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The Video Delivery Service Showdown
Sony's Video Delivery Service launches on PlayStation Network this morning. We compare it with Microsoft's equivalent.
Written by David Scammell, 19 November 2009
With Sony launching their brand new Video Delivery Service across the UK and areas of mainland Europe this morning, both next-gen players have finally shown their cards when it comes to providing the ultimate package in home entertainment. But how do they compare?
First off, there's a key difference between the two services. Sony's service allows users to both buy and rent films, while Microsoft's Zune service only allows users to rent them (that's in Europe at least - the US Zune Marketplace is a slightly different beast). So, if you're looking to chuck away some of those hefty DVD cases and replace your collection with non-physical media, Sony's PS3 is your best bet for now.
A quick word of warning, though: HD videos on the PlayStation Store will only be available to rent at first. If you're looking to buy, you're going to be restricted to DVD quality standard definition, and according to SCEE bigwig Andrew House, the service will also see around fifty titles added to it each week.
Something else in Sony's favour is the ability to transfer purchased movies to your PSP to watch them on the go. According to Sony, the transfer process is said to take roughly 45 minutes in addition to download times. You're also able to download films directly onto your handheld by accessing the video store on your PSP, though videos are said to take longer to download on your PSP than they would do normally via your PS3.
Thankfully you don't have to download the entire film before being able to watch it, though. Once a decent chunk has downloaded you can start the film and let the rest of the download continue in the background. On average, an HD film is said to take three hours to download and consume 8GB of your hard disk space. SD, by comparison, takes up around 1GB.
This is slightly different to Microsoft's much-touted 'instant-on 1080p streaming' service, which offers access to the film from the moment you click the buy button. Of course, how effective that actually is is entirely dependent on your broadband service.
And another key factor: pricing. Sony's prices start from £2.49 to rent (£1 more for HD) and £6.99 to buy, with the latest releases costing £11.99. Not bad, and certainly on a par with the DVD equivalent. By choosing to rent, the video will remain on your hard drive for 14 days, and once play has commenced you have 48 hours to watch it before it's wiped. If you decide to buy, just like everything else on the PlayStation Store, your film can be downloaded up to five times on the same PSN account.
In comparison, Microsoft charge 360 MS Points (roughly £3) for standard definition rentals, and 540 MSP (£4.50) for the HD equivalent. Sony, then, seem to offer better value. Again, you'll have up to 14 days to watch them, but only 24 hours once the film has started playing.
Microsoft's Party function also allows friends to watch movies together remotely, but given the cost to everyone involved it seems fairly redundant. If I rent a film from Blockbuster, I'm not charged on a 'per viewer' basis, so why is that the case here?
When it comes to ease of use, we think Sony just about takes it too, with clearly defined menus and an easily navigable interface that puts Microsoft's NXE to shame.
And at the risk of sounding biased, something else to take in consideration is each console's noise output. In our experience, the Xbox 360's fans are significantly louder than PlayStation 3's, which may or may not affect your viewing pleasure.
The verdict? Well in our opinion, Sony just nudges ahead. Microsoft's instant-on 1080p streaming is certainly impressive, but the ability to buy and transfer videos to PSP coupled with the marginally lower price tags just about push it in Sony's favour.
