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Print 17 comment(s) - last by plewis00.. on May 4 at 4:50 PM
Sony's UMD format still faces an uphill battle

It looks as though Sony's UMD format is trying hard to keep its head above water yet again. We reported in March that many movie studios are bailing out on the fledgling format due to little demand and high pricing. Today, the NPD Group has issued a report which reiterates those points.

Research showed that while about two-thirds of PlayStation Portable (PSP) owners had movies or TV shows on UMD, there wasn't much incentive or motivation to acquire a large library of titles. From Next Generation:

“Success of the UMD format depends on several key factors,” said industry analyst Anita Frazier with The NPD Group. “PSP users state the main barrier to purchasing UMDs is price, followed by the available movie/TV selection. If the right content was priced more competitively with DVDs, UMD sales may see a lift. Additionally, UMD sales may benefit if manufacturers and retailers focus on raising awareness and providing easier access.”

In my opinion, I don't see what the big draw is of the format. If I owned a PSP, I surely wouldn't double up on my movies just so that I could have a version to play on my DVD player and a version to play on my PSP. If I wanted to watch a movie on the go, I'd probably just rip it from my DVD to a MemoryStick and be done with it.

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Meh...
By Enoch2001 on 5/3/2006 7:35:43 PM , Rating: 2
If UMD movies cost $3 USD I might consider actually doubling up my DVD collection, at least key titles. Other than that, I would *NEVER* buy a UMD disc movie. I've got a 2 Gig memory stick and can get about 8 to 12 movies from own DVD collection, for free, on a stick at a time. I'd rather do that then lug around 8 to 12 UMD's anyway!

IMHO, the UMD-movie idea for the PSP is a dead monster. Sony should have taken an iTunes-download approach from day-one and lightened the price of 2 gig or higher memory sticks instead. Sony has become a lumbering giant that can't see past its own bad ideas. Too bad, as I used to have an entire Sony electronic component collection (reciever, TV, DVD player, walkman, etc). Not anymore - thanks to Apple's iPod and other replacements.




RE: Meh...
By lemonadesoda on 5/3/2006 9:18:46 PM , Rating: 2
In general, I'm sorry to see SONY fail yet again. They used to have great products. Now they try to make their money on "formats" rather than on products.

I hope a few heads will roll at SONY and they will be replaced with more innovative thinkers.


RE: Meh...
By bozilla on 5/3/2006 9:36:35 PM , Rating: 2
Why are you sorry for Sony? It's a typical thing they do and I don't feel sorry one bit. They constantly try to impose their own propriatery crap on everyone and continue to fail. I'm not at all sorry for PSP and UMD failing. I have a PSP and haven't used it at all and I just got it for testing purposes.

They are trying the same thing with Blu Ray and it will crap out too. I am strongly supporting HD-DVD because of it's versatility and the movies will cost less then blu-ray since the production process is the same as for regular DVDs.

I started hating Sony with a passion from recently and with their complete disregard for consumers and only going after the green without any proper products. They just keep pushing other vendors and companies to upgrade their production fascilities so they can make more money.

As a poster above noted, they can only survive if they make a write for UMD, sell UMD movies for like $3-$5. I know for a fact that movie studios actually have to send movies to Sony in order to publish to UMD. How stupid is that!

Down with Sony's propriatery crap, long live standards and consumers.


RE: Meh...
By redbone75 on 5/3/2006 11:28:15 PM , Rating: 2
Exactly. Why in the hell would anyone feel sorry for Sony, especially after the whole rootkit fiasco. How about feeling sorry for the poor saps who buy their proprietary crap only to find a few months down the line the product is not being supported anymore b/c of poor sales. Companies tend to shoot themselves in the foot by staying with proprietary formats, and Sony should be the main one to not forget this. They basically stole the videogame market lead from Nintendo with the Playstation b/c Nintendo stuck with their own cartridges instead of making the N64 a cd-based system. Square even was going to make Final Fantasy VII for the N64, but decided to go with the PSX b/c of cost/storage, and we all know what that game did for the PSX.


RE: Meh...
By pixelslave on 5/4/2006 3:19:28 PM , Rating: 2
>> If UMD movies cost $3 USD I might consider actually doubling up my DVD collection

Exactly. At $3, many people will feel that it's buying time -- instead of doing the ripping myself, I simply go lazy and buy the a disc. I don't have to worry about backing up, and I got a case for storage (if I want to keep it.) Even at $5, I think there will still be buyers.

IMO, greed kills SONY. They are so into getting as much profit as they can get per disc and forget that if they sell 100 times more UMD, they can easily make up the difference.


Devices other than PSP
By adam92682 on 5/3/2006 7:06:43 PM , Rating: 2
Maybe the format would do better if there was other equipment that UMD could be used with in addition to PSP.




RE: Devices other than PSP
By hstewarth on 5/3/2006 7:11:38 PM , Rating: 2
In addition, being able to burn your own disks would be really nice - in this weay people could burn TV shows and Music to disk and carring them with them. Using multiple memory sticks would be expensive.

I recently got a 2G Memory stick for my PSP, just for reference depending on compression results - it can store about 4 1/2 to 5 hours of movies on it. A writeable UMD likely store about 3 1/2 to 4 hours on it.


By Ralph The Magician on 5/3/2006 7:28:00 PM , Rating: 1
The difference isn't that big. A UMD disc can hold 1.8GB.


RE: Devices other than PSP
By shaw on 5/4/2006 8:30:29 AM , Rating: 3
A sony device that's made to work with the competition? You'll hang for such a concept in Sony Land!


RE: Devices other than PSP
By hstewarth on 5/4/2006 10:17:23 AM , Rating: 1
PS/3 is doing just that.. It supports memory devices other than Memory stick. Its supports Blu-Ray standard which is NOT just Sony.


Spot the connection:
By Cunthor01 on 5/4/2006 2:29:53 AM , Rating: 2
Walkman => Mini Disc => Sonic Stage => ATRAC3 => MicroMV =>(1st gen)Memory Stick => SACD =>UMD.

Did I forget anything else?




RE: Spot the connection:
By bozilla on 5/4/2006 3:44:01 AM , Rating: 2
Walkman => Mini Disc => Sonic Stage => ATRAC3 => MicroMV =>(1st gen)Memory Stick => SACD =>UMD => Blu-Ray


RE: Spot the connection:
By hans007 on 5/4/2006 7:44:25 AM , Rating: 2
you forgot, betamax.

digital 8 camcorder tapes (most other brands use minidv)



RE: Spot the connection:
By Muirgheasa on 5/4/2006 8:11:07 AM , Rating: 1
But wasn't Betamax around before VHS? And Blu-ray is technologically far better than HD-DVD, and has at least as many backers. UMD, however, is a big pile of pants which should never have seen the light of day.


RE: Spot the connection:
By vingamm on 5/4/2006 9:03:00 AM , Rating: 2
I think the point here is that Sony tried the same thing with Betamax. They do not seem to learn from previous mistakes. The Betamax had a much better picture quality and was far superior product than VHS. But, Sony wanted to charge an arm and a leg for the technology and then would not let anyone else license it. That is what caused it to fail. VHS came in, and even though it was not as good as Betamax, it was an open standard and cheaper. That is what made all the difference.


no price cuts, no matter what
By lucyfek on 5/3/2006 11:47:28 PM , Rating: 2
this is not the line of entertainment industry. and it doesn't matter the umd movie can't match the quality of the dvd one.
you should have learned this while paying 99c for mp3 crap.
this is why the smart ones (aka thieves;), copy movies on their own and put useless format where it belong to - in the junk yard.




TV out
By plewis00 on 5/4/2006 4:50:17 PM , Rating: 2
I think the key feature missing here is TV-out. If the PSP had that, taking UMD movies around with you where you went (mates houses, etc.) would be a good idea as they are relatively small and the quality is good. As it stands, the only UMD I have is Spiderman 2, and that is because it was free.




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