Starting tonight you’ll be able to stream music videos on your PS3 thanks to Sony’s new VidZone service. And it’s free.
You’ll find VidZone in the Music section of the XMB. A quick download later and you’ll have access to its launch library of “over 10,000″ videos.
Artists in that launch lineup include Pussycat Dolls, Britney Spears, Fatboy Slim, Black Eyed Peas, Glasvegas, Dizzee Rascal, Pink, Noisettes, Ne-Yo, Armand van Helden, Tori Amos, Akon, and hopefully some other decent artists Sony neglected to mention in their press release.
VidZone lets you search the library and create playlists, although you’ll see interstitial ads popping up between songs as well as on the library interface (see below). That’s why the service is free.
PS3 owners, let us know if you’re checking out VidZone tonight and if it’s any good.
Rod
Thursday, June 11, 2009 at 4:31 PMAny info on how big (file size) each video is?
Ben Harring-Harris
Thursday, June 11, 2009 at 4:31 PMCant wait, the trailers for Vidzone look great.
Hopefully it isnt upped to late, wouldnt mind having a good play around with it.
Any specific time for uploading?
Aaron Keomanikhoth
Thursday, June 11, 2009 at 4:50 PMI wonder how much megabytes streaming will take?
Nicholas
Thursday, June 11, 2009 at 5:17 PMIf it comes online not too late, then sure i’ll give it a whirl
Scott Vandonkelaar
Thursday, June 11, 2009 at 5:19 PMI’ve been looking forward to this one. Of course I’m about a text document away from my cap so trying it out might be short lived.
Aditya Goyal
Thursday, June 11, 2009 at 5:27 PMwhat time do updates usually happen?
Goraxium
Thursday, June 11, 2009 at 5:55 PMI remember a time when they used to let you download music videos for free… I was a little disappointed to see that disappear, so this is a good thing, even with the ads included…
michael
Thursday, June 11, 2009 at 7:12 PMhey the file size is around 20mb should be fast and easy 2 download
It's up!
Friday, June 12, 2009 at 3:29 AMit’s up! u have to download it from aus playstation store, install thru games. Enjoy getting an ‘overloaded’ message but :P lol
RUFiO
Friday, June 12, 2009 at 6:46 PMInstalled it today. Pretty stoked, can see this getting a workout Fri and Sat nights. Ads are fairly unobtrusive too, but they are all UK ads. Weird.
Gobbo
Friday, June 12, 2009 at 6:56 PMWow… this is actually really good… and will get more use than silly old Home ever will.
Only criticisms – the search functions are laggy and pretty useless… AND it doesn’t work with the official BR remote?!? Something they’ll fix in an early patch for sure you’d think.
microUgly
Friday, June 12, 2009 at 10:26 PMThe good news is that the selection of music is very impressive–I can see myself using this service a lot.
They have some good preset playlists to tune into immediately.
The video quality is acceptable–I’m on ADSL1, so if they vary the quality on your connection speed then it might be even better for ADSL2. I can’t comment on audio quality as it’s a little late to crank it up.
But I think it has some teething issues:
a) You can’t use the PS3 remote at all.
b) Videos are 4:3–even the widescreen ones which means black board all the way around.
c) Navigation isn’t intuitive–none of the controls match the normal PS3 media playback functions.
d) Once you enter the menu you can’t get back to home screen where the preset playlists are presented nicely. At least, I can’t figure out how.
JoshD
Saturday, June 13, 2009 at 11:14 AMthumbs up to Sony, aside from the minor bugs listed by other users… this is a fantastic service and will be the death of Channel V and MTV in my house!
nzgeek
Monday, June 15, 2009 at 3:05 PMI find it odd that Aus gets Vidzone, but NZ misses out. Why is it that we’re treated as a single country for so many things related to gaming and music, but not for this?
Patrick Malone
Wednesday, June 24, 2009 at 5:00 PMyes l agree we get some trailer for it insteed oh good one sony nz . wheres are play tv or is it in the bin marked to hard to do where all lazy @### here
Patrick Malone
Wednesday, June 24, 2009 at 4:58 PMgee this not good come on sony nz get your act toghter first you upset nz playstation fans with no play tv after teeling the world about it
know cant even get vidzone this is wrong we like second cousins there was time we lead the world on new ideas know where last inline if at all
Alfie
Thursday, June 25, 2009 at 6:36 AMit has a decent video but mine has no sound