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[ManaByte]

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0007VNGXK/altgenx/002-0895491-5103219

If you decide to order, be use to use the Amazon links on these forums!

 

[ToyMachine228]

Any good sales on Spider-Man 2 on UMD?

 

[Nester]

Any good sales on Spider-Man 2 on UMD?

Free isn't good enough?

 

[ToyMachine228]

I'm not buying a PSP bundle

 

[Kobun Heat]

Then how are you going to watch it?

 

[ManaByte]

I'm not buying a PSP bundle

Uh, the first 1 million PSPs come with it.

 

[Kobun Heat]

Uh, the first 1 million PSPs come with it.

My response was better for its carrot-stick approach. You just killed the fun.

 

[ToyMachine228]

Uh, the first 1 million PSPs come with it.

Then disregard my post. I thought that Spider-Man 2 only came with the bundles. The jokes on me.

 

[Matt]

Then disregard my post. I thought that Spider-Man 2 only came with the bundles. The jokes on me.

...You can only buy a PSP Value Pack.

 

[Schmo Florez]

No pirates on UMD yet?

And by pirates I mean the movie, not the people that "steal" music.

 

[ToyMachine228]

...You can only buy a PSP Value Pack.

Is that the $250 one? That's the one I'm getting. From TRU.

 

[jiggle]

Is that the $250 one? That's the one I'm getting. From TRU.

yes

 

[Drexon]

Good price. That actually falls into the 'I'm at the bus station and I want to pick some movie up on impulse' price range for me.

 

[Lionheart]

House of Flying Daggers is $20.27.

 

[Amir0x]

Definitely diggin' it, splurging for Hellboy and Once Upon a Time in Mexico now. That's the type of price I'm talking about. But dang, House of Flying Daggers... waiting for at least a 14.99 deal...

 

[Ninja Scooter]

you can get Hellboy and Onoce upon a time in Mexico for like $10 on dvd at most places. Damn these things should have been cheaper.

 

[Littleberu]

you can get Hellboy and Onoce upon a time in Mexico for like $10 on dvd at most places. Damn these things should have been cheaper.

Can you take Once Upon a Time in mexico on DVD with you in the bus? Well, actualy you can with a portable player. But... but.

 

[Amir0x]

you can get Hellboy and Onoce upon a time in Mexico for like $10 on dvd at most places. Damn these things should have been cheaper.

Already own Hellboy AND Hellboy Director's Cut on DVD. Also already own Once Upon a time in Mexico on DVD.

 

[Ninja Scooter]

Can you take Once Upon a Time in mexico on DVD with you in the bus? Well, actualy you can with a portable player. But... but.

i thought you could copy movies onto a memory stick? It might be much more expensive in the short run, but if i really wanted to watch movies on the PSP, i think thats the option i'd go with.

 

[Scoobert]

These things should have been $15 MSRP. But if these are prices of the first movies I think prices will more or less be fair. Still don't understand the high price for House of Flying Daggers though. I'm still thinking 2 UMDs.

 

[cvxfreak]

Yay, time to buy RE Apocalypse even though my PSP won't play it. Price is just too good to pass up.

 

[ManaByte]

i thought you could copy movies onto a memory stick? It might be much more expensive in the short run, but if i really wanted to watch movies on the PSP, i think thats the option i'd go with.

Technically you can, but you won't see Sony advertising that because if they did you'd never see Disney or other studios supporting UMD when Sony says "Hey, you can just pirate and rip your DVD to a memory stick instead of buying the movie!"

 

[Nerevar]

Technically you can, but you won't see Sony advertising that because if they did you'd never see Disney or other studios supporting UMD when Sony says "Hey, you can just pirate and rip your DVD to a memory stick instead of buying the movie!"

I don't think the point was to pirate - it was simply that you can rip a DVD you already own to a memory stick. That's why these prices for UMDs are so retarded - why pay the same (or more) for an inferior version of the same product?

 

[DarienA]

I don't think the point was to pirate - it was simply that you can rip a DVD you already own to a memory stick. That's why these prices for UMDs are so retarded - why pay the same (or more) for an inferior version of the same product?

How hard is this ripping process anyway, how big a file does the movie end up usually... and well you know clue me in. We've got a huge DVD library here at the house and it would be nice to be able to rip a movie for an upcoming trip, etc.

 

[Suikoguy]

How hard is this ripping process anyway, how big a file does the movie end up usually... and well you know clue me in.

Theorhetically you have to break the law by decrypting the DVD to a raw format on your HDD, obviously if you legitamatly own the DVD, nothing will probably come of it. Then a program will convert it to MPEG4 format for the PSP. I'm not sure how long it will take, i'm sure it varries based on computer speed.

 

[Cerebral Palsy]

People are actually willing to pay $15-20 for a movie that can only be played on the PSP?


...


Suckers.

 

[belgurdo]

People are actually willing to pay $15-20 for a movie that can only be played on the PSP?


...


Suckers.

People buy those GBA video things and VideoNow in droves

 

[ManaByte]

Theorhetically you have to break the law by decrypting the DVD to a raw format on your HDD, obviously if you legitamatly own the DVD, nothing will probably come of it. Then a program will convert it to MPEG4 format for the PSP. I'm not sure how long it will take, i'm sure it varries based on computer speed.

I was going to post the same thing, although someone will probably come in and try to say that breaking the copy protection on a DVD you own is perfectly legal and the thread would be derailed.

My point was that Sony would not advertise the ability to rip your own DVDs to memory sticks as that would kill any hope for non-Sony movies on UMD. You would not see Disney announcing support if Sony was promoting ripping DVDs to UMDs as a PSP feature.

 

[Amir0x]

People are actually willing to pay $15-20 for a movie that can only be played on the PSP?


...


Suckers.

At 14 bucks, it's as close to an impulse buy as I'm going to get this early in the game.

At 9.99, that's almost no excuse NOT to buy them. That's like poppin' open a bag of candy or something. It's nice filler for your PSP, ya know?

 

[Ninja Scooter]

People buy those GBA video things and VideoNow in droves

5 year old people.

 

[Amir0x]

5 year old people.

What if you're six?

 

[kaching]

How hard is this ripping process anyway, how big a file does the movie end up usually... and well you know clue me in. We've got a huge DVD library here at the house and it would be nice to be able to rip a movie for an upcoming trip, etc.

Darien, I'm no expert by any stretch, but I started taking a look at the advice given in the PSP Video Encoding thread and experimenting with a few of my DVDs. It doesn't seem that bad. The programs that are available now to decrypt from DVD (DVDDecrypter) and then encode a video that works on the PSP (3GP, PSP Video, etc.) are pretty straightforward. Nothing really complicated about the process, but it can be time consuming. Obviously, you also need to have enough space on your PC to hold the raw decrypted files from the DVD, so depending on how much of the content you want, that could be several gig.

The thing I'd actually like to do is put favorites scenes from movies I have on Memstick rather than entire movies. The tricky thing about that is that it looks like most DVD file structures don't explicitly identify parts of the movie so it requires a bit of trial and error to figure out what's what. If you want to just dump the entire movie and convert for PSP, it'll be much easier, but possibly more time consuming.

 

[GhaleonEB]

the stupid parents of whiny 5 year old people.

fixed

 

[Polari]

amir0x: OK, so you own Hellboy and Once Upon a Time in Mexico on DVD already, so why bother buying them again on UMD? Do you really love those movies so much that you need them on a portable as well? And would you ever want to watch them so badly that instead of waiting till you got home and could watch them on a nice big television with surround sound, you'd watch them on a tiny screen with stereo earphones? It's not like there are even special features to pick over.

Different strokes I guess, but I'm betting UMD movies are going to be a colossal failure, with perhaps the exception of a few "Spongebob Squarepants" compilations in a couple of years time.

 

[ManaByte]

amir0x: OK, so you own Hellboy and Once Upon a Time in Mexico on DVD already, so why bother buying them again on UMD? Do you really love those movies so much that you need them on a portable as well? And would you ever want to watch them so badly that instead of waiting till you got home and could watch them on a nice big television with surround sound, you'd watch them on a tiny screen with stereo earphones? It's not like there are even special features to pick over.

Different strokes I guess, but I'm betting UMD movies are going to be a colossal failure, with perhaps the exception of a few "Spongebob Squarepants" compilations in a couple of years time.

I don't know about those two movies, but Terminator 2, Total Recall, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Kill Bill are good anywhere!

 

[xsarien]

I don't know about those two movies, but Terminator 2, Total Recall, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Kill Bill are good anywhere!

They are, but the question is if people would buy it for $15 and watch *just the movie* on the road, with no hope of watching it on anything but a PSP. UMD movies will fail, it's not a question of "if" so much as "when." If Sony wants people to bother spending money on them, when reasonably priced full DVDs are just a few aisles over, then the UMD price will have to drop below $10; and no, I'm not talking about $9.99.

 

[Amir0x]

amir0x: OK, so you own Hellboy and Once Upon a Time in Mexico on DVD already, so why bother buying them again on UMD? Do you really love those movies so much that you need them on a portable as well? And would you ever want to watch them so badly that instead of waiting till you got home and could watch them on a nice big television with surround sound, you'd watch them on a tiny screen with stereo earphones? It's not like there are even special features to pick over.

It's absolutely about access on the go. Duh, that's what portables are all about. If I could wait all the time until I got home for games and movies and music, I wouldn't ever buy a portable system because I would have no reason. As it is, I go on trips, I ride buses, I take long car rides... I work. And a lot of these times I have down periods. Sometimes I feel like playing a game. Othertimes I feel like watching a movie or listening to music. It has nothing to do with a small screen - movies look great on that thing. It has nothing to do with sound either, because it SOUNDS great too with high quality headphones (I own a great set).

When I want to watch a movie, I'll put in my memory stick or pay for the dirt cheap UMDs I got. 9.99 in my book is dirt cheap. 13.95 is less dirt cheap, but it just in the range that I'll splurge. I won't pay 19.99 for a UMD, though.

Different strokes I guess, but I'm betting UMD movies are going to be a colossal failure, with perhaps the exception of a few "Spongebob Squarepants" compilations in a couple of years time.

I'm betting it'll be a failure unless they drop to 9.99 permanetly with or without my small support.

and no, I'm not talking about $9.99.

No, at 9.99 it would be perfect. If you can't afford an impulse buy at 10 bucks then such a 250 dollar portable probably isn't for you anyway.

 

[ManaByte]

They are, but the question is if people would buy it for $15 and watch *just the movie* on the road, with no hope of watching it on anything but a PSP. UMD movies will fail, it's not a question of "if" so much as "when." If Sony wants people to bother spending money on them, when reasonably priced full DVDs are just a few aisles over, then the UMD price will have to drop below $10; and no, I'm not talking about $9.99.

I've known people in the past and know people now who just want the movie and a trailer when they fork out money for a DVD. It's shocking, but there are people who don't want to pay for special features.

 

[Nerevar]

I was going to post the same thing, although someone will probably come in and try to say that breaking the copy protection on a DVD you own is perfectly legal and the thread would be derailed.

Well, to be fair, this sort of issue has never (and probably will never, unless someone from the DVD consortium tries to sue Sony to remove the feature from the PSP or something) been tried. We really don't know what the limits of fair use are - this sort of thing could be (and should be) perfectly legal. Just remember, simply because there's a low prohibiting something doesn't make that law valid under constitutional review.

And that was the sound of the thread being derailed.

 

[NotMSRP]

There will be a PSP encoded movies scene so you don't have to worry about doing the encodings yourself.

 

[ManaByte]

Well, to be fair, this sort of issue has never (and probably will never, unless someone from the DVD consortium tries to sue Sony to remove the feature from the PSP or something) been tried. We really don't know what the limits of fair use are - this sort of thing could be (and should be) perfectly legal. Just remember, simply because there's a low prohibiting something doesn't make that law valid under constitutional review.

And that was the sound of the thread being derailed.

Never been tried? Have you been living under a rock for the last few years? Remember the DeCSS case?
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/07/31/0532215

 

[Polari]

It's absolutely about access on the go. Duh, that's what portables are all about. If I could wait all the time until I got home for games and movies and music, I wouldn't ever buy a portable system because I would have no reason. As it is, I go on trips, I ride buses, I take long car rides... I work. And a lot of these times I have down periods. Sometimes I feel like playing a game. Othertimes I feel like watching a movie or listening to music. It has nothing to do with a small screen - movies look great on that thing. It has nothing to do with sound either, because it SOUNDS great too with high quality headphones (I own a great set).

Ah, but would you really buy the same game twice, like you will a movie? The reason I buy handheld games is because they're only available on handhelds (although I would buy a remake of a game that appeared on a previously current system). Sure, it's useful for long trips but I honestly don't go on that many, and walk to work and live practically in town. Most of the time I play handheld games at home. There is also another key difference from movies - it's a lot better to pick up a game for 20 minutes than it is a movie, since games don't have such a tight narrative structure.

Plus, the sort of people who would usually go in for this kind of thing will probably just think "I'll buy the DVD, rip it and put in on a Memory Stick and be done with it". I wouldn't be surprised if a program as simple as the Handbrake DVD ripper/MPEG-4 encoder appears soon for that purpose.

 

[ManaByte]

Ah, but would you really buy the same game twice, like you will a movie? The reason I buy handheld games is because they're only available on handhelds (although I would buy a remake of a game that appeared on a previously current system). Sure, it's useful for long trips but I honestly don't go on that many, and walk to work and live practically in town. Most of the time I play handheld games at home. There is also another key difference from movies - it's a lot better to pick up a game for 20 minutes than it is a movie, since games don't have such a tight narrative structure.

Plus, the sort of people who would usually go in for this kind of thing will probably just think "I'll buy the DVD, rip it and put in on a Memory Stick and be done with it". I wouldn't be surprised if a program as simple as the Handbrake DVD ripper/MPEG-4 encoder appears soon for that purpose.

Games cost $30-$50. Not a fair comparison.

 

[Polari]

Games cost $30-$50. Not a fair comparison.

True, but it's the same principle.

 

[kaching]

I've known people in the past and know people now who just want the movie and a trailer when they fork out money for a DVD. It's shocking, but there are people who don't want to pay for special features.

*raises hand somewhat hesitantly* I'm one of them. I just don't have much use for the extras that typically get added to DVDs. The only extras I really go for are extended editions/director's cuts like LOTR. I don't much care about commentary tracks or deleted scenes that no one thought were worth the time to actually integrate into the movie.

 

[gamergirly]

Keep in mind, that people have to fork over the cash for the system first. Despite all of the hype on this board, that remains to be seen. I havent met one American in "real" life that hasnt tried to be a cheapskate as far as spending their money goes. DVDs sell in high numbers but people STILL pirate them at considerable rates.

Yet you expect PSP UMDs to sell in high numbers? There's not even a dedicated userbase to upstart this. GBA/GBA-SP has the userbase to support those videos and dozens of accessories, just like PS2 with the Eyetoy. There's just not a market for UMDs at this point in time.....

 

[Amir0x]

Ah, but would you really buy the same game twice, like you will a movie? The reason I buy handheld games is because they're only available on handhelds (although I would buy a remake of a game that appeared on a previously current system). Sure, it's useful for long trips but I honestly don't go on that many, and walk to work and live practically in town. Most of the time I play handheld games at home. There is also another key difference from movies - it's a lot better to pick up a game for 20 minutes than it is a movie, since games don't have such a tight narrative structure.

I often buy games that are compilations of games I've played many times before. Similarly, I would buy the same game twice if it cost HALF of what a game cost - if a game was 14.99 or 19.99 instead of 39.99 I would totally buy a game twice to play on the go. Likewise, I'd buy a movie twice if it's dirt cheap. 9.99, 13.95... that's really cheap. Totally worth it, imho, especially to not have to worry about getting the highest quality rip and wasting space on my memory stick.

Plus, the sort of people who would usually go in for this kind of thing will probably just think "I'll buy the DVD, rip it and put in on a Memory Stick and be done with it". I wouldn't be surprised if a program as simple as the Handbrake DVD ripper/MPEG-4 encoder appears soon for that purpose.

I have two 1GB Sandisk Memory Stick Pro Duos. I'm still buying the UMDs as they appear super cheap. Again, this is not indicative of a successful UMD - I agree with you, they should fail over the 9.99 priceline.

But for me, at this cheap price, it's super worth it.

 

[Aruarian Reflection]

Hrm.... drop Flying Daggers down to $13 and I'll go for it. The other movies don't interest me though. If I don't buy a movie on DVD, I sure as hell aren't buying it for PSP :lol

 

[ManaByte]

Also, keep in mind, that people have to fork over the cash for the system first. Despite all of the hype on this board, that remains to be seen......

Yeah, the sold out stores are just hype by Sony. They aren't really sold out.

 

[xsarien]

I've known people in the past and know people now who just want the movie and a trailer when they fork out money for a DVD. It's shocking, but there are people who don't want to pay for special features.

Forget for a moment that a UMD version of a movie will contain just the movie. Those same people who just want a barebones disc will only be able to watch it on their PSP. Not their home theater, not their laptop, not their portable DVD player. JUST the PSP.

No, at 9.99 it would be perfect. If you can't afford an impulse buy at 10 bucks then such a 250 dollar portable probably isn't for you anyway.

It's not a matter of being able to afford it, it's whether I think it's worth it. Given that there's only one device that can play UMD movies - and I don't see that changing in the immediate future - I may as well spend the extra cash on the version that's on the more widely adopted format.