by Jim Brown

The DVD is known by almost everyone but only a few know what the acronym stands for. It has been used as a convenient and a more robust, massive optical storage than that of the floppy drive and even the recordable compact disc. DVD stands for Digital Versatile Disc. The development of DVD paved the way for the expansion of the capacity of computer programs and having it in only one disc. This technology has been embraced by gamers since games with very detailed graphics come in huge files. So, a regular game that fits on 4 CDs at 700MB can now fit into one 4.75GB DVD. But it has made its mark not only on gaming. Movies have been reformatted to fit into DVDs instead of the VHS tape that proved to be bulky and sensitive.

But the DVD format has been divided into two, which are the DVD-R and the DVD+R. The DVD-R came in first bringing with it the Land Pre Pit (LPP) System. Then a coalition called the DVD+R Alliance in 2002 had brought with them the DVD+R format which is packed with the ADdress In Pregroove (ADIP). The DVD+R Alliance have claimed that their format is a much accurate system and is less vulnerable to interference and errors.

DVD Drive manufacturers are looking at the two format feuds in the same manner as the Betamax vs. VHS conflict in the 80s and 90s. So, the said manufacturers created the Dual Disc DVD Drives or the DVD+/-R. Their drives have been programmed to read both the LPP and the ADIP platforms. Recently some DVD developers launched what they called the Dual Layer DVD or the DVD-R DL / DVD+R DL / DVD+/-R DL. This system is has two independent layers in one disc which translates into a double capacity disc. A regular DVD packs in 4.75GB of storage space while a dual layer DVD carries with it 8.5GB of disc space. The new breakthrough then encourages more people to use the disc as a form of mass storage back up because of its capacity.

The DVD industry is constantly on its toes to develop a far more inferior format than what is being commonly used today. Recent developments have been the HD-DVD or the High Definition – DVD which is already out in the market and promises massive storage space. A single dual layer HD – DVD can have as much as 30GB of storage space available. But this technology is still new and quiet pricey as of present time.

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James Brown writes about i-Satellite web code, dotCanada.com deals and Mwave.com discounts

By Nash Burns

The Sony PSP utilizes the so called UMD disc for gaming and for watching movies. UMD stands for Universal Media Disc that is the media format for PSP (apart from its memory stick). A PSP UMD Movie will typically set you back between $18 to $30 USD which is quite hefty especially for student and teenagers. Nowadays, the demography of people using PSP includes young professional where money is not so much an issue. But for teenager, it is a big deal to fork out $30 for a movie you only watch once in a while.

The UMD is similar in construction to your typical Compact Disc (CD) with the difference in the size of the disc. The maximum data that a UMD can hold is 1.8GB which is more than enough to hold a whole movie at a lower resolution than your typical DVD. Due to the capacity of the disc, bonus feature that you can get from normal DVD are sometime remove and like the normal DVD, it is prone to scratches.

The sale of PSP UMD Movies has also started to dwindle mainly due to lack of interest from customers. Big names movie companies such as Paramount, Warner and Sony Picture are cutting back releases due to lack of sales. Things are not looking so hot for PSP UMD Movies. Some of the contributions to this lack of sales are due to the price of the UMD Movies. Frankly speaking, they are highly overpriced and sometimes more expensive than DVD.

If you are like me, you would start looking for alternatives. All of us (well, most of us anyway) love to watch movies on our PSP but with the high UMD movies pricing and the limited number of movies available, the future of watching movie on our PSP is started to look bleak. Or is it?

If you like to watch movies on your PSP there are two alternatives. 1) You buy an original DVD and you ripped the DVD into your computer and download it into your memory stick 2) You become a member of PSP downloading site and download directly from that site.

DVD ripping software is provided by Sony. It enables you to extract DVD movies into your PC (or Mac) into a much more compact format. Of course you would loose a small bit of quality but since your PSP screen is small, there are no noticeable difference. The drawback to either of the method is that you would require significant amount of memory in your memory stick (at least 512MB)

The second method is by joining the numerous PSP download site available in the internet nowadays. Finding a download site is the easy part. Finding a good site is the tricky bit. The good thing about downloading from these membership site is that you don’t have to do any DVD ripping which is in itself can be time consuming at the very best and downright frustrating if you don’t get it right. You just download and watch the movies. The only thing that will cost you is the lifetime membership charges. Look at it this way, by the time you download a full movie, you’ll already cover the membership charges and you can download unlimited number of files and have access to games cheat, review and get free PSP tools too. You can always store your movie files on your PC and download the movie onto your memory stick if you want to watch them

The PSP UMD movies are fast becoming scarce but they are still there in the market. However, things are not looking so bright for them. PSP download sites offers a great alternative for PSP movie lovers but the drawback is the amount memory you would require if you want to watch more than one movie at a time. In the end it always comes to what your needs or wants are.