Japan gets PSP portable TV service
With the 2.0 bios update released tomorrow (including the non-hacked web browser), Sony is launching 'PSP Portable TV', a multimedia download channel.
PSP Portable TV will boast 100 free downloadable movie trailers, independent films and TV pilots. In the future, Sony is planning to introduce premium content downloads (for a fee) such as sports programmes, music videos, television shows and even whole films.
The videos will be encoded to be similar in quality to UMD movies, with a special codec also included in the 2.0 update. At the moment, videos for the PSP can't use all the pixels on the PSP’s screen, so the codec will be useful for home made (ripped?) movies, too.
Is this all part of Sony's grand plan to lure players off the homebrew/piracy friendly 1.5 Bios? Probably not, but that's another useful feature from Sony's perspective, as well as all the other companies who's games can be played in pirated form on the current PSP. Although Sony may now incur the wrath of the film and television industries, since video is now going to be copyable to the device more easily and in higher quality.
