Blinkbox is bringing its movie streaming service to the PS3, beating Lovefilm to punch with console streaming and putting itself in direct competition with the Playstation Video Store. Can Blinkbox find a place in British PS3 owners hearts just as Netflix has staked its claim on US gamers’ affections?

Blinkbox has had a movie streaming site serving up films and TV to laptops and home PCs since 2009. But its new PS3 movie streaming site is designed to work smoothly with the PS3’s internet browser with controls optimised for a gamepad.

Blinkbox also claims the PS3 movie streaming webpage will automatically resize itself to fit your TV screen whether you’re packing a seriously hefty HD TV or a pokey portable.

Blinkbox has signed deals with studios including Universal, Warner Bros and Paramount so you’ll find recent films including The Hangover,  Inglorious Basterds and The Informant as well as TV shows like Shameless and the League of Gentleman.

Rental prices for the Blinkbox movie streaming service start at £0.99 for films and £0.39 an episode for TV shows. You can stream those videos directly from blinkbox.com an unlimited number of times within a 24 hour period which starts from when you first play them.

Buy a video which start on Blinkbox from £0.89 for a TV episode and £2.99 for movies and its stored in an online library. You can then stream it an unlimited number of times to your PS3 or PC.

Out now | £varies | Blinkbox

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  • Harry

    I have just tried Blinkbox out on my PS3, and it looks and feels pretty good.

    They also claim to have 6000 titles available, or which a number are free to watch (ad supported).

    I like the idea of these services, however here is a list of my Blinkbox pros and cons:

    1. I cant seem to get blinkbox to appear on the cross media bar like bbc iplayer does, so it makes it a lot harder and annoying to have to use the internet bookmark…why is that – am I being a numptie?

    2. I like the design – it feels like a tv guide and everything is big enough for me to use when sitting further away.

    3. In the same way as bbc iplayer, when I am playing a film, the progress bar doesnt quite fit in the screen, so I cant push the pause button (resolution on my TV is 32″ 1080i)…why is this?

    4. The gamepad controls when I am playing back a title dont work as I would expect. I also have a PS3 TV remote control and this doesnt work at all. e.g. you cant use the L2/R2 buttons to fast forward and rewind, you cant skip forward a chapter, you cant pause using ‘x’…

    5. I am not sure I like the idea of having to rely on my broadband connection everytime I want to re watch a streamed title I have purchased from Blinkbox…I would prefer progressive download or it download x% of the title to my hard drive so I dont have to worry about buffering at 8pm on a Saturday night.

    6. I like the fact I can buy a title, and watch it either on my PS3 or a PC.

    7. The quality of the stream is not bad but I have seen better…and they dont seem to offer anything in HD.

    8. The quality of the titles available is good, but some are expensive. When I have to rent on a pay per view basis or buy a title, then I would choose the best quality, which for me is still the PS Video Store (when comparing the two).

    9. Good collection of free tv shows from across a few broadcasters (UK), however they are old archived ones and not the latest and greatest.

    So in summary, I think its a good service which is easy to use, and if it were easier to access then I would use it to compare prices with PS Video Store and get the best price on a title I am interested in.

    However I do not believe that Blinkbox can ever “find a place in British PS3 owners hearts just as Netflix has staked its claim on US gamers’ affections?”, because it does not offer a subscription service to …something that Netflix does incredibly well and delivers massive value to its loyal customers…

    • Mic Wright

      Thanks for such a thorough rundown on Blinkbox, Harry. Have you seen that Electricpig is hiring?

      • Harry

        Always love to share thoughts I have…not always a good thing!

        Yep – saw your were recruiting…best of luck with that. Am going to hold out for a freelancer rate. Always happy to provide guest contributions in the meantime though…all you need to do is let me though your comment monitoring ;)

  • CJ84

    I have in the past used iTunes on my Mac to rent movies but it will be interesting to see how this compares. iTunes’ biggest problem is that the UK movie store is dire compared to the US, very few titles are available to rent and rental status is often pulled from titles after a short time.

    • http://www.electricpig.co.uk Ben Sillis

      I can’t but help feel Blinkbox has missed a trick by not serving this up on the Wii instead. Why opt for a platform where you have to compete with the (very good) rental service on the PSN?

      • Harry

        It is a little tricky to tell, so I apologise and expect to be correctly by the great guys over at Blinkbox if I am wrong…however, the Wii has enjoyed their massive growth curve on the basis that it is a ‘family oriented console’.

        On a cursory browse through the Blinkbox catalogue, they seem quite poor on ‘family oriented titles’. Might explain the reasoning…might not.

  • Pete

    Good question – maybe its because the Wii doesnt support HD? maybe its because building a video app for a device that uses a wand is totally different that building one with a gamepad or remote control in mind…even the BBC iplayer hasnt got it quite nailed on the Wii yet…its like target practice of your average marksman!

    Maybe its just easier to build and deploy onto the PS3?

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