Eagle Rock Entertainment have announced that they will be releasing a bunch of titles for the emerging new format for portable entertainment - the Universal Media Disc (UMD) format for the Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) game device - and amongst these will be the excellent "Classic Albums: Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon".

Whilst no release date has been set for this title, it is expected to be one of the first to be released from their range, joining the currently limited range on the shelves. Other companies are now preparing their catalogues for release on the format.

In addition to gaming, the Sony PSP allows owners to view movies and music video programs, listen to music and download files. The PSP features a high resolution screen, and the UMD’s themselves, housed in a lightweight plastic disc sleeve, have a high data capacity (1.8 gigabytes) that makes the most of the handheld player's capabilities. Sound is presented in stereo through the built-in speakers, or through headphones.

Eagle Rock Entertainment's Executive VP Mike Carden said: “As soon as we saw the quality of the image produced on the PlayStation Portable, we knew it could be a very successful vehicle for our products and we wanted to be the first-to-market with visual music titles.” The Sony PSP has sold extremely well since its release on March 24th, and the Wall Street Journal reports that Sony expects to ship 12 million units worldwide this year.

Whilst the quality isn't as good as the equivalent DVD, it provides a convenient format for entertainment while out and about, travelling to work, and so on.

As soon as we have the release date and order details for the Dark Side Of The Moon UMD, we'll let you know.