HD movies featuring stereo sound in PlayStation Video Store
By Darren Murph 
posted Jul 18th 2008 3:33PM
posted Jul 18th 2008 3:33PM
posted Jul 18th 2008 3:33PM
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baby steps! LOL
That's a joke. I'm an owner of a PS3 and the XBOX 360. Honestly, I don't see any value in renting anything from the Sony store and pay $1.99 and $4.99 for HD with Netflix on the horizon for the 360. Considering it's part of your Netflix subscription also makes it easier on the wallet. I'm wondering if Sony would ever consider the Netflix route?
After hearing how the MS/Netflix partnership works I'm not so sure I care.
It's be $5~6 a month over my regular subscription. The streaming content isn't exactly choice either. I get a lot of the value from Netflix in getting HD disks so I couldn't replace my ps3 without loosing high quality HD.
This really just augments my netflix by letting me rent movies without having to wait for them in the mail.
If Netflix streaming gets to good then MS will loose out on selling movies so I wonder if the netflix portion will actually stock enough good movies.
The nextflix service is more promise and potential than product for me. If you like what they have it could be a good deal for you.
joe,
Netflix stated that using the Xbox to stream the movies wasn't going to incur any extra charges. Have you read differently?
@Alex
I believe he was referring to MS' requirement of paying for a "Gold" membership of $50/year in order to use the Netflix streaming service.
I thought there was an extra fee on top of the regular netflix for the watch it now
The Netflix route with PS3 is already far better than Xbox anyway. I have it, it's $8.99 a month for unlimited Blu-ray and DVDs rentals that come to your door. And you can stream them from a computer (or PS3 if you install Linux).
Why would I wanna download HD movies for $5, or Netflix a standard def movie on Xbox when I can watch Blu-rays on PS3, it's as good as it gets.
So much for "customer satisfaction." People need to remember that unless stated otherwise, assume the audio to be stereo. Unless you're watching some silent film, then it'd be atrocious music added by who knows who since the movies have been in public domain for decades.
I tried out the PS store stopping short of actually downloading a movie (did not have time). After selecting a movie and choosing whether you want HD or SD, the screen shows you the sound format and the HD movies do have Dolby 5.1. It would be nice if the SD selections were 5.1 (like DVDs) and the HD selections were lossless 5.1 (Dolby True HD/DTS MA-HD). I was expecting simply stereo on all titles, this is a start.
I'm probably alone on this, but I don't really care about 5.1 from movie downloads. Stereo sounds good enough for me on a rental. If I want the best quality available, I'll get the Blu-Ray.
Yes , you are alone
Your not alone. I wouldn't bother renting a single HD movie for $5-6 when an unlimited Netflix account costs $8.99 per month were you get all the Blu-ray and DVD rentals you want.
I love Blurays, I watch them all the time and I wouldn't wanna go back.
I'll stick with Netflix Blu-ray movies, thanks.
ive beeen going the digital download route ever since Hd started. However my digital HD downloads are always 5.1 or better sound, x.264 encoded for supiror quality vs ps store or xbox marketplace or cable on demand service. OH and their free. I get them exactly the same way you do, downloading them via an interface.
The only difference is my interface is considered illigal (bit torrent), while the other ones are considered legal, but they both leave you with the same result, and HD movie download. Oh well. :p
Want to get me to pay for movies? Justify it. Make them =or better then pirated content, not worse, and charge me low $ so that the convience outweighs the cost (Example, I may be inclined to just spend $1 to get my identical movie from the PS store just so I can click one button, wait and open it. Im not inclined to pay $6 to get a lower quality version however.)
Can Sony ever deliver on anything they do?
To me the sound is more important than the video. I'd rather have HR DTS with DVD (anamorphic) quality video than 128kbps "Dolby Digital 5.1" with 720p. So this would be another deal breaker for me.
They really should report what kind of sound comes with the package.
What's the Xbox 360's quality like? Does the '360 include a SPDIF output? (and does the PS3)?
Yes and Yes. Even the 360 tells you when the movie has DD.
Pathetic, even a movie that is in DD on AppleTV is still in Stereo on the PS3.
Yeah, everyone is gonna abandon DVD for this. Cough.
Sounds like netflix's 'watch now'. It's only good for documentaries. Can't stand stereo sound for a good action movie
This is why I don't like downloads.
I find it extremely disappointing that MS decided to require "Gold" membership for those who wanted to use their Netflix account with the 360. Why? Nothing would be going through MS' servers. Maybe it's for them to recoup the bribe money they paid Netflix to go exclusive. I'm sure those who subscribe to Gold already don't have an issue with this. But, requiring a $50 annual fee to use it is a sign of greed. However, I'm disappointed, but not surprised considering how MS has ripped us all a new one by itemizing, and overpricing, every single thing regarding the 360.
Wireless adapter: $100
20gig HDD: $120
Getting ripped a new one by MS' greed: priceless.
For everything else, there's Vaseline.
Rank me low all you want. Although I have two 360s, I still think, feature to feature, my PS3 is a better deal.
Other than the FACT the PS3 has a pathetic games library in comparison
What a joke. Not only do we have to put up with DRM'd content where we have no choice but to play it on our PS3's only, but we get stereo sound. I'm sure Hollywood blockbusters will sound awesome in stereo - not.
Surround adds such huge value to movie watching for films that take advantage of it (Action, Scifi etc). Those who say stereo is enough, have never really heard true surround. There's no comparison. I'm not paying to buy a film in stereo.
Most likely intentional from sonys part, a point of difference to blu ray.
Wireless N would be pointless on the 360 anyways. It only has a 10/100 base port and N signals are higher than 100Mbps (and that's theoretical speeds). The PS3, on the other hand, has a gigabit port and can also use an external adapter for N if you so chose just like a 360, negating the G. So you're argument totally backfires on itself.
I think that this is kind of ironic in a way to all of the people that have been against blu-ray and all for downloads (at least since hd-dvd lost). One of their major arguments was that blu-ray is not finished and that you arent going to get all of the features. Also that with 25gb discs you will not get lossless audio. well it looks like downloads are not quite there yet.
Personally, if i am going to watch a high def movie, i want it ALL to be HD, not just video, but audio as well. downloads cant provide that yet with all of the compression that they currently have. Even if they offered a download that was uncompressed, it would take FOREVER to download at todays current broadband speeds that are available to consumers.
@Joe
Nfinity has a point though. Xbox 360 stole E3 this year with basically lots of content, most of the best upcoming games whether its rpgs, shooters or strategy games, stealing exclusive content from its rival console, new easier to use gui, additional xbox video live marketplace content, option to install onto hard drive to prevent disc drive wear and reduce noise-levels, etc etc.
The PS3's list: We're including a online video marketplace our competitor has had for six months but its not coming to Europe, Australia and the UK aka PAL regions.. IE, Inferior in ability and converage than Xbox live video marketplace :| with STEREO SOUND! WOOOOOOT!
Upcoming games worth mentioning: Little bit planet, Killzone 2, Resistance 2, FF13, Resident Evil ...5? Only 3 of those are exclusives now. Aka kz2 and resistance 2.
FF13 was stolen by Microsoft and RE5 has always been multiplatform with xbox 360 development first so likely the xbox 360 version will be a bit better just like gta etc with a bit higher fps or a bit higher resolution or a bit more anti-aliasing. So Sony, basically has a platformer and 2 shooters this holiday season that are exclusive.
Microsoft's E3 speech was also medium-length, filled with good/exciting news and direct to the point.
Sony's E3 speech was over 100 minutes long, didn't annouce any new games except for 1. GOW3 and that was an all-cgi, no-gameplay trailer indicating very early development stages. Possibly a 2009 or more likely a 2010 release. It kind of just dragged on and on going over games already released and the few games coming out concentrating mostly on PS2 and PSP to avoid the no-content issue of the PS3 this holiday season.
There's a joke I heard on joystiq saying, 'Its funny. Sony is the only company at e3 who concentrated more time on their last-gen system'.
Microsoft on the other hand had 9 exclusives(including timed exclusives) and all the multiplatofrms also being released on the xbox 360 and took one of PS3s most anticipated games from 2009.
From what i have seen the HD flicks do have 5.1, even Joystiq's walk through of the store shows this:
http://www.ps3fanboy.com/photos/ps-store-video-service-via-ps3/925491/
Stereo-only for HD? We checked out the video selection Saturday night. Every HD movie that I clicked showed 5.1 as the audio. Every SD movie that I clicked showed stereo.
Video quality for the SD movie we rented (ID4) looked as good as DVD; however, the film was cropped to 16:9 instead of being letterboxed at it's original 2.35:1, which was disappointing as I've got a 'scope screen. And of course the stereo soundtrack lacked the great bass of the original surround, and barely moved my transducers.
But, for a quick $2.99 rental, it wasn't bad.
I ran into this last week when I tried it. I rented Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within and it was only stereo. I messed around with the menues for a while before giving up.
Someone made a comment about Netflix not going through MS servers. I actually read an article somewhere that Netflix movies will be streamed off MS servers to 360s.
This is how it starts a (bad) rumor...
The problem is that Apple TV and other companies don't have the technologies to convert the 5.1 surround sound channels to 2 channels before the content is downloaded. We have the solution for that. Our PAS technologies can convert the 5.1 surround sound channels to left and right channels before it is downloaded by the customers. The end user can hear 5.1 surround sound just using regular headphones or a pair of regular left and right speaker.To learn the technologies of the PAS surround sound and its related technologies, go to www.psychoacousticsolution.com. There will be plenty of information on site. You can also listen to our demo. Go to the demo page, the password is "test1" without the " ". You can hear 5.1 surround sound with a pair of regular headphones or a pair of left and right speaker. Please pay attention to the center channel and the surround sound channels. Compare these 5.1 surround sound effect to a the sound effect with 6 speakers. I am not telling you the what the end result should be. I would like you to leave your feedback at feedback@psychoacousticsolution.com. Try also to compare our headphones technologies especially the center channel and the surround channels with Dolby, DTS or SRS. You will hear a big diffedrent. Our center channel seems coming from outside your head while theirs are coming from inside your head.