PSP HD

[cthellis42]

To my knowledge, there are no 50 gig 1.8" hard drives, (which is what they would have to use. No way 2.5" will fit, assuming there's even 50 gig 2.5"ers), in production or announced for production at this time. That says to me that the liklihood of the original article here being genuine is significantly reduced.

Um... Considering there are 1.8" 60GB drives, there certainly could be 50GB ones as well. (Though it seems a bit of a waste to push platter size by 5GB increments when they seem able to jump 10GB at a time pretty well.) Unless you meant it in the "no one's making them and there's no reason to make that size a drive as they can do it better, so a 50GB drive of any sort seems suspect" way.

Regardless, the idea is pretty damn unlikely, especially by year's end. What I could actually see is a Sony HD-based music player on its own right that could link to the PSP as well and offer a ton of extra data storage, but the reasons-to and penalties-from trying to integrate a HD of that size into the PSP itself would be stupid-bad.

 

[wco81]

In the iPod, they are now sourcing single-platter 30 GB and double-platter 60 GB drives.

There's speculation that by the end of the year, these drives will have 40 and 80 GB capacity.

I'm not sure these drives are the fastest however. They may be fine for audio but video could be another matter. But even if they are fast enough, the way things are currently, it doesn't seem likely they will have some kind of video or game download setup. Certainly there's no chance they will let you rip games or UMD movies into the hard drive.

And just putting in a hard drive in the current form-factor just for audio makes little sense. It's just not a competitive form-factor for an audio player.

Looks like they're going to have some flashy DAPs by the end of this year anyways.

 

[jvd]

I would think a 10 gig is reasonable.

THe iipod minis just droped to 200$ and i'm sure if it wasn't apple pricing they could be as low as 100-150$

SO i can see a 300$ 4-10 gig psp coming out . Which i believe isn't a bad deal at all

 

[Clashman]

I know very well that 50 gig capacity is possible. As was already mentioned, there are 30, 40, and 60 gig versions in the 1.8" form factor. However, there is no 50 gig drive, it's just not the increments they're making them in. That's why I found it unlikely.

 

[wco81]

I would think a 10 gig is reasonable.

THe iipod minis just droped to 200$ and i'm sure if it wasn't apple pricing they could be as low as 100-150$

SO i can see a 300$ 4-10 gig psp coming out . Which i believe isn't a bad deal at all

You think Sony's pricing is any better?

 

[London Geezer]

I would think a 10 gig is reasonable.

THe iipod minis just droped to 200$ and i'm sure if it wasn't apple pricing they could be as low as 100-150$

SO i can see a 300$ 4-10 gig psp coming out . Which i believe isn't a bad deal at all

You think Sony's pricing is any better?

Dont know about u, but they're selling the PSP at a very good price, considering what's inside. For once they sell something at a good price, and people still complain?

 

[wco81]

True but in consoles they've had to be competitive and they have a different pricing model.

Look at consumer electronics however and you'll see that there is a Sony premium. Even in their Network Walkman line.

If they add a HDD to the PSP, they'd be going beyond gaming. There's no need to eat margins on a HDD version of the PSP. They're subsidizing the UMD configuration. Would be real surprise if they subsidize the HDD version (and as we've seen from the PS2 HDD, they dont' mind making up a lot of margins on peripherals).

 

[London Geezer]

Trust me i know very well the Sony "Because We Can" Premium, my pockets know.

But this PSP is one hell of a good little machine and they're selling it for a gorgeous price. You can see they're trying very hard to make PSP successful. And it will probably do very well.

 

[cthellis42]

I still think it would work out better to keep the HD as a separate device. They could support multiple models, offer much greater capacities, not compromise case/size design, not introduce more heat to the system, moving parts to worry about, and other potential failure points... And not make the price of the system a bear as well.

I think their main concern, though, is of business and licensing in nature. If companies outside Sony are going to seriously look at UMD as a media distribution format, they're not going to look at a potential mass-storage piracy device with too nice a gaze. Nor game publishers if it can be made to copy/play their software. Sony of course would try to keep the device from doing illegal acts as much as they can, but when does that ever seem to stop anyone? Part of what holds HD's back in general...

At any rate, I don't see a change like this happening ANY time soon, and certainly not by the end of the year. 8-P They have more things to worry about, and built-in HD prospects right now will be more trouble than they're worth--especially since I think better and easier options exist.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

How's about a WiFi seperate HD that the PSP can access with it's own batteries and no need to be inbuilt inot a slim and lightweight handheld?

 

[cthellis42]

How's about a WiFi seperate HD that the PSP can access with it's own batteries and no need to be inbuilt inot a slim and lightweight handheld?

What I mean is any other Sony HD device used for any other purpose (so basically an MP3 player for the low cost options, or MP3/photo/video at the high end if they want) that they can just connect to the PSP to use as potential mass storage. Wireless communication would be rather pointless (and probably too slow for many purposes), but USB2.0 would be plenty good.

There's no reason whatsoever for a dedicated HD device, unless they could offer a sizable one for VERY cheap. But I don't see them doing that when they could design it towards another uncovered section of the market.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Personally I wouldn't want to be on the move with a handheld PSP connected through a wire to a belt-mounted storage as unlike headphones the wire needs to come away from your torso. I can imagine it getting caught up in stuff unless you feed the wire up your jumper/shirt and down your arm.