PSP video download service a big risk for Sony? |
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The other day's brief report about the coming video download service for the PSP is getting hotter, with various gaming sites pumping opinions and reports into it. As if to join the wild and yet-to-be-named circus, Sony-owned site, PSP Connect, recently re-launched and added some PSP content as well as free short video downloads into their site (which you can check out through the Read link below).Given all these, we all know that this is only the beginning. Now, we couldn't help but wonder if Sony should just stop right about now. By that, we meant stick with the free short video downloads. Everybody remembers UMD movies and everybody knows they didn't quite take off.
Why? Honestly, who among us is willing to buy a movie that is formatted to play just on our handhelds? Economics dictates that high supply and low demand equals higher prices. Also, the previous report mentioned that a 4GB Sony memory stick has the capacity to store 10 feature films.
I hate to turn this into a "classroom experience" for everyone as it is already your Christmas break, but 10 feature films compressed in 4GB? A good movie formatted into a DVD is around 8GB. A VCD quality of the same movie, on the other hand, is around 650MB. So, is it safe to assume that the quality of these so-called feature films can be anticipated using these same computations? If it is, then
how terrible that quality is!Before you get angry, please understand that I'm just trying to speculate here. It is good that the PSP can be used other than just playing games. What I'm just saying is that the UMD movies failed before therefore a movie service is a lot of risk. Maybe, Sony should consider lowering the price (they haven't announced anything yet) or even make it free. Invent something. Play jazz!
What do you think? Speak your piece now as we don't want you to get caught off guard when the service arrives first quarter of 2007.
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Comments [refresh]
especially when you can get movies for free......
If you know the right places.
"So, is it safe to assume that the quality of these so-called feature films can be anticipated using these same computations? If it is, then psp moviehow terrible that quality is!"
Hello Mr Ryan, you are comparing the quality DVDs and VCDs (which are meant to be played on a TV screen easily 21" and above) to a format meant for the PSP's small 4.3" screen based on file size?
DUH.
I don't think 400 mb for a movie is much, but honestly; we have seen a lot of programs for the psp, such as psplayer, pmp player and more which use video files from 200 to 500 mb for a feature film. and that quality is great! Even a dvd ripped to a 400/500 mb mp4/avc file is definitely worth watching on your psp screen. It's just too bad sony didn't think about giving the psp an official video-out..
Sony! Give us a USB/video out mod!
Doesn't high supply and low demand equate to lower prices instead of higher prices?
Umm... the smaller PSP screen resolution aside, are you serious?
DVDs and VCDs use ancient compression technology compared to the PSPs native AVC. There is no reason why a film cant look fine at 400Mb or less when encoded this way.
no
i believe sony should have done this in the first place thinik about it UMD's are costly (for sony to make and for us to buy) and they take up space, the whole point of the psp is for it to be portable therefore we dont want to be walking round with a load of UMD's whereas these downloads are a stroke of genious because it costs sony nothing but bandwidth to distribute them and aslong as they can get the antipiracy spot on then i think they are on to a winner.......
as number 1 and you mention. There is the piracy issue. I don't think Sony will be able to stop that. It is so easy to just get your movies for free.
You're right, high supply and low demand LOWERS prices (has an economics degree, hope i actually learned something....)
You can't compare VCD's Mpeg1/ DVD's Mpeg2 compression ratio with new codecs like PSP's MP4/AVC which deal higher quality with lower bitrates.
If DVDs where compressed using newer codecs like those their quality and video time capacity would be raised by a cosiderable factor.
But that's what usually happens to comercial standards, they're are stucked to obsolete tecnologies for their entire lifetime.
i think the piracy issue is all about the individual if someone doesnt want to pay for things they just wont pay whereas people with morals on these things can have every oppurtunity to get movies/games for free and they wont because they believe its wrong. I dont think its solely about the availability.
entirely agree, this article makes ridiculous assumptions about PSP encoding.
Encoding onto a small screen size makes the file sizes drop loads. I've has 2 films on my 1gb card many times from dvd rips so I can watch them on the move (What? I'm meant to pay MORE for a umd version when I already have the CHEAPER dvd version?)
The author of this article must be living in a time warp, 650MB for a 320x240 avc movie??
I don't think so...
I think they should just sell you blank UMDS and UMD Burners for your PC or TiVO/DVD Player.... It would be cheaper for Sony to just sell you blank UMDS and then you can back up your legally bought movies to UMD....Sooo you could just burn a multi-movie UMD. Since the UMD holds about 1.8 gigs(I think) that means someone can burn almost a 2gb memory card's worth of videos on it. I'm sure consumers would be willing to buy UMD burners as long as they would cost about the same as like DVD burners... Besides, Developers would love to be able to put their homebrew games on UMD format. Kind of like a collection of homebrew. Anyways, I'm getting off topic......... YOU DECIDE
High supply with low demand drives prices down. Why? Because since no one wants to buy it, they have to drop the prices to move inventory. This is the reason why stores have clearance sales. At the end of the season or when new models come out or whatever, they still have inventory left over (high supply), but people are moving on to products for the next season, model year, whatever (low demand). To get rid of the stuff, they drop the price as an incentive for people to buy.
Low supply and low demand could mean that it's a niche market. Costs per unit made go up and those costs get passed on to the consumer.
Low supply and high demand has the same problems as the previous situation, but adds fuel to the fire by having more people demanding the product. That makes the product harder to find. The rarity drives prices up even more.
400Mb is more than enough even for 480x272 MP4 AVC movies.
Even so, 10 movies per 4GB MSDUO is just an average, there are movies that will take less and others more.
The "problem" is that only a few people is willing to pay for a movie that has to be downloaded + copied to MSDUO + is (supposed) to be only for PSP + need lots of space/larger MSDUO. The requirements are too high and only if a movie costed, lets say,
They say its a 1 time transfer (kinda sucks if you have to DL the movie again), the movies better not cost more then $.50 at a time or else it just wouldn't be worth it, you could rent unlimited amounts of DVD's a month for $5 from netflix or something. So I'd say anything over $1 for a 1 time transfer is too much. And if you put 10 full length movies on a 4GB memory stick, each movie would be 400mb, still a lengthy download, but the quality wouldn't be too bad, so it could be worth it if it was cheap.
Not one to dump on the Author but using any compression tools a full length movie is under 400 MB when encoded in H.264 AVC format so comparing the format to DVD is like comparing a ford from the 50-60's to a 2007 -2008 car and saying they both have wheels as you indication of similarity.
You need to do more work on this man for to the tech nophiles that come here it looses all credit for the article. For the future either perform the action your self first or find some one who has done it before and is good at it to show you the ropes.
PS. Make sure a 4:3 video is encoded as a 4:3 and not a 16:9. It's sad to all that stretching. It's one thing to not know, but if you plan on doing it do reasearch and do it right.
Why the hell is there a link to pspupdates at the connect site? Is Sony promoting homebrew?
I have 30 UMD movies, just because i get them for 2$ each :)
Low price + more sales as people can afford to buy more of them.
I bought only one full price UMD movie, just to see the quality. But it also had a lowish price.. AUD$20, and compared to the other movies... i saw one for AUD$60!
But yeah, friend said "DUDE! JUST GOT HEAPS OF UMD MOVIES FREE!!!, want some?"
A gaming store closed down, and they couldnt get rid of the UMDs so they gave them to him...
I'm happy ^.^
VLC plays MP4 perfectly, shut up.
Well the resolution on the UMDs are higher then what they need to be for the PSP, they are 720*480 and AVC bitrate is upto 10Mbps, that is as good as regular DVDs...
What might boost UMD sale would be the ability to playback UMDs (via PSP USB hookup) on the PS3... People have been complaining from day one that they would like to output video on thier TV, I think a PSPPS3 hookup could make that possible...
Regarding internet download service I would say that upto 10 feature films should be possible to get on a 4gb stick considering no menues, 1 audÃo track and resolution of 480*272 and a lower bitrate... I think consumers of TV series will like this service...
Best regards!
This is a playstation portable.
Playstation. No "phil in" harrison, i dont play psp at home and you dont know ***** all about your consumers *****weed.
I want to play videogames on the go.
UMD was DOA (Due to prices, nothing else)<
and so is this, sony's next major marketing strategy.
I should run sony computer entertainment devision, i will make them more money in a year with good marketing and advetising, then sony have made in the in the nearly 2 years since psp was born. just because i am not out of touch with reality.
UHH, I encode great-quality PMP AVC movies at 480x272 all the time and they clock in at 235MB/hour. 10 standard AVC movies should look excellent.
look genius there are some flaws in your theory that suggests that dvd video quality (or close to it) cannot be achieved with h.264 avc mp4. the first is that the standard frame size of dvd mpeg 2 is 720x480. the psp screen size is only 320x240. do the math their einstein and you'll find that the specs are right for the length of video fitting on a 4gb memstick as stated. umd was a flop but video downloads certainly will not be. if they have a decent selection beyond $ony owned movie productions then i will take part in the downloading. besides how much money can possibly be lost by ripping dvd's to mp4 and offering them for download at a cost? idiot. you need new writers. the people they let just dribble their idiocy onto the intrawebs is not impressive. most of their staff must still be in middle school. fvckin' noobs.
Exactly correct.
In an effort to sound intelligent, the author proves he needs to go back to high school.
well Sony why won't you lower the UMD prices in US & Europe first and look at the reaction, just look at the japanese UMD sales after the pricecut!
i have ripped a umd movie and made the quality down to 380 mbs.The quality was just as good as the umd so your specs are bogus.I can fit 4 movies on my 1 gb memory stick.They all are perfect quality
Am I the only one who thinks the jazz thing is a great idea? The world needs more jazz!
I really don't think selling movies in the internet is really a good business since almost everyone already knows where to download them for free.
But yet, I have heard iPod Video store is doing so great. How is that possible? (except that maybe cause the people who buys iPods are idiots enough to not search more in the internet)
obviously, u can get moviez from p2p and ddl sitez. then u can convert them or ur dvds into .mp4 files with progs ike apollo.
we re not stupid, osiron23
and im registered, u loosers, haha
not you osiron23, Who's the idiot that made this post, he's completely innacurate in all his details.
First off, High supply and low demand DOES NOT equal HIGHER PRICES, it means VERY LOW prices. And secondly, a PSP movie UMD is no larger than 1.8 GB's EVER!
Third off, those 10 feature films you talk about being of such crappy quality, they would be encoded at a very high quality, the same as the UMD format.
Am I getting crazy, or there is a link to pspupdates.qj.net on the PSP download site? Is Sony supporting homebrew in a way, the guy who wrote that was drunk, or it's just a strategy to add popularity to the PSP?
and why did opsp reccomend pspupdates
I didn't know outdated codecs like MPEG-1 versus MPEG-4 were compared together.
Bad points.
Bad article.
Sony is doing a disservice to customers by not including a hard drive standard with the PSP. Wait, that's BS we made up about the XBOX 360's movie download service. Nevermind, please download some movies to a memory stick we'll be happy to sell you.
Okay before you go writing any articles again, please be aware of all the facts first...
1. As you would think, if there is low demand something might be higher priced. For example lambos. They are a specialty car, so they are higher priced and geared towards delivering luxury. However with UMDs, no one is buying them, thats not why they are high. They are (or were) already high, so no one was buying them because of that reason. Now they are cheap as freak. I work at toys r us and I have bought like 8 UMD movies on super clearence for under 10 bucks because we dont sell any...They are cheaper because of this fact, not more expensive.
2. The quality of movies on a PSP is whatever you want it to be. For example. I have scarface platinum edition on my psp. The whole entire movie, and its just as good as a UMD/DVD. Although it takes up less space (I think its just over a 1gb). And thats a 3 hour movie. But the reason why its dvd quality and less space is because of the resolution. On a smaller screen you dont need as much resolution for something to look good. Thats why Spiderman 2 on UMD looks better than the DVD version looks on a component enabled tv (not to be confused with composite).
"I hate to turn this into a "classroom experience" for everyone as it is already your Christmas break, but 10 feature films compressed in 4GB? A good movie formatted into a DVD is around 8GB. A VCD quality of the same movie, on the other hand, is around 650MB. So, is it safe to assume that the quality of these so-called feature films can be anticipated using these same computations? If it is, then psp moviehow terrible that quality is!"
wow, did you deliberately try to be as wrong as possible or??