Was just thinking a bit more about my relatively underplayed (Sony) PSP handheld, and even more about the UMD disc format that Sony created for it.  What a strange thing when it comes to support.

Sony created the UMD disc and initially (after the PSP was first made available) there was a rush of movies released in the format.  You'd see ads (like the current ad on the TV touting the coming release of Superman Returns in DVD and other formats) that would clearly say "on DVD and PSP on Tuesday" or something similar.  Now the UMD format is basically ignored (if not darned near dead) because people did as some have suggested in some of my recent articles and they refused to buy the product.

I admit to doing a bit of boycotting of the format myself.  I snagged a few choice titles in UMD format, but for the most part I ignored UMD as a choice because it wasn't as convenient for me as standard DVD is.  Instead of being able to take a UMD disc and show it on a big screen (i.e., TV), you are limited to watching the format on the PSP's handheld screen only.

I've said before, and I'm repeating here now, that that was a huge mistake.  Sony should have released an add-on drive for the PS2 (Playstation 2) that would let that system play UMD discs a long time ago.  Worst case, they should have included outputs on the PSP that would let you send video out to a TV that had the standard RCA inputs (video, audio L+R).

There've been some add-on devices that take the video from the PSP and will send it to a TV but all of those devices are basically 'hacks' that film the screen and then send the output to a TV or other similar device.  Nothing that just grabs the signal directly and shows things in their original beauty (or lack thereof).

I don't quite understand all of this.  There may be technical reasons why Sony really couldn't put out a UMD add-on device for the PS2, but it just doesn't really make sense to me.  It would seem to be something that they could create fairly easily.  Worst case, create a separate 'standalone' UMD movie player that would let buyers of UMD format products see their discs on the TV.

Now, Sony is releasing the PS3 (Playstation 3) and going great guns for their newest format - Blu-ray disc.  I would claim neutrality on the Blu-ray format, but I'm a bit miffed at Sony for not working things out with the HD-DVD team to just go with that format and avoid a format war that will be costly for all involved.  Having been somewhat burned by the UMD format, I think seeing Sony miss with Blu-ray and then see them *forced* to go with an HD-DVD add-on device (as Microsoft is doing) could be a fun thing to see.

For now, I'm not inclined to go nuts for any of these alternate formats because they don't really offer enough improvement for me, or any real discount over other formats.  HD-DVD sounds like it should be very cool, and I'll probably eventually get the add-on drive to go with the Xbox 360 that I have, but with a large collection of discs in DVD format, why should I rush into buying new HD-DVD copies of the same things?  If I don't have a collection of discs in the new format to play, why rush into buying the drive?  Sort of a catch-22.

Regardless, I think Sony has been neglectful of their UMD creation.  While the public didn't continue the initial fervor for the format, I think it has everything to do with the inconvenience of the playback of the content of the discs along with the thought that buying things in UMD would typically mean having to buy the same movie multiple times if you really wanted to share with friends.  Of course it seems to be more indicative of the thought that all of the studios seem to have -- just because you paid money for content in one format doesn't entitle you to have the content in another format without buying it again.

All of the major studios seem to take that approach and it doesn't seemed to have done any of them any great favors in sales of their materials.  I'm sure it'll hold up sales of both HD-DVD and Blu-ray formats and further cloud the picture of which of those formats is the eventual "winner" in the eyes of the consumer.  (Just in case you aren't following, not many people are likely to run out and buy a big collection of HD-DVD discs or Blu-ray discs if they already had DVDs of the same materials.  Unless those folks sell off their old DVDs or give them all away to friends or relatives as they replace those materials with the newer format discs, why would they bother paying a lot of money to get duplicate copies of movies and such that they already have paid for??)