The Problem With the PSP UMD Movie
Ever since the PlayStation Portable (PSP) was launched, people have been interested in much more than the games that could be played on it. There was also a lot of demand for the PSP UMD movies that it could play. It seems like there are many more movies that can be played on these systems than there are games and other PSP stuff. This has also led to the creation of software involving these movies such as PSP Movie Creator and other converter programs.
However it wasn’t long before the sales of PSP UMD movies started to decline significantly. In fact, manufacturers started cutting or ceasing production, and dropping their prices significantly. The problem, though, wasn’t that folks weren’t watching the movies, it is just that they were finding another source for them. What’s happening is that individuals started downloading their PSP movies from the internet, just like they download other audio and video files. There doesn’t seem to be any point to paying money for something that you can get free of charge.
The manufacturers of these digital PSP UMD movies evidently didn’t see this coming. The same thing occurred in the music industry when individuals started downloading songs, for which there were lots of free sources. There are now so many sites where you can get pirated copies of PSP UMD movies that it has affected the manufacture of the physical product.
Some manufacturers have produced promotional items such as older videos that were previously available only in obsolete formats such as beta, and offered them at a reduced cost. Several producers even tried to set up sites where they charge a modest fee for streaming these movies. But it hasn’t made much difference to those who simply do not want to pay for their entertainment.
There is no shortage of sites online where a movie can be converted to PSP format and downloaded. In addition to this online access to free movies, you can also purchase programs that will convert your files to UMD format. This is not exactly legal, but that does not stop most folks. And once they’ve converted the movie, they upload it to share with others. When you have these types of choices, there doesn’t seem to be any reason to pay for something that you can get for free.
The only solution to this dilemma would be to have an internet watchdog agency that traces these unlawful downloads. No doubt the movie manufacturers would like to be involved in something like this. In addition, it’s important that the laws against piracy are implemented more forcefully with wider coverage. But certainly, 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 buying them instead of watching them for free.
