Sony has revamped its PlayStation 3 video on demand service, with a vastly improved AI and greatly simplified discoverability, and renamed it Video Unlimited.

As before, Video Unlimited offers a selection of films and TV shows for rent or purchase, in both standard and high definition. Now, a bar on the right of the screen suggests related videos, linked by genre, setting, actors and more.

Charles Ying, one of the developers of the new-look client, reveals that it is in fact a web app, built in Javascript and making use of lightweight APIs to enable hardware-accelerated graphics, shaders and video playback. Dubbed Trilithium, it was also used in the development of PS3's Hulu Plus application and will be available to Sony partners, who will be able to create similar apps without specific knowledge of PS3's inner workings.

The new-look Video Unlimited is currently only available to US PlayStation Plus subscribers, who can download the app from the PlayStation Store. In a post on the PlayStation Blog, Sony Network Entertainment's Mike Aragon says the update will be rolled out to all users in the coming weeks, but SCE UK is yet to confirm if, or when, it will be available to those of us on the other side of the Atlantic.



Posted: Sep 28, 2011 12:27 pm

Source: http://www.next-gen.biz/news/sony-unveils-video-unlimited