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"illegally copying films from DVDs onto a memory chip"? What the hell? If I've LEGITIMATELY bought my DVDs or LEGITIMATELY copied a television show from an on-air broadcast then its NOT ILLEGAL for me to transfer that copy to any medium I so choose for my personal use. Period, end of story. This is the legal decision Sony itself won for their Betamax in the early 80's. Now they're grousing about it when it bites them in the shorts? Here's an idea: Try not making YET ANOTHER proprietary memory/information storage format that no one will buy, Sony! Selling lots of those MiniDisks? Still waiting for the big Digital8 video surge? Still bitter over Beta?
As it has been said by the rest of you, it makes absolutely no sense to buy a UMD version of a movie or TV series collection when the DVD is cheaper and more universal than the "Universal" Media Disk. Their new tactic of DVD/UMD bundle may not do too well either. I just saw this the other day for Ghostbusters. The combo was US$25.00 but the non combo was just $14. Can't say I was too interested. I believe the ultimate upshot of this will be bins and bins of 2 for $10 UMD movies at your local bigbox electronics/computer/video stores. See you there, bargain hunters! ;)
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fellas.
It ALL boils down to money. Sony KNOWS homebrew is a great idea but they want to control it. You getting games on your psp for free is bad for them. I for one only own say 3 games because I enjoy SNES and NEO GEO CD emulators on my PSP. Well, sony needs to make money. They want you to be able to purchase your fun ONLY through them. Same shit Microsoft came up with called Genuine Windows.
Homebrew would probably hurt their profits around an 18% - 25% Insignificant, but it's extra profit.
They want ALL the juice they can squeeze out of this machine as profit, even if it is just 18%.
Now UMD movies are just ****ing retarded of an idea. DVD can be clearly waaaaay more quality because it can store more pixels and DVD in general holds more data. UMDs need to be around 51% cheaper because that's exactly the quality it can hold compared to a DVD movie.
It costs them less to make a UMD, costs them less to put in JUST the movie with no special features. Why would ANYONE with the right mind buy a UMD when you can buy the DVD for the same price and just rip it to your Memory Stick. It's a win win situation for the buyer, Sony needs to be smarter than this.
Either come up with Double Layer UMDs, and squeeze more quality plus special features or simply cut the price in half so people would be NOT only attracted to buy the UMD but non PSP users will also start buying PSPs because movies would be half price.
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So basically, here's the reasons why UMD is failing.
- It's too expensive.
- DVD's are cheaper, and contain more features.
- DVD's are actually guaranteed a scene selection feature, of all things.
- If we already own the DVD, then we're not stupid enough to buy the movie again. For more money. In a crappier format. No matter what your 'law' says. I'm breaking the law converting my DVD's? Try and catch me. It's legally and technically impossible. Try another threat next time.
- UMD movies have been seen by the customer as an exercise in overcharging.
- Sony uses the piracy argument as an excuse for its poor business model, blaming the customer. This decreases our desire to buy UMD's. Not the opposite.
- We're sick of Sony and their lame media formats. Learn the lesson. No one else adopts them. You're not the industry leader you were 10 years ago now.
- Most of the movies on UMD aren't exactly classics. It often seems like a dumping ground for your low earning movies. Give them to the content starved market and the consumers JUST MIGHT be bored enough to buy this crap. Case in point - Stealth. Sorry, No.
- Sony are greedy. They expected us all to spend all our cash on a format which is as bulky as a game to carry around (not a wise idea for a handheld), when a reasonably good, free option was available, via the memory stick. However, Sony, in it's greed, restricted the AVC/MP4 format's resolution to force us to buy UMD's. Of course the homebrew community found a way (PMP) to beat this, and we now have full screen UMD quality video off the memory stick. I would have upgraded my firmware as soon as Sony released one with full resolution video, but instead I will be staying with 1.50. You're greed causes unhappy consumers and unhappy consumers lead to us biting you in the ass, Sony.
- Finally, Sony, you aren't as 'cool' as you think you are. Your products of late have been low quality and tend to break easily. The world has changed since you had the power to tell us what to do, like it or not.
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I Agree With uranidot If UMDs Were $5-$10 Then More People Would Buy Them
