Blu-Ray Vs. DVD

[London Geezer]

MGM joins the fun


http://www.usatoday.com/tech/produc...ld-movies_x.htm

Handheld movies are hot


Frederick Green likes his DVD. But after watching Spider-Man 2 on his new PlayStation Portable (PSP), he's eager to watch more movies on the little handheld game player. "The graphics are great," says the 37-year-old Fairlawn, Ohio, resident.

Green's enthusiasm may be spreading. Though the handheld PSP, launched in March, is considered primarily a gaming device, Hollywood studios are aggressively releasing movies on the PSP's proprietary Universal Media Disc (UMD), a 21/4-inch disc encased in a protective plastic shell.

Five of the six major studios are on board. The latest to click in: Paramount and MGM. Only Warner Bros. continues to sit out.

More than 70 UMD titles are in stores or are scheduled to arrive in the coming months. "No other format has gotten this much software support since DVD was launched eight years ago," notes analyst Tom Adams of Adams Media Research.

Paramount today announces 11 titles, including releases from fellow Viacom divisions Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and MTV, making Paramount the first studio to bring TV shows to UMD. The first batch, due Aug. 9, consists of Team America: World Police, Coach Carter and Without a Paddle. Sahara, The Italian Job and MTV's Viva la Bam: Volume 1 follow Aug. 30. Coming later are SpongeBob SquarePants the Movie and compilation UMDs of Chappelle's Show, Ren & Stimpy, South Park and SpongeBob SquarePants TV episodes.

Thomas Lesinski, president of worldwide home entertainment for Paramount Pictures, says the titles were chosen to fit the "key demographics for PSP," which is teens and young-adult males.

MGM, now partly owned by Sony, will release its first batch of four titles Sept. 13: Beauty Shop, Be Cool, Stargate: Atlantis and Bulletproof Monk.

Benjamin Feingold, president of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, the first studio to supply movies on UMD, says it was always Sony's intent that the PSP be more than a game player. Releasing movies for the PSP, he says, allows studios to "establish a beachhead in the portable, mobile market."

Feingold says that as people spend more and more time with cell phones, personal digital assistants and other portable devices, "it's important for our industry to have movies available."

Since PSP was launched, more than 1.2 million units have sold. Sony's Feingold projects that within 12 months, 6 million to 8 million PSP machines will be in North American households.

Analysts including Adams say that although UMD will never be as ubiquitous as DVD (more than 65 million households own DVD players), the market could grow to 25 million or even 30 million households.

UMD movies are carried by all the big discount and electronics chains, from Wal-Mart and Target to Best Buy and Circuit City. They're for sale at big music chains such as Trans World Entertainment and Musicland, and dedicated game chains Game Stop and EB Games.

Two UMD movies have now sold more than 100,000 copies each: Sony's House of Flying Daggers and Resident Evil 2, both released April 19. Sony's Feingold calls the sales tally "remarkable," noting that it took nine months for the first DVD title, Air Force One, to cross the 100,000-unit mark.

UMD's success on the movie front appears to be coming at the expense of the Warner-initiated Mini-DVD, a three-inch disc that can be played on regular DVD players as well as a dedicated handheld unit from CyberHome. Last January, Fox, Paramount and Universal joined Warner in supporting the Mini. But after an unsuccessful test at Best Buy, all three bowed out. Warner is giving the Mini one last shot with another test at Target.

See the bolded, this isn't just Sony.

MGM was always behind Sony, they merged.
I wasnt disagreeing with you by the way...

 

[PC-Engine]

Won't really matter since UMD is DOA.

 

[croc hunter2]

Studios are not releasing UMD movies. Sony is.

Did u read the whole article. 5 of the six major studios are on board, unless Sony have vacuumed up some in the past day or so, its not just them.


PC-Engine Reading is good. hating a corporation is odd :?

Two UMD movies have now sold more than 100,000 copies each: Sony's House of Flying Daggers and Resident Evil 2, both released April 19. it took nine months for the first DVD title, Air Force One, to cross the 100,000-unit mark.

This doesn't strike me as DOA, not even a rough birth really. How long it lives is open to debate tho being a proprietry format and all. But all but Warners are giving some love, so we'll see.

 

[London Geezer]

Studios are not releasing UMD movies. Sony is.

Did u read the whole article. 5 of the six major studios are on board, unless Sony have vacuumed up some in the past day or so, its not just them.

I was saying that so far, Sony are the ones that have been supporting the UMD movies sector, for obvious reasons, waiting for other studios to come on board. The will, but thay haven't yet. Till recently at least.

My main point was that Sony/MGM have enough material to support the UMD movie sector, which is a good thing in preparation for BR.

 

[PC-Engine]

Studios are not releasing UMD movies. Sony is.

Did u read the whole article. 5 of the six major studios are on board, unless Sony have vacuumed up some in the past day or so, its not just them.

PC-Engine Reading is good. hating a corporation is odd :?

Two UMD movies have now sold more than 100,000 copies each: Sony's House of Flying Daggers and Resident Evil 2, both released April 19. it took nine months for the first DVD title, Air Force One, to cross the 100,000-unit mark.

This doesn't strike me as DOA, not even a rough birth really. How long it lives is open to debate tho being a proprietry format and all. But all but Warners are giving some love, so we'll see.

How many of those two titles sold on DVD?

 

[Mordecaii]

What does it matter how many of them sold on DVD? They're different formats, and the only way you can play the UMD is on the PSP, so comparisons don't even matter.

 

[PC-Engine]

What does it matter how many of them sold on DVD? They're different formats, and the only way you can play the UMD is on the PSP, so comparisons don't even matter.

Actually it does matter. I'm willing to bet more people actually bought those movies on DVD then converted them to MPEG4 for play on PSP than actually buying the UMD. It's kinda funny how they didn't give numbers for the other UMD movies.

 

[Mordecaii]

But it proves that UMD movies can sell. Some movies will inherently sell more than others, thus there will always be a few movies that get huge sale numbers while others don't. Considering the PSP is a game device and it hasn't exactly gotten a whole lot of UMD movie support until recently (It hasn't even been released long), I'd call this impressive. Still, nothing I say will get you to stop throwing out negatives and trying to prove that anything Sony does is a failure, so I don't even know why I try.

 

[PC-Engine]

People probably just bought them for the novelty. You're delusional if you think anybody is gonna build a huge UMD movie collection that they can't was on tv.

KZ is teh reeltymez!!!

 

[one]

What does it matter how many of them sold on DVD? They're different formats, and the only way you can play the UMD is on the PSP, so comparisons don't even matter.

Actually it does matter. I'm willing to bet more people actually bought those movies on DVD then converted them to MPEG4 for play on PSP than actually buying the UMD. It's kinda funny how they didn't give numbers for the other UMD movies.

Not many ppl are geeks who have a clue to what H.264 is.

 

[PC-Engine]

What does it matter how many of them sold on DVD? They're different formats, and the only way you can play the UMD is on the PSP, so comparisons don't even matter.

Actually it does matter. I'm willing to bet more people actually bought those movies on DVD then converted them to MPEG4 for play on PSP than actually buying the UMD. It's kinda funny how they didn't give numbers for the other UMD movies.

Not many ppl are geeks who have a clue to what H.264 is.

Doesn't change the fact nobody is going to be building a library of UMD movies...and for those who do they're probably geeks too.

 

[Mordecaii]

I notice that when you're wrong you tend to take to personal attacks... nice job! On a side note, I'm pretty sure this forum isn't about making such personal attacks, and as such it would be appreciated if you would refrain from them in the future... your opinions are not fact so please don't treat them as such.

 

[PC-Engine]

I notice that when you're wrong you tend to take to personal attacks... nice job! On a side note, I'm pretty sure this forum isn't about making such personal attacks, and as such it would be appreciated if you would refrain from them in the future... your opinions are not fact so please don't treat them as such.

I noticed that you like to claim people are wrong without much to back it up.

 

[Mordecaii]

See my previous post.

 

[PC-Engine]

See my previous post.

Saw it and it does not back you up.

 

[Johnny_Physics]

Doesn't change the fact nobody is going to be building a library of UMD movies...and for those who do they're probably geeks too.

Aah, the No True Scotsman fallacy, you don't see them often these days 8)

 

[rabidrabbit]

How many UMD's is considered a library?
If someone buys during the first year of owning a PSP three UMD's of Sponge Bob for the kids, Spiderman 3, House Of The Flying Daggers, Hellboy and Resident Evil for himself is that already a start of a library?

I know you say nobody would buy that many UMD's, but I can see myself doing that (well, not the SpongeBob's as I do not have kids of my own ).

The video viewing capabilities, whether Memorystick or DVD have been the one feature that most non- or little game playing friends have been most interested in PSP, and frankly that's what I've been doing quite a lot with my PSP too. Not UMD's as they're not available here yet, if they were I'm sure I would have already bought a couple of them.

I hope they'll start releasing more TV shows and anime on UMD's, they interest me more than full length effects movies on PSP. Drama or comedy on UMD, that'll also be nice, but effects films I rather see on bigger screen at least for the first time.

 

[PC-Engine]

How many UMD's is considered a library?
If someone buys during the first year of owning a PSP three UMD's of Sponge Bob for the kids, Spiderman 3, House Of The Flying Daggers, Hellboy and Resident Evil for himself is that already a start of a library?

I know you say nobody would buy that many UMD's, but I can see myself doing that (well, not the SpongeBob's as I do not have kids of my own ).

The video viewing capabilities, whether Memorystick or DVD have been the one feature that most non- or little game playing friends have been most interested in PSP, and frankly that's what I've been doing quite a lot with my PSP too. Not UMD's as they're not available here yet, if they were I'm sure I would have already bought a couple of them.

I hope they'll start releasing more TV shows and anime on UMD's, they interest me more than full length effects movies on PSP. Drama or comedy on UMD, that'll also be nice, but effects films I rather see on bigger screen at least for the first time.

See the geek statement above.

 

[quest55720]

How many UMD's is considered a library?
If someone buys during the first year of owning a PSP three UMD's of Sponge Bob for the kids, Spiderman 3, House Of The Flying Daggers, Hellboy and Resident Evil for himself is that already a start of a library?

I know you say nobody would buy that many UMD's, but I can see myself doing that (well, not the SpongeBob's as I do not have kids of my own ).

The video viewing capabilities, whether Memorystick or DVD have been the one feature that most non- or little game playing friends have been most interested in PSP, and frankly that's what I've been doing quite a lot with my PSP too. Not UMD's as they're not available here yet, if they were I'm sure I would have already bought a couple of them.

I hope they'll start releasing more TV shows and anime on UMD's, they interest me more than full length effects movies on PSP. Drama or comedy on UMD, that'll also be nice, but effects films I rather see on bigger screen at least for the first time.

You are pretty hardcore I can not see buying media 2x I guess I am cheap. I just can't see spending 20 bucks on a new release DVD then spending an aditional 15 bucks to watch it my PSP. The only way I would use the PSP for video playback is with a memory stick.

 

[rabidrabbit]

Yes, but I just simply don't buy that "geek" statement. There's little to support that claim. What makes buying UMD movies more "geek" than not, other than you just made that up :?