SONY may pull the UMD movie.




For the PSP hand held gaming system, SONY put movies on cartridges as well as games.

I myself fell prey to the new product. I was convinced it was the wave of the future and I needed to know what it was and how it works. I also bought a $400 video Ipod - only for a better one to come out a month later.



I had visions of me on a plane watching my favorite movie - laughing like a nut - while other people stewed in their seats watching the latest contrived Hollywood love story or that Paul Reiser film where he and his dad Peter Faulk (played by Colombo) spend one day together where they drive two hours to upstate New York, look at a new house, watch a basrball game, go fly fishing , have dinner with two ladies they just met, hustle pool and get into a bar fight.

My fantasy was that I'd buy one of these things and watch it on the plane or at my hotel. The sound on the head phones stunk. I was blasting it in my ears but nothing was working. I found myself strangely leaning forward towards the screen to hear it better.



Plus in reality - I don't fly that much. And the hotel had this "TV" that was 1,000 times bigger than my PSP and had a lot more choices.


The first sign that the PSP movies wouldn't work out is that it;s a special format. You have to buy this UMD cartridge that only works on the PSP. You can't plug it into your DVD player and you can't use your DVD's in your PSP. SO THERE!

That should've been my first warning. New system that force you to buy new formats never work out. Remember the half VHS that fit into a portable VCR type thing? Of the mini disc? The Laser disc? OR even the 8 track - which only had four tracks BTW.

These all failed because you had to rebuy everything you had. f you wanted to see a movie or listen to an album, you had to get it on whatever the new format was and it only worked on one machine.

The PSP selection sucked. It's owned by SONY - so a lot of the movies are SONY properties. Plus it's a game system that's geared to teen boys. Great, how many horror movies can I watch?

I bought a bunch of films I didn't really care that much to see. Matrix I loved ten years ago on the big screen, but I bought it for tiny screen. An action film with Markie Mark and another one with Ethan Eath (Hawk). The only things I could stand watching was "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" and the lame "Family Guy Movie." (By the end I was begging for "A Man Called Flinstone."


Finally last month I had second trip in which to use my micro movie theater. I went to the Beast Buy hoping for something good. In fact I was looking for "Jar Head." I wanted to see the movie and I know I'll never rent it since I have an aversion to watching anything over an hour at home.

There I was in the air. My PSP, my new PSP docking system with speakers a headset jack and a new official PSP head set all ready to watch a war movie about a war that had no war.

People complain about movies in theaters costing up to $14 - this one cost me about $200.