Everyone Hates UMD

[theblue]

I Love UMD movies I have 30 UMD movies and I have the same movies on DVD, I also bought advent children on dvd and umd.

[Voltron]

in an obscure way it IS good homebrew that is killing the software format possibly as much (or more?) as the b*****d ISO users. if no future exploits are found in future firmwares will we choose to keep the psp alive for sony, or for our own homebrew use.

I'm an avid ISO user here

About UMD Movies. I really want to like them. But there are only a select few I can think of possibly getting anytime. I had T2 & Saw, sold Saw. T2 is a cool movie so I'll keep that. They do really need to be much cheaper. But the concern with that may be too many people buying the cheaper UMD's and lose out on sales of more expensive DVD's. So the studio's are probably trying to create some sort of weird balance making DVD a priority.

Another thing I feel I need to point out is that the storage capacity of UMD's are not impressive anymore. 1.8GB is the MAX capacity of a UMD disc. Before the end of 2006 there will be 4GB & 8GB PRO Duo memory sticks available.

Now thats impressive. 4-8GB of data in something the size of a postage stamp. It makes it far more feasible to store video files & movies in digital format on memory stick. And yes, this also applies to UMD games on memory stick.

Yes, I am a b*****d ISO user. Here is the SHORT list why:

1.) Almost all games can be backed up to ISO or DAX and take up LESS than 512MB of space And I mean FULL games. I don't like ripping audio & video files out. Some games are remarkably small. The smallest FULL game I have on my memory stick is only 18.9MB. So point is that this allows for several PSP games to be always on the PSP. No interchanging of UMD discs.

2.) Almost ALL games are now playable on 1.50 PSP's including such new ones as Daxter, Siphon Filter, Monster Hunter Freedom, & NBA Ballers Rebound.

3.) Backing up your UMD's dramatically reduces battery drainage by bypassing the UMD optical drive.

4.) SPEEEED!!! Games load & play faster & smoother. Games like Y's Ark of Napishtim & Midnight Club 3 which have hair pulling load times have severely reduced or practically NO loading times. And you can also overclock the PSP to help speed things up even more.

5.) Best of both worlds! I can enjoy the enormous wealth of homebrew goodness on 1.50 while still being able to play NEW commercial games that try and force you to upgrade.

So whatever, call all ISO users names all you want but not all ISO users are pirates. Also I feel strongly that in the future, all games will be played off memory stick. With memory stick sizes expanding and speeds increasing, I think you'll see downloadable games with DRM protection similar to iTunes but for games VERY VERY soon. And probably on the PSP. (PS1 downloadable games)

This will also save company's loads on manufacturing, distribution, & supply costs.

[luis_05]

ummmm....22 dollars for an umd? Where as i can get it for free and with good quality. I love the umd idea, i own some myself but it is too expensive. Im in college and cannot spare too much money!! Sony should have drive the umd movies prices down since the movies dont include to many extra features!!!

[jwilds73]

UMD's are completely not UNIVERSAL they are a one device medium. The PS3 should come with a built in umd drive so we can play umd games and even movies on both consoles. They need to license the medium out also and even make recordable umd's but we know they won't do that. If Sony's lack of forsight and willingness to support this format is any indication of what will happen with Blue Ray it's a doomed format also. Make the damn things UNIVERSAL as you claim them to be Sony.

[SchmuckofNI]

I don't think thats entirely accurate. Where I work at we still have umd movie rentals and they are doing pretty well. Granted they are the same price as a normal dvd rental, but people get em for a week. Even on the sales side isn't all that bad.

[Illegal Machine]

I think UMDs are the dumbest thing ever


maybe if Sony had gived the PSP a Minidisc drive with new DVD like capabilities, and offered a write feature, Id be impressed but the whole thing sucks as it is so whatever.


and dont say that they couldnt make them minidiscs because people would pirate the games..

we already do left and right, so its not like they stopped anyone from doing anything..

[slayer2psp]

movies are free why would anyone buy umds when you can use a pmp player on the psp. and set at the hightest bitrate it looks just as good as a umd. the price should be 9.99 for umds not 19.99

[MasterBeef]

UMD Videos might be more popular if they weren't region-encoded. I still have a currently-useless copy of FFVII Advent Children on UMD bought at a premium price in Japan when it came out that won't work on my Australian PSP. Grrrrr...

Anyone know of a region-hack yet? I've been waiting ages for someone like Fanjita to make one, but to no avail....

[b8a]

UMD's are completely not UNIVERSAL they are a one device medium. The PS3 should come with a built in umd drive so we can play umd games and even movies on both consoles. They need to license the medium out also and even make recordable umd's but we know they won't do that. If Sony's lack of forsight and willingness to support this format is any indication of what will happen with Blue Ray it's a doomed format also. Make the damn things UNIVERSAL as you claim them to be Sony.

Stop picking the name apart. It's UNIVERSAL MEDIA disk, not UNIVERSAL DEVICE disk. Sony has made no claims that UMD's will be multi-platform compatible. The name simply promotes the fact that it's capable of storing the full range of current media (data, movies, music) for playback.

That having been said, I still think the UMD format is a fiasco. At least MD's were recordable, and very unique and relatively affordable in their day, but UMD's are incredibly over priced and relatively useless. For games, they make for unnessecarily long load times. For movies, it's completely unrealistic to expect consumers to fork out more money for media that delivers signifcatnly less value. UMD movies look pretty super, I agree, but has others have pointed out in this thread, the urge to pull out a feature length movie on-the-go just doesn't occur that often, and most times that it does are situations (such as long airplane flights) where you could probably just pull out a (in many cases) cheaper, DVD compatible laptop or portable DVD player, and just use the media you already own with them. The whole prospect of music UMD releases is pretty questionable as well. If they released them at the right price, it would be pretty cool and fairly reasonable to buy one, but just like pre-recorded MD releases and UMD movies, they'd probably just be over priced, and, also just like pre-recorded MD releases, few people are likely to purchase them.

[jwilds73]

Stop picking the name apart. It's UNIVERSAL MEDIA disk, not UNIVERSAL DEVICE disk. Sony has made no claims that UMD's will be multi-platform compatible. The name simply promotes the fact that it's capable of storing the full range of current media (data, movies, music) for playback.

That having been said, I still think the UMD format is a fiasco. At least MD's were recordable, and very unique and relatively affordable in their day, but UMD's are incredibly over priced and relatively useless. For games, they make for unnessecarily long load times. For movies, it's completely unrealistic to expect consumers to fork out more money for media that delivers signifcatnly less value. UMD movies look pretty super, I agree, but has others have pointed out in this thread, the urge to pull out a feature length movie on-the-go just doesn't occur that often, and most times that it does are situations (such as long airplane flights) where you could probably just pull out a (in many cases) cheaper, DVD compatible laptop or portable DVD player, and just use the media you already own with them. The whole prospect of music UMD releases is pretty questionable as well. If they released them at the right price, it would be pretty cool and fairly reasonable to buy one, but just like pre-recorded MD releases and UMD movies, they'd probably just be over priced, and, also just like pre-recorded MD releases, few people are likely to purchase them.

Portable gaming needs UMD or similar format. With what is capable in hand held gaming (and home console) Developers need lots of storage for game data that is inexpensive. Nintendo's N64 lacked 3rd party titles because of the high cost of putting large games on carts the same can be said for their cartridge based hand helds. Many games that could've would've and should've appeared on the console didn't simply because of the cost to put on cartridges. I am just irritated with the whole UMD market. These movie companies expect us to pay equal or greater prices then dvd's for UMD movies when they are a limited appeal one device format. And Sony has a complete lack of vision or willingness to support the format beyond what it is now.