PSP's movie-viewing feature days numbered? |
There's some rage against the machine -- or at least one of its features.Flow of movies in Universal Media Disc format has dramatically slowed down following disappointing sales and now has threatened the much-heralded Sony PSP's feature. Two major studios have already completely stopped producing movies on UMD; a good number of other studios are expected to follow suit. Even retailers are shoving the items to a small corner of their store shelves; Wal-Mart is about to dump the category entirely.
Universal Studios Home Entertainment has completely shunned the UMD-movie production; One high-ranking executive commented that the situation is awful and that "sales are near zilch. It's another Sony bomb -- like Blu-ray."
Even Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment is said to be contemplating on aborting the UMD business. Spokeswoman Brenda Ciccone said that "We continue to evaluate the PSP platform for each title, and if it makes sense for business reasons and the target audience, we will release them," adding that "Our focus right now is much more aimed at HD (high-definition) at the moment, though."
Image Entertainment has confirmed that it is out, while other studios -- including 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment and Buena Vista Home Entertainment -- is perceived to be on their way there.
"No one's watching movies on PSP," said the president of one of the six major studios' home entertainment divisions. "It's a game player, period."
The speculated reason behind the said immediate decline in sales is the dubious marketing moves by the studios themselves. The initial sales were really strong, producers, perhaps sensing a gold-rush equal to 1849, then began to release too many movies, too fast. This somehow affected the consumers' interest as they start to veer away from the UMD's -- talk about maximum overload. It didn't help that Apple's video iPod took the limelight.
Sony, thru Sony Pictures Home Entertainment president Benjamin Feingold, is still optimistic about their hand-held movie-watching feature, revealing that plans of making the PSP connectable to TV sets for big-screen viewing (I thought there were other gadgets specifically made for that, like let's say, THE DVD PLAYER?!) are being finalized to draw back the public's interest.
"We're hoping the format's going to be reinvigorated with next-generation capability that may include living-room or normal television playback," he added. I believe there's a word for that, quixotic, you can even say, desperate.The QJ.net Network |
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Comments
I never really cared for UMD movies. -fool
2GB MS + broadband + videora = no need for UMD movies.
Thr reason for low sales is the prices! Who really wants to buy a $19.99 or $29.99 UMD when they can get a DVD of that movie for less. Plus UMD movies come with much less features, is lower quality, and can only be played on a PSP. If companies can sell UMD's for about $10 each, then sales would boom. Until then more people will buy the DVD and if they want they will transfer it to their Memory Stick.
The DVD's work with everything, and are higher res/better sound. Plus a transcode to a 480x272 avi for the psp is the same as the UMD~
There are 2 ways to fix this: Package UMDs with DVDs for a reasonable price ($5 over the price of either one individually) Provide a cheap (read $20-$30) hardware link between the TV and the PSP that uses standard AV hookups, have the ability to charge the PSP, and will work with current gen PSPs (IE, don't make it standard on some PSP lite or whatever). Granted, it would probably require a firmware update, but people using 1.5 are probably watching movies off of their memory cards anyways. If Sony does this, the UMD sales might pick up again. The PSP is a fine piece of hardware, and great for viewing movies on in a car or airplane, but it shouldn't be the only place a particular medium can be used. I have the Spiderman 2 UMD that came with my PSP and have watched it once, on a transatlantic flight. That's it. I've watched far more video on my memory sticks. ~Nec
psp movies are easy as hell to jack and thats what most people i know do. i ask hey how much u get that movie they say yea i jacked it i say is it easy they say hell yea all u do is take the movies u want go to a empty isle and take something to cut plastic open up take umd and bone outta there my homie sells umd's movies for like 5 bucks.
nocomment
^^I hope you and your friends burn in Hell.
they need to give us porn
they need to give us porn
Well it's kinda stupid, a movie that only plays on one device. And the crappy price dosn't help.
To ignore the thugs and get back on topic: There are three reasons that I don't buy any UMD movies: 1. price: there is no price advantage to buy UMD compared to DVD 2. conversion: I can convert DVDs to PSP format (PMP) but not the other way around last but certainly not least: 3. firmware updates: not entirely sure about this, but it appears that are movies that force you to update the firmware. I want to keep my virgin 1.50 US that way. So for me to buy UMDs: 1. should work with firmware 1.50 and 2. be half the price of the corresponding DVD release at any time
Ha ha ha. Classic teen behaviour. I used to do that with ps2 games it was soo easy. Stealing is soo fun
Give us porn so people could "jack" that too?
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6146881.html
shoplifting is very fun but it's just not worth it stick to stealing Intelectual Property off the Internet. All artists/programmers/etc should shut up and make me more crap to steal.
Um, yea, I want this, I could finally play PSP games on my tv, instead of that ridiculously small screen, at least compared to a tv, and it would be so easy to watch those stupid videos i put on my psp on my tv, also, its much quicker than having to burn them to a dvd or vcd.....I would love a psp to tv function, please SONY!!
if the umds were cheaper then there would be tons of people buying them. i only have 2 umd movies and about 6 games. i would have more movies if they were cheaper or all came like the stewie griffin movie (jn a 5-umd package for roughly the regualr UMD movie price)
[[[Package UMDs with DVDs for a reasonable price ($5 over the price of either one individually)]]] I think that's the best idea. I had hoped for this when the UMD movies were first announced. I'd be willing to pay a few extra dollars to get the DVD and portable UMD in the same package... but I'm not willing to pay full price TWICE to get the same movie in two formats. If it comes down to DVD vs UMD, I'll take DVD every time since that's the format out of which I'll get the most use.
"2GB MS + broadband + videora = no need for UMD movies." unles you have a large collection of music, gba roms, and snes roms. and in the future psx games and N64 roms.
Haha, Sony got pwnt. PSP is great and all, but seeing as it is the best hand-held gaming system out there, I can't help but chuckle when it trips itself.
Packing DVDs & UMD's together is a good idea but think about it....this downfall in UMD sales may push Sony to release a UMD player which in time may lead to a UMD burner which might lead to more homebrew :D
go on lik-sang.com and go to the psp section and you will find a psp tv adapter for psp.
I don't buy the expencive ass things anyway I download and convert them to memory card. If I do buy a movie why would I buy a UMD and not a DVD??? You can always rip the dvd to memory card... you cant watch UMD on ure tv unless you buy some expencive ass hardware. Maybe sony will release a burner now that they realise how *****ty it is to make EVERYTHING propriatary... Sorry Sony YOU LOOSE!
So why doesn't sony just use their DRM-protected AVC movie playback capability and provide movies via a download service, like iTunes? The capability's there. I'm sure the demand is there, as well as the means to pull it off. Movies can look decent at about 350-400 megs, if encoded properly.
based on that assumption... take a look at your market. Here are a bunch of your users, almost unianimously telling you what they want. I will chime in with my opinion as well. If I cant play my PSP on my TV then a UMD movie is worth substantially less than a DVD to me. A PSP was designed to be hand held.... that being said, you expect us to hold a movie for that long? Maybe something interactive like a game, but not a movie. Of course sales were ok at first becuase it was early adopters buying, and they tried your product and let the public know it sucked. Essentially what you have done, is given less product for more money.... less for more? Do I really need to tell you that you're stupid? Im not sure if you've ever really had customers or not, but generally they tell you what they want, YOU DONT TELL THEM. My god, its like Sony is hiring community college kids to run their business. WTF is wrong with you guys? I swear I could single handly run the whole marketing department better than the staff of monkeys with keyboards that they have running it now, and marketing wasnt even my business concentration in college. That being said, I truly enjoy my PSP and the family guy episodes I ripped from my legally owned DVD seasons to put on it. I do watch videos in short duration, and would on some occasion watch longer movies, but so infrequently that its not worth more than $10 a UMD to me. Great product Sony (PSP), now get your ***** together and make more good games and drop the Sony movie price to 9.99. And release OEM faceplates already, the damn thing's not scratch proof and 3rd party manufacturers are making a killing off your hesitation to do so. Ludikhris
I buy UMDs for 10-12$ at wal-mart all the time. If its 20 dollars I wont buy it but if its 11.99$ I will pick it up. I love watching movies on my psp. Alot better quality than my crappy TV set that I have and I would rather support the PSP and just burn DVDs if I really want them. PSP is more my life than being at home watching DVD on the TV. PSP can go anywhere.
1. make them cheaper 2. Don't release crappy movies for over 10 dollars. We see through your little scheme, you bastards.
Umm... I'm guessing that you mean 1849?
Get a f*cking clue Sony. Don't charge $30 for a f*cking UMD Movie. Office Space at Bestbuy is $30 for the UMD and $12 for the DVD. Its NOT PIRACY THATS KILLING THE FORMAT, ITS YOU SONY!
UMD movies should have been Five Dollars everywhere, that way the consumer(You & Me) would readily buy them, hell it would've been cheaper than renting a DVD.
I read that like 5 times and still didn't get it! 1849 actually makes sense. But yeah..... umd movies need to be cheaper than dvd's. period. And there needs to be a psp to tv thingy fast. A good easy one.
the capital letter squad is coming... i don't think sony read these blogs, marketing departments and stuff really think they know what the consumer wants, and don't listen to the consumer. the ps1 emulator thing is a surprise to me, as it seems sony has listened in that respect. but look at the firmware thing, if they really cared what the psp community thought they'd not release the firmwares and intentionally kill homebrew. homebrew etc would be well good with umd-r or something like that... just imagine...
to double post. Because there's no edit function; the reason UMDs are falling off, is that yes they are too expensive, but anyone has the ability to download and compress movies to play on their psp. Why would people buy a movie if it was 15-30 dollars? I buy em when they go on sale. Five bucks, I'd buy one every week, atleast. It's faster than downloading.
I think it's stupid to make dumbass UMD's on Live Rock Concerts. They remake really dumb UMD's as well. I live in Germany, and when I go to the PX to see new releases, I see some Ghostbuster's and some U2 Live at some place. It's really gay. Make movies that have made alot of money in theatres.
The prices are toooo high! Who pays more for an UMD than for a DVD? Or who pays more for a 2 years old movie than for a brand new dvd movie? No, better playing games and emulators on the psp. And when I want to watch a movie, I can copy one of my DVDs to the memory stick...
open the format, so other devices and companys can take advantage of it
I'm telling ya, they should have just added a Hard Disc Drive. Or even an external hard drive connection . Just another example of how laws go WAY too far :P Someday, you won't be able to wipe your own a## because charmin or cottonelle tells you you should do it a certain way and by not complying you are in violation of their said a## wiping guidlines :P Hell, if they knew who I was they'd probably sue me for what I just wrote ...LMAO.
we will finnaly see some more games then
Why would any one want to buy a UMD, I rip episodes of my TV shows to MS in either direct AVI or PMP format and they look just as good as UMDs. Same could be said about movies. The thing is not that the PSP is just a gaming machines, I love to watch movies on my PSP, i just hate buying em.
Only fools or idiots buy UMD movies! Why would anyone buy a UMD movie except maybe ONCE as a initial trial! SONY wake up and smell the roses! Unless UMD movie prices go down to under 6 $.....UMD's are DEAD for movies!
Dam this is the start of psp's downfal out of the hand held wars.l I have noticed looking at the 2006 charts and comparing them to 2005 psp is falling in sells in amarica and japan and this new development is surly to be a hard hit overall plz soney dont die on us . you cant let nintendo kill another handeld made by another companey this owning of the market by nintendo is getting annoying this would be like the 12th time a hand held has fallen to nintendos hand held. plz soney pull somthing out of your ass befor you let nintendo kill psp.
i doubt it, people want a psp for games, not overpriced re-releases of movies we already own/have seen. i mean is anyone really surprised by this? like hungrywolf says if they go down to like $6 that would be awesome and id buy some of my favorites for long trips but im sure thatd never happen as that wouldnt generate enough profit for the execs to pay for their mercedes and the cocain they snort off of hookers.
1. between 5-10 $ it's a deal. 2. Release UMD-R in the future, proprietary formats are ideas from outer-space for us. 3. Listen to the community, the retarded that give ideas atSony don't know WHAT we want and in wich way the PSP should go to get his place ine Handhelds, we want the PSP to be #1, but you Sony, is just hesitating on grant possibilities of accessories, releasing news thing more often on firmwares and making UMD movies going dead... Plus, we all know you hate homebrews, so create some, and release it on firmwares, so in taht way, that's gonna be a major point to leave 1.5 and 2.0 fw.
The way I see it is that UMDs can be played on a large tv without loss of definition. Im surprised that anyone bought UMDs at their current prices. £4-5 a UMD should be the correct price. More people would buy without question. Bring on the porn UMDs at these prices too and UMD will live for much longer. Id buy loads at these prices...who wouldnt? Id still get the UMD even if i had the DVD because they are different formates for different screen sizes..simple! Im waiting for the dvd stores to start selling off all their UMD stocks at rock bottom prices.
actually £4-5 is being too generous for the UMDs..I would pay £3 max for one. £4 max for porn UMD.
recognize this as the first step to the psps ultimate fall and nintendos 14th win
i think this is the 3rd time they posted about this today
"I see some Ghostbuster's and some U2 Live at some place. It's really gay. Make movies that have made alot of money in theatres." Ghostbusters did well at the theatres.... and is a great movie to boot. But, meh, each to their own.
If youve read all the comments so far your a sad *****.
I recently only started buying UMD Movies, why ? Well now there's quite a few on the used market I can get for $5-10. At that price it's a convienience to buy over ripping, but not above that. Make the New Disks a $12.95 retail which oughtta equate to about $9-$10 on the shelf and you have a winner. Well the upside is there soon will be alot of Firesale Deals on UMD Movies
Now that you no more need the UMD drive: I've got a 1.5 machine with the UMD drive removed, in another words: with a space for a 4GB INTERNAL HD, or lots of space for having MS cards or an extra (smaller) accu with you. The machine worx perfectly without the drive. Just try it. ..oor if anybody interested in my one mrn| at| post| dot|cz
Since PMPMOD was released there's been no reason to buy OVERPRICED UMDs...
The lesson in UMD movie failure is clear: customers are not willing to pay twice for the same content, especially when the only reason they would do so is because of artificial technical hurdles created by the content provider. There is absolutely no reason to buy a UMD movie instead of a DVD. The picture quality is not as good, and without a PSP to TV adapter Sony doesn't support iit only plays on the PSP. Given this, and since DVD sales are not hurting it seems safe to conclude that lack of interest in UMDs amounts to customers being offended at asking to pay full price a second time in order to use content they have already purchased. As movie and music studios adopt business plans that try to double dip (charge for the optical disc, charge for the download, and prohibit converting the two) in the next generation content delivery they should take heed customers are not going to take it laying down!
Well it is´nt hard to se way UMD format is not a big hit, I easely thought there wore more products coming to support the format. The resolution and sound channels does´nt make it competetive against DVD´s in our home but just think of other places. For example in car entertainment, If you could have a UMD player in your car instead of a DVD that would be a logical product, the UMD´s are smaller the sound(2channel) and the resolution (less then a DVD) is just perfect for car entertainmet where you dont need fulllblown 5.1 sound. Same thing about a little player for your tv in your summer place, boat, caravan and so on. Basicaly the format need more players other then the PSP to survive!
I have to pop in and agree with the price being the problem. I have the option of buying a 19.99 UMD or a 15.49 DVD with all the extras. People will clearly go to the DVD, specially today when if ya really wanted to, you could get yourself a nice portable DVD player for 150 bucks.
"But that may eventually change according to Benjamin Feingold, president of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Feingold told the Reporter that Sony is "hoping the format's going to be reinvigorated with _next-generation_ capability that may include living room or normal television playback," he said. Sony reps declined to elaborate on Feingold's comments." Note the keywords "next-generation". In other words, what Mr. FeinGOLD is really trying to say is... "If you buy a PS3 for $700, and a PSP for $200-$250, we'll let you output your movies THROUGH THE PS3 to your big screen. That way we make sure you can't output them directly to your computer or some other source by having the PS3 converter be proprietary and DRM laden."
The price is a big concern, but my main issue is that the only thing on earth that can play a UMD is the PSP. That's pretty far from being "Universal" don't ya think? Sony... Ya screwed up once with Beta... Get us a UMD player, or you are signing your own death warrant. Lower prices on the UMD's would be cool too, but if you guys don't get off your bums we won't have to worry about prices. We'll be getting UMD movies pretty cheaply on clearance racks!
think about it drones
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