long can you keep sd version on ps3?

Rentals: 14 days from time of purchase OR 24 hours after you first press "Play."

Purchases: Forever. They're yours.

One other thing. Is it like the 360 where you can delete and download again without paying for your purchased movie?

These movies are 720p.. In case anyone was curious.. The quality was ok, not spectacular though.. Also, no indexing - and the sound is 2 channel.. Sounded okay in Dolby Pro IIx...

Rentals: 14 days from time of purchase OR 24 hours after you first press "Play."

Purchases: Forever. They're yours.

can any1 give an example of a 24 hours vs forever price for a movie? Also for the forever, can you save it to a external hdd? Also the avg. size of a movie for sd and hd from the ps store?

Decided to take this service for a test run. I started downloading "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story" at 4:45pm (MST). It's now 6:15pm (MST), and I've only gotten 25% downloaded (392MB/1565MB). So going at this rate, it'll take me approximately 360 minutes (6 hours) to download a movie that runs 96 minutes. That's an amazing 3.75 minutes downloading for every minute watched.


You are not alone.

I had some free time this afternoon (Saturday) and decided to give the PSN download rental a try. I selected "Cloverfield" (I love monster movies!) around 2:30pm on a Saturday.

Almost one hour later I've only downloaded 16%! :eek: Something tells me I'm not going to be watching it this afternoon. :(

My PS3 is wired into a router through Comcast cable, which gets 13mbs download and over 3mbs upload on my wireless PC! The PS3 firmware downloads are fast... but all the Playstation Store downloads take much too long on my setup.