this is partially posted at the gaming forum...but i figure off-topic is the better fit since it's non-game related.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/gear/2005-05-22-handheld-movies_x.htm
Handheld movies are hot
Green's enthusiasm may be spreading. Though the handheld PSP, launched in March, is considered primarily a gaming device, Hollywood studios are aggressively releasing movies on the PSP's proprietary Universal Media Disc (UMD), a 21/4-inch disc encased in a protective plastic shell.
Five of the six major studios are on board. The latest to click in: Paramount and MGM. Only Warner Bros. continues to sit out.
More than 70 UMD titles are in stores or are scheduled to arrive in the coming months. "No other format has gotten this much software support since DVD was launched eight years ago," notes analyst Tom Adams of Adams Media Research.
Paramount today announces 11 titles, including releases from fellow Viacom divisions Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and MTV, making Paramount the first studio to bring TV shows to UMD. The first batch, due Aug. 9, consists of Team America: World Police, Coach Carter and Without a Paddle. Sahara, The Italian Job and MTV's Viva la Bam: Volume 1 follow Aug. 30. Coming later are SpongeBob SquarePants the Movie and compilation UMDs of Chappelle's Show, Ren & Stimpy, South Park and SpongeBob SquarePants TV episodes.
Thomas Lesinski, president of worldwide home entertainment for Paramount Pictures, says the titles were chosen to fit the "key demographics for PSP," which is teens and young-adult males.
MGM, now partly owned by Sony, will release its first batch of four titles Sept. 13: Beauty Shop, Be Cool, Stargate: Atlantis and Bulletproof Monk.
Benjamin Feingold, president of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, the first studio to supply movies on UMD, says it was always Sony's intent that the PSP be more than a game player. Releasing movies for the PSP, he says, allows studios to "establish a beachhead in the portable, mobile market."
Feingold says that as people spend more and more time with cell phones, personal digital assistants and other portable devices, "it's important for our industry to have movies available."
Since PSP was launched, more than 1.2 million units have sold. Sony's Feingold projects that within 12 months, 6 million to 8 million PSP machines will be in North American households.
Analysts including Adams say that although UMD will never be as ubiquitous as DVD (more than 65 million households own DVD players), the market could grow to 25 million or even 30 million households.
UMD movies are carried by all the big discount and electronics chains, from Wal-Mart and Target to Best Buy and Circuit City. They're for sale at big music chains such as Trans World Entertainment and Musicland, and dedicated game chains Game Stop and EB Games.
Two UMD movies have now sold more than 100,000 copies each: Sony's House of Flying Daggers and Resident Evil 2, both released April 19. Sony's Feingold calls the sales tally "remarkable," noting that it took nine months for the first DVD title, Air Force One, to cross the 100,000-unit mark.
UMD's success on the movie front appears to be coming at the expense of the Warner-initiated Mini-DVD, a three-inch disc that can be played on regular DVD players as well as a dedicated handheld unit from CyberHome. Last January, Fox, Paramount and Universal joined Warner in supporting the Mini. But after an unsuccessful test at Best Buy, all three bowed out. Warner is giving the Mini one last shot with another test at Target.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
and music videos now?
that's kinda stupid, who the fuck buys music videos...
http://top40-charts.com/news.php?nid=15218
Eagle Rock Entertainment to Release Catalog Titles on UMD for Sony Playstation Portable (PSP)
Music Fans Can Watch Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Nirvana & More on PSP NEW YORK (Eagle Rock Ent.) - Eagle Rock Entertainment, the leading independent source for high quality music audio and audio/visual music programming, announced today that it will become one of the first visual music companies to embrace the hot new Universal Media Disc (UMD) format, and release selected catalog titles worldwide on UMD for play on the Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) game device.
In addition to gaming, the Sony PSP allows consumers to view movies and music video programs, listen to music and download files. Eagle Rock will take advantage of the PSP's high resolution screen and the UMD's high capacity (1.8 gigabytes) to give music fans the chance to enjoy some of their favorite music programming in flight, on road trips or wherever they use their PSP.
"Eagle Rock is a forward-thinking company, and we're always looking at promising new formats that make sense for our catalog," said Eagle Rock Entertainment Executive Vice President and President of North American Operations, Mike Carden. "As soon as we saw the quality of the image produced on the PlayStation Portable, we knew it could be a very successful vehicle for our products and we wanted to be the first-to-market with visual music titles."
Eagle Rock will distribute the titles, which have Soundscanned more than one million copies combined on DVD in the U.S., to regular retail and gaming retailers worldwide. The following titles will be available on UMD in 2005, with more to follow:
Black Label Society: "Boozed, Broozed & Broken Boned"
Busta Rhymes: "Everything Remains Raw"
Jimi Hendrix: "Electric Ladyland Classic Album"
Iron Maiden: "Number of the Beast Classic Album"
Marilyn Manson: "Guns, God and Government"
Metallica: "Metallica Classic Album"
Nirvana: "Nevermind Classic Album"
Pink Floyd: "Dark Side of the Moon Classic Album"
Puddle of Mudd: "Live at the Key Club - Striking That Familiar Chord"
Snoop Dogg: "Big Snoop Dogg's Puff Puff Pass Tour"
Various Artists: "Up in Smoke Tour, featuring Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube and Eminem"
Eagle Rock also has one-minute song clips in MPEG-4 format from Alice Cooper, Marilyn Manson, The Cure, Busta Rhymes and Dio available for download to the PSP on its website, www.eaglerockent.com.
The Sony PSP has sold extremely well since its release on March 24, and the Wall Street Journal reports that Sony expects to ship 12 million units worldwide this year. Sales of film titles available for the device have already exceeded expectations. Video Business predicts that by the end of the year, most film studios will be making releases available in the UMD format.
Eagle Rock Entertainment develops, acquires and produces visual music programming for a wide range of notable and high profile artists, which the company distributes on a worldwide basis. Eagle Vision and Eagle Eye Media are wholly owned divisions of Eagle Rock Group, LTD. The company's corporate headquarters are in London, with offices in New York, Paris and Hamburg.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/gear/2005-05-22-handheld-movies_x.htm
Handheld movies are hot
Green's enthusiasm may be spreading. Though the handheld PSP, launched in March, is considered primarily a gaming device, Hollywood studios are aggressively releasing movies on the PSP's proprietary Universal Media Disc (UMD), a 21/4-inch disc encased in a protective plastic shell.
Five of the six major studios are on board. The latest to click in: Paramount and MGM. Only Warner Bros. continues to sit out.
More than 70 UMD titles are in stores or are scheduled to arrive in the coming months. "No other format has gotten this much software support since DVD was launched eight years ago," notes analyst Tom Adams of Adams Media Research.
Paramount today announces 11 titles, including releases from fellow Viacom divisions Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and MTV, making Paramount the first studio to bring TV shows to UMD. The first batch, due Aug. 9, consists of Team America: World Police, Coach Carter and Without a Paddle. Sahara, The Italian Job and MTV's Viva la Bam: Volume 1 follow Aug. 30. Coming later are SpongeBob SquarePants the Movie and compilation UMDs of Chappelle's Show, Ren & Stimpy, South Park and SpongeBob SquarePants TV episodes.
Thomas Lesinski, president of worldwide home entertainment for Paramount Pictures, says the titles were chosen to fit the "key demographics for PSP," which is teens and young-adult males.
MGM, now partly owned by Sony, will release its first batch of four titles Sept. 13: Beauty Shop, Be Cool, Stargate: Atlantis and Bulletproof Monk.
Benjamin Feingold, president of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, the first studio to supply movies on UMD, says it was always Sony's intent that the PSP be more than a game player. Releasing movies for the PSP, he says, allows studios to "establish a beachhead in the portable, mobile market."
Feingold says that as people spend more and more time with cell phones, personal digital assistants and other portable devices, "it's important for our industry to have movies available."
Since PSP was launched, more than 1.2 million units have sold. Sony's Feingold projects that within 12 months, 6 million to 8 million PSP machines will be in North American households.
Analysts including Adams say that although UMD will never be as ubiquitous as DVD (more than 65 million households own DVD players), the market could grow to 25 million or even 30 million households.
UMD movies are carried by all the big discount and electronics chains, from Wal-Mart and Target to Best Buy and Circuit City. They're for sale at big music chains such as Trans World Entertainment and Musicland, and dedicated game chains Game Stop and EB Games.
Two UMD movies have now sold more than 100,000 copies each: Sony's House of Flying Daggers and Resident Evil 2, both released April 19. Sony's Feingold calls the sales tally "remarkable," noting that it took nine months for the first DVD title, Air Force One, to cross the 100,000-unit mark.
UMD's success on the movie front appears to be coming at the expense of the Warner-initiated Mini-DVD, a three-inch disc that can be played on regular DVD players as well as a dedicated handheld unit from CyberHome. Last January, Fox, Paramount and Universal joined Warner in supporting the Mini. But after an unsuccessful test at Best Buy, all three bowed out. Warner is giving the Mini one last shot with another test at Target.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
and music videos now?
that's kinda stupid, who the fuck buys music videos...
http://top40-charts.com/news.php?nid=15218
Eagle Rock Entertainment to Release Catalog Titles on UMD for Sony Playstation Portable (PSP)
Music Fans Can Watch Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Nirvana & More on PSP NEW YORK (Eagle Rock Ent.) - Eagle Rock Entertainment, the leading independent source for high quality music audio and audio/visual music programming, announced today that it will become one of the first visual music companies to embrace the hot new Universal Media Disc (UMD) format, and release selected catalog titles worldwide on UMD for play on the Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) game device.
In addition to gaming, the Sony PSP allows consumers to view movies and music video programs, listen to music and download files. Eagle Rock will take advantage of the PSP's high resolution screen and the UMD's high capacity (1.8 gigabytes) to give music fans the chance to enjoy some of their favorite music programming in flight, on road trips or wherever they use their PSP.
"Eagle Rock is a forward-thinking company, and we're always looking at promising new formats that make sense for our catalog," said Eagle Rock Entertainment Executive Vice President and President of North American Operations, Mike Carden. "As soon as we saw the quality of the image produced on the PlayStation Portable, we knew it could be a very successful vehicle for our products and we wanted to be the first-to-market with visual music titles."
Eagle Rock will distribute the titles, which have Soundscanned more than one million copies combined on DVD in the U.S., to regular retail and gaming retailers worldwide. The following titles will be available on UMD in 2005, with more to follow:
Black Label Society: "Boozed, Broozed & Broken Boned"
Busta Rhymes: "Everything Remains Raw"
Jimi Hendrix: "Electric Ladyland Classic Album"
Iron Maiden: "Number of the Beast Classic Album"
Marilyn Manson: "Guns, God and Government"
Metallica: "Metallica Classic Album"
Nirvana: "Nevermind Classic Album"
Pink Floyd: "Dark Side of the Moon Classic Album"
Puddle of Mudd: "Live at the Key Club - Striking That Familiar Chord"
Snoop Dogg: "Big Snoop Dogg's Puff Puff Pass Tour"
Various Artists: "Up in Smoke Tour, featuring Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube and Eminem"
Eagle Rock also has one-minute song clips in MPEG-4 format from Alice Cooper, Marilyn Manson, The Cure, Busta Rhymes and Dio available for download to the PSP on its website, www.eaglerockent.com.
The Sony PSP has sold extremely well since its release on March 24, and the Wall Street Journal reports that Sony expects to ship 12 million units worldwide this year. Sales of film titles available for the device have already exceeded expectations. Video Business predicts that by the end of the year, most film studios will be making releases available in the UMD format.
Eagle Rock Entertainment develops, acquires and produces visual music programming for a wide range of notable and high profile artists, which the company distributes on a worldwide basis. Eagle Vision and Eagle Eye Media are wholly owned divisions of Eagle Rock Group, LTD. The company's corporate headquarters are in London, with offices in New York, Paris and Hamburg.