SPHE Shipping Movies On UMD

We told you last week that the North American release of the PSP will ship with a full-length version of "Spider-Man 2" (the movie) on UMD format.

Today, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (SPHE) announced that the company will ship four additional titles for the Universal Media Disc (UMD) video format on April 19th, roughly 3 weeks after the PSP launches.

The initial slate of titles includes "XXX," "Hellboy," "Resident Evil 2," and "Once Upon A Time in Mexico." Additional titles to be released monthly thereafter.

SPHE will also release UMD videos for PSP in Japan starting in April with Europe to follow.

The UMD format is a compact, high capacity optical format that can store up to 1.8 GB of digital data on a 60mm disc -- or an entire feature film on a single UMD video. Currently, the PSP is the only unit capable of playing UMD discs, although future players are in the works.

Movies on UMD will be produced in a 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio and encoded using advanced AVC compression, which provides the type of picture quality consumers have come to expect from DVDs.

2/11/2005 Frank Provo