Samantha Clark

PlayStation Store movie downloads review Part 2
July 17, 2008

I've got to hand it to Sony: Movie downloads from the company's PlayStation Store look great. And we've got our PlayStation 3 hooked up to a projector beaming the picture onto a 118-inch screen. If a downloaded movie looks good there, it'll look good on any TV.

Sony execs said a standard-def two-hour movie would take about an hour to download. We rented Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story and were pleasantly surprised to find that it downloaded in less than 40 minutes. We could also start watching it about a minute after the download began with no hiccups.

It wasn't that easy for high-definition, however. We rented Warner's 10,000 B.C. on high-def and it took about three hours to download.

Like with Walk Hard, we opted to begin watching the movie immediately, and the picture flickered on about a minute later—then flickered off again within two minutes. The movie playback stopped for "buffering" five times in less than 15 minutes, so we finally switched it off, planning to carve out some time to finish watching later.

The catch is that, for a rental, once you've started to watch the movie, you can only watch it for the next 24 hours. So, if you get a sudden desire to watch a high-def movie, make sure it's not a school night or start downloading really early, because it's a waste of time – and trying on your patience – to start watching the movie immediately. Instead, I'd say wait until the download is at least an hour in, so there's enough of the movie downloaded to give you continuous play.

Overall, Sony's PlayStation Store is a good service, and if gas prices continue going up, download-to-the-TV services like this could become more attractive than bricks-and-mortar rentals.

Posted by Samantha Clark on July 17, 2008 | Comments (1)