Sony PSP comparable price to the GBA.. (1 Viewer)

[Morgan Jolley]

They can play movies on UMDs, but that doesn't mean they will. It'll probably be used as a promotional tool, not a used one.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

well, the screen itself (I forget the exact pixel count) is basically VCD res. It uses an MPEG-4 codec. Basically you can squeeze all the quality and more that the system will handle in well under 1GB

I'm sure that Sony/Columbia will have at least 5 major movie titles available at launch with more to come as long as they don't bomb. They're going after the in-car craze with this, and business travellers. If you can get 8+ hours of battery life out of it, and given the small (and caddy'd) UMD discs it'll do gangbusters in that market

 

[Mark Hedges]

They're going after the in-car craze with this, and business travellers. If you can get 8+ hours of battery life out of it, and given the small (and caddy'd) UMD discs it'll do gangbusters in that market

I just don't see that happening. First of all any business traveler is going to pop a DVD into his/her laptop. Maybe kids will buy it but I just cant see anyone watching a whole lot of movies on a 3" or so screen.

 

[BrianB]

I expect the GBASP to be around $50 this time next year.

So you can make predictions but Sony can't?

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Due to GBA SP's rechargeable battery, that's a major fixed cost that will be hard to downsize

 

[GlenHaag]

Jeff,

According to Nintendo's store site, they are charging $15 for the battery in the GBA SP. I don't think that is a major cost to absorb.

I can see the SP hitting the $69 or 79 dollar point sometime in the next year, possibly dipping lower after that when a newer system comes out. After all, this will be a nearly 4 year old system, in Japan, by late next year when the PSP is due to be launched. It wouldn't be completely offbase for Nintendo to have a new product out in a simliar timeframe.

given the small (and caddy'd) UMD discs it'll do gangbusters in that market

I just don't see people wanting to buy movies all over again just to play them on a portable system. Considering portable DVD players pricing is also dropping pretty rapidly, I would think people would want to have one copy of a movie, rather than a UMD version of a movie and a DVD version of the same film.

Glen

 

[DaveGTP]

I just don't see people wanting to buy movies all over again just to play them on a portable system. Considering portable DVD players pricing is also dropping pretty rapidly, I would think people would want to have one copy of a movie, rather than a UMD version of a movie and a DVD version of the same film.

Agreed. The only way this would realistically fly would be if you could rip a DVD to a UMD via the PSX or computer. And we all know how likely this is to happen. The only benefit of the UMD/Mpeg4 format that I can see is RPGs. Bring on the FMVs and anime clips.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

See, that's the beauty, people WILL buy it again. And there's no way in hell they'll let you rip it. All they have to do is take the DVD and run it through their encoder. Wham bam thank-you ma'am it's done and ship it

 

[Morgan Jolley]

Actually, I remember hearing about a setup that would involve recording a TV show on your PSX (using the PVR feature), putting the show on a UMD, bringing it with you to work, and then watching the show on the subway or something like that. If that's what they plan on doing, then they're going to be making a shitload of money.

 

[DaveGTP]

I didn't think of that, Morgan. That's a pretty good point. They haven't banned making copies of recorded TV yet, have they? That's stilll legal, right? :p

 

[Richard Paul]

I think the main reason the PSP isn't backward compatible with PS1 games is the fact that the PSP has a 16:9 screen. This makes me wonder if there will be ports of any old console games on the PSP. Could you imagine games with black bars on the side being released for a handheld? I guess any future ports of old games on the PSP would be MAR . Also when do you think Nintendo will make a future handheld Gameboy with a 16:9 screen?

 

[Dave F]

First of all any business traveler is going to pop a DVD into his/her laptop.

Many IT departments would be extremely happy if they could pass off a PSP to travelling execs instead of having to maintain an expensive laptop that will just get abused and used for nothing more than DVDs.

-Dave

 

[DaveGTP]

Yeah, Dave, I was having trouble resisting the little stab at the industry there myself.

I can just see it: "You can transfer your stuff to your PSP. Except for the Hi-def stuff. Oh, and DVDs. Oh, and CDs that aren't copy protected. But you can do analog cable to PSP. But you can't chop out the commercials, because that would be stealing. Oh, yeah, and you can transfer copies of old VHS tapes, back when copies were legal. We didn't have the power to squeeze these laws by the supreme court in the 80's."

 

[Ben_E]

Whoa PSP is gonna have a 16:9 screen??? News to me, awesome.

And as for the RIAA and MPAA all I can wish is that they get hacked relentlessly.

 

[Dave F]

LOL, well said, Dave!