In a move sure to annoy Microsoft but really surprise no one, Sony today confirmed it’s planning to offer downloadable movies on the PlayStation 3 sometime this summer. Japan and Europe will follow suit at a later date, and we’ll get the official rollout schedule sometime next month.

Make that two feathers in Sony’s as-you-like-it digital cap, since the PS3 will now be capable of offering both Blu-ray as well as downloadable shows, clips, and flicks. Microsoft’s repeatedly denied rumors it might offer an external Blu-ray drive, thus the new service gives Sony the decided edge in terms of media-playback versatility.

Downloadable video still seems more like gee-whiz novelty than something to replace or even much supplement optical media. If I’m going to watch Lost on my PS3 or Xbox 360, I want it at 1080p, end of discussion. (Since I can buy a pristine transfer that’ll output at 1080p, why should I compromise?) I don’t want to sink my broadband connection downloading half a terabyte just to accommodate a single season of a TV show. I don’t want to forfeit an arm and a leg to buy terabyte-sized hard drives just to store two or three of those seasons (which only take up as much space as a couple of books on a movie shelf). And I don’t want to have to worry about losing my entire collection because consoles don’t really support large scale data backup and the actuator arm decided to freeze up and park the head for good.

Offering downloadable movies is great for quick clips and throwaway episodes or comedy shorts. But video connoisseurs — and let’s face it, that’s nearly all of you with the means to invest in an Xbox 360 and/or PS3 — still value durability and longevity over what I’ll call “impulsive accessibility.”

So yeah, bravo Sony, bravo Microsoft for being first (though boo Microsoft for making us wait for an add-on Blu-ray part). But as we roll merrily along, level with your customers. Don’t pretend the Xbox 360 and PS3 downloadable movie services are going to supplant or even much impact the high-definition optical media industry. Not until the U.S. broadband penetration rate jumps up dramatically from about 70 million users and the FCC stops poisoning that figure by classifying anything above 200 Kbps as “broadband.”

source: http://blogs.pcworld.com/gameon/archives/007169.html