PS3 becomes streaming TV powerhouse
With the latest firmware update I noticed something new while surfing various Web sites. Hulu Fancast has been incompatible with the PS3 browser for sometime. However, after the latest update, I noticed that Hulu seems to be working via the PS3 browser in 480p resolution.
For those not familiar with Hulu Fancast, it is a free online service where you can watch TV shows and movies by streaming it. I usually jump on Fancast when I miss the latest episode of Prison Break or Heroes. The service also has a great back catalog of old shows such as The Twilight Zone and the super original Star Trek, for you geeks out there.
It seems that Fancast has revamped their website to be PS3 compatible as well. The layout and options vary from viewing the service from the PC and the PS3. The folks at Fancast tailored the service to the flash player on the PS3. For starters there are more options and the layout is also friendlier for the PS3.
A nice addition is a 480p mode, if you have the bandwidth to spare. The picture looks surprisingly clear in 480p, even in full screen mode. However, I did notice framerate drops once in a while, which could just be my bandwidth issue. Fiber optics may be the way to go. The new channels are also convenient when using the service on the PS3 browser.
Another company that worked with Sony to get their streaming service working is the BBC. For those over in the UK may be familiar with the BBC iPlayer, which streams free TV shows. Recently the company modified the player to take advantage of the PS3’s latest firmware upgrade. It seems like many streaming TV/movie companies are recognizing the PS3 as a viable solution to their business. It is a brilliant solution as you don’t need anything additional, such as a set-top box or a media server PC running to view these shows. You can watch everything straight off the PS3’s Web browser.
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December 18th, 2008
umm… ok… i can also watch these on my laptop… and use the ps3 for games… and quincy ing in Home… cmon guys lets all pretend to be girls in Home…
but… it seems like a cheaper alternative of netflix… I wanna watch the dark knight… and Id rather not buy the disk… damn… so much to buy…
December 18th, 2008
also… I wanna watch all the episodes of robot chicken for free online… get to work my crafty minions… muahahahahaha…
Im too cheap to buy the dvds…
December 18th, 2008
The PS3 iPlayer picture is really bad. It’s hardly a viable solution.
December 18th, 2008
Um, okay, but 480p is considered good? Since when?
December 18th, 2008
Sounds like it’s on par with the Xbox live Netflix service.
http://xboxlive.ign.com/articles/924/924636p1.html
December 18th, 2008
http://kotaku.com/5112923/heres-a-game+breaking-gears-of-war-2-glitch
this is very sad… cus Epic has worked hard for this and theres still a few glitches… keep your chin up Cliffy B… we will get through this…
HEY KEV LOOK WHAT I FOUND!! sorry couldnt help it…
also… check out crackle.com its a sony owned site (i think) and check out the jace hall show… for gamers… really funny… their video quality is fucking awesome…
December 18th, 2008
DWH
I understand you want to bootleg everything but some things don’t deserve it. The Dark Kinght is one of them. I refuse to get a pirated copy. That’s why I bought the special edition on the day it came out. That movie was briliant and anyone copying that movie is doing them selves an injustice.
December 18th, 2008
Well it is nice to have the option to stream it from sites, my Grandma would use it for when she misses her episodes and just wants to catch up quickly before the next one.
I only download tv programs now, music I will buy and I have never pirated DVDs. DWH, I’m going to get into Heaven before you, nah na nah na na nah.
December 18th, 2008
Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear oh dear.
So the PS3’s original hook was a 1080p Blu-ray HD player…..oh, and as a game console when some decent games showed up.
Now that that has failed and PS3 remains firmly welded into 3rd spot in this gen’s console wars the answer is….. what!?
A 480i/p NTSC TV box!?
LMAO
I laughed so hard I cried.
If ever there was an example of a CE corp totally losing it’s way & floundering about this is it.
A cheapo PVR is not going top save the PS3.
December 18th, 2008
OK HH..
So, the PS3 failed as a blu ray player (they are responsible for 17 million blu ray players out there world wide, and also a big reason that blu ray beat HDDVD) and as a game console (early 2006 argument….thought you were smarter).
A third party website that has no ties to Sony sets up their site to allow streaming through the ps3 browser and the CE company (Sony) is somehow losing it’s way and floundering about.
Wow!!!!!
At least it’s free and you don’t have to pay for streaming shitty quality video transfers.
December 18th, 2008
umm CAD… I never said I would pirate the dark knight… if I wanted to… I wouldnt be talking about it… I would be watching it right now… what I meant was I would like to rent it with a service like netflix… and buy the Blu ray later…
jeez…
mah bawls in yo face…
December 18th, 2008
Happyhockum,
Usually your posts have some merit. But where in this story did it say that streaming t.v. shows would sell PS3’s? For Christ sake it’s just an added feature, albeit it may not be a very reliable feature, I wouldn’t know, I’ve never tried it. You are really starting to remind me of our friend Kev the troll. If your so happy with your 360 then just be happy with it. I really don’t care what console you use, why are you so worried about which one we use?
December 18th, 2008
Wylie77,
The title “PS3 becomes streaming TV powerhouse” may give you a hint.
December 18th, 2008
I get a really good picture off the iplayer on my 40″ 1080p hdtv so lock down must have poor internet or crappy tv. I dont get all the PS3 hate that goes on its got a ton of great games and now its starting to leap ahead with titles like killzone 2, GOW 3 and uncharted 2 coming, I can vouch for the killzone gameplay from the beta it is a big step up from other fps.
Being a free streaming tv player is just another string to its bow I dont see how that can be seen as a fault it isnt going to cost you to use it and if you dont want it dont use it.
December 18th, 2008
Precisely CarlB
phranctoast
As a Blu-ray player the PS3 was not a failure in the sense that it was a good enough tactic to beat HD DVD, clearly it was a success at that.
My point about it failing with the built-in Blu-ray player is as a game console.
Blu-ray has done nothing but hobble the PS3 with a bloated price tag far too few are willing to unload on what is primarily a game console.
Even now the once respectable claim that it was the best and best priced Blu-ray player has gone as various cheaper ‘profile 2.0′ standalone players enter the market.
Although clearly there were a/v fans that were prepared to buy the PS3 many simply refused to put a game console in their a/v rack.
BTW when you count those a/v enthusiasts (with zero interest in gaming) that paints the PS3 position as a game console in an even worse light.
You can’t have it both ways.
A significant chunk of PS3s largely (and I accept we can’t say absolutely not used for gaming at all) used for movie playback is effectively even smaller numbers for the various ‘party’ devs to sell to.
My floundering comments relate to the PR claims that would now have us believe that SD TV @ 480i/p streaming is the best thing since sliced.
Come on, admit it, none of that was hard to see…..if you let yourself.
December 18th, 2008
When you attempt to future proof a console you tend to take the hit early on. Happened with MS and their HDD’s in the Xbox as well.
While some AV enthusiast wouldn’t touch a console as a primary HD player, the player itself was reviewed as one of the best blu ray players available (there are better now) so there were AV people that would purchase it.
I guess I’m missing the PR claims about SDTV being the best sinc sliced bread. Sony said something about this?
December 18th, 2008
phranc – this is why we can’t take you ps3 guys seriously:
“they are responsible for 17 million blu ray players out there world wide, and also a big reason that blu ray beat HDDVD)”
1. sony themselves haven’t even claimed to have sold 17 million…just you fanboys and “sales sites” that only use guesses…
2. bluray did NOT “beat” hd dvd. sony bribed toshiba out of the market by selling them the cell’s production. it’s hilarious you call this a win with less than 1% of the marketbase penetrated. friggin priceless…..lol…
December 18th, 2008
phranctoast,
Agreed, PS3 is the bestelling Blu-ray player, that still isn’t saying much considering the Blu-ray market as it stands now, and it means zip to me and many others as a gamer, regardless of the 1 out of 50 games I may have to switch DVD’s on in a week.
“Future proof” is a gambling prospect that still has not, and may not pay off for the PS3.
I would argue that MS took the hit with XBox because of their lack of developer relationships, not the HDD, which made it easier for PC developers to make games on. Jade Empire is a good example.
December 18th, 2008
CarlB,
Are you not familiar enough with blorge to know that they throw up a hyped up headline to get you to read the article. Would you have been so quick to click on the article if it said “PS3 now streamlines Hulu Fancast”? Even the title Mike decided to use doesn’t say that this will move PS3’s.
December 18th, 2008
Kev,
You just got after phranctoast for not backing up his figures with a reliable source. Then on your 2nd point you throw out your personal belief without a reliable source. I guess that’s why no one takes you serious either.
December 18th, 2008
phranctoast
You don’t think headlines like -
“PS3 becomes streaming TV powerhouse”
aren’t part of a press-release coordinated PR campaign?!
Come on, be serious.
December 18th, 2008
It may mean zip to you but there are a lot of gamers who also buy movies (dvd’s before, blu rays now)
Developer relationships are probably responsible for increased fees/publishing. I was really just talking about hardware costs. They had a network card and a HDD. Things that add up, and what I would look at as future proofing the console.
It did seem that the Xbox had a lot of PC ports.
17 was the latest number I saw. sue me.
we all know warner backing away form HDDVD was the real reason. Even HH will tell ya.
December 18th, 2008
I wouldn’t call some title on a website a coordinated PR campaign. You think Sony and Blorge are in on something together?
I would call it an attention grabber created to get more hits through google.
December 18th, 2008
Even of you’re talking about the new commercial that appeared during monday night football, they mentioned the psn service and not the streaming sub par video service from Hulu fancast.
December 18th, 2008
So heres my confusion.
Sony fixes thier browser, maybe it was a flash thing, or java, whatever. It doesn’t really matter.
A blorge writer starts to visit a website he previously couldn’t to watch some Tv shows. Yay for people visiting websites!
So from that, we get that sony is now officially screwing blu ray and saying 480p streaming is the way of the future?
What the fuck kind of crack are you people smoking and where can I get some?!
HH – You wear a tin foil fucking hat too?
December 18th, 2008
Wylie77,
Implied.
HH,
I think the Blorge writers here happily support PS3 without PR coordination.
phranctoast,
Those gamers are PS3 owners, so they buy/rent Blu-ray because that is what they have. I will venture a guess and say that most non-PS3 owners for the most part do not care at this time.
That hardware decreased in price quickly, the Blu-Ray drive has not.
The XBox did have a lot of PC ports, which I enjoyed and was grateful for as I did not have the gaming PC to play them properly.
720p and 1080p are next. Probably within the next 1-2 generations.
December 18th, 2008
“bluray did NOT “beat” hd dvd.”
Umm, yeh it did. Doesn’t matter whether Sony sucked Toshiba off and Toshiba said ‘you got a deal’. Blu Ray DID overcome HD DVD.
December 18th, 2008
I know the blu ray diode itself dropped it price pretty drastically.
December 18th, 2008
SW
Maybe it’s your own tin-foil hat that stops you reading what people actually said.
I did not say anywhere that “sony is now officially screwing blu ray and saying 480p streaming is the way of the future”.
I was talking about the current PR slant.
Obviously.
I did not say they were “screwing Blu-ray” but it’s obvious that certain sites (this one included) seem to imagine 480i/p streaming is an attractive & fantastic new developement.
I think that’s more than a little odd (same as the ‘awesome’ – according to some PS3 fans – Divx playback seems to be to me) considering the HD root.
Nothing to difficult to see ina nay of that, unless you want it to be I guess.
Maybe it’s you choice of hat SW?
December 18th, 2008
CAD – If you are looking for the definitive version of the Dark Knight, may I suggest Blu-Ray? Maybe you shouldn’t have spit on the format earlier.
I have yet to try Hulu. I’ll have to check it out one day.
Does the PS3 browser have any sort of virus or spyware protection?
December 18th, 2008
KEV!!
did you see my links??? I got them specially for you…
December 18th, 2008
Barnabe,
Hackers can’t even pirate the PS3, much less write virus or spyware programs for it.
HH,
You have problems. You stick your foot in your mouth with your first post, and then chew it to the bone with the rest of your responses.
—
“Sony is trying to sell the PS3 as a 480p tv box!”
“Clearly Gamer.Blorge and Sony are in cahoots in an organized PR movement!”
“Obviously my other posts just mean that this article has an odd PR slant, duh, you idiots!”
—
How boring is your job? Or better yet, how boring is your video game console?
-Arvis
December 18th, 2008
‘but it’s obvious that certain sites (this one included) seem to imagine 480i/p streaming is an attractive & fantastic new developement’
I got the impression he was just happy he could use a feature that was previously restricted to his pc (maybe even wii?
) due to the ps3 browser being dodgy.
Oh and the tine foil hot thing was due to this ::
‘You don’t think headlines like -
“PS3 becomes streaming TV powerhouse” aren’t part of a press-release coordinated PR campaign?!
Anywhoos, my hat has sony on one side, nintendo on the other, and MS on the other (its a pyramid style hat for pyramid power..)
December 18th, 2008
SW
Just remember trihorns look silly
Arvis
If you try stucking to what I actually said it looks a lot less ridiculous than you inventing my phrases.
PR lauding the 480i/p streaming is hardly “Sony is trying to sell the PS3 as a 480p tv box!”
A press release mailshot is hardly your loony “Clearly Gamer.Blorge and Sony are in cahoots in an organized PR movement!”
….and your last invented line is maybe a wee peek at your own arrogance to others?
Maybe it’s your own job (or game console) isn’t much fun, eh?
– and if you’re trying for a little levity I’d suggest you try a little harder.
Just so as it’s clear (again), I don’t have a game console (PC is my preferred choice right now) but I have pretty much decided to go for an XBox once I can be sure of getting a Jasper in the new year.
The reason I like to come in and chew over the various stories are to kick ideas around and see what the users have to say, maybe I’ll find out something new.
I have friends and family with all 3 consoles but I’m never one to say there’s nothing left to learn.
December 18th, 2008
SW,
What’s on the 4th side then?
-Arvis
December 18th, 2008
HH,
You said, quote: “If ever there was an example of a CE corp totally losing it’s way & floundering about this is it.
A cheapo PVR is not going top save the PS3.”
That was your original response to the above article. If you want to try and make everyone believe that that wasn’t simply you being stupid, you’re going to have a difficult time.
I’m sorry if you feel I am arrogant. I’ll work on that. But remember that the sign of true arrogance is refusing to admit your mistakes.
-Arvis
December 18th, 2008
Barnaby Jones
You just had to call me out. My Special Edition DVD of the Dark Knight is just fine. It did not cost me $70 CDN You can keep your Bluray and I’ll spit on that too. My HD DVD Player does a beautiful Job at upconverting DVD’s to 1080P quality and it looks amazing. Sorry Barnaby but I’m not missing a thing and I save $30 that Bluray would have cost me.
December 18th, 2008
While everyone is on this topic I juat wanted to remind you that Sony paid for the Bluray to win so just remember that.
December 18th, 2008
We now have 10 terabytes of movies over here on the server available for download (military special). While some are crappy quality, there is a great deal that are HD as well.
I watched Dark Knight once and thought it was really good, I just do not usually need to watch movies more than once (though I think Waking Life and Idiocracy were a luxurious exception -they’re still fine on DVD), and if I do I at least space them out over a couple of years; so buying a lot of discs does not make sense to me if that format will soon be replaced anyway.
Anybody else see that $120 1.5 TB on NewEgg Black Friday?
CAD, isn’t MS paying for 360 to win? (and windows, etc.?) Why can’t Sony do it if they do?
December 18th, 2008
December 18th, 2008
Arvis – Oops typo! I meant Tetrahedron!!!
So easy to do with fat fingers!
(/me wonders how well he covered that up… 
)
I could’ve just said ‘my name’ tho or something
December 18th, 2008
Oh, and the bottom side would be for my head
December 18th, 2008
OH MY GAWD!!! CAD.. you have opened my eyes… Sony has been conspiring against us… how dare they use their technology and put it on their product??
this is madness… we must inform the SEC… this could be another Enron scandal… good catch Sherlock…
December 18th, 2008
Carl B
Because MS does not BS about it. They just do it. They don’t say “were going to let the customer decide” and then slip money in the back door. Truth is If Sony did not do it the PS3 would be a deader duck then it is right now. Sony is just unethically they lie they cheat and there ethics as a company just reaks. They lied about the reason they did not include rumble, Thy did not own up to the PS2 that were breaking so it had to be dragged through court. There is others I can’t remember. I’m not saying MS has a clean slate either but in the end they just seem to have more etchic when it comes to business. Besides MS is just doing back to Sony what Sony did to Nintendo. They had rights and contracts on everything. Developers are not stupid enough to do that anymore.
December 18th, 2008
Sony touched me. It was the bad touch.
December 18th, 2008
‘there ethics as a company just reaks. ‘
As apposed to ms’s squeaky clean ethics. They’ve never been taken to court! Ever!
Monopoly?!?! I scoff at such claims!
Releasing a console with a known disc scratching defect! NEVER!!!!
December 19th, 2008
SW
Americans sue for anything. If you read what I said you will realize that MS is not exactly a model company either. But when compared to Sony they got more ethics. But for disk Scratching at least there was a disk replacement program. Sony would probably give you the finger.
December 19th, 2008
I wasn’t talking about individuals taking legal action against ms.
And as said before, disk replacement cost $20, only for ms products, for a defect they already knew existed…
I credit them for the response they took (they had no choice really) with the RRoD. Why not extend the same grace to users with scratched discs? Not enuff of them to cause a fuss. So fuck ‘em.
December 19th, 2008
both companies have their faults but to call MS more ethical than Sony may be the funniest thing written in years.
Sony flaws-
-Rootkit-got rid of it asap
-exploding batteries- recall
-their shit talk
-immersion lawsuit over rumble-settled
MS flaws-
-antitrust-brought to court my us govt-settled. Ms is split into smaller divisions
-shit talk
-released 360 too soon with known flaws-3 year extended warranty.
-buying exclusive content to screw the competition. Purposely having competetors games given less to make the 360 look more attractive. This is the issue that rubs me the wrong way the most. Seeing other games short changed so ms could have their way (tr. Underworld)
When ms entered the console market it was like a grand feeling of “there goes the neighborhood”. They will flex their financial muscle and force their competitors out of business. Trust me when I say this. Ms does not want any competition.
December 19th, 2008
phranctoast
Don’t be silly, all corps want to destroy the competition.
That includes buying people out.
It’s called competition.
Sony did not get rid of the rootkits asap
(which was a criminal, not a negligent act, that would have seen private individuals sent to prison). They obstructed and waffled and tried to bluff their way out of it until eventually forced to do something proper about it.
You missed the PS2 class action btw.
You also missed Sony doing sweetheart deals to exclude the competiton.
I’m all for open platform *whatever*.
But you and I both know that if all the movie studios had released everything on both HD DVD and Blu-ray Blu-ray would have been killed off a couple of months into the format war.
Similarly if the PS3 lost all it’s gaming exclusives there’d be almost zero sales for it.
You can’t have that one both ways.
…..and you can’t say Microsoft’s biggest products (Windows, Word etc etc) exclude all operation with competitors products.
December 19th, 2008
I have never heard of RootKits before but I looked it up and it sound like a Virus that would affect your computer. Sony did that?
December 19th, 2008
-I missed some Sony stuff and I missed a hell of a lot of MS stuff. While missing the class action lawsuit for the PS2 i didn’t mention the class action lawsuit for disc scratching and RRoD still occurring now.
-Using non proprietary peripherals. bluetooth, HDD’s. Forcing the consumer to shell out over $100 for a 60gig HDD.
-All the Sun and Novell fun that happened in the 90’s.
-They were forced to allow competitor software to work within their environment.
-Vista
-Security flaws in all their OS’s and IE. They basically release a beta and work from there.
-I left alone that MS tried to prolong the format war by giving incentives 150 million for 18 month exclusive) to Paramount in order to stall the growth of HiDef media. BDA decided to go with BRJ instead of iHD. we know how Sun and MS get along…..
-The fact of the matter also was that those studios did not want to be on HDDVD. When given a choice they went with the one less likely to be pirated due to the two different forms of protection.
MS owns its share of studios too. It just annoys me to see them lay out cash to have their competitors games gimped.
Not a happy camper having to wait an extra 9 months to play FF13 because square excepted the bribe to keep both games released on the same day.
While I’m obvously not a fan of the practice, I would like to see this go the other day one day (Bioshock-2 6 months ps3 exclusive…etc) just to see how the Xbox fans like their god’s strategy coming back to bite them in the ass. yeah yeah…I’m a spiteful SOB (see… i made fun of my mom…..
December 19th, 2008
and Let me say..with all the hate, I still need to give MS props for getting Sony off their collective asses and trying harder.
Standard chat through different games and a couple of their other Standards are a step in the right direction.
December 19th, 2008
phranctoast,
Nice save.
I am not saying these are the same cases, but there was no bribe for KZ2, and you are still waiting for that, right?
December 19th, 2008
Carl – Guerrilla Games (Makers of KZ2) is a first party video game developer and wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Computer Entertainment. That’s not exactly the same thing. They are Sony.
Arvis – Thanks for the clarification. I wasn’t sure and had always wondered about it.
December 19th, 2008
Yeah…still waiting for KZ2. Finally on the horizon.
although when I’m reminded of that, we must all remember that Huxley and Alan Wake were announced a long ass time ago.
December 19th, 2008
So true. I don’t there was as big of a fallout over the false “enhanced graphics” though.
December 19th, 2008
OH MY GAWD!!!
CAD has looked inside Sony’s soul to bring us the following information…
IF the ps3 scratched disks… IF… then Sony would give us the finger…. IF the ps3s overheated enough to poach an egg… IF… then Sony would give us the finger… IF firmware updates made the PS3 rape our wives and mothers… IF… sony wold give us the finger… ofcourse the latter couldn’t POSSIBLY be fixed by going back to the old Firmware…
IF!!!!
December 19th, 2008
lol. They came damn close to that target render.
Remember when Activision got into all that shit because people thought the screens shown for Call of Duty 3 (i think) which was CGI was “in game?”
When COD4 came out they only showed in game graphics with a disclaimer.
December 19th, 2008
dwh,
How did you get “raping wives and mothers” out of firmware updates?
I think I remember something about CoD, but it was crazy over KZ2.
Probably because it was a developer vice a console maker.
2 iterations out since on one side, still waiting on the other. They must be making it THE best looking game on PS3.
December 19th, 2008
I think they got held up with the psp game.
All this dirty talk from DWH is giving me a firmware update.
December 19th, 2008
CarlB,
Word coming out of the beta is that it’s the best looking game anywhere, period.
Those are most likely overstatements, though, especially when you consider that the beta is multiplayer only, which almost certainly uses lower-res textures than the single player campaign.
-Arvis
December 19th, 2008
well… the word out of the beta isnt just from the normal assholes like… the asshole who got to play and not me…
the critics are also head over heals on the graphics… I am holding my breath… after haze… I cant trust anyone anymore… and that was Ubisoft…
but… Im probably gonna buy the Special Edition of this game… and Im hoping this gets a 9-10 out of 10 scores… I think the PS3 deserves atleast 1 game of the year award…
YOU GUYS JUST DONT GET IT!!! I was touched badly by the PS3 Firmware update *shudders*
December 19th, 2008
This is great news. I love the BBC iPlayer service and have always wanted it to work properly on the PS3.
Looking forward to watching Top Gear again on my TV after the original airwave transmission!
Also, if anyone doubts KZ2…. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=r9GrX8YxM2Q
And it has a 720p HD version you can switch to
December 20th, 2008
this was not what i was looking for
i want to close my account but i dont know how
to
December 21st, 2008
Hopefully they realize best playing is more important than best looking.