Get Your Act Together Sony!

To set the stage, I use Yahoo Music Unlimited (YMU) – an online music service that allows unlimited song access for about $8 per month. You can’t burn to CD – but you can authorize 3 devices (or something like that), including most modern non iPod MP3 players. I wish Rhapsody was here, but it isn’t. YMU uses PlaysForSure – Windows DRM. I use YMU to download, then Windows Media Player (WMP) to sort/index/tag/etc.

This week I purchased a PS3, and hooked it up to my wireless home network. The PS3 is more than just a gaming system, it is a central device for your living room. You can stream video/audio from and to it...which is exciting. So, I turned on sharing on Windows Media Player on my computer, and then had the PS3 “discover” it. No problems so far. I then access my desktop library – I can see my playlists, songs, etc. Sweet! Hmmm...some of the tracks don’t display – “unsupported data”. Looks like the PS3 can’t read/play PlaysForSure DRM’d songs. However, it can play all of my unlocked MP3’s – you know, the ones that I ripped from CD’s, etc.

The fault here is actually with Sony – there is no reason why they can’t have the PS3 support Windows DRM – the PS3 could just be “authorized” as one of my 3 allowable devices.

Oh – you can stream video too, but only certain formats....of course WMV is not supported.

Come on Sony! If you want to run the living room – build some support!