Movies for Sony PSP endangered?
According to this article on Reuters, movies for the PSP (on their proprietary UMD, or Universal Media Disc) may be going away. Apparently two major studio’s (Universal Studios and Paramount Pictures) have dropped the format already, and others may follow suit, due to lackluster sales of films on the format. The article mentions that Retailers are also considering dropping UMD from their shelves entirely. Bad news for PSP owners who like to relax on the train and watch movies. Fortunately there are a lot of titles out there now, and it will likely take a LOT for Sony Pictures to dump the format, so there may still be some hope, for a while anyway.
The article cites a few possible reasons for the drop-off in sales, two of which I myself found likely. One is the release of the fifth generation iPod (with video support), because between the device itself and the ability to buy television shows with iTunes it’s made a very easy (and relatively cheap) process for customers. Two is that there’s no way to hook your PSP up to a TV, so you can’t watch the movies you purchase on anything BUT your PSP (much less being able to play games on a TV). This was something that always left me scratching my head, make a slick device with good graphics, good game performance, add movie playback with a brand new format (UMD), and then don’t add any kind of TV-out on the thing. Huh? *scratches head* 
April 5th, 2006 at 12:01 pm
Most PSP users are ripping movies they purchase or already own on DVD and converting them to watch on the 1GB or bigger memory sticks. It’s retarded to have to re-purchase a movie you already own just to be able to watch it on a portable device. Also, battery life is better watching from the memory stick, ’cause you aren’t spinning a motor or powering a laser.
I saw a prototype of a gadget to connect a PSP to a TV sometime last year. Guess it didn’t get mass-produced…or it was a very good hoax…
April 7th, 2006 at 4:13 pm
The PSP to TV gadget I remembered reading about a while back was a total hack, some thing that clamped onto the front (over the screen) and piped the image through a cable. Can’t imagine the picture quality being any good.
Agreed though that most PSP users are ripping their movies like you mentioned. It is however the grand scheme of content owners to restrict that ability and to force you to purchace seperate licensed copies for different mediums / uses. Bastards!
April 10th, 2006 at 6:58 am
Bastards indeed. It’s such total crap, too.