Video services on the 360 and Ps3
 

So the 360 and PS3 are offering video download services. I'm excited. I mean, if you're going to have a big computer on your TV stand that is connected to the internet, why not use it to download movies. It beats watching in on your computer screen. But I don't think they've got it all right.

360 has a considerable advantage by using the Netflix services. They already have a system in place with a large, though not inexhaustible, video library. But you've got to sign up with netflix. What would really be cool, since you're already paying for xbox live, is if they made a package that gave you access to the videos all in one place. But overall, I think it's a good move.

PS3 has a good idea too, but they're renting videos for 2.99 apiece for SD. And then you can only watch it for 24 hours. C'mon, I can go to my redbox and rent a dvd for 1.00. And redbox has all the overhead of a physical product. I know that sony has to maintain servers and whatnot, but 2.99 for one night? I'm not game for that. And i haven't even gotten into buying videos and storing them on a max 80gb hard drive (at least you can upgrade the drive without too much trouble).

What do you all think?

Only thing is, in my experiences, the Xbox360 modem is effing SLOW.

I think Microsoft did it because of the format war loss. meanwhile sony did it because they wanted to dig a ditch for Microsoft but i assume that this will only make a bigger ditch for sony itself

Actually, $2.99 is relatively cheap for an On-Demand rental. My cable charges between $2.99 to $4.99, depending on the age of the movie in question, and iTunes seems to use $2.99 and $3.99 as the video rental price. In terms of On Demand video, $2.99 is the cheapest you're going to see.

I rent movies when I am bored and not asleep.
 

I belive Sony does offer the better deal here...

Microsoft offers the Xbox live pack and all, and i'm not sure how big of an gap there is between microsoft and sony there. not sure anyone has compared the 2 current online services...

the basic unlimited rental Netflix deal is $8.99 a month, so 107 a year (plus those 50 a year for Xbox live)

Is Xbox live so much better that it is worth the 150 a year extra that Sony dosent charge?

Live has a unified standard for all games, PSN doesn not. PSN can be better and worse then Live at the same time.

I want to watch some movies now.
 

Live being "better" depends, I guess, on what games you play and how you choose to play them online. I think the Live system is pretty effing good (awareness of my friends coming online, ability to hop into games with them or invite them, etc.). But that might be a whole other can of worms.

As for the topic at hand - video services - and "better," well, maybe not. Sure, as you say you have to pay for Live. However, that's only for the Gold service. I am pretty confident that silver, free to all console owners, still gets you the Marketplace and your media section, wherein videos are also accessed. Sure, you'd have to have the Netflix deal or MS points to rent, but that then makes it pretty comparable to Sony's renting scheme. Then it becomes a matter of justifying $8.99 vs. $2.99 per rent over a month*, to use numbers from this thread (i.e. will you watch 3 [to make it a 3-cent difference] or more movies every month?). You can't claim Sony "doesn't charge" owners anything, and 360 owners may not be looking at such a big difference in price over what they'd spend via PS3s, anyway.

*assumes using Netflix; just downloading via MS points probably takes it down to ~3 dollars a rent

Sure, that makes a pretty nifty point actually...

In the end what really makes a difference between both services? If you compare Features side-by-side itm ight be one thing, but on movie and video services other things are more important like variety, library size, delivery speed and offered video quality....

RENT NOW YOU FUCKS