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Everyone Hates UMD
PSP-Fanboy writes "More bad news for the UMD, which is already dying a speedy death at retail: not only are stores not stocking them, but no one really wants to buy UMD movies either. Although 40% of PSP owners claimed UMD media was a big reason why they plopped down a few hundred on Sony's pixel-spurting game brick, the complaint from actual owners is there just isn't anything worth goddamn buying on UMD."
That's the same situation as is happening with recently released DVDs... coincidence? I think not.
My other sig is funny.
I would certainly embrace the UMD format if I could purchase a writer for it. I would rather buy a writer and blank media, and transfer my existing media to play on a PSP, but I am not gonna rebuy movies to watch on a PSP when I already have them on DVD.
Everyone does hate UMDs. Someone at work bragged about buying two movies on UMD for cheap, but realized that the DVD version is the same and that the quality blows on UMD.
Just give the PSP a gig of flash memory so you could rip a DVD and put it in memory anyway...
Job? I don't have time to get a job! Who will sit around and bitch about being broke and unemployed then?
don't stores not stock it because people don't buy it?
I just don't give a shit.
But if I did, I wouldn't expect them to make any movies just for the (U|W)MD, so the only problem would be price.
A proprietary format with no option of buying a reader/writer is dying? Hint Sony: your locked formats suck. I'm talking Minidisc, UMD, Beta, MS, etc. Nobody wants to support hardware when the only reason you're locked into it us because the parent company won't license third part manufacturing. You're a company that's on the rocks financially, and this has a lot to do with it. Join the rest of the world with standardized formats and your profits will jump. UMD itself isn't bad, but the fact that I can't write my own means I'll never buy a PSP. Yours truly, The known universe.
the sky is still blue and shooting yourself in the foot still hurts.
Well, fuck you too!
I don't think Sony still has any idea what kind of a giant PR disaster the PSP has been for them.
All the way through the leadup to the PSP the gaming press was falling all over themselves to fawn over the PSP, predicting glory and conquest for their new handheld overlord. Sony said the PSP would change everything for the handheld market, and the press believed it. Then the PSP came out and it was mostly a dud; the thing didn't get any games worth playing for nearly a year, the sales weren't even high enough to outsell the GBA week to week in America, and an awful lot of the things Sony promised just plain never panned out. Meanwhile in the Japanese market, embarassingly enough, the gimmicky, ugly little Nintendo DS wound up turning into a market revolution bigger than even the PSP's wildest dreams. As the months passed after launch and the PSP increasingly failed to take over the world, the gaming press began to get a bit embarrassed. They began to realize, in the runup to the PSP launch, how many times Sony had lied to them-- and, more importantly, they realized they'd been made to look like fools.
I think the PS3 coverage has just been one extended backlash from the media for the way Sony used them. Because the PS3 coverage has been if anything the polar opposite of the PSP. The gaming media for the last year or so has bought absolutely none of Sony's hype, and has focused only on the downsides of the PS3-- and if there aren't enough negative things to report about the PS3, they just make some up. The gaming press is gunning for the PS3 to fail just as hard as they once gunned for the PSP to succeed.
Meanwhile the UMD has been an even bigger disaster for Sony's public relations. Sony is, this year, attempting to promote a media format which is absolutely vital for their future success, the Blu-Ray. Unfortunately they're doing this right on the heels of the unmitigated disaster that was the UMD format. Sony's doing everything right with the Blu-Ray that they did wrong with the UMD; they have actual studio support, the blu-rays will be playable on devices of a wide variety of types and from a wide variety of vendors, and there is clear differentiation with the format the Blu-Ray intends to replace. But the public is seeing all this happen right on the heels of seeing the laughingstock that was the short, sad life of the UMD. And since UMD is still clearly in their minds, the public is seeing Blu-Ray colored through the lens of the UMD venture-- and many of them are expecting Blu-Ray to meet the same messy fate. That's a problem. With something like Blu-Ray, a public perception of failure can become a self-fulfilling prophesy.
I keep wondering how public perception of the Blu-Ray and PS3 would have been different had the PSP just never happened.
I think if you check with those people again, the REAL reason those 40% bought a PSP was PORTABLE media, not UMD specifically. DVD's are a bit unwieldy to carry and you certainly can't get a dvd player that small. It's about the convenience of a media device that size, not the format.
If there were an open media format with a multitude of player in that size, I think you'd find a LOT more takers.
Add in the ability to write that media at will and you've got a hit on your hands. (After the teething phase, of course.)
As a side note, DVD format suffered from other teething problems like 'low volume' and such. The real 'feature' was an amazing audio range, but that translated into 'too low/too high' audio when played back in any normal setting.
"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
The games aren't too bad. It's an effective way to deliver content, save for the loading times, maybe. I was surprised to find that spinning the disk didn't really eat that much in terms of battery life (note to self: recharge devices before road trip).
Atleast Sony added a flash-memory option to the PSP. I can rip and rerip to my hearts content. Even more... uh... well... stuff that you can't find on a UMD in the states.
If you're on a train, or a bus, or in the back seat of a car, the PSP is an awesome little gadget for a few hours of entertainment. Battlestar looks nice on it.
Sony did royally flub up though, with the whole UMD thing. If they really wanted it to take off, DVD->UMD USB converter + writable UMD discs would be a godsend.
Never gonna happen, though.
Informatus Technologicus
The biggest problem with UMD was the idea that consumers would buy movies on UMD. Which wouldn't have been too outlandish, if the UMD movies cost less than DVD versions.
Why would anyone pay 30 bucks for a movie that you con only play on that little screen?
UMD as a game-format isn't a bad idea - every portable game system has it's own format.
Whoo, signature!
DesireCampbell.com
everyone loves katamari!
The war with islam is a war on the beast
The war on terror is a war for peace
Being able to store movies/video on the PSP and not having to lug around those UMD discs everywhere is the killer app of movies on the PSP. The last thing I want to do when lugging around the PSP is having to lug around a million UMD's discs.
So that's where all those Double U.M.D.s went.
(If you don't get it, say it out loud a few times.)
When there's no content worth getting, it doesn't matter if it's on UMD, DVD or HDDVD.
Crap stays crap. No matter how high the resolution.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Why would I buy a UMD movie when I can rip it to my 1 GB memory stick and watch it from there? I can't really tell the difference between Spider-Man II on UMD and ripped from DVD to memory stick anyway. Of my friends that have a PSP they've done the same: bought a larger memory stick and used one of the half dozen tools out there to convert their DVDs. In the end it's actually more convenient than UMD even if I wanted to watch a UMD movie because I can put whatever video content I wish on the stick.
Blockbuster had UMD movies on sale not too long ago, but I just walked on by. I had them on all DVD anyway.
firezonk plonkzonk
Offtopic or not, it's still true.
Movies on memory cards don't have DVD-like menus like UMD movies do. However, I'm sure many users like the memory card's rewritability, PC compatibility, and ability to use existing DVDs to make PSP movies.
4GB Memory Stick Duo cards were released this month and Dell sells it for $136 (most sellers price it around $200). 2GB Memory Stick Duos have fallen to around $80-$90.
Also, the PSP displays photos and plays MP3 and AAC. UMD is not dead because they distribute their games on it. Remember, the PSP actually plays games, too.
TO START
PRESS ANY KEY
Where's the 'ANY' key? I see Esk, Kitarl, and Pig-Up...
ONCE AGAIN: AAC is the standard for MPEG4 audio, every bit as open as MP3 (both encumbered by licensed IP, less open than Ogg Vorbis). It's Apple's "Fair Play" DRM, wrapped around the AAC format, that's exclusive to the Apple iPods and the Motorola ROKR (excusably, people also like to forget that beast). Note that Fair Play is not a factor when you rip the songs yourself.
AAC is supported by tons of players, including (just from a quick Google) the Sony Network Walkman and the Viliv P1. Hell, there's a press release from 2000 when Toshiba first announced theirs.
I'm sure there are tons more, AAC support is integrated in a number of the chipsets available now.
Jackass.
"It is our blasphemy which has made us great, and will sustain us, and which the gods secretly admire in us." - Zelazny
Does anyone really care if someone says goddamn? Why do you jesus freaks always get up in arms about it? Jesus christ it's not that big of a goddamn deal.
Maybe you shouldn't leave your house if you're not willing to tolerate language that you don't deem 'acceptable'.
'Goddamn' is perfectly acceptable to me as an intesifier, much more so than just 'damn'.
Registered Linux user #421033
Yes
Yeah and also a reader.
... and where can I rent them ?
... unfortunatly in a few year there will probably a PSP2 that will requires yet another format ( I guess UMD will be to small ) and this year is the year of HighDefinition which another format war and really UMD is no match.
Even if I can purchase a new movie in UMD, what's the point since I can't watch it on anything else than the PSP.
Note that I'm not asking specifically for an external player, but you cannot even plug the PSP on the TV !
So, what does that leave me with ? I can by on UMD the movies I can only watch alone which are the one I generally rent
I takes years to create a new format. Years for the public to become aware of it, years for movies to come out on it, years before blockbuster stock them
Was it really necessary to use gratuitous cussing on the front page? Hey, I did my time in the Navy: I promise you nothing I could see here is worse than what I heard on ship. But that seemed like a total non sequitur in this instance. Since neither a speaker nor a print source were being quoted, why put it there?
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
I'm an athiest, and I agree. And believe me, I curse like a sailor. It's out of place in a /. title about UMD's...
I've always wondered why the PSP was never given a hard drive, especially considering the success of the iPod which ultimately proved a successful HDD consumer device is possible. Ripping out the UMD and putting a 60GB drive in makes quite a bit of sense. You could then offer PSP format films on each DVD disc and it wouldn't necessitate a new medium.
Ok, so in reality the UMD is only there to stop piracy, but you could get a lot of UMD 1.8 GB films and games on a 60GB drive, then have some kind of iTunes-like system to choose what of your collection is on there. Heck, even being able to play PSP stuff on your PC might be possible, and it'd mean that Sony could offer games online via their store and authenticate them ACC-style. iPods have proved that people are happy to take a selection of stuff away on a device without being able to edit/change it away from their home computer.
Instead, I have a device which has become a bit of a white elephant. Some of the games are good. I'd like to watch films on it, but can't be arsed to buy anything as they're a) too expensive and b) the titles are crap, but also because c) like Minidiscs they take up so much damn room! Consequently, my PSP normally gets left behind on a trip in favour of my iPod. Sony need to fix that in order to make the PSP really take off, especially for film watching.
Maybe these points add up, and maybe they don't, but here:
1. I'm not religious in any way, shape or form.
2. I curse like a sailor.
3. Other people cursing doesn't bother me.
4. I felt that 'goddamn' was inappropriate in the article summary. Probably because it was unnecessary.
5. (Not for you so much) It's VAIN. V-A-I-N.
William of Ockham had no beard. The most likely explanation is that it was chewed off by squirrels every morning.
Way to expensive to go with either of the nascent blue laser formats. Using bog standards 80mm DVDs would have given them a cheap to implement, widely available format that would *still* hold a gig more than UMD does.
I'm stupid.. I bought a PSP rather than an iPod because I thought it would work as a media player AND be able to play games... where's the downside? *fills up whole memory card*
Well, only 512MB of space for one.. well they will release good movies on UMD then I can watch them on the move, I can't do that on an iPod *cue release of 5th Gen iPod*
Yea but I'm sure they're will be good games for PSP....
now I'm looking at not getting as good a loptop so I can enough cash left over to buy a new iPod.
you're slower than development on a duke nukem game
?giS
Honestly, yeah, it's fun to see you fucking idiots get worked up over something so stupid. Consider it payback for sticking the rest of us with that monkey idiot George W. Bush.
Jesus isn't real, and you goddamn (oh noes!) idiots need to wake the fuck up, or at least stop voting. Your religion is just as wrong as everyone else's (although at least some of the eastern religions don't make people kill each other). You have no idea how stupid a church service looks to anyone with an ounce of reason. It's like a fucking rain dance.
Yeah, I'm an asshole for saying this. But at least my worldview isn't based on an ancient, crackpot, self-contradictory book.
Just give the PSP a gig of flash memory
Froogle helps.
so you could rip a DVD
Major markets where the PSP is sold all have a DMCA of some sort. Which major studio DVDs aren't CSS'd?
>> Although 40% of PSP owners claimed UMD media was a big reason why they plopped down a few hundred on Sony's pixel-spurting game brick, the complaint from actual owners is there just isn't anything worth goddamn buying on UMD."
It's not because there "just isn't anything worth goddamn buying on UMD". It's a clear cut case of people not knowing what they want. Saying something and actually doing it are two entirely different things. This is why focus groups don't work.
PowerLevel.com - A next generation marketplace for virtual items and services
In my opinion UMD movies just cost too darn much, period! I purchased a PSP several months ago and purchased a couple of games. Basically, I like the system but don't like the prices. When I look at UMD's I then go over and check the prices out for full DVD's and realize that I would be better off purchasing a DVD. I think what would really have made UMD's successful is if their price was so affordable you could buy lets say 5 of them for the cost of one DVD. If that had been the case I think people would have started gathering huge collections of UMD movies. But when you have to choose between a DVD movie and a UMD movie in reality unless you are someone that never has time to sit down and watch a movie the DVD is the way to go. For example, hypothetically if I rode a bus back and fourth to work and never had many friends over then UMD movies might be the way to go. But if I am going to ever want to watch the movie with friends or watch it on a bigger screen then I won't have the option. I really like the idea of UMD's for the PSP. Also, I would love it if you could purchase episodes of TV programs such as battlestar galactica on DVD's for a few dollars. If that was the case I would have many by now. But once again, the price point is simply too high for many people.
Technobunga - Refreshing High Tech Geek Fuel and Modern Happenings
DVD's come with copy protection, any such converter would break it, so even if Sony (doubtful but hypothetically) were to want to do this they couldn't.
Hmmm... Pie...
Well the UMD has great graphics and sound, but I think the reason for it dying is because there are portable DVD players out. There is no point buying the UMD movies for your PSP if you have got a portable DVD player! Whats the point in having a movie on DVD with a portable DVD player and then going out and buying the UMD version of it?!?!?!
Talk later, Holmesey For free Domain names, PSP's & I-Pod's click
What a good idea, being able to sit on a bus and jack off to your favourite pornstar. The other passengers would love that.
One can rent UMD discs for now at local video stores here in Ireland.
That said, the mind boggles as to who rents *or* buys them. Maybe there's far more PSP users here than I thought.
Interestingly there are a lot of second-hand PSPs in the game shops at the moment. I wouldn't even spend the 200 that you can get them for now though. 150 I'd possibly consider it.
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You're actually correct that one of the big reasons Betamax died was because it wasn't adopted by the adult film industry. I don't remember if Sony actively blocked it though. VHS was cheaper and had a higher capacity, and Porn Valley is very cost-conscious.
I just mentioned the industry in an earlier post. Many people underestimate the role that the adult film industry has had in make video technologies popular. Some of the earliest silent films were porn. The same can be said for "talkies" and later with the home video market, digital video, streaming media, VCD, and interactive video. The dirty little secret is that mainstream film/video industry has always watched Porn Valley for innovation. Adult film studios are substantially smaller, tend to have more cash on hand for investments in new distribution channels, and have *ahem* the balls to do it.
I haven't seen any UMD adult titles, but I'm sure they exist. Most pornographers making content for distribution online have standardized on Windows Media Video and MPEG-2. MPEG-1 and Real Video is mostly legacy. There's very little MPEG-4 going on, and most of the time it's QuickTime. There's some DivX, but it's mostly used by third-party distributors. WMV is very popular, partly because it's on most systems, but also because it produces smaller files than MPEG-1 and MPEG-2, and the software for producing WMV content is free. The industry is very Windows-centric.
There is no doubt in my mind that had UMD been adopted wholesale we would be seeing more mainstream distributors try to bring movies to the format. Porn was the major factor in putting VCRs into most American homes during the early 80s. Of course, UMD's problems go well beyond a lack of adoption. UMD is so intimately linked to the PSP that the PSP's own failures to revolutionize handheld gaming weakened UMD's own success.
Considering there are plenty of commondity portable players for full sized DVD, price and power aren't an issue.
I can fit a DS in my pocket. I can fit an original GBA (which is roughly the same size as a PSP) in my pocket. I can't fit a full-size portable DVD player in my pocket. For a lot of customers, size matters.
how many movies can you cram in an iPod's HD
Which major studio feature films are available for iPod download? Space-shifting doesn't work in most major developed markets, almost all of which have something resembling the DMCA.
To Sony it's about copy control.
It's also about copy control to the other five studios in the MPAA.
Using bog standards 80mm DVDs
the software for producing WMV content is free.
Which free software is that? I thought Microsoft told VirtualDub to stop supporting WMV around the 1.3 era because of Microsoft's ASF patents.
the PSP homebrew community
Firmware 2.01 through 2.60 requires an M-rated game with particularly explicit violence, which is likely banned (aka "refused classification") from sale or import in some markets, in order to crack it for homebrew use. Firmware 2.70 is not cracked at all. With the DS, on the other hand, all versions of its firmware are cracked with MAX Media Launcher ($25) plus GBA Movie Player ($25) plus any size CF card, and it's still cheaper than a PSP Value Pack.
I know this is offtopic, but when they said "Don't take the lord's name in vain!" they weren't talking about litterally saying "Don't say his name in combination of a curse word!"
Rather they meant, don't do things in God's name that isn't in God's name.
You know... Like pass law's in the name of God. Wage a war in God's name. Tell everyone God told you to have them give you their money so you can wallow in women and wine when God really didn't tell you that. Things like that...
The phrase God damnit is more or less from "God damn's (something)" or something like excommunicating some one to an eternal damnation in hell.
Truth be told... God is from the old English/German word acenstory of Goden, Gud, or Gott (etc) and if you were going to take the Bible literally you'd have to say "Yaweh damnit!" or "Jehovah damnit!" to take god's true name in vain. Because God really isn't God's true name in a sense but rather a reference to the only god in the universe.
However for some reason it doesn't roll off the tongue as nice when you say "Yaweh damnit!"
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
Why would I buy a UMD movie when I can rip it to my 1 GB memory stick and watch it from there?
Because you don't have the money to move to Canada, which seems to be the only developed country without a DMCA nowadays. Otherwise, which major studio DVD movies come without CSS?
UMD movies wouldn't be such a bad thing if they weren't so damned expensive!
Why in the world would I pay $25 for a movie that I can only watch by myself (or inconveniently with another person) when I can spend $12 or $15 and get the DVD version which I can watch on my computer or TV, by myself or with friends.
I like using my PSP to watch movies if I'm all alone, that's how I watched Saw. However, I borrowed that movie from someone and I wouldn't have bought it for a single watch...especially not for $25. I could've gotten a UMD copy of Advent Children, but once again the price and the versatility screwed Sony out of their money.
What else can happen when an unstoppable force collides with an immovable object?
hey! you stole my post! :)
c id=15373837
http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=186275&
Well Mr. Pedant, it seems you've been beaten at your own game. The correct phrase actually is "In the same vein". It means "along the same lines" not "similarly self-infatuated".
Would have been the way to go pay a couple bucks extra and you also get the UMD version of the movie along with the dvd and Im sure they would have sold like hotcakes. Also since a ton more UMDs are in circulation release a stand alone portable UMB movie player for under 100 dollers. Im sure if Sony had done that UMD movies wouldnt have flopped so bad.
I live in Calgary and I have no fear of violating the DMCA, but thanks for the warning. Our government has proposed DMCA like legislation a couple of times, but both atempts died on the order paper when an election was called. The legislation contained provisions to criminalize circumventing digital encryption, but only if the purpose was to make unauthorized copies. Circumventing content protection was permitted if it was for your own use.
At some point we will have DMCA legislation, but format shifting DVDs, MP3s and the like will still be permitted.
That said, the mind boggles as to who rents *or* buys them. Maybe there's far more PSP users here than I thought.
It's more likely that wholesalers are giving good deals on UMD movies to the rental places. If they can make back the wholesale price of a UMD in 1 or 2 rentals, then even a bargain-bin sale of the things later could net a profit.
Are you serious? I have to agree with these other replies, that's just retarded.
This sig rocks the casbah.
is there just isn't anything worth goddamn buying on UMD
What the fuck!
isn't worth worth a damn maybe but not isn't anything worth goddamn.
I'm not a religious nut, or a language nazi...
But when you start casually using this kind of thing in an article for no fucking good reason at all it's a sign of the endtimes.
The endtimes for slashdot that is. There's a method for moderating comments, but I think it's long past time that VA/slashdot gave us a means for moderating the god damned articles themselves.
So which PDA has a good directional pad and buttons for playing games? Or should PDA owners learn to like clones of DS games instead of clones of console games?
However, I'm sure many users like the memory card's rewritability, PC compatibility, and ability to use existing DVDs to make PSP movies.
Isn't buying a CSS encoded DVD and ripping it illegal everywhere but Canada?
Good to know I'm not alone in how I feel :)
Wow... curse like a sailor. Note to self (and you) - avoid cliches.
William of Ockham had no beard. The most likely explanation is that it was chewed off by squirrels every morning.
This was no real suprise, and it dates back to the frequently mentioned Betamax scenario. Basically, at the end of the day, consumers want one format they can use to buy something and use it everywhere, which is why DVD is so popular (TV,PC,PS2,XBOX etc), when you create media that is specific to your hardware, you are immeadiately locking out a huge share of the market and you are only leading your product to a very likely doom.
It could have been so much different.
Business Voyeur
Or, for a bit of masturbatory irony, some downloaded Bang Bus clips.
Blessed are the 1337, for they shall pwn the earth.
The PSP is just too damn fragile. One little slip and, whoops! Corrupted firmware. Sony (and Microsoft) needs to realize that homebrew software is a good thing in that it gives people excuses to buy their hardware.
Your ad here.
PS if you can't do this, sorry, I don't have a PSP :)
Perhaps so. In any case, the end result is highly visible PSP and UMD in the shops here right now. And the battle is not over, there are large hoardings in the shop windows at the moment for some new PSP product, and also the price drop to 205 for new PSPs (the 200 I quoted previously was for what I'd seen second hand a week or two ago - I guess it must have been a second-hand bundle).
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"Movies on memory cards don't have DVD-like menus like UMD movies do."
As an old fan of Laserdisc, why do you say that like it's a point _against_ memory cards? I don't like DVD menus. At all.
"I Know You Are But What Am I?"
He complained about taking the Lord's name in VANE.
What the fuck does that have to do with "in the same vein"?
I was making fun of his spelling.
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
See, the thing is, we're all saving up $600 for a PS3 and another $1400 for a Sony flat panel so we can then pay lavish amounts of money to re-purchase our entire movie libraries in Sony's brand new Blu-Ray format! Is Sony the only company that groks this obvious market mechanic??
We don't have time to devote to purchasing Sony's previous attempt to leverage market position in the game world into a win over video standards, because we're waiting with baited breath for the next time around. It's that simple!
Or, just perhaps, Sony could be wrong about that.
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
I read that story (and the decidedly less gloating feeder article) and I was struck by the fact that while the UMD was admittedly a pretty shitty format, maybe the problem isn't the format but the business model. Sony are an electronics and media company. For the past 100 years, western society has been buying these boxes that allow them access to information and then going out and buying the information in a little delivery device called a format. So you have an economic system based on companies designing machines, building them then having other people pay them to sell the machines to us. Ditto for the media. However, now we all have one broadly identical box and we're growing more and more used to pressing a button and having instant access to media. Want a song? it's a handful of clicks away on iTunes or the P2P network. Want a film or an old TV series? well it's a click away on the torrent sites and, if you're a good little consumer, a website that will sell it to you for less than any of the shops in your area can give it to you for. Bandwidth is growing, the speed and ease with which we can access information is increasing every month. But there are millions of people who work in industries that require us to go and buy our information in shops thanks to these little delivery systems and boxes that allow you to get at the stuff in the delivery systems. So in other words, Sony aren't just trying to keep alive a format that was widely decried as shit virtually from release, but they're battling to keep a business model and an economic system in place. If we could instantly access any information we wanted at the touch of a button it would mean that high-street retail would die tomorrow and it would take most of the consumer electronics industry with it. So Sony and the others are trying to keep us interested... trying to sell us format after format after format where in reality, as the research shows, people want content not formats. So consumer electronics has a balancing act to maintain... make the format too open and transparent and you risk making it obsolete from birth, but make it too closed and difficult to use and you're fighting not just other formats but instant information on the internet. I hope for their sake that they've learned from this disaster... but strangely I also hope that they haven't.
Movies can be played from these memory cards and several easy-to-use utilities exist for ripping DVDs and encoding into MPEG-4 at the PSP's 480x272 resolution.
Five hours later, your 110-minute movie is ready to watch. It's so easy!
Edith Keeler Must Die
UMD is simply too expensive. With prices of portable DVD players below that of PSP, and prices of DVD's way below UMD (Unless you shop at Suncoast), no sensible person would purchase PSP to view movies. Especially not this person.
I'm not talking about what those bastiches will allow us to do with the technology, I'm talking about the technology's capabilities.
Including the capability to put its user and its manufacturer in jail in just about every market but Canada? Or would you want to discuss the capabilities of, say, LSD-25 or heroin without discussing their prohibition?