Xbox 360 and Playstation 3: Streaming movies vs Blu-ray
Filed under: Gaming, Sony Playstation 3, Xbox 360 | By: Daniel
Posted on: July 16, 2008 | 15 Comments
Its been rumored for a while now that the Xbox 360 may get a Blu-ray drive now that HD-DVD is dead, the short answer from E3 2008 is NO.
Microsoft has confirmed that it has no plan to develop a Blu-ray drive at anytime, that includes an external or internal Blu-ray drive. They have also announced this week that they have a partnership with Netflix for Streaming movies.
The future war for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 now seems to be streaming movies vs. Blu-ray, although Sony is in a position to have the best of both worlds with its movie download service coming this year and also sporting the high definition disc drive.
Netflix will be a major boost to the Xbox 360 and can only be a blow to Blu-ray, but just how much damage can Netflix cause to Blu-ray for those wanting to watch high definition movies?
With Microsoft focusing on digital distribution and Sony pushing Blu-rays, what will end up the favorite for the end user? Do you prefer Blu-ray or streaming movies?
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Blu-ray all the way. It’s nice to download movies once in a while but you CANNOT have a massive collection of movies through a 60GB hard drive, especially if you want it in HD.
That depends if you like to buy the movies or just rent it. In my case, I usually watch a movie once. I prefer to download the HD movie as a rental. I had watched a lot of movies this way using the Xbox Live Marketplace service.
It is time for a “The world is round” comment. Micrososft is in practise handing the 200 and odd countries that are not called the United States to Sony because most countries do not have extensive downloading/streaming services and those options in the dashboard are a waste of pixels. Many of us out here (I am in Hong Kong) rely on physical delivery mechanisms like little round optical disks.
It all depends if they can get the Netflix deal working in the UK, then I’d definitely be downloading movies rather than investing in Blu-Ray. Shame the 360’s fans are so loud, which will always be its major stumbling block as a media player.
Just got the 80GB Sony PS3 w/Metal Gear Solid 4. Have and had an XBOX for like 3 yrs? Had two XBOX’s in that time - man they fail a lot more than they should. But what do you expect from a POS Windows PC with a XBOX dashboard covering it up?
Very impressed with the sound from the PS3 and Metal Gear Solid 4 is a really neat game so far (still trying to adapt to the different controller). This game is as interesting to me as BioShock and GOW were as far as I have only played it in like 2 hrs.
Blue Ray to me is a great media for MORE than just movies.
Downloading movies ? Full stop - that already belongs to Apple and iTunes in case you forgot. (Have a Mac with a 1 TB drive for that - then you can get your Apple TV.) If you do not know what I am talking about - get a Mac. It is so slick.
Again I think Microsoft is way way behind as usual.. I have down loaded two movies from XBOX live market place in 720P and I do not think they look as good as Planet Earth does on the HD player for the XBOX, yes I know that is a dead technology.
HD downloads will get very large in file size at 1080p, and you will need TB on TB.
Blue Ray can hold ALL MY HOME movies from my HD DVD Video Cam - that is where I see it winning. You can fit the entire Fraser TV series on one of them? Sweet.
PS3 has just begu to to get going, I got one after I considered the BR player.
Later,
Jared
My family has downloaded several HD movies via xbox and the service is great (we have broadband so pretty much no wait time).
I don’t feel a need to own movies that i will never watch again (although i supopose there are a few gems worth watching over again, i.e. ‘Brazil’). The same goes for books but at least the formats are not changing every 10 years). I kind of chuckle at my friends who have exensive DVD libraries (same people who had extensive VHS libraries) - they must cry when they see new formats on the horizon… Of course I have hundreds of old vinyl LP’s sitting in storage somewhere…
Upscaled dvd’s are still quite good (a lot closer to bluray that vhs was to dvd) and i can’t see investing in a new format expecially when the long term prognosis for the media is still in question. Digital distribution IS the wave of the future, the only question is how far into the future (come on rest of world start stringing some optical fiber or something).
The other reason i am staying away from BluRay (and HD DVD btw) is because i hate the idea of Sony (or Toshiba) trying to force a new standard down our throats. This should of been a consortium with one format. (right beta-max adopters?). I blame Sony for this mess (try try again eh Sony?). Of course if you own a PS3 you may as well enjoy the blu’ness while it lasts (I still do not personally know one person who owns a PS3 yet, though my kids know one or two).
Besides i am starting a rumor that vapors from Blu Ray disks causes erectile dysfunction….
I wouldn’t be surprised if the true winner of the HD Disk wars is the plain old DVD.
Blueray players are still six to seven time what a DVD Player with upscale capacity, and the Disks are wayout of the the price point they need to be to become attractive to the average consumer .
And I bet Sony was hoping that the overall cost for Blueray would have come down by now, so that the PS3 would cost less for them to manufacture. But the fact is that most people buying new players today, are still buying DVD Players.
Streaming for Computers and “On-Demand” for TV’s (not connected to a computer) is probably going to be the real future. I doubt that Blueray will ever become as common place as DVD’s, in fact I wouldn’t be surprised if Sony doesn’t drop it totally in a couple of years.
Blu-ray has better picture and sound and no download service can stream a movie in 1080p or have loseless audio.
I’m not into buying movies and I only rent or do on demand from my cable company/360 or go to the movies. But I do the occasional getting bootlegs 8 movies for $20. But I would have prefered if PS3 stuck with Bluray to have it’s own identity to see how was right when it’s all over. To me it like Sony is saying Microsoft is right, downloads are the future. I do give credit those in other countries as they are right about not haveing that part of the service because it’s in North America and Europe. But in those countries are3 you guys sporting HDTV’s or is the majority still using the tube TV? Because if it’s not so HD over there yet then DVD is fine.
Johnny Buku “The other reason i am staying away from BluRay (and HD DVD btw) is because i hate the idea of Sony (or Toshiba) trying to force a new standard down our throats. This should of been a consortium with one format. (right beta-max adopters?). I blame Sony for this mess (try try again eh Sony?). Of course if you own a PS3 you may as well enjoy the blu’ness while it lasts (I still do not personally know one person who owns a PS3 yet, though my kids know one or two).” Not to dig the whole “format war” crud up again, but you do know it’s over now, right? So there is now a “consortium with one format”? And it was Toshiba, not Sony who split away from the crowd, in case you were wondering why it was virtually no-one else produced HD DVD hardware? And even those very few who did had to source the drives from Toshiba. Anyhoo, like I said, your consortium is in place, and there’s a single high-def format in place, you should be happy. Right? Hmmm, I wonder why not