Sony PSP and UMD movies????

[Steve Witt]

I was told today by someone that they may discontinue the (UMD)Movies for the Play Station Portable (PSP). I am saddened by this because I just purchased my PSP and I absolutely love it.

Can anyone elaborate on this or maybe just put an end to a nasty rumor.

[Chris Harris]

Sales of UMD movies aren't very strong. Nobody wants to purchase proprietary formats of movies they already have on DVD. Hence, fewer and fewer studios are backing the UMD format.

[Wayne Morellini]

I thought they had determined to turn down UMD ages ago. It is an shame, with an bit more work on capacity it could do HD by now.

[Andrew Kimery]

Originally Posted by Wayne Morellini

I thought they had determined to turn down UMD ages ago. It is an shame, with an bit more work on capacity it could do HD by now.

Why would you need HD on that tiny PSP screen?


-A

[Paulo Teixeira]

I owned a PSP for almost a year and a half now and the only things I ever bought for it since then was 2 games and a 1 gig memory card. I just could never imagine myself paying 25 to 30 dollars for a movie that would normally cost me 15 to 20 dollars for the DVD version. I assume most people who bought the PSP felt the same way.

Sony’s future plan is to include PSP movies for free in select Blu-Ray titles. That’s a whole lot better than wasting a lot of money on UMD movies.
http://dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=83599

Although it’s a rumor, I will almost guarantee you that Sony will release a new PSP with a Samsung 60 gig hard drive. This way, consumer won’t have to complain about having to buy memory cards.
http://www.engadget.com/2006/12/28/p...ng-hard-drive/
Game Developers Conference will be held from March 7 to 9. So if the rumor is true, you will know about it within 2 weeks.

[Matthew Jackson]

Yea, purchasing UMD's for $30 is crazy... Actually I've been working on this for a bit... I was given one of these things, and have bought a couple of movies and a couple of games, but am not willing to spend that much on media, when the rest of the media world is going down in cost and down in size... SOOO... I've figured out that you can take your DVD's and copy them to a memory stick... via... a program called PSP Video 9. You have to buy it, but it will transcode video to play... so the real investment should be bigger memory sticks, or just transfer your films from your computer to your psp and back... as far as legality... the DVD's are copied in some kind of psp format, and you can only play them on psp's etc... so like ipods... you can store on your computer and play on your psp, but you can't move anything around to other places... so I guess it's okay... but yea, I'm not paying $50 for a UMD. that's crazy.

[Steve Witt]

I travel a bunch and I was excited about being able to watch a full feature movie any time I wanted.
I agree that 20-30 dollars is just too much. I wonder why video stores are allowed to rent the UMD games but NOT the movies? Any one know?

Hello Matthew Jackson....Is the quality of the video played on the PSP after copying them to a memory stick (via the method you described) still as terrific as it looks when played with the UMD? I like the idea.

I'm also wondering what the largest sony memory stick is now???

[Rob Lohman]

I can't watch a movie on that small a screen. I'll just boot up my laptop if I'm not at home.

The only UMD movie I have is the one that came with the kit. Haven't watched, nor will I likely ever watch it.

But then I tend to buy the cheaper games as well. Most of my games are around $20 or below. I am going to make an exception for that Ratchet & Clank game though. Also pondering to get that Sonic game... hmmm....

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

Originally Posted by Steve Witt

I was told today by someone that they may discontinue the (UMD)Movies for the Play Station Portable (PSP). I am saddened by this because I just purchased my PSP and I absolutely love it.

Can anyone elaborate on this or maybe just put an end to a nasty rumor.

I can tell you that Sony has totally revamped the UMD program, and will continue to offer market-point titles vs entire catalogs. Putting films like "To Kill a Mockingbird" on UMD, or "The Passion" on UMD was simply a poor plan. What teen watches those sorts of movies? Action movies, Xtreme sports stuff, vids that fit the market demographic is much smarter, and they've figured that out. Additionally, there is a new announcement at the GDC on that score, FWIW, we supplied AMD with some action footage that is being used as part of the PSP display.
As far as "Why HD on a PSP or other portable device?" Well...I believe there are two reasons:
1. Because when you look at PSP vid or Archos vid vs iPod vid for example...that explains a big chunk of it there.
2. Because they can. The resolution already is there because of the game graphics, might as well utilize it and make a marketing bullet out of it.

[Wayne Morellini]

Originally Posted by Andrew Kimery

Why would you need HD on that tiny PSP screen?


-A

I was not meaning HD on an PSP, but as an general media format, where a 5, 7, 10, or even 13 inch LCD portable player could be used.

Going back into time, the Mini-Disk, could have replaced floppies, and then CD's as the capacity increased to several hundred megabytes (I don't know where they are at now days, but I think it was over 1GB last time I looked years ago. But Sony decide to have them as a priority format with their nice pricing, that pretty much held them back as an portable CD player. After this came an even smaller format, that companies conveniently decided not support and let go. It had 250MB to 500MB, but was capable of something like 1.5-3GB (forget which). I think UMD's are a lot bigger, and capable of more. They could have made it an general format, if they made UMD capable of being a played by cheap DVD players. In an similar way to how you would put an 8cm DVD in the middle of the DVD tray carrier, but have it shaped to take UMD, and central clamp and spin mechanism that is dual function to hook into the UMD, allowing UMD to make maximum use of the central disk area (which 8cm DVD disks can't do). Sony could make money on it, buy simply supplying dual function disks to the cheap Chinese manufactures, avoiding the problem with tracking licensing that present DVD licensing schemes have.

I agree, that $30 is crazy luxury, I buy most of my DVD's for around $7.60 legit price from legitimate stores. Why do we have to have piracy, when the things are legit this price.

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

Originally Posted by Wayne Morellini

Going back into time, the Mini-Disk, could have replaced floppies, and then CD's as the capacity increased to several hundred megabytes (I don't know where they are at now days, but I think it was over 1GB last time I looked years ago. But Sony decide to have them as a priority format with their nice pricing, that pretty much held them back as an portable CD player. .

There is a little more to it than that.
Sony, being a big company, is lots of little companies inside a big umbrella.
Just because for example, Sony Medical Services has a great technology that would hugely benefit their Sony Media Software division, that Media Software has access to it.
Each division is driven by profit, and if one division wants technology, they must license it from the other division, at (often greater) cost no different than if a non-Sony licensee came along. There are actually several examples of this that can be cited, but one big example is; "Why do Sony VAIO's come with Ulead and Adobe software but not Sony software?"
The division that designs and manufactures hardgoods such as media blanks isn't at all related to Sony Electronics other than the four letters.

[Wayne Morellini]

I am sorry, but it is, that is why there is an umbrella of companies, for control and ownership. Drastic cuts happened across most Sony companies directed from the top, to the disadvantage of some, not because they were completely independent and could tell the leadership what they would do. I take the points you say, but that is not the way a successful company group needs to be run. The reasons, that I will not name, for legal purposes, are likely different. They could simply organise the best method of making an long term profit, rather than limping along. Mini-disk has had limited success outside Japan (and any other part of Asia that took it on). In the early 80's we were waiting for it to liberate us for many years, but it just disappeared to replace by the promise of 100mb floppies in every machine, that then disappeared. It was thought, like UMD, an extra profit could be made, but this is an common problem in industry, to prioritise an product for shorter term profit, and eventually loose the long term advantage. I would prefer an 10GB UMD (with blu-ray or other competing technologies) based disk for work. But this is all opinion as usual, from the location where I sit.

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

I see your point, Wayne. From some folks view, Sony is a failure.
Someday, I hope my company fails like they have. ;-)

Anyway, you'll never see a 10GB BD, it's a spec, and a spec that Sony doesn't own by themselves. UMD may not be a success in the market they hoped it would be, but to have the successes they've had, a few failures or weak points along the way are expected.

[Peter Jefferson]

u know, i wrote up ahuge response to a post similar to this at the SOny forums...
think abotu it, if Sony integrated BD into the UMB hardware shell, it could lead a way for Sony to compete with P2 on a prosumer.. hell even professional level.. image XCDamHD on a Z1 type camcorder.. the issue of HDV compression woudlnt be an issue.. and the p2 type workflow could easily be adapted....

[Paulo Teixeira]

Originally Posted by Peter Jefferson

image XCDamHD on a Z1 type camcorder.. the issue of HDV compression woudlnt be an issue.. and the p2 type workflow could easily be adapted....

I been saying that for a long time now on this forum, cancorderinfo and HDVinfo. Every single time I decide to bring it up there is always a lot of negative comments about that idea because they don’t want to see tape disappear. TDK already have mini Blu-Ray discs with a capacity of 16.5 gigs and a dual layer 33 gig version for future consumer camcorders. I did cause quite a stir on the internet for having people believe that both Sony and Panasonic was going to release a Blu-Ray version of the Z1u and the HVX100.

Since it is 2007, maybe their will be more people agreeing with me that Blu-Ray is a much better solution than DV cassettes.

The way I see it, we can argue over what’s more reliable but one thing is certain, a 33 gig mini Blu-Ray disc is a lot more than what can fit on a DV cassette. My original idea was to use standard size Blu-Ray discs because the body size of the DVX100 and the Z1u would still be very similar and for that format, TDK already have a 200 gig disc.