As most of you may know, HD DVDs have been sent to the graveyard of media formats. Not everyone owns a High-Definition Television and not many want to spend $400, slightly less, or more on a Blu-Ray disc player. But, this entry is not about any of that. This is about the UMD media format when pushed to it’s limits for movies.
UMDs are not the most popular media format. Mainly, this is due to the own device that can play this is the Playstation Portable. You may know the Playstation Portable as the PSP. Another reason is because UMDs are not very popular is because the PSP is the least popular handheld video game console in the market today. Nintendo has beaten Sony, just like they beat Atari and Sega. Many PSP owners do not buy UMD Movies because not many movie studios (or whatever you want to call them) are supporting them. Another reason comes from a review I read from Amazon.com on the product, “Kill Bill - Volume 1 [UMD for PSP]“. “How can a movie that is available on DVD with 4x the resolution of a UMD, extra content, and Dolby Digital & DTS 5.1 surround sound be offered for twice the price on a 1/4 resolution, stereo, no frills disc?”. Although Playstation 3s can play UMD Movies, that’s just ridiculous. There’s DVDs for that. Enough said.
To sum up on the UMD Movies entry, if you own a PSP or just feel like playing a UMD movie on your Television when theres DVDs, only buy movies if there’s a movie available on the UMD format that you like and if you want to have a movie to watch on the road. I do want to mention that there are portable DVD Players you can buy.
