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LoveFilm coming to PS3

Started by Santa's Boyfriend, October 13, 2010, 05:33:07 PM

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Santa's Boyfriend

I'm really quite excited about this.  I've been using Lovefilm for about 5 years now, and although it's a good service and generally good value for money (far cheaper than renting dvds individually, considering how many I get through) its one major flaw has always been that you can't watch what you want when you want.  You have no real control over what arrives, so although you might want to watch Tarkovsky's Solaris, you might not be in the right frame of mind for it when it arrives.  (Same with Batman Begins or something like that.)

I think it was inevitable that streaming movies were going to go this way, and LoveFilm seem to be playing the smart card, in that they're not charging anything extra for this.  I guess they're trying to get their foot in the door before anyone else.  After all it's probably going to be a bit crap when it starts.  I seriously doubt they'll have HD streams, or much of a back catalogue at first.  But the PS3 movie store already on the system is really not very good.  It's poorly stocked, massively overpriced and takes too long to download.  So yeah, should be interesting.

It's happening some time next month apparently.


Madison

as an x box owner with the Zune library to pick from (think there's 2 films in their vast Documentary category), colour me jealous.

Santa's Boyfriend


knight123

Awesome news, though my internet isn't fast enough to make it worth doing.

Any idea how this would work? Presumably even if you had one of lovefilms unlimited packages they still wouldn't let you stream unlimited films.

Santa's Boyfriend

I think they do - they do online at the moment anyway.  I think you have to pay for some of the downloads, but most are free to watch at any time, I'm assuming it'll be the same for the PS3.  (If it isn't, it won't work.  IMO the only workable model for this is unlimited subscription.)

Once BT upgrade their systems you ought to have a fast enough connection.  If you can get Virgin Media where you are, even their minumum spec is fast enough.

Santa's Boyfriend

The Love Film button just appeared on my PS3 today.  I have to say, it isn't bad.  It's not hi-def, which I expected, and it is a little pixelley, but it really isn't that bad.  It seems smooth enough (over my connection anyway), as good as a standard def AVI I'd say.  The navigation is a bit slow, and there doesn't seem to be that much on there yet (not the thousands of films it apparently is advertising anyway), but it's quite a good start I think.  The documentary section actually looks like the best section, plenty of films there to explore.  Many of the sections seem to repeat themselves (I saw Constantine listed in at least three of them) but it's fairly well thought out - I'm a little concerned how easy it'll be to navigate once more films go on it though.  But for a first draft version, I think it's pretty good.

knight123

Had a quick fiddle with it today, agree with you on the layout not being very intuitive but at least there's a search function. Don't have a subscription so can't comment on the quality although the advert it played seems certainly watchable. HD would have been a dealbreaker though.

What dyou make of the Mubi software that launched last week? Doesn't seem to be too much available on there but the price of a tenner for 3 months is very reasonable.

chand

Just had a look at it, when I clicked the free trial button it wanted my credit card details and to select a package? Is it one where they give you the trial and if you don't cancel it it kicks in straight away after 30 days?

Quote from: knight123 on November 10, 2010, 10:43:34 PMWhat dyou make of the Mubi software that launched last week? Doesn't seem to be too much available on there but the price of a tenner for 3 months is very reasonable.

It looks cool. It's very, very niche though, mostly arty films I'd never heard of.

Famous Mortimer

It's also available to people with one of the internet-enabled Sony blu-ray players (mine's the BDP-S370). I am kinda tempted to give it a go.

Santa's Boyfriend

Quote from: chand on November 10, 2010, 10:49:10 PM
It looks cool. It's very, very niche though, mostly arty films I'd never heard of.

See that appeals to me, but I know I'm in the minority there.  A tenner for 3 months "all you can eat" is indeed a very good deal, but I'm already signed up to LoveFilm, which is the only way I can afford to watch Blu Rays right now, and I don't think I can justify paying for another service as well!

wasp_f15ting

I logged on yesterday.

It looks very good. There are some good films for me to watch during the cold winter nights. Finally we are getting something similar to netflix in the US. Its a shame we don't have that here that is a far superior service. But for the time being there are some excellent films on there. There are ton's of good old foreign films too. I saw a brilliant Ingmar Bergman collection on there too. Better than standard xvid files.

Santa's Boyfriend

I logged on yesterday and the bastard thing didn't work - it wouldn't play me a single film.  Also I'm really seeing how limited their catalogue is, either that or I'm not able to find these thousands of films they've supposedly got for me to stream.  I'm sure it'll expand as we go along, but I'm starting to see that it isn't actually very well designed right now.  No doubt it'll improve, but still.  The other one (mubi is it?) is much better designed.

wasp_f15ting

Go into the Genre bit, there are hundred films listed in each genre.

Seems to be streaming okay for me thus far.

Tokyo Sexwhale

My Sony telly has a Lovefilm sticker on it - should I be able to get Lovefilm if I connect it up to my router?

falafel

Quote from: Santa's Boyfriend on November 13, 2010, 06:13:58 PM
I logged on yesterday and the bastard thing didn't work - it wouldn't play me a single film.  Also I'm really seeing how limited their catalogue is, either that or I'm not able to find these thousands of films they've supposedly got for me to stream.  I'm sure it'll expand as we go along, but I'm starting to see that it isn't actually very well designed right now.  No doubt it'll improve, but still.  The other one (mubi is it?) is much better designed.

Oddly, I think the opposite. Seeing lots of films listed - good ones, too - and much prefer the design to Mubi which confuses me a bit to be honest. Very easy to navigate. Not perfect but it will evolve as the catalogue grows. I like that it checks your queue for films you can stream, gives you some nice instant options. Watched Bad Boy Bubby just now and it was a hitch-free experience. I'm going to like this.

Santa's Boyfriend

Hmm, perhaps I was just annoyed yesterday that it had refused to work the day before.  I watched the Pelican Brief on it yesterday without any hitches, and really enjoyed it - felt a lot like a 70s thriller despite being made in the 90s.