PSP not just a gaming platform: Movies on UMD

07 Mar 05 14:56 by Crabbyappleton in category Uncategorized To news archive

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Already out in Japan and slated to be unleashed in the US on the 24th of March, the PSP or Playstation Portable is now a movie platform a well. We have known this for some time, but it is interesting to see some of the titles that will soon hit the streets. Lions Gate Entertainment has announced 12 movie titles that they plan to release initially in the UMD (universal media disc) format. Smaller than DVDs, these 1.8GB UMD discs will only work in Sony’s PSP. Lions Gate figures that the same people that like the PSP also like the movies they make and in the US, the first million that buy a PSP will also receive a copy of Spider Man 2 on mini disc.

Four movies have already been announced for PSP including: XXX, Hellboy, Resident Evil: Apocalypse and Once Upon a Time in Mexico. Here’s some more and a comment from Steve Beeks, president of Lions Gate.

‘Movies to go’
The Punisher and House of the Dead along with older
titles such as Total Recall and Rambo: First Blood, will be in the UMD
format, with disks costing between $20 (Â£10.40) to $30 (Â£15.60) for new
titles and $10 (Â£5.20) to $20 for older films.
“When we first saw the machine and started talking to Sony, we immediately decided it was going to be a winner, both from the gaming perspective and from the perspective of people watching movies on the go,” Mr Beeks said.”

This is great news for those that were going to buy a PSP anyway. This added fuctionality will not only give people more justification to purchase, this new content may be a nice source of income for Lions Gate as well. Looks like there will be plenty out there now. But, they do seem a bit expensive!

Source: BBC

12 Comments

emocean: Posts: 38; Posted on: 07 Mar 05 17:02

I'm not a PSP fan anyways... but does anyone else think it's crazy to buy a copy of a movie both on DVD, and on a UMD? ::

HarmlessGryphon: Posts: 41; Posted on: 07 Mar 05 17:13

$30 for a movie? That seems more than a bit expensive, conisdering most new releases get discounted as soon as they appear on the shelves, or simply never sell for $30 (for a single disc package.)

guest: Posts: 15288; Posted on: 07 Mar 05 18:57

These UMD movies will be of a lower quality than a DVD as well. With only 1.8 on the UMD compared to the almost 9 gig on a DVD there just isn't room for high quality. Sure they will probalby look fine on the PSP but a lower quality shouldn't cost more than the better one. They should be selling these UMD discs no more than $10.

Rhelic: Posts: 302; Posted on: 07 Mar 05 19:32

First guys, when they say UMD movies will be $20 to $30 they mean retail price. If you stop and think for a second, that's what the retail price of a DVD is anyway. So in reality, UMD movies will be $15-$19 in the stores. Now if Sony gives Spiderman for free on UMD with a PSP purchase, Sony is a marketing genius but I think this whole UMD thing is a great scam, kind of like cell phone ringtones. Morons complain it's a rip off, smart business people think up these ideas and get rich off of the dumb people eating them up. This is why none of you guys are rich yet :P
[edited by Rhelic on 07.03.2005 19:34]

admdvs: Posts: 6; Posted on: 07 Mar 05 20:07

1.8 GB of data for a movie using MPEG4 compression (with a single sound track) will be just a good as a DVD using MPEG2 compression at about 3 to 4 GB - which is the typical size of the video portion of a dvd movie.

bokkasrealm: Posts: 44; Posted on: 07 Mar 05 20:40

I have no doubt the movies will look great but to actually buy or re-buy movies just to play on this one machine is about as stupid as buying a stand alone DVD recorder for the discs produced to only be able to be played back in that machine. Nintendo DS should release an official encoder and playback cartridge for Compact Flash. They would murder the competition.

petera: Posts: 892; Posted on: 07 Mar 05 21:18

You can already encode your own movies onto the PSP

have a look at http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000980024404/

790: Posts: 52; Posted on: 07 Mar 05 21:38

rhelic: And you are rich? What was your genius Idea? Anyway, people will buy this, probably mostly kids and HS students. College and older will probably be more conservative and only pick a cheap $10 flick up for the ocasional getaway. At least that's my prediction. I for one won't be rebuying any of my dvd's. I also hope this thing has a tv-out option too so as to serve more incentive.
[edited by 790 on 07.03.2005 21:39]

suhksb: Posts: 83; Posted on: 08 Mar 05 16:00

I have PSP and i've watched movie on my PSP too. I wouldn't recommend to watch movie on PSP because the screen is too small

beaker75: Posts: 24; Posted on: 09 Mar 05 05:17

Now if they (Sony or 3rd party) will make and distribute a burner and blank discs so people can burn their own movies (ie The TV show you haven't had time to watch yet). However, I dought this will happen as they (Sony et. al) will just consider it a means to pirate stuff. However, I think they could, it they put their pea size brains to it, come of a solution to make everyone happy. But then again they do have a money sucking vortex instead of a brain.

zendal: Posts: 14; Posted on: 11 Mar 05 11:11

Well, Sony did make the betamax which led to the VHS VCR we use today. Which got upgraded to DVD-/+R and also TV Card and bittorrent. So they may come out with UMD equipment and maybe HD-DVD or BluRay.

fatbaby: Posts: 94; Posted on: 26 May 09 19:43

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PSP not just a gaming platform: Movies on UMD

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