Amazon's Lovefilm HD shuns Sony fanboys Amazon's Lovefilm video-on-demand service will begin offering HD streams today, but what resolution viewers get will depend on what gadget they're in front of. Mac and PC viewers, tuning in through Lovefilm's website will be treated to 1080p streams, the IPTV firm said. Watch on an iPad and Xbox 360 and you'll get 720p footage …
So MEH
If you're dumb enough to pay an XBOX Gold subscription ON TOP of your Lovefilm/Netflix sub to be able to use it on that console then you largely deserve what you get. Don't care about HD especially, it's just a bonus, I want to watch the film, not count the pixels.
(Yes I realise people might already pay for gaming anyway on XBOX but if you don't, paying two subs for the benefit of one is lunacy)
I think 'content' is a bit of a strong word, to be honest.
Anything worth seeing you have to pay an additional fee to view on top of your subscription.
Or you can just get the blu-ray through the letterbox next day, which is the point of paying the subscription. And it will be guaranteed 1080p with no lag.
Hang fire. I wasn't with LoveFilm for long, but when I was, I'm pretty sure the PS3 streamer had a HD option. I remember having to switch down to a lower quality to watch Sky Blue, because their server kept lagging on HD. Did that just happen in my head, or were they "compressed" and "less compressed" as opposed to 480p vs 720p?
Clearly this article is primt fanboy bait, as it misses out 2 critical points about PS3 support/
1/ Loveflim say the HD content for PS3 is coming "very soon" in their FAQ.
2/ PS3 already streams in higher definition than everything else anyway.
http://www.lovefilm.com/features/detail.html?editorial_id=46252&cid=lftwitter_hdlaunch
"5. Why are Sony TVs & Blu-ray players, and the PlayStation®3 and iPad® not on this list?
We’re working on bringing full HD to Sony and the PlayStation®3 very soon, sorry for the delay (remember, the PS3™ already plays titles in higher quality than standard definition). And we don't currently have studio rights to stream HD on iPad®."
"And we don't currently have studio rights to stream HD on iPad®."
And the movie industry wonder why people pirate stuff... why the hell do you need a separate set of rights to stream on a different device? Is this just an excuse from LoveFilm or are the studios really that greedy?
Good choice and I respect it. I've gone to Netflix primarily because I don't have/want a subscription TV service, and I've found after buying DVDs for ten years that I now have boxes full of DVDs I haven't watched for years and they're just taking up space in my house. I can sell them, but it's effort to do so, and the difference between what I pad for them and what I'll get back is probably more than the Netflix subscription.
I do still buy DVDs of films and TV series if I'm really a fan of them.
I have really cut back on buying - a variety of reasons.
Poor films
Locked piracy warnings
Forced adverts
Tend to buy interesting films, non Hollywood films and Anime now, most of the classics I have on DVD when I used to buy a lot more, and very few are upgraded - only Blade Runner - very good BD.
So I buy a few BDs a year. But I do prefer them with game data on now, Choice between the latest say Adam Sandler film or an Uncharted game - hello Drake.
12meg requirement for say a 2hr movie would mean a roughly 10gig file, which isn't too bad for 1080, but not ideal - would mean your line running at full pelt the whole time, i.e. not hitting a bandwith throttle. So I assume then that they would hope to get a continuous real world of what, 60-70%? so about a 6-7gig file? That's starting to sound less good.
Been thinking of dropping the streaming service. There just isnt enough good current content to make it worthwhile.
If you look on the Zune Video service there are plenty of current 2011/2012 movies but Lovefilm you have just a mere smattering of 2010/11 releases. The rest is pretty much junk or stuff that Film4/ITV2 has shown to death over the past 5 years.
Very disappointing. Plus the bloody god awful current 360 UI is a pig to navigate it with.
Other than that the picture quality is fine usually.
The content is bloody awful.
Sure there are some box sets, which are slightly interesting time-wasters, but the Film content (Surely the main purpose!) is abysmal.
2-3 decent recent films, and the rest are all god-awful b-movies and flops. Seriously.
Try going in there and sorting by film rating - there will be about 3x 4 star films, but the vast majority are 3 and below.
After getting the steaming service I spent 2-3 evenings watching stuff - there's literally nothing left on there i want to watch. If I didn't get the service heavily subsidised through work, I wouldn't pay for it.
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