CES 08: Blu-ray movies to PSP

At the company's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Sony demonstrated Blu-ray movie discs embedded with a lower-resolution version of the film for portable devices.

Fox and Warner Bros. released discs with a similar feature last year, albeit in standard definition.

Using a PlayStation 3 and a PSP, Sony showed how a Blu-ray movie disc could be inserted into the former and copied to a memory stick for the latter.

"There was always the promise of greater inactivity," David Bishop, president of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment told PC World.

While admitting that it was not currently part of the company's current release schedule, Bishop said that it was something Sony Pictures would probably roll out this year.

Because the lower-resolution version is permanently stored on the purchased Blu-ray disc, the portable version would not need to be downloaded online for a separate fee and there would be no expiration date. Although it was not specifically demonstrated, it is possible that the portable version could also be played on an iPod or a Zune.

If other movie studios follow suit, such a move could help increase Blu-ray disc sales - but will also be likely to eliminate the UMD as a storage media for films.

In other HD format news, shares in Toshiba fell to their lowest level since last March on the news that Warner Bros. decided to drop support of its HD DVD format in favour of Blu-ray.