VidZone – is this PS3's Spotify?

CasualGaming.biz: Sony yesterday launched its brand new VidZone service for PS3 users in the UK – and whilst the release has been met with little fanfare, those who have downloaded and tried it are already chalking VidZone up as a potential system seller.

[123360]

for a free service its awesome,with regular updates it can only get better

[prunchess]

This is a great feature. Listening to it at the moment. I just hope they keep adding top the library.

It's definitely a winner.

[talltony]

But I cant play it in the US! that sucks!

[locos85]

you guys are lucky. 1st PlayTV and now Vidzone. I downloaded it but it won't works for. When will we see this?

[whoelse]

It's a really good app. The only issue I have with it is when going through the menus the music freezes quite often.

I hope my American cousins get it one day!

[chaosatom]

Just make it region free, and then I can go to Uk store and get it. :)

[RussDeBuss]

we still have no video store though. this is really cool though, takes a little while to boot up, but its only just released, im sure it will be sped up in future updates.

[Baliw]

Burn baby Burn!

Thats whats gonna happen to our PS3 thanks to Sony.
Mine is already on fire.

Also as pointed below; this could be a nice thing for stores or bars.

[masterg]

It's funny.
I see a service like Vidzone as a bigger system seller than Home,Facebook,Twitter and so on. Yet Sony is so quiet about it.
It's just a shame it's only out in 6 countries so far.

[uie4rhig]

only thing i couldn't figure out was get to the first screen (the one straight after boot up) after you started watching clips! but i guess we'll get that later or is it already there? if it is!! please do tell :)

[RememberThe357]

if it was released in more countries. The English aren't the only one that like music videos.

[FamilyGuy]

This site is a good alternative, if you're looking...

http://www.movideo.com/

[uie4rhig]

+1 :)
vidzone died on computers.. now got one on the PS3 and one on my pc :)
bubbles for the link :)

[UK1012UK]

I think its great too.Lots of old vids as well for old gits like me!

[zootang]

It's amazing simple as! you got a programmable mtv/vh1 what's not to love

[S1nnerman]

I must admit, I was really amazed at how well it works - making lots of playlists already :)

[BYE]

If they market it right it could do a lot for the PS3. It could be used for clothing stores and bars to automatically play music videos etc.

I'm definitely liking it so far, it has a huge selection of videos, videos start without delay, menus are responsive, look nice & clean, it's just fun using it.

[Sangria]

I noticed much artists are missing, like Moby, Katy Perry, Daft Punk or Madonna, and all videos are upscaled SD videos, but it begins well and i really hope there will be frequent updates and HD videos.

[Raoh]

why do americans always get screwed.

Europe gets all the apps and accessories and features = vidzone, PlayTV, early home spaces

Japan gets games with no intentions of releasing in the states.

In America? we get slant 6 developing socom and get to look on at our brothers overseas enjoy their add ons.

[PotNoodle]

Haha are you kidding?

You americans get far better treatment, early home spaces? Have you been on the EU Home? Its nothing compared to the US and JP Home.

You have the Video download store which i would much rather have than Vidzone and you get all the games demos and store quicker.

[BYE]

You guys have the movie zone...

80 gig bundles WITH backwards compatibility...

[Sangria]

Are you joking?
Americans have free Home spaces, Playstation Cards, Qore, demos and games come earlier, VOD, cheaper games, etc... USA are in a much better place in terms of gaming. Europe is almost always the last to be served despite Sony sold more in there.

[mastiffchild]

aking the mick aren't you? Our EU PSN gets games the latest og anrea and that we got this is mainly because we HAVE NO VIDSTORE even now and it doesn't make up for it. In fact, IIRC, Canada and Mexico don't get Videos either and they're part of SCEA while the US does.

In the EEC we got SF2THDR a WEEK before SF4! SCEE very rarely get us anything decent(our Home lag well behind other areas even though SCEE do most of the work on it! Point is this is just about the fist thing we ever got appreciably before the US that I can recall roght now.

We don't even get Qore! Bot even the chance of a paid for service, that's how much SCEE don't care about us(a far more loyal region to PSA3 than the US anyway so where's the loyalty in return?)so I wouldn't go wishing for SCEE performance as you'd have to lose huge lumps of US content!

EDIT: Not that MS give EU/UK gamers the same service as our US counterparts as they don't( no Netflix for example)it's just that SCEE are far, far worse. Honestly the US al,ost always gets a better deal than us and the first time you feel you don't you want to jump in with us? I wouldn't as you'd be furious within a week of SCEE BS.

[Simon_Brezhnev]

lol now is SCEA PSN vs SCEE PSN

[D4RkNIKON]

Not only does EU have vidzone and PlayTV, but their PSP treatment is much better.. They get the GPS and Camera peripherals, GO! Messenger service (Video messenger), GO! View (watch TV on PSP) and don't you have the 1seg tuner too?

[Baka-akaB]

Yeah wow we get useless psp stuff and playtv an expensive and glorified tivo wich doesnt even work everywhere in europe btw , that should hurt the us :s !!

While you guys get demos , dlcs and games earlier plus an actual video store ...

Anyway i was beginning to wonder about the lack of vidzone article and hype , when it has been nothing but awesome so far .

The amount of music available , even if missing a lot of huge and smaller artists , has been awesome for a launch .
There are only a few interface stuff to work upon .

And it needs the option to share playlists with friends and other users

[Fishy Fingers]

Vidzone is run by a 3rd party EU company, they only have to licence to supply EU consumers with the content.

[man0fsteel]

when both sides are arguing who's more fortunate, not who has the better features in their own territory.

:-D

[Highatus]

Heh, Canada has nothing, the only thing we get is the same PSN downloads at the same time. No video store,Hulu, Playtv,vidzone. The only thing i get to see on PSN is games, Which don't get me wrong is fantastic but the other services would be nice. PSN cards would be nice someday too.

[Raoh]

Reading the replies of my comment

i would say sony corp. is doing a terrible job of streamlining their regions.

for instance. a tivo like device? i want to take back my cablevision dvr's.. so a tivo like device for my ps3 is appealing. over time the playtv would save me money on the price of a dvr monthly.

vidzone? i could set up playlists for when i workout or clean.

localization is poor. i should not have to wait a year and a half for a game that was released in one region already.

sony needs to hire some young blood with new ideas. and better marketing. a good marketing staff would want to bring overseas features to boost marketing in other regions.

not to mention a counter argument would be to promote the ps3 browser more and get more websites to optimize for the ps3 browser like youtube did. a pandora.com optimization made for the ps3 browser would go a long way.

[Sir Ken_Kutaragi]

Watched 'The Prodigy' New Video last night;)
+ A few other ones. Good stuff. Keep it up SONY!!!;)

+ I was looking for that Video 'FireStarter'??? You know the one about the ChatBox 360!!! ;-D

[BYE]

HAHA good one!

[bageara]

my girlfriend now thinks shes got the right to be messing with my PS3!

Cool feature though

[tripewire]

My girl hates me playing my PS3 or PSP.

So this morning I put on some Live Video playlist.

She actually shut up, and watched it, looks at me and goes "This is cool"

:D

[Milky]

I was so impressed! It is so good, especially being free ;)

[Viatrophy]

I would by no means call VidZone a 'system seller' but it is a fantastic application for the PS3.

The sound quality is incredible and the video is just as good. :)

[Ninjamonkey]

For a free product its not too bad.

Though I was talking to a friend of mine and we agreed that it still needs some work to be on par with spotify.

It needs to have thew ability to store multiple playlists, and when you search for artists it takes ages on that scroll thing, theres also a few things in the menu and controls that can be made a little more intuitive.

But the bare bones of it are brilliant, its really good. Hopefully sony will work at it like tey always have and in the end we'll have something really great. I'm really looking forward to seeing how sony improves this service.

[Baka-akaB]

Except you can store multiple playlists , but yeah the search engine is a hassle .
It also needs a way to quickly access an artist's libary without adding one of his song first (or going through the search)

[Ninjamonkey]

Also didnt spotify talk about bringing their service to the ps3 and 360???

Now that would just be brilliant, especially if you can use your account for for your PC and console...

[mrv321]

My PS3 recieves a slower internet than my laptop yet my PS3 can buffer High Quality music videos quickly and I have never seen it pause... Well done because my internet is soo slow I'd often have to pause a youtube/gametrailers video and do something else.

[Brixxer600]

I downloaded it and am impressed , like others have said there are a lot of big artists missing just now but with regular updates this is one application that will get a lot of use , i'm sure there are loads of other people thinking exactly the same thing.

[Skynetone]

The x button is used normally to play music {know its square button}??

the home page dosent have options {you need to press 0 button} which is usually the back button

searching the letters of the alphabet is akward because i would allways scroll down to go threw the alphabet, but they have it as up for some annoying reason.

theres no quick way of getting back to searching the alphabet, you need to scroll all the way back up, {o button should bring you to alphabet and press it again to leave}

just give me some options so i can change this s++t myself

can we like buy hd versions of these vids for downloading to my hd or is it a online only program

[Karum]

It's really a great app and I was surprised that some of the music I searched for was actually already part of the library.

If they can expand the library on a regular basis then this will only continue to be a fantastic service.

I even found a couple of new songs and bands that I like.

[Oldschool_Wolf]

It's free so no complaints about the app, but no Nick Cave? Dissapointment knows no bounds!

[uie4rhig]

who's those birds in the picture on the website?

also how is this like spotify? i mean.. spotify is music only, while vidzone is music and clips.. also spotify has a MUCH bigger library! but then again, it kills your bandwidth lol

[marcindpol]

i just love it!!!!!!!!!!11

thank you SONY for those FREE thousands of music videos!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i believe the library of available songs will constantly grove up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[yorkie]

Great app, runs smooth as butter for me, this really is big big feature should be making more of noise about this one. I personally think the PSN is really taking off in a big way. Well done Sony

[xg-ei8ht]

People in the US. Just make a uk account.

Then log on with that account, i don't see why it wouldn't work.

I have a UK,US,HK account.

Works a treat with anything.

[marcindpol]

yes you can download vidzone itself
but when it comes to running the application it is not all that sweet, i mean vidzone is restricted to some particular countries and it will not work if your ip address is from outside:(

[stuntman_mike]

with more hd vids and better menu systems and more bands this will be an awesome music vid app.

[xino]

it's sick man!
Download Jai Ho
to bad they don't have Live your life yet:/

[digger18]

Its awesome...The videos take less than a second to run.

Oh and this maybe a system seller too, as two of my sons friends were around this afternoon and played around with it. After an hour they both went and brought a PS3 each. They brought them from my local Whsmiths, who are now selling them for £250. Has there been a price drop I didn't know about?

[Cassarole]

i love it.. but wouldn't mind better quality videos please

[tripewire]

What I love is the fact that I can be sitting at an Airport or a Maccas or a Starbucks and I can access my PS3 on remoteplay and stream System of A Down video clips onto my PSP.

Sony FTW