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Gadgets PlayStation 3 to Feature Video-on-Demand in Korea
Marcus Yam (Blog) - May 23, 2007 4:10 AM

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13 comment(s) - last by afkrotch.. on May 24 at 12:56 AM

Extra-sized HDD in Korean PS3 for on-demand video

Gamers in South Korea on June 16 will be getting a PlayStation 3 with the largest hard drive capacity yet for the system. Sporting an 80 GB hard drive – 20 GB more than the other PS3s around the world – Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. has said that the particular system is thus far exclusive for the Korean market.

According to a report from the Korea Times, the reason for the larger drive is because the PlayStation 3 will feature video-on-demand (VOD) functionality in South Korea.

South Korea enjoys a network infrastructure that is relatively advanced compared to North American offerings. A network-enabled PlayStation 3 would be able to take full advantage of South Korea’s high-bandwidth Internet services, and would require a larger hard drive to store the various forms of downloaded media.

Sony of Korea confirms that it is in talks with telecoms operators about providing VOD services for the upcoming new console. “We are contacting some Korean firms in order to incorporate VOD applications into PlayStation 3 service line-up,'' Sony spokeswoman Park Seo-yun said.

Sony has not revealed which firms it is currently in talks with, but at least a couple Korean providers are suggested to be interested in streaming content to PlayStation 3.

“We are negotiating with Sony and the atmosphere is pretty good. We hope we will be able to reach an agreement in June,'' a Hanaro Telecom spokesman said. “Should we strike a deal with Sony, PlayStation 3 users can watch all the HanaTV programs after downloading software, without having to buy a dedicated set-top box.''

Hanaro Telecom launched its HanaTV VOD program last year, allowing subscribers, for 10,000 Won ($10.74) a month, to download movies, music, soap operas and news.

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Totally obvious

By James Holden on 5/23/2007 8:31:19 AM , Rating: 4

Not to be totally obvious, but is the 20GB of extra space *really* the reason they're getting VOD? Hell, the 360 has it and the whole drive is only 20GB.

I suspect it has more to do with the Korean infrastructure -- 100 mb to everyones house.

RE: Totally obvious

By EnzoFX on 5/23/2007 8:59:21 AM , Rating: 2

100mb? seriously? wow
i also suspect that its now costing them as much as the 60gb drive did a year ago...
sure they could save pennies by keeping the 60gb drive, but then that wouldn't be as newsworthy as, 80gb + VOD

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RE: Totally obvious

By EnzoFX on 5/23/2007 9:02:50 AM , Rating: 2

http://pressesc.com/01179677598_us_internet_slow
so japan is actually faster, maybe VOD for japan? damn the US is slow and EXPENSIVE

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RE: Totally obvious

By Homerboy on 5/23/2007 9:25:52 AM , Rating: 5

slow?
There's a tad more ground to cover in the US versus Japan or Korea.

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RE: Totally obvious

By OxBow on 5/23/2007 9:55:35 AM , Rating: 2

It's not so much the amount of territory that has to be covered, but rather, regulation and an insistence on market based solutions. The US is lagging behind the rest of the industrialized world in terms of broadband penetration & cost and gap is getting wider all the time.

Actually, it's not so simple, since many of our regulations that govern this are to protect certain industries while barring competition from other industries. Since our laws are basically for sale to the highest bidder, our ability to compete in this category is seriously compromised.

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RE: Totally obvious

By fliguy84 on 5/23/2007 10:25:53 AM , Rating: 2

Well at least you guys are better than South East Asian countries. Except for Singapore of course, they too have 100Mb internet T_T

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RE: Totally obvious

By borowki on 5/23/2007 2:08:38 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
It's not so much the amount of territory that has to be covered, but rather, regulation and an insistence on market based solutions. The US is lagging behind the rest of the industrialized world in terms of broadband penetration & cost and gap is getting wider all the time.

We also have a robust legal system, so that companies can't make crazy claims about what speed you can get. I live in Europe right now. My former ISP claimed to offer 45mps (i.e. 801.11g) when in realty, I could get 10kps when I was lucky.

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RE: Totally obvious

By afkrotch on 5/24/2007 12:56:39 AM , Rating: 2

You obviously have never lived in countries with high speed broadband.

I live in Tokyo. One of my friends has 100 meg vdsl, but it actually push a little higher. He pays around 3000 yen a month, which also includes VOIP. My other friend has a gig fiber line into his house and it easily pushes a gig, even during high bandwith times. He pays around 6000 yen a month and gets VOIP and VidOIP.

Me...I'm stuck on a military base, with a US based company...Allied Telesis. I'm stuck paying $75 US dollars for a 10 meg connection. Course, it actually runs more like a 1 meg connection. They also bandwith cap the hell out of you. The worse part, is they are buying bandwith from NTT for extremely low prices.

This is how Americans are. It's not about the customer, its about how well they can pad their pockets with green.

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&ar...

If they can continue charging high prices for minimal bandwith, they'll keep doing it. If they can continue not upgrading their networks, they'll keep doing it. The only time they'll spend money to increase bandwith to customers, is when it's beneficial to them.

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RE: Totally obvious

By afkrotch on 5/24/2007 12:47:30 AM , Rating: 2

We aren't talking about broadband concentration, we are talking about broadband speeds.

For areas that already have broadband connectivity, what's keeping them from pushing them to 50 meg? 100 meg? 1000 meg?

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RE: Totally obvious

By mars777 on 5/23/2007 11:51:30 AM , Rating: 2

quote:
but is the 20GB of extra space *really* the reason they're getting VOD

Maybe the contrary.
Recording video needs megabytes, megabytes do not need recording :P

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RE: Totally obvious

By deeznuts on 5/23/2007 12:54:26 PM , Rating: 1

quote:
Not to be totally obvious, but is the 20GB of extra space *really* the reason they're getting VOD? Hell, the 360 has it and the whole drive is only 20GB.

True but remember the bitching and moaning there was when MS introduced their VOD service, and everyone was complaining they only had 20GB? And MS said there are ways, memory cards and extra 20GB drives.

Well to complain you only have 80GB would be petty in comparison.

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VOD and broadband speeds

By rpgman1 on 5/23/2007 1:14:07 PM , Rating: 2

Remember that South Korea has the highest percentage of people who are on broadband, not necessarily the fastest though. They love their Starcraft and are serious gamers, but I don't want to die from exhaustion. At least their broadband is much better than the US. This is nothing more than icing on the cake for Sony.