Sony to launch iTunes video rival for PlayStation Portable

Adam Turner
Monday, 18 December 2006 20:26

Your IT - Entertainment

Sony is launching a video download service for its PlayStation Portable game console in early 2007, breaking into the growing portable video market.

Developed by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, the service will allow users to download movies to a computer and transfer them to a MemoryStick memory cards for viewing on a PSP, reports the Financial Times. Sony is reportedly negotiating with Amazon, Movielink and CinemaNow to provide content.

Sony has sold more than 20 million PSPs worldwide, but the device's lack of a built-in hard disk is a major barrier to challenging Apple's grip on the handheld video market. While Sony claims a 4GB MemoryStick holds up to 10 feature films, the Apple iPod video has 30GB or 80GB internal drive and Microsoft's Zune player a 30GB drive.

Even so, the PSP's 4.3 inch widescreen display is better suited to watching video than the 2.5 and 3 inch, 4:3 ratio displays found on a iPod and Zune respectively. The PSP's display also offers more colours and a higher resolution.

Despite its superior display, the PSP's video ambitions have to date been let down by Sony's insistence on developing yet another video disc format in the Universal Media Disc. The fact movies purchased on UMD can not be played back on other devices has limited UMD sales.