SONY PICTURES PRESS RELEASE: House Of Flying Daggers (DVD and UMD formats) + UMD info (1 Viewer)

[Aaron Silverman]

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment To Release HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS April 19 on the Universal Media Disc ™ (UMD ™) Format for the Playstation® Portable (PSP ™) - Day and Date with DVD.

Pricing Announced for UMD ™ Videos.

The Academy Award-nominated action film House of Flying Daggers will be released in North America on the Universal Media Disc (UMD ™) video format that plays on the new PSP ™ (PlayStation® Portable) handheld entertainment system. Street date is April 19 - day and date with the DVD - with the suggested list price (SLP) of $28.95.

The first slate of previously announced catalogue UMD titles includes XXX, Hellboy, Resident Evil 2 and Once Upon A Time In Mexico and debuts on April 19 and will be priced at $19.95 (SLP).

Additional UMD titles are scheduled to be released monthly thereafter. These UMD releases will include a mix of day and date titles priced similarly to their respective DVDs and catalogue titles priced at $19.95 (SLP).

The announcement was made by Marshall Forster, Executive Vice President for SPHE North America.

"The release of these hit action films for the PlayStation Portable marks an important chapter in the personal entertainment industry for our consumers and a new, incremental business for our business partners," noted Mr. Forster. "SPHE is delighted to be part of the introduction of this remarkable entertainment technology to the home entertainment market."

PSP sets a new standard as the first truly integrated portable entertainment system designed to provide consumers with a comprehensive entertainment experience and to support multiple lifestyle applications, including games, music, movies, communication, and wireless gaming. The UMD is a newly developed compact, high capacity optical format that can store up to 1.8 GB of digital data on a 60mm disc - or an entire feature film on a single UMD video.

Movies on UMD will be produced in 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio and encoded using advanced AVC compression, which provides the type of picture quality consumers have come to expect from SPHE DVDs. For added protection, a lightweight disc sleeve is also utilized, along with advanced encryption technology for content security.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Personal comment: I think that charging the same for a UMD as for the same DVD is a huge mistake. That pricing won't last.

 

[RobertDigilio]

Whoa boy, here we go again....Will Sony NEVER learn?? Cough..MiniDisc, Cough.

More useless junk cluttering an already cluttered market. I mean why can't MiniDVD fill that role? Don't the already have MiniDV camcorders that work fine that use this same basic size media?? Oh yeah, that's right, Sony doesn't have the monopoly on that technology. I wonder how long UMD will last. Only time will tell...

 

[Jesse Skeen]

Why the heck does HTF even bother with "press releases" for this company when they don't even listen to their customers???

 

[Tony_Ramos]

Too bad the plot went to crap during the last 15 minutes...

I was LOVING it until then :frowning:

 

[PeterMano]

This is what I call a sony fishing expedition to see if anyone bites at these price points. Film fans aren't interested in a 4.3" viewing experience via headphones and gamers don't want two hour flicks on a portable. They want games.

 

[Kris Deering]

That is a horrible price point. I understand that this will be a limited market but come on. You know the quality of image and sound isn't going to be near the DVD counterpart, but the price is the same if not more??? What are they thinking???

If this is their mindset then this looks very grim for Blu-Ray and the subsequent pricing of those titles!

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Because I get free DVDs to review.

On a serious note, Sony did invite us to their lot last year and gave us a special demo of Blu-Ray. Hopefully they are moving in a better direction in terms of paying attention to their customers. Pretty much all of their recent releases that I've reviewed have been of good quality, the only exceptions being a few MAR titles.

 

[LorenzoL]

I'm on the fence whether to purchase the PSP but I'll tell you right now that I'll be the first one in line for the PS3 especially if it has Blu-Ray technology.

What worries me is that the Blu-Ray group has not announced their proposed launch date or their initial movie titles yet.