The upcoming BD Live standard (Blu-ray Profile 2.0) brings good things for PSP owners. Movies that follow the updated Blu-ray protocol can optionally offer handheld versions of the movie to be copied off the disc. You can, for example, have a Blu-ray version of Men in Black on your PS3 and copy a handheld version of the movie directly to PSP. "This way, you can have a portable copy you can take with you," explained David Bishop, president of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, to PC World.

Sony's attempt to create a new format with UMD never worked out, but their efforts with Blu-ray have been more than commendable. With the HD format wars looking clearly in their favor, it's great to see that even PSP owners will be able to benefit from Sony's next-gen disc medium. We can't wait to take advantage of BD Live.

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For more info click here for an article at PC World

I think this is a nice idea for people who want movies on the go, whether it be with their cellphone or PSP, but I wonder how much it would be used?  There are programs that are free and easily transfer dvd movies to such devices now, but having the ability to possibly add a specific PSP version of a movie wirelessly from your PS3 is a cool endeavor.

This post was last modified: 01-10-2008 09:01 AM by gft77.

Want some more details on the upcoming ability to transfer movies from Blu-ray? Gizmodo got some. According to the site, "the movies are around 1GB (standard def and PSP-optimized) and take about 3-5 minutes to download via USB to the Memory Stick Duo in your PSP." Obviously, DRM will be utilized when a movie is copied to the system, although exact details haven't been worked out yet. We're assuming it'll work similarly to the DRM used for downloadable games from the PLAYSTATION Store.

Unfortunately, there isn't an exact timeframe set for this feature. It's some time this year -- and that's all we get. [Update: More images can be found at Watch Impress.]

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I actually don't think that's a bad size at all for a PSP movie. Especially with the cheap price of memory stick pro duo cards out there. I think this will be a cool feature, and just shows a little more versatility for Blu Ray movies.

Won't the PSP's battery life still be a problem for playing movies?

There should be no problem with movies, because a UMD will not be used and the movie will be played off of Memory Stick Pro Duo.

If normal gaming battery life on the PSP slim is 3-6 hours (according to source) there should be 0 issues with watching a movie.

source for battery life info

I'm surprised that it can transfer that amount of data from a blu-ray disc to the PSP in a matter of 3 minutes. Something just doesn't seem right about that. Transfer via USB isn't slow but reading from the disc to transfer, preparing to transfer and then transferring in a matter of 3 minutes! If they do have a way to do it then very nice.

Gizmodo says 3-5 minute transfers, but your skepticism is well placed. I'd have to see those kind of numbers myself.

I wonder if they'll use a particular proprietary format to put these movies on a PSP that could cut down on the time needed for transfer?