PSP films on Mem Stick Duo News
PSP News by Tom Bramwell
Sony has come up with another way of encouraging consumers to buy 1GB and 2GB Memory Stick Duos - and has, in the process, demonstrated how PSP movies can be distributed in rights-managed digital format without resorting to UMD discs.
The Memory Stick Entertainment Pack consists of a 1GB or a 2GB Memory Stick Duo - which will work in the PSP as well as Cybershot cameras, Handycam camcorders and Sony Ericsson mobile phones - along with a DVD that you can use to unlock one of four PSP-formatted Sony films.
Once you've inserted the disc into your PC, you can input the unlock code that comes with the Pack, and select one of four films - Hitch, SWAT, The Grudge and XXX: State of the Union - to transfer to the Memory Stick Duo for playback on the PSP. Sony says this will be the only way to watch them.
Although more focused on the Memory Stick Duo than the actual film content, this is still fairly new ground for Sony, which has witnessed sales of films on UMD briefly spark and then dwindle since the handheld's launch.
A spokesperson for Sony UK was not able to immediately available to confirm European plans for the Memory Stick Entertainment Pack.
However the Packs will be available in the US next month for about $60 and $100 respectively for the 1GB and 2GB bundles.
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Comments: 1-27 of 27 in total
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tonynibbles
13/07/06 @ 12:37
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I got my 4Gb the other week.
I've got about 800Mb of photos, Spaced Series 2 and Anchorman on there, and just over 2Gb of music with space spare aswell. Give it a few months and I'll upgrade to teh 8Gb win. |
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MisterFalseName
13/07/06 @ 13:37
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Ebay is filled with counterfeit memory sticks, though - which is why I paid about double that for a 2gb stick for the piece of mind. :)
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"I wonder whether blueray format will be the next Betamax?"
Too early to tell... although it's looking like it's also too early for Blu-Ray altogther: "the delays keep coming for Sony's Blu-ray high-definition DVD system. China's Commercial Times newspaper is reporting that Sony's production facilities have not been able to meet the demand for the diode that generates the blue laser at the heart of the HD system. Both Sony's own plants and those of Japan's Nichia Corp., the only two suppliers of the diodes, have been plagued by production problems, the newspaper said. The supply problem, it observed, could not only delay production of Blu-ray DVD players for Sony and other manufacturers, but could also delay the release of PlayStation 3 models, now scheduled for November." - 11th July, http://www.imdb.com/news/sb/2006-07-11/#3 Rather than a delay expect a shortage. You'd expect HDDVD players to have the same shortages but nothing has been reported yet. On a related note, Cell yields are still very low: "With a chip like the Cell processor, you’re lucky to get 10 or 20 percent [yield]" - presumably on all 8 cores working, as opposed to the 7 needed for PS3 grade chips. http://www.reed-electronics.com/electron... |
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What a wonderful selection of films to pick. Of course, depends on the target audience, and for one won't resort to making judgements.... for once.
Also, the only way to watch these films? Eh? Just rip the DVDs to a hard drive using one of the many freeware tools that does the job and then format it for the PSP. Still too much faffing around for a lot of people methinks...... |
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prettyboytim
13/07/06 @ 14:57
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I wonder if they'll be full resolution, unlike the crippled resolution memory stick video has been limited so far?
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foreverafternothing
13/07/06 @ 15:13
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They won't work in the latest Sony Ericsson phones actually. For that you need the new Memory Stick M2 or whatever it's called.
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chupachups
13/07/06 @ 16:30
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--Could Mem Stick games and a solid-state PSP be further down in the pipeline?--
There'd be a danger of increased piracy if games came on a standard format like memory stick. The most pirate-resistent games systems have always steered clear of any standard formats, and pirated cartridges were always far rarer than pirated CDs. An alternative would be for Sony to create a PSP-only memory card format, which is pretty much what Nintendo did for their DS. |
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BLACKSHEEP
14/07/06 @ 00:46
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QVGA??? well guess Sony don't want to upset their precious UMD Film market ;)
To be honest, best to get a copy of their PSP suite which can convert DVD films to the UMD 480x272 standard if you don't mind the long conversion times!!! |
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"Give it a few months and I'll upgrade to teh 8Gb win. "
Afraid not. The maximum the PSP can support is 4GB. I read a review of the Datel PSP Hard Drive (which was basically a Memory Stick to Compact Flash converter and a 4GB Microdrive) and they swapped the drive out for other compact flash media. The PSP could recognise any of the cards upto 4GB, and only the first 4GB of any card larger than that. So at 4GB, you're already maxed out. As a side, what someone *should* release is a 2/4/6 to 1 Memory Stick adapter. In the same way the Datel Hard Drive clipped on the back of the PSP (it replaced a part of the case didn't it?) someone should make a device that accepts multiple Memory Sticks and then has a switch to let you flick between them. It would be much smaller than the Datel Hard Drive, and allow much more space - 4GB for films, 4GB for music and 4GB for games anyone? :D |
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prettyboytim
14/07/06 @ 09:06
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BLACKSHEEP:
The playing-videos-from-memorystick functionality on the PSP is crippled so that you can't play better than QVGA resolution, irrespective of whether you buy it on a memory stick or convert it from one of your own DVDs. |
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tonynibbles
14/07/06 @ 09:57
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@Peckmore
I'm 99% sure you're wrong on that. PSP does support 8gb. The last firmware upgrade enabled 4gb and 8gb capacity, previously it only supported up to 2gb. |
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Gamespot - "The movies will play in [320x240] pixel resolution, lower than the 480x272 pixel resolution PSPs are capable of."
Utter bollocks. Actually, I think this is almost certainly true. While it may not be 320x240 specifically, I seem to recall that the memorytsick bus is not fast enough to get all the bytes / second (ie 480x272=130560pixels) at a conistent rate, and as such, all movies that are "streamed" off the stick needs reformatting to a something smaller. What this format (or aspect ratio) ends up as is based on the dimensions of the footage (whether it is widescreen or not etc), and the PSP then scales it to fit the screen. Maybe someone solved this since I last checked? Feel free to share it then... K. |
Comments: 1-27 of 27 in total
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