is there a way to write data, i.e. a movie, to a UMD?

does it only take memory stick duo cards, and not the normal ones?

can you run a game from the flash card?

if so, as time goes by will umds become obsolete as flash prices drop, you could then download psp games and wrtie them to flash, but then again i guess you’ll need to chip your psp like the ps2…*hm*

flash is prob. better than UMD… flash will eliminate long load times… preserve battery, cause it wont need the optical drive.. and is rewritable, so with a few 2gb flash cards, (i know they cost a bomb at the moment), a flash drive that size could hold 2 games or a couple of movies, thus less baggage…?

what do you guys think?

[quote author=“Mike”]is there a way to write data, i.e. a movie, to a UMD?

does it only take memory stick duo cards, and not the normal ones?

can you run a game from the flash card?

if so, as time goes by will umds become obsolete as flash prices drop, you could then download psp games and wrtie them to flash, but then again i guess you’ll need to chip your psp like the ps2…*hm*

flash is prob. better than UMD… flash will eliminate long load times… preserve battery, cause it wont need the optical drive.. and is rewritable, so with a few 2gb flash cards, (i know they cost a bomb at the moment), a flash drive that size could hold 2 games or a couple of movies, thus less baggage…?

what do you guys think?

There is no way (yet) to write to a UMD
It only accepts Duo cards…but:
 
You cannot run a game from flash yet…but there is a menu option for MS Duo games so apparently it will be used eventually.

Each ‘game’ is 1.8 GB so a 2GB MS Duo won’t hold 2 games unless they are smaller games. Same with UMD movies…

Erik

if so, as time goes by will umds become obsolete as flash prices drop, you could then download psp games and wrtie them to flash, but then again i guess you’ll need to chip your psp like the ps2…*hm*

Unlikely that the PSP will be chippable.  There is just no space inside the console for anything else.  Modification probably will be a software-based hack (i.e. pc signing or hacked firmware).  Not that I care anyways, since piracy is bad, mmkay?

flash is prob. better than UMD… flash will eliminate long load times… preserve battery, cause it wont need the optical drive.. and is rewritable, so with a few 2gb flash cards, (i know they cost a bomb at the moment), a flash drive that size could hold 2 games or a couple of movies, thus less baggage…?

I don’t see retail games ever coming on Memory Stick because 1) At that size, ROMs still too expensive for non-rewritable use.  For comparison, the largest ROM chips used in Gameboy are 32 MB.  2) There is already a lot of infrastructure for UMD.  To switch away from it would be to abandon amortization on that investment.  In conclusion, if Sony ever intended to reap the benefits of distributing games on solid state memory, they probably would have never included the UMD in the first place.

That said, I think it would be interesting if games included the ability to install game files to memory stick (much like how PC games on CD use the CD mainly as an anti-piracy token, while getting most of the data from the HD).

...oh yeah, be a man; don’t pirate.

If Sony makes UMDs rewrittable it’ll be swell though..

1.) Sony has not released any plans to make UMDs writable/rewritable to the general public. The dev kits that developers have been sold does contain a UMD slot (it looks like a white computer/tower with a UMD port behind a cover), but they are not able to write their own UMDs. The possibility of writing UMDs is not looking very hot right now.

2.) Only Memory Stick Duo and Memory Stick Duo Pro are compatible with the Sony PSP’s memory slot. The max is currently 1 Gigabyte.

3.) Yes, it has been mentioned that the possibility of downloading PSP demo games from publishers to your computer and then transferring the demo(s) to your memory stick in order to test that game in the future (it’s been said it’ll be ready in 2006). There’s also rumour that a software allowing you to “write” or program your own PSP game and transfer it to your memory stick, but as with all unconfirmed things, this is just a rumour.

I wouldn’t doubt the possibility of Sony vamping up the Memory Stick DUO capacity past 1 Gigabyte (current max), especially with the release of the PSP and many devices which now support the MS:D proprietary technology.

Nintendo’s cartridges, for example, are also expected to increase in size. The minimum capacity (which is also the current max) of DS cartridges is 1 Gigabit, or 128MB. However, the Matrix 3D technology the medium is based off of (which Nintendo invested so much money in!) has the potential to reach 1GB capacity (through bank-switching)—as Reggie said, “128 MB and beyond” at the conference in May last year! It would be possible to see a Resident Evil 2 game with superior graphics than the original PSX on the DS, or even a large game in that standard, to show up for Nintendo’s portable.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Sony would join in the innovation on the tiny cartridge competition with Nintendo, since it would be possible to take advantage of the of the MS:Duo slot integrated on the PSP. And it would definitely eliminate load times.

*Concura