That's actually really awesome. No need to buy a UMD version. I'm curious as to the filesize and quality, however. It must have something to do with the announcement about the 16 GB memory stick.

VERY good news indeed, PSP without homebrew sucks as a multimedia device - hope the homebrewers can keep this function

WOULD YOU PLEASE GET SOME FREAKIN' COPY EDITORS AT YOUR FREAKING SITE. IT'S NOT "IT'S", IT'S "ITS". A POSSESSIVE "ITS" DOES NOT HAVE AN APOSTROPHY!

Hot damn! That's great news. I have a slew of movies already in the BD format. Can't wait to start transferring them over.

Hmm...looks like it's going to be time to pick up that 16gb memory card. ;)

It would be great if they allowed to do it with Dvd as well. But hey keep them coming Sony keep them coming!

Well I can see this only helping UMD in as far as it helps PSP sales and PS3 sales. As it is, it makes the PS3 the most serious blu-ray player as it performs almost every media function quite well and has the best cost to benefit ratio compared to the other blu-ray players.

The DRM involved will be what I'm looking for next. If it's anything like the PS3-PSP bonding that occurs now then it'll be great.

Getting back to the UMD, this makes it irrelevant for a lot of the new movies. But overall...definitely helps the PSP.

@Strangelove: Most likely...

But alas I don't care about this. I still haven't bought a PS3 because it hasn't peaked my interest as far as for what I want it for... FREAKING GAMES!

Announce Team ICO's next project and I might cough up the 500+ dollars, Sony... come on.

@themoralorderdotcom: Would you please learn to communicate in a non-barbaric fashion. Didn't your mother teach you not to type in all caps?

It's very inappropriate. Check out my mad use of grammar guy. ;)

Fuck yeah Howard the Duck. We need that in all of it's 1080p glory NOW.

I wonder how they'd get it to fit on the PSP?

@themoralorderdotcom: Dude relax, this a blog. No need to sound the klaxon.

16 GB Memory Stick Here I come

Wait. How?

I known normal DvD's take up about 4gigs.

Wouldn't some Blu-Rays reach 25 gig, topping the 16gb limit?

Though I think some discs are just stupidity. FF2 was 2 50gb discs, but there's no way that was necessary.

@themoralorderdotcom: If you're going to slam somebody for bad grammar, try to at least get your spelling correct. "Apostrophy," I ask you..

@themoralorderdotcom: You know it's really just a news-blog site right? I mean, having an aneurysm over an -apostrophe- is probably pretty dumb, no?

Repeat to yourself "It's just a site, I should really just relax."

You're going to need a huge memory stick I'm sure.

@Moonchilde: The blu ray movies will probably have to be compressed via software and saved onto either a writeable UMD or Sony memory stick. I wonder how long the transfer process will take.

It'd be awesome if they could also do this w/ DVD movies too.

pretty solid initiative !

@Kirbytheslayer: Loves NinjaBread Man!: I assume they don't mean download, but stream to it. Maybe buffer it on a memory stick or internal memory or something, as there's no way you could download a full 25g movie to it.

@kirstpo:
.... DUH ????!

@DigitalHero:

That's not true.. you're just compressing into a MUCH smaller resolution. Would take up a small amount of space. I remember compressing XVID movies that way to my MP3 player--I think they were around 100 MB instead of the usual 600-800.

if you can keep it on a memory stick, then couldnt you sare the file on P2p servers?

@ampillion : works it harder, makes it better, does it faste...: "insert it in your PS3 and download it to your PSP. For keeps."

Either Mr. Plunkett is wrong, or they do allow it, somehow.

*aproves*

@themoralorderdotcom:
bababa BAN!

@Kirbytheslayer: Loves NinjaBread Man!: what ff2 50gb?! i honestly dont think that anyone has maxed out or come close to the 25gb blueray limit,even HD movies are still compressed.

i doubt the psp encoded version is gonna be more than 700mb if converted right.i wonder if you get to choose any options while encoding.

Jesus christ. Sony is on fire. Old releases to the Psn. Skype for the psp. Now this. Keep up the good work SCE.

oh snap.. thats freakn awesome, way'ta go sony i might actually watch movies on my psp agian?

Wow. Sony for all the foolish things I've seen you do in 2007, you're slowly making up for it in 2008.

damn, all i have is a 1 gig... >.>

well i guess i'm getting AT LEAST a 4 gig for $35

@Strangelove: same here... 1 movie per 16 gb stick? haha! i hope not *sigh*

This is absolutely awesome. I really hope this works for dvd as well as bluray. I can see why it wouldn't as a business decision but that would be fantastic if it did.

I think you are all misunderstanding what they are saying here. I think the point is that the discs have a lower resolution version of the movie also saved on the disc (hey look, a use for that extra storage on Blu-Ray) and you are simply copying that file over to the PSP. You are not taking the hi-def transfer off of the disc and trying to compress it down to fit on a memory stick. Then again, I could also be misunderstanding the point here.

Come on, people. Use your heads. BD movies compressed to memory stick aren't going to be any bigger than DVD movies compressed to memory stick. The source matters not a whit. What matters is the output.

A 50GB movie compressed to 320x240 (or whatever the PSP screen is) at 1gbps is going to be the exact same size as a 4GB movie compressed to 320x240 at 1gbps.

I just bought a 2 gig....I hope the movies don't take above 500 mbs.

couldnt they just be DVD downloadable versions? i fear blu-ray will take too much space. well, they do mention "copying a lower-resolution version of a film". here's to hoping that it won't!

@LionheartAce:

Oh, man, if they come out with Ico 2 for PS3, I will absolutely buy the system. The original Ico was the most beautiful, artistic, pure game I've ever played. It was just perfect.

@Kirbytheslayer: Loves NinjaBread Man!: I'm still gonna stick with streaming, unless somehow it's encoding it into some smaller, compact format for the PSP and making it savable to memory card, which would make it for keeps, I'm guessing.

Otherwise, I may have found the reason for the PS3's original high price... magical data elves live in it.

this is a fantastic straightforward concept that will no doubt push more psp ans ps3 units onto the market. The real beauty of it is a moral one. It shows that the consumer will have actually purchased the film, instead of just downloading it from the net, etc.

@Kirbytheslayer: Loves NinjaBread Man!: @Truepatriot: My bad.

Fantastic Four 2 is on one 50GB dual layer Blu-Ray.
Spider-Man 3 is on two.

I got them mixed up(size-wise), but it's still ridiculously excessive.

In case you can't work it out, this will OBVIOUSLY be a compressed version of the film saved to a memory stick.

@badasscat: Perhaps, but I have to wonder if this announcement and the 16g mem stick announcement aren't somehow related. Perhaps they intend to have BR code into something sharper and needed a bit more room? Again, one of those things that we'll never really know until it hits the ground running.

Today has been a great day for the Playstation 3.

Slow and steady wins the race. This time next year people are going to be looking at the console wars in a completely different way.

I like my 360, but I'll be honest, it's just keeping me amused until the ps3 hits its stride.

@Plunkett: I'm sticking with my magical data elves theory, thank you.

@Kirbytheslayer: Loves NinjaBread Man!: why the hell would you buy fantastic four 2?

are some people seriously thinking you will copy the entire disk?

The PSP is 272 lines top to bottom, you will copy across a file of the 272p movie.

It will probably take a long time however, and i bet the PSP will need to remain connected the entire process.

@Kirbytheslayer: Loves NinjaBread Man!:

The reason that Blu-Ray movies are so large is because they are high-res -- a much higher resolution than is necessary for the PSP screen.

As such, I would assume that the movies are downscaled to the res of the PSP screen (480x272, IIRC), making the file size of each movie substantially smaller.

@ampillion : works it harder, makes it better, does it faste...: Hey, there's always an outside chance :)

Wow, this is indeed good news. I may actually have to go pick up a PSP this year.

@Plunkett: Bah. I want 1080p on my PsP. I'm willing to take the memory hit