edstein

Link

This is about what I expected. I can't see starting a whole new movie collection in this format at this price. If they decide to bundle one of these with a DVD I would pay a few extra bucks. Otherwise, I will be content with ripping my DVD's to memory cards or using the eventual writable UMD format.

Mod Note: This is PSP related so I assumed this was the proper forum.

ravan

$36-40 is beyond insane.. even if they are $20 I cant see this happening.
You'd never buy it as the 'primary' format for a movie.. does it hold extras etc? I doubt there is 9 gb on there... and non-sony studios will probably not be releasing a lot of titles on this platform I would think..

Draven

Seriously - they should be $20 MSRP and sell for $10-15. That's the only way I'd ever consider buying a UMD.

The Franchise

I can't see them staying that expensive. I predict around a $15-20 price point for the US. That would be borderline impulse buy at the airport to watch a movie of your choice on a plane flight.

gp98

The article says that they are priced about the same price as a dvd in Japan so I wouldn't get too worked up about the $36. I like the idea of having a bundle for a few bucks more, otherwise, I can't imagine buying any.....

PixyJunket

Media prices in Japan are deadly. UMDs will probably be in the $20-$25 range here.

jeffdsmith

With their movies costing ~$35 bucks there, its amazing that the gaming market is actually shrinking at ~$50.

Sony will need to sell at least 15-20 million PSP's before they put any serious effort behind the UMD movies, otherwise everyone one they make will be throwing money out the window. I'm doing a shot gun estimation of 1UMD sold for every 15-20 owners.

Get Me Coffee

IMO I see them probably around $17 to $20 range

Rob V

My guess is that encoding software onto a media disk will become more and more accessible and we'll all just spend the $150 for a 1gb stick instead of paying those ridiculous prices. Even at $20 it's a ripoff.

LorenzoL

I think that the UMD movies needs to be priced in the $15-20 range in North America to be successful.

- Edited for spelling.

Michael Corvin

Who would want to pay even $15 for a movie that can only be played on a 4" screen? That is insane. I know who. Kids. Parents can buy them for the kids and not tie up a tv, or let thier kid use them alone on vacation trips. But then Sony would have to admit they are marketing to kids!

The bundle would be the only reason to even consider for me.

Josh H

Crazy. I wouldn't buy a UMD movie period (not paying for something I have on DVD already, rather just transfer them to memory stick) much less at those prices.

PixyJunket

If you've seen the movie lineup for UMDs it looks more like they're trying to hit the GTA pre/early-teen audience.

The Franchise

I disagree. For the travelling professional (aka: me) it would be great to purchase a movie of my choice at the airport for $12-20 to watch on an 18 hour flight. I'd be willing to pay that much for a movie I hadn't seen before or really liked. Heck movies in the theater cost $10 to watch now and rentals cost $5 so paying slightly more to watch the movie on the go would be great.

Even better would be a place in the airport to rent UMD movies (and maybe PSP's) for in flight entertainment. They already have services like that for portable DVD player rental. Hmmm.... wonder if you could play wi-fi games at 50,000 feet?

darkside

It is a neat idea, but if you have the choice between the DVD for $20 or the UMD for $20 I really can't see going with the UMD. However, they sold a ton of those $20 Game Boy cartoon carts at $20 each so who knows.

DRG

I'm holding out until they release The Hours and Under the Tuscan Sun on UMD!!!!

Michael Corvin

Portable dvd player.

I can understand your spot(I think this is where the disposable dvd's should have been marketed). But if you ever want to watch that movie again, you have to watch it on the PSP, or re-buy it. That would suck.

sofdec

Thats pretty much what I expected, those arent really more than DVD Prices, thats usually what DVDs cost in japan (And believe me, I've bought my fair share of "normal" japanese DVDs for $50+ each ), expect them to be about $15-20 in the US. I'm guessing sony will also do some sort of discounts for people who buy both (Like a "Buy the DVD get $10 off the UMD" thing).

I have a portable DVD Player, and really its more of a hassle to bring somewhere than anything, probably 95+ % of the use of it is at home. If you could bring a movie or two and use it on a system you had with you anyways (For instance, on a trip) I'd much rather do that. I'm guessing they'll be more than just DVDs, and have some interactive content for them though.

jeffdsmith

WHY I will not be watching UMD movies on my PSP, and likely you neither.

For me personally, I have the capability to put any of my regular DVD movies on to my Axim x50V PDA and watch them in PSP beating 640x480 resolution. It takes me all but about 5 minutes to setup the pc to rip it and download it to my PDA. The thing is, I watch movies when I want to relax. i.e. Friday night after a long week with my ass on the couch. I don't ever find myself saying "Hmm, have 10 minutes to wait for a meeting, I think I want to watch 1/12 of a movie right now" So I never bother. I did at first however, thinking "Damn, this will be cool". And it is cool. But being cool, and being something you use are two different things altogether.

If I'm in a plane, sure I might use it if its built in, but I don't recall Sony say they were marketing the PSP specifically at such a small market of users that are on planes for over 2 hours at a time. More to the point, most business exectutives have nice laptops they can watch the movie on a glorious 14-17" screen at a proper resolution. Sure they are more difficult to move around, but the size of the screen, and extra work capability make them well worth the effort.

Finally, selection. Is any other movie house going to release UMD movies? I only see Sony bringing their movies out. Ask any sucessful media platform, it takes broad support to make something worth while. Why would anyone seriously consider the PSP as a movie playing device if they can only 14.5% of all movies released on it? (That assuming Sony releases every movie they release on DVD to UMD)

Drexl

It's about 1.8 GB, but the movie will be stored in a lower video resolution (480x272 instead of 740x480 like on a standard DVD) and will use more advanced AV codecs than DVDs use. Plus, they'll likely save more space by having only a 2-channel stereo soundtrack instead of 5.1 surround. I doubt there will be extras.

I might consider buying one or two movies in UMD format, but that's it.

DigIt

Chiming in to agree with sofdec and The Franchise. I certainly see it as a win-win situation: those who are tech saavy will rip their own mp4s, and those that aren't will have the option to purchase a pre-made version. Although it won't replace DVDs as my preferred movie-watching experience, it will probably become my primary movie-watching experience. I think it's effectively sold me on the device.

Get Me Coffee

Yea ripping DVD's to a flash memory card is great to play on a PDA...but 5 mins to setup? C'mon what are you talking about, it takes an easy 2 hours to rip one movie for my pocket pc.



Yea that glorious 14-17" is great when it's 6" from your face. Whipping out that laptop is a huge pain in the ass! It's too damn big for that kinda of space...Plus if the person if front of you pushes their seat back, ha-ha that glorious 14-17" is inches from your face, rather unenjoyable, IMO.

I don't see this competing against DVDs...it's just an alternative solution. People aren't going to buy the PSP for UMD movies....but it's a damn good perk! Also the UMD movies will be popular with the people who don't have the capability to rip movies to memory stick.

Being on a plane once a week, I would buy a UMD movie from time to time. It's easy to just buy it, rather than ripping it. Plus, if I'm on the road, I don't have my huge dvd collection with me....so it would be more likely for me to grap a UMD off a shelve fast.

The Franchise

Sorry buddy pretty much disagree with you on every point. If you truly are a casual movie watcher, then there no way that watching a film on your PDA is going to be easier than putting in a UMD and watching what you want. I also have an Axim and encoding video is a cumbersome, slow, unstable process. It's cool when it works but it's not like I have all the movies I want to watch already encoded and ready to transfer to my SD card. You have to encode overnight in some cases just to get stuff in a watchable resolution. Plus you can only encode what you already own or have downloaded illegally. With a UMD I think the cost versus convenience trade off will be worth it.

Secondly, if you truly are a travelling exec you may not have a laptop without any CD/DVD drives in which case you can't just slip in a DVD. Plus it's awfully clunky and let's face it, it looks sort of goofy watching a movie on a laptop which is why people buy "sexier" looking portable DVD players.

On selection you may have a point but I think Sony will know their demographic and release movies in line with what their target male 18-34 market wants to see. Sorry no UMD versions of "The Notebook" or "Love Actually". I'm not saying I'll rebuy all my movies on UMD, but if you see something you like while travelling (by road/train/bus/whatever) you can pick it up and play it. Overall more convenient than the Axim movie watching and Laptop movie watching experiences.

ps. Take in mind I have yet to see a real life PSP and maybe the screen is too puny to watch movies on. I'll let you know when I see it for real....

wlj

LOL LOL....this is ridiculous. Who in their right mind will pay that much money to watch a movie on 4 inch screen?? I don't "get" the PSP at all.


wlj

edstein

I don't think anyone is saying that these UMD's will replace DVD's. But, to some degree, the PSP will compete with other portable media devices like portable DVD players.