According to IGN, "Video out is something they [Sony] know is important and are working on getting done."

http://psp.ign.com/articles/720/720194p1.html

I'm surprised it hadn't already been done.  Can anybody tell me which hand held consoles (if any) have had video out?

Hmm, so if I understand correctly, you'll be able to connect your PSP to your TV?  Well, that is certainly a big plus for the PSP, but I'm not sure it justifies the purchase.  I like what Nintendo did  -the GBA Player on the gamecube plays ALL gameboy and GBA games!  That is one awesome peripheral

cheers,

-avatar!

And then they go ahead and make a game that requires the GBA to have multiplayer (Crystal Chronicles).  I wonder if Sony will do something that stupid?

Maybe it's just me, but the entire concept of plugging handheld games machines into the TV is baffling. I never understood the Gameboy Player, because to me the entire point of having a Gameboy is that you don't have to plonk yourself in front of the TV to play.

*wanders off mumbling something about green fields and rations*

Thing is, many great games are Gameboy exclusive.  Therefore, for those of us who GREATLY prefer playing games on the television, the Gameboy Player rocks! 

cheers,

-avatar!

I agree with Avatar! here.  Most of the Gameboy games I've played haven't been because they're portable, but because they're games I want to play.  In fact, being forced to play them on a teeny tiny little sreen has been more of a hindrance.  The Gameboy player is a godsend for me.  I would love to be able to play Legend of Heroes on the big screen instead of on the little PSP.  I'm generally okay with the DS because its design is such that the games on it wouldn't be possible on a regular TV.

No, this isn't the point.

Sony had the option of setting up a video-out plug/configuration for the PSP but they didn't want to. Because the PSP having that function would interfere with their DVD sales; because now people can use it instead of DVDs. They also limited the possible resolution of self-encoded videos for this reason.. If you think this is unlikely, then you don't know Sony. They frequently make stupid, narrow-minded decisions that cost them very heavily in the long run. We just need to look to ATRAC and MiniDisc for ample evidence.

The greatest plus for a video-out option in the PSP would be to use it as some sort of portable media player like a portable DVD player.

You'd think they'd want to put in video out to help sales of those stupid UMD movies.  If they could get those to sell well, it would probably profit them more than the regular DVD sales, or compliment them nicely.

I think Sony's idea was

a)customer purchases movie X
b)customer purchases UMD X
c)Sony makes 2 times profit on same movie

Sony's mistake:

customer not so stupid...

outcome: UMD not profitible, PSP selling poorly

cheers,

-avatar!

Marketing UMD movies when they are inferior to DVDs in all respects was a big mistake.  I can't believe Sony was that stupid.

Which is why Sony is stupid.

They didn't want the UMD format to compete with their DVD sales.. remember, this will compromise not only with the DVD sales itself but the sales of DVD PLAYERS, which Sony has a hand in.

Essentially, why buy DVD discs/players when you have high quality UMDs and a PSP that you use to hook up to a TV and watch? That's Sony's logic.

We should all know they've fucked themselves in the ass, hard, many times over this past decade.

No, UMD movies aren't a bad idea. Portability is the ace factor here, and let's not, despite the enthusiasm over Nintendo products, forget that the PSP display screen is magnificent.

Their mistake was selling the UMD at the same price as DVDs. Consumer thinks: mmm.. I can either buy DVDs of these movies to watch at my big-ass TV screen at home, or I can buy these similarly priced UMDs to watch at my neato, but tiny PSP screen...

Sony: OH f--- OUR CONSUMERS HAVE BRAINS T_T

If UMDs were priced at half that of DVD prices, things could've been different. But nooooo... that's Sony.

Gotta agree with Sabreman.  Although I understand the allure of playing portables on the big screen, it's the portability factor that's made me barely touch my Game Boy Player at all.  Besides which, with the advent of these awesome new LCD screens implemented into the portables, games just look better and more vibrant on the likes of the new SP or the DS Lite.

I think the main thing that bothered me about the GBP is that it always had trouble running games at a full framerate.  Is there anyway to get around that?

Seriuosly?  I've never had any framerate issues on any games running on the GBP.  After all, the GBP is just a GBA without a screen or interface.  There are, however, plenty of interlacing issues, particularly if you have the GBP set to "sharp."  Set it back to normal to fix that.

To the best of my knowledge, there has never been a handheld game console with an official video out, though various after market mod kits have surfaced for more recent systems.

Absolutely.  Sony also should have had more DVD/UMD bundles where a consumer could buy both the DVD and UMD version of the same movie in one package for $5-10 more than the regular DVD.

Concerning the argument that UMD sales would hurt DVD sales, I'm not so sure about that since the resolution of UMDs is a lot lower than DVDs and they're not going to look all that great blown up on a big TV screen.

The Sega Nomad which is a portable Genesis had a video out. I'm not sure it came with the cable needed to hook it up to a tv, though. I'll have to look for mine to see if it did.

I'm on this side of this argument.  The portables have games I want to play and I don't have opportunities to play games outside of the home, so if I'm going to be home anyway, I'd like to be able to play my portable systems in a more comfortable fashion (eyestrain and neck cramps are no fun).  I was delighted beyond imagination when the Super Game Boy came out, I made inquires about how to get a Wide Boy during the early GBA years, and although I got a Japanese GBA before the U.S. launch, I barely played my growing library of GBA games until the GBP came out.  The DS is the first portable system I've played aggressively since the original GB (and the only reason I played it so aggressively is beacuse it was the only system I owned at the time).

Ah, ok.  I wasn't sure about that one.

considering that there were a number of upcoming games i had been eager to play hoping they would be on a regular console so i could play them on a full size screen,, then it turned out they were released on a tiny handheld,  (lufia 3&4, FFTactics2, etc..) it was very disappointing..   i still dont think ill fork over 200 for a psp though...

I believe all iterations of the GamePark have S-Video out.

I miss the days of the Super Game Boy, with Game Boy games being enhanced when playing on the big screen. It was such a disappointment finding out that the GBP wouldn't provide SGB enhancements.

Huh, I completely forgot that one even existed.

Yeah, that was a bit of a let down, but what really annoyed me was not being able to reassign the buttons for GBA games when played on the DS.  I hope the virtual console allows fully configurable buttons.

I think TurboExpress did, but you needed to have the TV Tuner as well.

Then again, maybe I'm thinking of its ability to display output from other game consoles. I remember hooking my Neo-Geo to it and thinking how cool it would be to play ViewPoint anywhere I wanted..