James Delahunty
31 Mar 2006 8:42
Disappointing sales and falling consumer interest might bring about the death of Sony's Universal Media Disc (UMD) format - at least in the motion picture market. Two major studios appear to have already abandoned producing movies in the format. Initially, UMD movies were very successful with two Sony Pictures titles crossing the 100,000-unit threshold after just two months. However, observers believe the novelty is quickly wearing off and the PSP is simply being used as a gaming device, not the all-around entertainment gadget that Sony aimed for.
Universal Studios Home Entertainment is one studio that has completely abandoned UMD. One anonymous high rank executive displayed enormous lack of faith in the format, and Sony, with his comments: "It's awful. Sales are near zilch. It's another Sony bomb -- like Blu-Ray." It's not just studios that have gotten cold feet either; retailers have also begun to lower their stocks of UMD movies and Wal-Mart is reportedly about to dump them completely.
Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment has also reportedly abandoned the format. "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," spokeswoman Brenda Ciccone said. "Our focus right now is much more aimed at HD (high-definition) at the moment, though." A high ranking executive was a little more clear on motive: "We are on hiatus with UMD," he said. "Releasing titles on UMD is the exception rather than the rule. No one's even breaking even on them."
Benjamin Feingold, president of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, still believes in the format but even admits that his studio have begun to be more selective in choosing what movies will be released on UMD. He blames the lack of ability to connect the PSP console to a TV to view a movie as being a major part in the failure of the format. He also believes Memory Stick video capabilities are to blame. "I think a lot of people are ripping content and sticking it onto the device rather than purchasing," he said.
Yes indeed many people are using their Memory Stick for video content as it allows them to view content they have already bought on DVD just by ripping and encoding. Why pay for something twice? And on that note... here's some guides that might help...
Convert DVD video to files for PSP with CloneDVD Mobile:
https://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/dvd_to_psp_clonedvd_mobile.cfm
Convert video files to MP4 for PSP:
https://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/video_to_psp_imtoo_converter.cfm
How to encode files for the PSP with Nero Recode:
https://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/encode_files_for_psp_nero_recode.cfm
Source:
Reuters