PS2 Internet TV Media Player - WTF?!

[kingofgrills]

Okay, I just received an e-mail update from Northwest Innovation News, an IT related news wire, and the following entry caught my eye. It's a big head scratcher for me.

Widevine Ties Into Playstation 2 Media Player
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Seattle-based Widevine has inked a deal to include the firm's DRM technology in a new media player for the Sony PlayStation 2, the firm said yesterday. According to Widevine, Qtv will use the firm's video optimization and DRM platform as part of its Qtv Internet TV Media Player, which turns Sony's Playstation 2 into a TV set-top box. The deal also covers mobile phone and computer operating systems. Financial details of the win were not disclosed.

I went directly to the company web site, just to make sure they mistakenly wrote Playstation 3 instead of Playstation 2, but it was correct.

Here's a link to Widevine's press release:

http://www.widevine.com/pr/183_qtv_partnership.html

Why they are launching this as a new initiative for the PS2, and not for the PS3, is beyond me.

[Shin-Ra]

Who'd use their services on PS3?

So they're making the most of this:

The Qtv Internet TV Media Player gives consumers the unique ability to access and play both personal and Internet-based content from their TV, mobile phone and computer. When it is released in the next few months, it will have the largest installed base of supported devices of any media player. Qtv leverages the Sony PlayStation 2 (PS2), the world’s most popular game console, as a TV set-top box. A PS2 is already connected to the TV in over 40 million U.S. households and over 140 million households worldwide. The Qtv media player also supports over 1,100 models of mobile phones and most computer operating systems, with support expanding to new networked TV devices and mobile phones.

“The existing market base of PS2’s in the U.S. and around the world is staggering,” said Doug Light, Widevine senior vice president of business development and sales. “Qtv will be able to bring programming optimized and protected by Widevine to what may be the largest installed hardware base of any existing media player solution. This is a unique opportunity for us and we are excited by the potential.”

But they may be disappointed by the number of these users interested in using their PS2 for non-gaming media playback.

[kingofgrills]

That's my point. This service on PS3 wouldn't offer us anything we don't already have. Plus, interest in the PS2 is rapidly waning, even with the number of PS2s that have been sold in the past eight years.

I think they've missed the boat on every level.

[Trogdor2010]

They could have gotten away with this about 5 to 8 years ago, but it's really too little, too late. But they have a chance of sucess if they provide this for the Xbox 360.

[Toptube]

tons of people still play PS2. The PS2 only recently ceased being a large source of revenue for Sony. The boat is not missed. and really, its so out of left field that it could easily get people to pull out their PS2 in curiousity or in some move of percieved value by continuing to use something they already have, rather than buying a whole new thing.

The marketing needs to be there, though.

The other real problem is that probably not even half of all the PS2s out there have the ethernet adapter add-on/built in.

[Glenn Morten]

QTV is a Widevine customer. The PS2 is one of the platforms their player works on the release was announcing a new customer.

Widevine works on a wide range of consumer electronics. The PS2/QTV player is just one of many new platforms we support.

Yes Widevine PS3 support is coming soon. We also support the Nintendo Wii So our service provider partners will be able to deliver to a wide range of gaming consoles.

Since this is a Blu-ray forum... it is important to note we also support Blu-ray players from the major manufacturers.

Cheers,

Glenn

[Proteus]

Hi Glenn and welcome.

Always good to see people from the company come in and address things directly.

Thanks.

[kevinbr100]

Originally Posted by Proteus

Hi Glenn and welcome.

Always good to see people from the company come in and address things directly.

Thanks.

wow their marketing people are on top of it, they must of been able to trackback through the referred url. surprised a few viewers from here would be enough to attract their attention.