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PSP Movies on UMD & Mac Software in the Boonies
There were two remarkable digital media events that happened to me this weekend that I thought I would share with you peeps.
First of all when Kymberly and I were at Best Buy they had some movies on UMD for the Sony PSP. They had Kill Bill Vol.1, XXX ( that crap Vin Diesel flick, not P0rn ), Hellboy and The House of Flying Daggers. I was freaking shocked to see that Sony really had the gall of asking people to pay $30 for a movie on UMD. This is nuts considering all of these flicks are all on DVD for twenty bucks or lower. I saw that The House of Flying Daggers was labeled at $20 so I took it to the check out counter. It was mislabeled and was supposed to be $30 but the clerk gave it to me for $20 since it was mislabeled. The entire pricing policy is not going to work unless they get it down to the same price as a equivalent DVD version.
Now the movie looks just like a PSP game but with a different label. The UMD movie plays almost the same as the on screen menu on the PS2. I was a bit dismayed that there were a commentary track with the director and star on the DVD version but rather than including it they included a French language track. The UMD did have two subtitle tracks, three audio tracks but it did not have a scene selection screen. There are chapter stops so you can jump to a scene via the L and R buttons.
The video quality was phenomenal and the MPEG-4 video looked crisp and clear. The Audio sounded like crap in the tiny PSP speakers but it came to life when I used my headphones. It is pretty slick being able to watch an entire movie on the PSP but you do have to balance it on the side so you can get a good angle viewing angle but you can do it with one hand since you are not pressing any buttons. The House of Flying Daggers really shows off the PSP screen.
I don't see myself buying many movies on UMD but I would not mind a favorite movie or two for the times that I am stuck on the hour long ferry with my PSP.
I was a bit ticked by the fact that there is absolutely no place in Washington State's Kitsap County where you can walk into a store and buy Apple Macintosh software. I just wanted to get Mac OSX Tiger but I had to go all the way to the University District of Seattle to get a copy any avoid getting it shipped via snail mail. I know of three dedicated porn stores and about half a dozen shops where I could walk in and buy a firearm but a Kitsap County Mac User has to make a pilgrimage in order to get your hands on the fabled OS in the flesh. Oh I ran into Chris Pirillo at the UW Village Apple Store. He was getting a Airport Extreme Wireless card for his G5 Power mac. OSX Tiger is very good and I will write a review soon.
Jake at May 1, 2005 
Games
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Comments
i live in california and most of the movie are priced equal to the dvd here even best buy, circuit city had a few as low as 13 dollars
Posted by: Andrew at May 2, 2005 8:56 PM
Well I guess they are just screwing us over here in Washington state. Honestly I hope the price comes down.
Posted by: Jake of 8bitjoystick.com at May 2, 2005 10:21 PM
Much like Andrew, most of the prices I've seen have been in the 13-15 dollar range. Amazon was even running a special when the UMDs first hit. They had Hellboy and such for around 10.00 each.
Posted by: snortin_php at May 3, 2005 5:31 AM
Well I guess the moral of the story is "Shop Around".
Posted by: Jake of 8bitjoystick.com at May 3, 2005 7:34 AM
They need to build a few more Apple stores. I have to drive 30 minutes to the one in my area. An hour trip total. Ridiculous.
Did you find it to be a strain on your eyes at all to watch the whole film on your PSP? No matter, it still must be nice to have on a long trip, like the ferry or a plane.
Posted by: Shawn at May 3, 2005 4:40 PM
Well it is an hour ferry ride plus a half an hour bus ride once over in Seattle so that is three hours round trip but there is allways ordering things Mac online. I just wanted the experiance of going to an Apple Store.
My eyes were just fine watching a movie on the PSP.
Posted by: Jake of 8bitjoystick.com at May 3, 2005 5:58 PM
When you watched "House of Flying Daggers", did you watch it with subtitles or listen to the English audio?
Given the screen size that it was both my wife and I watching (not just me, otherwise I might have tried), we watched it on my PSP with the English audio. I ran a 20' RCA cable from my PSP to my Pioneer surround sound so we could listen to it in our home theatre, even if we were just watching it on the PSP.
Despite the English audio, they still used subtitles for the Chinese introductory text. The large yellow block letters were easily readable on the PSP screen, but I wasn't sure I'd get the same experience watching subtitled movies on the PSP as I do in a home theatre.
What's your opinion on subtitled movies on the PSP? Is it doable or best to keep English dubbing on?
Posted by: Ken Foreman at May 4, 2005 5:35 AM
I watched a bit of both. I think subtitled movies came off pretty well and I would not have a problem watching a subtitled movie on it.
Posted by: Jake of 8bitjoystick.com at May 4, 2005 7:47 AM
Hey guys,
I run a website called Shop PSP, and we try to get all the information on PSP movies, games, etc coming out. Doesn't look like the prices will be coming down too much, the cheapest I've seen a PSP UMD in Canada is $16.96 so about $14US. From the research I've been doing, the cheapest source for PSP movies on the web seems to be Amazon. If anyone's interested in our site, you can check it out at http://www.shoppsp.com or http://www.shoppsp.com/movies/ for just the movies section.
Best regards,
Darryl
Shop PSP
Posted by: Darryl at May 27, 2005 10:41 PM
