DailyTech - Sony Moves to "Plan B" for PSP Movies: MemorySticks

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Gadgets Sony Moves to "Plan B" for PSP Movies: MemorySticks
Brandon Hill (Blog) - July 12, 2006 6:59 PM

37 comment(s) - last by Vertigo101.. on Jul 24 at 10:02 AM

Can't find a movie on UMD anymore? Memory Stick to the rescue. Sort of.

Sony has finally agreed to sell movies on MemorySticks, but the premium leaves many scratching their heads

With Sony's UMD format falling by the wayside due to a lack of interest from retailers and customers alike, the company is looking for other ways to push movie content to its PlayStation Portable (PSP) gaming system. The reason for failure of UMD has been linked to high prices in comparison to standard DVD movies, slow turn around for new releases and the lack of bonus features on the disc due to limited disk space. Large retailers like Wal-Mart (and more recently Target) have backed off on large-scale promotion of UMD titles and may even stop selling them altogether. "It's awful. Sales are near zilch. It's another Sony bomb -- like Blu-ray," said one high-ranking executive at Universal Pictures.

Well, it appears that Sony sees the writing on the wall and is going with their backup plan for delivering content to the PSP. The company announced today that it will begin selling 1GB and 2GB MemoryStick Duo cards that come bundled with an installation DVD. With the installation DVD, one can use an unlock code to install one of four movies to the MemoryStick Duo card. In its initial outing, the movies available to choose from will be Hitch, S.W.A.T., The Grudge or XXX: State of the Union. "The Memory Stick Entertainment Pack bundles fun with function. This collaboration with Sony Pictures provides a quick, simple way to get a full-length movie onto Memory Stick media at no extra charge," said Mike Kahn, senior manager for Memory Stick Media at Sony Electronics.

Sony states that while the memory cards can be used in any number of Sony products ranging from digital camera to mobile phones, the movies will only be viewable on PSP systems. For those interested the 1GB (MSX-M1GSTEP) and 2GB (MEX-M2GSEP) and will be available for $60 and $100 respectively beginning next month. For comparison, Outpost is selling a 1GB MemoryStick Pro Duo card for $24 after $16 mail-in rebate. So in other words, you’re paying $36 to have the ability to install a movie on the card. 2GB MemoryStick Pro Duo cards have been ranging from $55 to $70 for the past few months. Since you can only enable one movie per MemoryStick, that pretty much throws out the "No extra charge" comment from Kahn.

So will this endeavor be more successful than Sony’s UMD efforts? Only time will tell, but with such a limited selection and the high price of entry it looks as though this may follow the same path to destruction.

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When will they learn?

By nangryo on 7/12/2006 8:02:48 PM , Rating: 2

to stop such greediness...

Maybe when they get bankcrupty they will...

Or someone knock their head and make them stop selling propietary product with little or no extra superiority with general item (UMD,MMC,BETAMAX,MINIDISC, u name it...)

They used to make a great product u know... with reasonable price..

ah I miss my 1990 walkman and earphone....

RE: When will they learn?

By bunnyfubbles on 7/12/2006 11:33:15 PM , Rating: 2

Their greed also kills their product. MiniDisc would have been amazing if it hadn't been nerfed. Imagine back in the late 90s if you could have writen mp3 files (or whatever format you wanted, not just atrac) to MD (and not "record" them but actually burn the file "as is" onto the dics). Back then, 32MB mp3 players cost a small fortune, and MD discs could hold roughly 140MB each for roughly $2 per blank disc...Sony would have dominated the portable music market.

Of course that's also a conundrum, how are they so short sighted? If it is "greed" that holds them back, wouldn't they realize that they'd make more money and be even more popular if they didn't nerf their products? On the one hand we blame their greed for screwing up, yet they're not making the money they could have been making had they "not been greedy"...

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RE: When will they learn?

By xdrol on 7/13/2006 3:48:17 AM , Rating: 2

Actually, BetaMax was by all means superior to VHS, except the price.

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RE: When will they learn?

By ElFenix on 7/15/2006 6:13:32 PM , Rating: 2

and the lack of pornography

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RE: Reomove the MP4 Memory Stick resolution cap?

By R3MF on 7/13/2006 4:01:34 AM , Rating: 2

if this happens then i'm glad UMD has died, it was worth the cost.

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what about the psp owners that dont have PCs

By adam92682 on 7/12/2006 8:20:58 PM , Rating: 2

and why should i pay extra for a memory card and a movie when i can just use the memory card i already have and put movies on it for free?

RE: what about the psp owners that dont have PCs

By normteke on 7/12/2006 8:39:12 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
and why should i pay extra for a memory card and a movie when i can just use the memory card i already have and put movies on it for free?

Because then you are breaking "the law" and Sony makes no money off you (aside from the Sony DVD you plan to rip and PSP that you already bought).

But really, my thoughts exactly.

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RE: what about the psp owners that dont have PCs

By Bluestealth on 7/12/2006 9:28:32 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
Because then you are breaking "the law"

Really should media shifting for your personal use be against the law? You are still using only one copy at a time, and if you don't share it with anyone then it shouldnt be illegal copying.
Really why should you have to pay for two licenses for the same content. Its like ripping mp3s from your own CDs and for your own use.

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RE: what about the psp owners that dont have PCs

By OvErHeAtInG on 7/13/2006 12:06:46 AM , Rating: 2

Should it be against the law? No. Is it against the law? AFAIK, yes, at least in the US and for movies.

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RE: what about the psp owners that dont have PCs

By Vertigo101 on 7/24/2006 10:02:34 AM , Rating: 2

This is why we need to get behind Fair Use again. The MPAA and RIAA are taking this way too far, and soon, using your iPod will be illegal.

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What sort of thought process do these Sony people use?

By sxr7171 on 7/12/2006 9:38:34 PM , Rating: 3

Selling movies for $20 on discs isn't working. So let's charge a $36 premium to sell movies on our proprietary memory cards. How f'n brilliant.

RE: What sort of thought process do these Sony people use?

By masher2

(blog) on 7/12/2006 10:22:01 PM , Rating: 2

I have to admit, I'm scratching my head myself over this one.

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RE: What sort of thought process do these Sony people use?

By c4xiayu on 7/16/2006 2:17:22 PM , Rating: 2

Nice touch :)

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RE: What sort of thought process do these Sony people use?

By MikeO on 7/13/2006 4:15:46 AM , Rating: 2

My thoughts exactly. This is unbelievably stupid, even for Sony.

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...

By shabby on 7/12/2006 8:02:56 PM , Rating: 2

So basically for 60 bucks you get 4 movies and a 1 gig stick? If thats the case thats not so bad, except that the selection of movies sucks.

RE: ...

By masher2

(blog) on 7/12/2006 8:12:05 PM , Rating: 2

If I read the article correctly, you get *one* movie and a memory stick, not four.

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RE: ...

By shabby on 7/12/2006 8:13:52 PM , Rating: 2

Ahaha my bad, then ya thats a rip off geez.

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RE: ...

By Nocturnal on 7/12/2006 8:53:31 PM , Rating: 2

You actually get four movies on a DVD but they let you "unlock" one and transfer it to the memory stick.

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Confused

By cochy on 7/12/2006 11:15:24 PM , Rating: 2

I really don't understand Sony here at all. UMDs aren't selling because nobody wants to pay to watch a movie on a PSP. No one. People like to watch movies on....TVs! Having the ability to take your movies with you and watch them on the go is fantastic, but only while doing so for free (ie. laptops, portable dvd player). To buy a movie and only be able to watch it on the tiny screen of the PSP is sheer stupidity. The market has spoken and I'm amazed Sony won't let this go.

RE: Confused

By Wwhat on 7/13/2006 11:49:23 PM , Rating: 2

They should just exclusively sell UMD movies at airports and trainstions and such, perhaps install custom burners and have them downloaded from sony HQ then burn them on an umd, then you might have a chance of a sale.
(and seeing it's sony they could use biodegradable UMD's that fall apart 3 days after being burned.)

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Cart before the horse

By Doormat on 7/12/2006 11:30:48 PM , Rating: 2

Sony should be doing this the other way around! Sell the movies (for $12.99 or whatever) and then have it download to the users 2GB memory stick (that they bought for cheap). Sony shoots themselves in the foot yet again.

RE: Cart before the horse

By Bull Dog on 7/12/2006 11:51:39 PM , Rating: 2

Geee, Sony is getting a good blasting here.

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don't forget....

By MDme on 7/12/2006 10:14:48 PM , Rating: 3

there might be a rootkit in the install DVD too.

Blu-ray Bomb

By TomZ on 7/12/06, Rating: 0

RE: Blu-ray Bomb

By dome1234 on 7/13/2006 2:13:30 AM , Rating: 3

this statement may be biased. If I remember correctly, universal pictures is hddvd backer, not a blueray member. If they ask disney, fox or warner bros; blueray is the real next-gen and so on...

since when movie execs are being trusted? hahaha I do hope they (both hddvd and bdrom camps) would clean up the drm-mess. It just complicates matters for average consumers. I won't be too suprised if both format fail to take off as fast as those backers had hope for; unless they scale back on dvd releases (which I don't think will happen).

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They should create something like iTunes

By Nocturnal on 7/12/2006 8:52:34 PM , Rating: 2

Specifically for the PSP though. It should include older PS1 games, and whatever else emulated games they can provide. They should also provide a source to purchase TV shows/movies and let you download them to your PSP and watch it there. I think this would help with revenue. I know there is already a hacked version of this that you can do but I think Sony should grasp this and implement it officially.

WTF? Sony exec I spoke to a few months ago said...

By UNCjigga on 7/12/2006 9:09:33 PM , Rating: 2

...that they would move to wifi distribution of movies. Looks like they can't even get their own movie studios to sign off on distributing movies through an Internet download portal exclusive to the PSP??? This "bundled with MemoryStick" idea is ludicrous, though I'm sure it costs Sony and its partners a lot less to just include a cheap DVD with locked movies rather than a proprietary UMD.

stupid sony

By desiplaya4life on 7/12/2006 11:17:13 PM , Rating: 2

STUPID move again. who would buy those outdated movies?

STUPID STUPID SONY

it seems like everything they are doing lately is just WRONG!

Why?

By PandaBear on 7/12/2006 11:21:29 PM , Rating: 2

So tell me, why should I not buy a movie on DVD and watch it on DVD, than to buy a DVD and convert the title to memory stick and watch it on PSP?

So I have to hold the content forever on the memory stick and not able to load other stuff on it? or else I will lose my content forever? Heck, why not just release a movie on mini-DVD and let PSP play mini-DVD? or watch it on a bigger screen via big DVD?

If they seriously want to sell movies for PSP, they need to learn about how pod cast work for iPod or other mp3 player.

Do the iPod

By clementlim on 7/13/2006 1:03:47 AM , Rating: 2

Just use online distribution..sell them at 99cents a movie and VOILA!!! There u go :D

By hoppa on 7/13/2006 1:18:08 AM , Rating: 2

quote:
"It's awful. Sales are near zilch. It's another Sony bomb -- like Blu-ray."
-High Ranking Exec

Quote of the Year!

Responses...

By crystal clear on 7/13/2006 3:40:59 AM , Rating: 2

I wonder if anybody of Sony(the management) ever log on to this site.They would get the best mangement consultancy
service for free.The responses speak in simple language,
what consultants put in glossy reports & take in a FAT
fee.
Sony CEO should commit suicide after reading all those
rejections-literally throwing Sony into the garbage can.
This is not the first time,you read on Sony & out it goes
into the garbage can.

beware of fake ms duo

By dome1234 on 7/13/2006 12:13:14 PM , Rating: 2

cheaper ms duo may not be all good... there are fakes on sale...

http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/324446

To little, to late

By Trisped on 7/14/2006 11:42:51 AM , Rating: 2

It would have been a good idea if they had launched with it, and not charged more then it is worth...

Even so, now you are paying extra for the movies, still can only watch them on you PSP, and have to waste a valuable NAND stick for the movie.

If those Sony execs were to get their heads out of their wallets they might actually make some money. Instead they sell low quality products at a premium and then when they don't catch on they leave their "valued customers" in the trash heap.

Open up UMD

By stevel114 on 7/21/2006 5:40:19 PM , Rating: 2

I think Sony should allow manufacturers to produce and sell UMD burners and media. At least that way we could use the UMD drive in the PSP for what we wanted. Rewritable UMD disc could hold alot of music or movies. Popping a memory stick in and out all the time will just result in the little door on the PSP breaking off. The UMD was designed for changing disc's. Come on Sony, here's another chance to license the UMD format and actually make some money.

Still Hold my Origonal Opinion

By rupaniii on 7/13/2006 8:39:53 AM , Rating: 1

Such an nice big screen is wasted playing small movies, much better had it been a touchscreen PDA/GameSystem, what Tapwave tried to do.
Honestly, i'd love to set a 1/2hr timer and go, have the game autosave and exit at that half hour point, or at least pop up a reminder telling me i'm taking too long.