UMD a waste of time and money, says Perry

[xg917]

how about allow homebrew and everybody shut up and play psp

[IDidMyTime]

It's a nice idea, but if you want DVD quality video on a mini dvd you would be restricted by the 30 minute recording time. Unless you switch to VCR quality then you would then have 2 hour recording times.

Remeber the main purpose of these movies will be to use on a PSP, the screen has a very low resolution so quality isnt paramount. You can get decent quality with Divx, Xvid or WMV you can encode movies with those at a very respectable rate and they will only come to around 800mb, you will never get DVD quality on a mini, but you could have a cheap, stripped down version with just the movie on and encoded in its native resolution. They may of even encoded the movies on MP4 with a simple title screen.

I think the size of a single layer mini dvd which is 1.4gb would of been more then enough for the PSP.

[cataphrax]

Its not as though sony's trying to beat out hd and blu-ray with umd. They just released a proprietary format for their machine just like every other video game system manufacturer. If it's too slow for you then back it up to your memory stick or deal with it. The psp plays dvd quality film, has the best graphics ever for a portable, supports loads of homebrew, music, movies, and emulation for loads of systems and this guys whining that his umd isn't loading fast enough and people would rather have dvds and download services, therefore sony should start all over. If this guy doesen't like umds he should just get a ds and stop his b*tchin

[Broonale]

UMD?

I haven't used mine in months!

[bah]

I dont think people should be too quick to encourage companies to discontinue delivering content on a physical media and go all digital.

There is much to be said for having that physical copy over a digital delivery service, from locking content to one (or a few) consoles, loss of the ability to resell the game, services/net connections that go down and the app wants authentication etc.

Once you add DRM its no longer like homebrew that you can back up anywhere and then copy to any console you want at a later date.

[Johnny Rash]

It's the fault of piracy.

[b8a]

This screams elitism, possibly also antiwalmartism.

Well put. I think that a lot of hard core video gamers and industry insiders tend to forget that the VAST majority of people don't have in-home access to high-speed internet. By choosing to offer games via download only, you would cut off virtually everyone who can't afford high-speed internet access.

It would also be a double whammy for the console maker as the same people who have high-speed internet access are the exact same people who are regularly involved in media piracy. They'd be catering to a population that has made it very clear that they don't believe that digital media has any calcuable worth.

I'm all for streamlining and getting rid of excess, but Mr. Perry's statement just demonstrates markedly soft-headed thinking. The idea of a download-only console sounds like a good idea in principle, but society's at least five to ten years away from being ready for it. It's far too early to tank the PSP on this concept.

If Mr. Perry had wanted to point out that the prices of Memory Sticks are constantly falling while their capacity is constantly increasing, he would have been able to make a far better arguement for the demise of the UMD format by advocating simply selling media pre-installed on Memory Sticks. By selling media on Memory Sticks you have the EXACT same potential customers, available physical retail space increases, ALL of the current problems with the UMD format are solved, and Sony already has DRM built-in via Magic Gate technology. The concept is a winner on all fronts.

Getting rid of UMD is a step toward the right idea, but mandating downloads is the completely wrong solution. But then again, the fact that none of us are playing a console from Mr. Perry shows exactly how much he knows about the practical development and marketing of a successful console.

[jim80b]

If Mr. Perry had wanted to point out that the prices of Memory Sticks are constantly falling while their capacity is constantly increasing, he would have been able to make a far better arguement for the demise of the UMD format by advocating simply selling media pre-installed on Memory Sticks. By selling media on Memory Sticks you have the EXACT same potential customers, available physical retail space increases, ALL of the current problems with the UMD format are solved, and Sony already has DRM built-in via Magic Gate technology. The concept is a winner on all fronts.
console.

interesting concept
surely Song can source blank 2GB cards for low prices ... (UMD max capacity is 1.8 GB so most games would be fine on smaller ones)
we know theres a sony iso loader so could this be the future?
they would have to encrpt the file and leave an area for savegames



the high price of UMD videos killed the format. if users could make thier own umds or a dvd came with packaged with a umd it would have been a success as a video / music format
the cost of a memory stick these days makes it a much more attractive format for us as we can put our own content on

[Accordion]

The trouble with using memory sticks for games is an increased risk in piracy and lower profits on the media sold.

[BloodLust8]

My only issue with the umb format is that its to expensive. 25+ dollars for a movie, WTF????? and the games could be a crap load cheaper aswell.

One of the biggest reasons why playstaion1 made it so big was cause the data storage system (this case CD's) was incredibly cheap which was hundreds of times cheaper than cartridges.