Blu-ray discs to offer portable movies for PSP (joystiq.com)

[8th lutz]

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/01/08/blu-ray-...movies-for-psp/

 

In a CES demonstration of the BD Live standard (encapsulated in the upcoming Blu-Ray Profile 2.0), supported Blu-ray discs were shown to offer portable versions of the included movies for download to a Memory Stick or PlayStation Portable. Pop the disc into your PlayStation 3, connect a PSP and watch the smaller movie on your smaller screen (sans UMD).

[Ze_ro]

Cute idea, but honestly, how many people would actually take advantage of this feature? You need a PS3, a PSP, presumably a large memory stick, and a supported Blu-Ray movie. Also, doesn't the PS3 have some feature that lets you play PS3 games, but display them on the PSP somehow? Does that also work with movies too? (ie, the disc is in the PS3, but streaming the video to the PSP over the internet)

 

Hell, I never saw much point in watching a whole movie on the PSP to begin with... the screen isn't that great, and the battery life is awful. Surely a portable DVD player is a much more sensible option for anyone who wants movies on the go.

 

--Zero

[Bilnick]

I already own a PS3 and PSP so I would definitely try this out. Beats hassling with ripping my own DVDs to my PSP as I currently do.

 

They probably just put a file specifically for the PSP on a Blue Ray disc. My DVDs ripped to a PSP are 500mb or so and look pretty good, so I would imagine you wouldn't need more than a 1gb memory stick to view any movie.

 

Battery life of a PSP is decent when not using the UMD drive.

Edited January 8, 2008 by Bilnick

[Jess Ragan]

If Blu-Ray is high-definition, and the PSP display is not... why would anyone want to do this?

[Agent X]

Cute idea, but honestly, how many people would actually take advantage of this feature? You need a PS3, a PSP, presumably a large memory stick, and a supported Blu-Ray movie.

 

There are lots of people out there now who have a PS3, PSP, and a Memory Stick with enough capacity to do this reasonably. All that we're waiting for is the release of Blu-ray discs that actually implement this feature.

 

Also, doesn't the PS3 have some feature that lets you play PS3 games, but display them on the PSP somehow? Does that also work with movies too? (ie, the disc is in the PS3, but streaming the video to the PSP over the internet)

 

You're talking about Remote Play. It works with videos that exist on the PS3's hard drive, or streamed through the PS3 from a media server (such as a PC with the appropriate software). It doesn't work with DVD or Blu-ray movies.

 

Hell, I never saw much point in watching a whole movie on the PSP to begin with... the screen isn't that great, and the battery life is awful. Surely a portable DVD player is a much more sensible option for anyone who wants movies on the go.

 

I agree in part here. A portable DVD player would generally be a better option for transporting movies. You'd have immediate compatibility with thousands of DVD movies (no need to rip or convert), and the screens on portable DVD players are bigger than that of the PSP.

 

The PSP, though, has some merits. The screen is actually very good, and is high quality compared to most cheaper DVD players out there. PSP battery life is reasonable even when using the standard battery--4-7 hours under most situations, which would actually be considered very good if you were talking portable DVD players (many are closer to 2-4 hours battery life). Also, the PSP itself is much smaller than any portable DVD player I've ever seen.

 

If Blu-Ray is high-definition, and the PSP display is not... why would anyone want to do this?

 

Why would you not want to do this? The idea is that you'd be carrying your content with you. That's the appeal of a portable entertainment device, after all.

 

This could be particularly useful with TV show box sets (such as season packs). You could transfer an individual episode to the PSP so that you could enjoy the show while traveling.

[Bilnick]

If Blu-Ray is high-definition, and the PSP display is not... why would anyone want to do this?

 

Why would someone want to watch a movie on thier PSP? Why not? People watch video on thier Ipods, Zunes, cell phones, etc already.

 

I would almost guarantee that all they are doing is sticking a PSP compatible version of the movie on the disc along with the HD version. Blue Ray discs have plenty of storage, wouldn't be much to add a few hundred meg movie file on a disc.

 

As long as they do not charge more for the discs with PSP compatible conent, this seems like a good deal to me.