From theDigitalBits.com, 7 April 2005:
"... Buena Vista has announced a slate of five films in UMD format for playback on Sony's handheld PSP game system. The titles include National Treasure, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Reign of Fire, Kill Bill, Vol. 1 and HERO. Specific release dates are unavailable, other than that they're expected this spring. Additional UMD/PSP titles will likely be announced by the studio later in the year."
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For once, I agree completely with Buena Vista Home Video's releases.
I don't think the animated Disney titles would sell well on the PSP. PSP is a "big boys"/young adult gaming system and I suspect most animated titles would bomb on that system. Whether there are enough people who want to buy a portable "Kill Bill" disc for "on the go" is another question that I guess will be resolved by sales in the next couple of months.
On the other hand, I have to admit I'm skeptical of PSP surviving on software other than videogame software and think UMD movies probably won't be released for the system after another year or two... I just don't think the market will support another portable DVD format. Most people LIKE the 5-inch format and that's portable enough for them. A lot of the higher-end users will HATE the fact that UMD discs are basically movie-only and don't have the extras most of us like to have for our movie collections.
Other than that, hobbyists will support PSP with downloaded MP3s and other music and movies converted to formats supported by the memory cards the PSP uses. Of course, if you really want to have decent space for music and movies, you have to buy a MUCH bigger memory card (512 MB or more) than the card (32 MB) Sony packs in with the PSP value pack.
In many ways, I think it was a mistake for Sony to develop the UMD as a completely propriety system. Without a widely supported recordable disc format, I just don't see UMD surviving as anything other than another disc-based game format. I empathize with Sony wanting to avoid massive piracy with a proprietary format, but it'll cut into PSP support in the long run...
Late news post from DigitalBits.com -- Disney PSP UMD titles
FYI to anybody getting a PSP anytime soon...
There are apparently NO REGION LOCKS on the games for the NTSC (Japanese and American) versions of the portable system. Japanese games will play on American systems, American games will play on Japanese PSPs.
However, the situation with the movies is different. The UMD movies, like most licensed DVDs, DO have region locks on them and are not interchangeable between countries. You cannot play Japanese UMD movies on American PSPs or American UMD movies on Japanese PSPs.
The UMD standards for "Universal Media Device." It's basically a mini-DVD (smaller than a 3-inch DVD) that's protected in a plastic sheathe like the miniCD. The only part of the UMD that's actually exposed is the part of the disc being read by the PSP laser lens at an open window on the underside of the UMD. The unfortunate part of the UMD format is that it's a proprietary format and there are no plans to market any recorders/burners to make your own playable UMDs for the PSP. It's all part of Sony's plans to discourage piracy on the PSP. The UMD format is only being used for the PSP games and movies released for the system.
I'm guessing the European PSP is adhering to the PAL standard so forget about trying to play American or Japanese UMDs of any kind (movie or videogame) on those systems...
There are apparently NO REGION LOCKS on the games for the NTSC (Japanese and American) versions of the portable system. Japanese games will play on American systems, American games will play on Japanese PSPs.
However, the situation with the movies is different. The UMD movies, like most licensed DVDs, DO have region locks on them and are not interchangeable between countries. You cannot play Japanese UMD movies on American PSPs or American UMD movies on Japanese PSPs.
The UMD standards for "Universal Media Device." It's basically a mini-DVD (smaller than a 3-inch DVD) that's protected in a plastic sheathe like the miniCD. The only part of the UMD that's actually exposed is the part of the disc being read by the PSP laser lens at an open window on the underside of the UMD. The unfortunate part of the UMD format is that it's a proprietary format and there are no plans to market any recorders/burners to make your own playable UMDs for the PSP. It's all part of Sony's plans to discourage piracy on the PSP. The UMD format is only being used for the PSP games and movies released for the system.
I'm guessing the European PSP is adhering to the PAL standard so forget about trying to play American or Japanese UMDs of any kind (movie or videogame) on those systems...
More on UMD movies from Anime News Network at this address http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/article.php?id=6524
Apparently, Bandai is going to release several movies on UMD including the first Gundam Seed movie and perhaps a few episodes of its licensed anime TV series. They're going to price the UMDs at $19.98
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In the past two days, I've seen more Hollywood movies turn up on UMD format for PSP. If you have one of the first million PSP systems released in the US market, then you already have the Spider-Man 2 UMD movie disc as part of the value package.
The pricing's real erratic on the UMD movies. The cheapest (from Sony) are $14.99 and $19.99... The most expensive UMD movies are from Disney priced at $29.99 (Pirates of the Caribbean and Kill Bill, Vol. 1).
I just don't think the UMD movie format will last. It's already competing against portable DVD players that play REGULAR-sized DVDs. Regular DVDs also hold a lot more data (4.7 GB) than UMDs (1.8 GB) and have special features that UMDs can't hold because of their limited data capacity.
There's also the not-so-insignificant fact that DVDs can be played just about anyplace but UMDs only play on PSPs and also the fact that anybody can burn DVDs on a DVD recorder or DVD-writing drive on a computer while Sony has NOT seen fit to release a UMD burner to the consumer market!
I also have to question why anybody would buy a UMD (anything released by Disney this week) when the same films released on DVDs months or up to a year ago are HALF the price that the UMDs released this past week are! You can get either Kill Bill or Pirates for $15 on DVD. You'd have to spend $30 for the UMD versions and they only play on the PSP. Does buying a UMD version REALLY make sense?
About the only UMD movie format would survive is if the pricing on them goes WAY down (below $10) and if Sony yanks memory sticks off the market. People are going to take DVDs they already own, rip them, and then convert them to playable video format for the 1GB and 2GB memory sticks they can buy for the PSP.
PSP will survive as a portable game system that HAPPENS to use UMD as the game format, BUT not as a portable player for UMD movies. I suspect most people that care about portable movies and have access to computers will download their own movies to the memory sticks compatible with the PSP...
Apparently, Bandai is going to release several movies on UMD including the first Gundam Seed movie and perhaps a few episodes of its licensed anime TV series. They're going to price the UMDs at $19.98
****************************************
In the past two days, I've seen more Hollywood movies turn up on UMD format for PSP. If you have one of the first million PSP systems released in the US market, then you already have the Spider-Man 2 UMD movie disc as part of the value package.
The pricing's real erratic on the UMD movies. The cheapest (from Sony) are $14.99 and $19.99... The most expensive UMD movies are from Disney priced at $29.99 (Pirates of the Caribbean and Kill Bill, Vol. 1).
I just don't think the UMD movie format will last. It's already competing against portable DVD players that play REGULAR-sized DVDs. Regular DVDs also hold a lot more data (4.7 GB) than UMDs (1.8 GB) and have special features that UMDs can't hold because of their limited data capacity.
There's also the not-so-insignificant fact that DVDs can be played just about anyplace but UMDs only play on PSPs and also the fact that anybody can burn DVDs on a DVD recorder or DVD-writing drive on a computer while Sony has NOT seen fit to release a UMD burner to the consumer market!
I also have to question why anybody would buy a UMD (anything released by Disney this week) when the same films released on DVDs months or up to a year ago are HALF the price that the UMDs released this past week are! You can get either Kill Bill or Pirates for $15 on DVD. You'd have to spend $30 for the UMD versions and they only play on the PSP. Does buying a UMD version REALLY make sense?
About the only UMD movie format would survive is if the pricing on them goes WAY down (below $10) and if Sony yanks memory sticks off the market. People are going to take DVDs they already own, rip them, and then convert them to playable video format for the 1GB and 2GB memory sticks they can buy for the PSP.
PSP will survive as a portable game system that HAPPENS to use UMD as the game format, BUT not as a portable player for UMD movies. I suspect most people that care about portable movies and have access to computers will download their own movies to the memory sticks compatible with the PSP...
