Monday, October 12, 2009

The PSP UMD Movie Dilemma

By Paul Cameron

Since the inception of the PSP portable gaming system, it seems like folks have been more taken with the fact that it can play PSP UMD movies, and not just games. Just consider that there are more of these movies available than there are games and other PSP stuff. Then there's the popularity of converter programs such as PSP Movie Creator that can convert other formats to something that can be watched on your console.

But it wasn't long before the sales of PSP UMD movies started to decline dramatically. Actually, manufacturers started cutting or ceasing production, and dropping their prices considerably. The problem, though, wasn't that folks weren't watching the movies, it is just that they were finding another supply of them. The situation is quite similar to downloading songs and movies at no cost rather than purchasing the disk. It seems silly to spend money on something you can get at no cost.

The manufacturers of these digital PSP UMD movies clearly didn't see this coming. The same thing occurred in the music industry when folks started downloading songs, for which there were lots of free sources. The increase in concealed and unlawful websites for PSP UMD movie pirating is the principal cause of the industry slowdown.

The industry tried to rebound by producing tough-to-find movies that were perhaps only available on outdated media. Several producers even tried to set up sites where they charge a modest fee for streaming these movies. But even at a reduced price, people still preferred to download their movies for free.

There is no shortage of sites on the internet where a movie can be converted to PSP format and downloaded. And together with this easy accessibility to free movie downloads, there are also conversion programs you can buy that make it easier than ever to convert movies you already own into UMD format. Even though this is technically illegal, it is still a popular practice. Then they can upload their converted file and distribute it to anyone else who's interested. With these kinds of choices, what's the point of purchasing them when they can be found at no cost?

So how do you solve the problem? Maybe there needs to be an organization that monitors these illegal downloads. No doubt the movie manufacturers would like to be involved in something like this. As well, there needs to be stronger enforcement of the laws against pirated copyright material. But undoubtedly, all of this is much easier said than done, so for those of us who enjoy watching a PSP UMD movie, we can help the industry by paying for them rather than watching them for free.

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