PSP: UMD's - Anyone Biting?
Sony UMD (Universal Media Disc)
This just sounds like a ripoff to me. $15 for a disc with no extras, just the movie? Not only that, they say it's "Universal", but can only be played on PSP's right now? This is about as bad as Mini Disc. Is someone honestly going to sit down for 90+ minutes, holding a PSP, watching a movie?
I can't see how this'll work. UMD movies would be fun if they were like "pocket money" things you could pick up anywhere, like at service and train stations and airports on impulse. They are being marketed in a parrelel to DVD's. Whoever is in charge of the marketing of the UMD movies need to be shot.
Wonderful, fantastic idea, appaling execution.
Seriously though, it's nothing more than an expensive gimmick of the PSP, as it stands now. They really should have tried to turn the UMD movies into quick porta-copies, no extras, that were sold for say £3 each ($6?) for new releases and then got cheaper as the movies went on.
And that's another thing I didn't think about - who seriously holds a PSP for that long. You can't prop them up like a portable DVD player screen, so it's either hold it, or place it on a surface and look straight down for 90+ mins. Hardly the "conveniece" it claims to be I think. Then there's the whole dead pixel issue. Barely a problem in games, but movies could make them unbearable.
Sony would have done better business with this idea if they had re-writable UMD's or made mini-DVD's that worked in the UMD drive, so that PSP owners could burn their films to discs themselves. Another hurdle is the fact that UMD movies need to be spun. The PSP only spins game discs when it needs to - when it loads up a level, or streams some music off the thing. With movies, the PSP is streaming the data the whole time, crippling the battery. The likes of Lord Of The Rings can't even be viewed in one sitting without having to charge it. Craziness.
The best idea is to simply rip a DVD and store it on the PSP's memory card - which would also increase the battery time because it wouldn't need to spin a disc the whole time. Again, piracy is more logical.
And, the UMD movies are region protected. Expensive and limited.
Put it this way - you could get a dedicated portable DVD player for the cost of a dozen UMD movies. Bigger and adjustable screen too.
I know I own roughly a hundred DVD's. Weigh up the price of a portable DVD player and re-buying all of my DVD stock on UMD and it's pretty obvious what I would rather do.
I think it's not fair to be priced around the same thing as DVD but I would buy it if I wanted to play movies when I travel on my PSP and then later on play some games. It's convenient but still a little high. This is because it costs SONY the same or even more to make the UMD because it's propietary. It's be cool though if later the UMD's came with playable games for movies that have a game for it. Cool right.
I got the house of the flying daggers right when I bought my PSP...One thing is, no one ever marketed UMD's as DVD equal, ever. They have no other platforms to market towards, except I here there are platforms in the works as well as burnable UMD's. Just give it a little while, the reason they were priced so high was for production and shipping costs in conjunction with demand expectations. They knew they could make some gross return if they sold them pricey in the first place. The prices will drop and so will the price for the PSP. But the UMD sales worldwide are acctually good enough to get other companies interested in producing UMD's. The picture quality on the movies is excellent, and the sound through the head phones is great. Also you have many options when viewing...you don't have to watch the whole movie at once, the PSP will keep it where you left off while you switch to listening to music or turn it off when you get where your going. I am positive they will introduce accesories for watching movies...i.e. car speaker jack, seat and dashboard holders, etc. I rigged something up to stick mine right on the dash of my car...my girlfriend was giving me crap for getting the PSP, now she wants to use it all the time. And on the battery issue...that thing is F ing MINT...it lasts forever, I watched House of The Flying Daggers=2hrs and it didn't even drop a bar...then I played MG ACID for an hour and a half...guess what? Still three bars.
Its BAD ASS
I check out UMDs whenever I happen to see them. Are they sold anywhere other than video game stores? Anyway, I've found the UMDs to not only cost as much as the DVD, but a lot of the time, more!
I saw Ghostbusters for $15. The DVD box set is the same price and you get both movies.
Cursed I found for $25. Please, Dimension would've never dreamed to charge that much for the DVD.
$26 for Ren & Stimpy Seasons 1&2... Volume 1! For about $5 more, you can get the entire seasons on DVD.
I have never checked out a UMD's features, as I don't own or plan to own a PSP, so I'll take your word for it about the lack of them. That makes me even more disgusted at this.
Amazon.com prices....
Sony Playstation Portable (PSP) Value Pack: $250
Samsung DVD-L70 7" Portable DVD Player: $170
Where is the advantage of a PSP (as far as UMDs are concerned)? I fail to see one.
I dont see the use in buying a movie for PSP if you have a dvd player (which most people do).If your going to use it for long trips then just buy a game.It will keep you occupied for much longer.Actions dvds and such dont deserve treatment like that.They deserve to be watched on a big screen.
The watchers are only cheating themselves.
If any trip is going to take long enough for you to require to watch a movie within that span of time get a portable DVD player, if your going to play games then perhaps buy a PSP. If I ever got a PSP I'd never use it to play movies. They are indeed the mini-disc player for movies. Besides the PSP is just Sony's way of grabbing your money for all things related to PS2 before PS3 is released.