I was wondering if anyone that has used this service has rented or bought an SD movie. I was curious if it is in 480p. I would guess that it is, but then thought about the regular DVD up scaling. Since it digital I'm sure there is no up scaling, but was the picture still decent looking? Also was the DL really slow like most of the other PS Store DLs? Thanks for the help guys.👍
Question about PSN Movie DL.
- Thread starter ChadSpeed
- 12 comments
- 619 views
- 2,061
My download speeds are rather fast, I always get about 1MB a second, but each user will have different speeds.
The SD quality is surprisingly good, the PS3 may be scaling, but I'm not sure. Definitely looks better than most DVD's though.
The SD quality is surprisingly good, the PS3 may be scaling, but I'm not sure. Definitely looks better than most DVD's though.
- 24,553
- Frankfort, KY
- GTP_FoolKiller
- FoolKiller1979
Your movie download speeds will be similar to your game store speeds.
I agree the SD quality is suprisingly good,
One thing I suggest is that you read the user agreement (should be an option at the bottom) because the rental times are odd and upset some people, as does the purchase policy. Basically when you purchase a movie you don't get to download it again unless you can get their customer service support to agree to turn it back on. So, if your system dies you are not guaranteed to get it back.
Because of this I have only used it as a rental service after my first couple of movie purchases.
I agree the SD quality is suprisingly good,
One thing I suggest is that you read the user agreement (should be an option at the bottom) because the rental times are odd and upset some people, as does the purchase policy. Basically when you purchase a movie you don't get to download it again unless you can get their customer service support to agree to turn it back on. So, if your system dies you are not guaranteed to get it back.
Because of this I have only used it as a rental service after my first couple of movie purchases.
Thanks for the help and info guys. I would probably just rent, if I buy its usually a Blu-Ray. But the PS store has a different selection of movies than the XBL service(not netflix), so I was interested since we just got an ice storm overnight, and another coming on thursday. Thanks guys.👍
- 24,553
- Frankfort, KY
- GTP_FoolKiller
- FoolKiller1979
Actually it is once within 24 hours of starting it. After that it is no longer viewable. If you don't start the movie then you can sit on it for 14 days.
I'll be honest. The video store is convenient, but their DRM sucks. Before I purchase any more I want a download list like the game store has and either a flat 14 day rental period or rental subscription program.
- 6,009
- Austin, Texas
- D-Nitrate / GTP_DNitrate
I can't speak for the service, as I have never used it, but as mentioned already, download speeds are almost entirely dependent on your network and the amount of bandwidth your ISP has available for you at the time you are downloading.
Resolution and scaling though are things I can try and help shed some light on.
It is my understanding that all the SD videos are 480p and from DVD masters. Just like playing a DVD on a 720p or 1080p display, ALL video, no matter what the resolution of source is, has to be upscaled or downscaled to match that display... this in no way should be considered an improvement of the original image. A DVD upscaled to 1080p has the exact same amount of original detail as the original 480p/i source... all that has happened is that the image is "blown up".
To put it another way, if you take a digital photograph say at 850x480 resolution, and blow it up to 1920x1080, it still has the same detail as the smaller photograph. However, if you then took a new photograph of the same subject, but this time at a resolution of 1920x1080, and then compared it to the one you blew up, you would see a huge difference - as much as six times more detail!
In fact, just to show what can go wrong when you scale images, if you were to now take that photo that you blew up, and shrunk it back down to 850x480, while one might expect it to look just like the original 850x480 photo... most of the time it won't, because it has had to go through two differnt levels of scaling, and with the exception of really high end scalers, image quality often suffers.
So bottom line, unless you own a digital display that has no scaler, like some PC monitors, or if you believe the scaler in your display is not as good as the one from the source (PS3, DVD player, DVR, Satellite Receiver, etc), then you should just let your display handle all the scaling.
In the case of the PS3, it does have a very good scaler, but at least in my case, the TV I use it on the most has a better one, so I make sure whenever I am using it with that specific TV I turn off all scaling option on the PS3.
I mention all of this as there are a lot of bad myths about "magically" turning DVD quality video to HD simply by upscaling it to 720p or even 1080p, and that's simply not true. While there are some very high end scalers that do a much better job than others, at the end of the day though, they can only try and interpret how to fill in all those missing pixels when an image has to be scaled up to match a display... and do it in fractions of a second.
Bottom line, when comparing identical images recorded in 1080p, 720p, and 480p... the higher the original resolution, the more detailed the images will be, and it is simply impossible to reproduce by upscaling a lower resolution image to match a higher resolution image. Anyone who tells you differently is mistaken.
- 9,646
- Minus955
Oh my bad; that's much more bothersome. So you can only watch it once, and once you've started it you must see the whole thing within 24 hours?
- 6,009
- Austin, Texas
- D-Nitrate / GTP_DNitrate
These are all reasons I have no interest in it. I like the control *owning something gives me, despite some of the limitations, cost and inconvenience.
* Yes, I realize you can buy videos from the PSN stores as well, but compared to the cost of the DVDs and being able to play that DVD on any player I like, it is not an option that works for me. That, and the fact that none of the HD that I am aware of is in full HD (2.1MP 1920x1080), but only 1/2 HD (0.9MP 1280x720)
* Yes, I realize you can buy videos from the PSN stores as well, but compared to the cost of the DVDs and being able to play that DVD on any player I like, it is not an option that works for me. That, and the fact that none of the HD that I am aware of is in full HD (2.1MP 1920x1080), but only 1/2 HD (0.9MP 1280x720)
- 24,553
- Frankfort, KY
- GTP_FoolKiller
- FoolKiller1979
Oops, minor correction. Not once in the 24 hour period. But you only have 24 hours once you start the movie.
If you have a two hour movie you can watch it 12 times in 24 hours.
The kicker is that the timer will start if you attempt streaming it while it is still downloading.
The main use I have gotten out of this is renting a couple of movies for a trip. If I am going to be sitting in a plane or car for hours then I will rent a movie or two for my PSP. And then on occasion when there is a movie that my wife and I decide we want to watch that night.
I purchased a couple to check it out, but I have since discovered that when replacing a hard drive movie files may or may not transfer over when you back up the hard drive. I may also lose my first three episodes of the Watchmen motion comics. That bothers me more than the thought of losing a $9.99 movie.
- 2,061
The rental service is actually really good if you're just looking for a flick to check out that night. Cheaper than block buster, and near instant for me.
Thanks for the help an info guys, good stuff. D-N, as usual overwhelmingly great info. I understand that it won't look like a Blu-Ray, but the combo of my 1080p Samsung and the PS3 with an upscaled DVD is several notches above a DVD viewed on my Xbox. Thanks again guys.👍
