A year on from launch, Sony Pictures Core on PS5 is still a serious wasted opportunity

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Revolutionary on Bravia TVs, Sony Pictures Core is just another streaming service on PS5

A 65-inch Samsung TV on a wooden stand in a living room. On the screen is the homepage of Sony Pictures Core from the PS5, with a big banner for the Venom: The Last Dance movie.
(Image credit: Future)

Sony Pictures Core (previously known as Bravia Core) is, at its heart, a revolutionary streaming service.

It first launched way back in 2021 as an exclusive bonus for buyers of top-of-the-range Sony TVs, and it remains a genuinely compelling reason to consider one of those over a set from a rival manufacturer. Why? Because it offers movie streams that rival 4K Blu-rays for picture and sound quality.

I've been hugely impressed by Sony Pictures Core whenever I've used it as part of the process of testing a Sony TV. The so-called Pure Streams, which stream at up to 80Mbps, aren't quite 4K Blu-ray quality, but they're not far off, and they're clearly superior to the relatively bit-starved streams offered by every rival streaming service, even the highest-quality of which (Apple TV) is limited to about 30Mbps.

Of course, restricting these Pure Streams to premium Sony TVs isn't ideal, so I was delighted when Sony launched the Sony Pictures Core app on PS5 towards the end of last year. Finally, everyone would be able to stream movies at almost 4K Blu-ray quality. Rejoice!

Except... they wouldn't. Because, in its infinite wisdom, Sony decided to launch Sony Pictures Core onto the PS5 without its USP – those Pure Streams. Instead, the data rate of the PS5 app is limited to the sort of numbers we already get from services such as Netflix and Prime Video.

At launch, the Sony Picture Core app on PS5 looked a bit basic, and my hope was that it was a bit of a 'soft' launch, with improvements – including those Pure Streams – to come at a later date. Unfortunately, while the app is now quite polished, the Pure Streams are still nowhere to be found and there's nothing special about the streaming quality of the app.

I'm not saying that there's nothing good about Sony Pictures Core. If you're already a PlayStation Plus Premium subscriber, you get free access to a rotating selection of around 100 Sony Pictures movies, and if you buy a 12-month subscription to any PlayStation Plus membership plan, you get credits that you can 'spend' on premium movies. More compelling, I think, is that Sony Pictures Core has a catalogue of over 150 IMAX Enhanced titles, most of which aren't available anywhere else.

But that isn't enough for me. I buy and rent movies through the Apple TV store (still sometimes referred to as the iTunes Store) every few days, but I regularly forget that Sony Pictures Core even exists. If its PS5 app supported Pure Stream, it would, without a doubt, be a very different story, and Sony Pictures Core would be my go to for movie streaming. As far as I'm aware, there's no technical reason that these high bitrate movies can't be supported by the PS5 so, I implore you, Sony – get them on there!

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One reason we need higher-quality streams is that 4K Blu-ray players are becoming less popular. Just this week, yet another manufacturer announced it was ceasing Blu-ray player production.

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Tom Parsons
Tom Parsons

Tom Parsons has been writing about TV, AV and hi-fi products (not to mention plenty of other 'gadgets' and even cars) for over 15 years. He began his career as What Hi-Fi?'s Staff Writer and is now the TV and AV Editor. In between, he worked as Reviews Editor and then Deputy Editor at Stuff, and over the years has had his work featured in publications such as T3, The Telegraph and Louder. He's also appeared on BBC News, BBC World Service, BBC Radio 4 and Sky Swipe. In his spare time Tom is a runner and gamer.