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Everyone Hates UMD 275

PSP-Fanboy writes "More bad news for the UMD, which is already dying a speedy death at retail: not only are stores not stocking them, but no one really wants to buy UMD movies either. Although 40% of PSP owners claimed UMD media was a big reason why they plopped down a few hundred on Sony's pixel-spurting game brick, the complaint from actual owners is there just isn't anything worth goddamn buying on UMD."
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Everyone Hates UMD

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  • What's new? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by grogdamighty ( 884570 ) on Saturday May 20, 2006 @04:51PM (#15373249) Homepage
    the complaint from actual owners is there just isn't anything worth goddamn buying on UMD.

    That's the same situation as is happening with recently released DVDs... coincidence? I think not.

    • Re:What's new? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      This was actually something I mentioned on another PS3 thread ...

      One of the main reasons I don't think that a High Definition format will actually replace DVD anytime soon is that the quality of the movies isn't there. Everyone I knew upgraded their TV, Surround Sound System and even redecorated there room because they wanted the "Theater experience at home". People liked DVD because it made the Fifth Element, The Matrix, Saving Privat Ryan, The Lord of the Rings (and so on) better experiences at home; a fa
      • There's always been a preponderance of crap in the theaters. That's nothing new.

        Last year did represent a significant drop in box office revenue, but that's more because of a number of overlapping incredibly successful franchises having run their course over the previous years.

        My bet is this summer puts things on an upward swing again - X-Men, Cars, Superman Returns, Pirates of the Carribean and, of course, Snakes on a Plane. ;) Next year has a lot of likely hits as well - Harry Potter, Narnia, Sin City,
      • Re:What's new? (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 20, 2006 @10:24PM (#15374040)
        This is poor analysis.

        I work in film. Statistics show that most people become far more discriminating as far as their film tastes go as they get older. The sentiment is always inevitably ushered forth: movies are getting worse, etc.

        I can roughly gauge your age by what you claim you and your friends have done as far as home theaters are concerned. Film is a cyclical business. What this means is that the same kind of films are done over and over again. Universal themes are reintroduced to new generations. Once a person reaches an age when they experience the commencement of another cycle, the new iteration is matched against the original - which holds a place in heart and memory, no doubt. The new iteration cannot win. This is why Hollywood spends it's money appealing to those who are experiencing the cycle for the first time, and the young at heart. If Hollywood spent any considerable amounts of cash trying to please you and those who utter what you say - the business would be sunk.

        The UMD didn't fail because of the quality of movies. It failed because it was yet another format to keep trakc of - a format incompatible with all else. Convergence is the dog's bollocks here. Not another format.

        People aren't going to less movies because of the quality. It's because there's so much else to do. With some initative, $500, and some good pot, I can produce a really interesting movie that I can share with the world. Everyone is getting their 15 picoseconds of fame, or playing WOW or languishing in the throes of porn addiction, or posting on slashdot, or watching one of 500 available channels, or sending pictures of one's dong to prospective fuck buddies (a personal favorite).

        In short, movie quality is always poor to older people. But the quality of everything is always poor to older people. IT has nothing to do with the actual quality of the product but the nature of memory that paints everything in the past with rosy tint. It probably wasn't that rosy the first time around.

        It's a lame lament. If you feel that it's that bad, go cop some good hydro, get wasted and watch it again. Don't forget what it meant to be a kid and enjoy yourself. Trust me.

        • Re:What's new? (Score:4, Interesting)

          by Mistshadow2k4 ( 748958 ) on Sunday May 21, 2006 @02:44AM (#15374766) Journal

          "People aren't going to less movies because of the quality. It's because there's so much else to do. "

          My husband and I were avid movie-goers and DVD-collectors until two years ago. Are we older? Sure, we're older than we were two years ago, but we're not that much older. Since you work in film, take this to heart: all of the movies that have been released in the last two years really are crap. I'm not trying to troll you, I'm trying to make you understand that people aren't just saying that. It's true. And we miss having decent new movies to watch. The last DVD I bought was a copy of Citizen X on Amazon.com, a movie that premiered about 10 years ago. We haven't bought a DVD of a recent movie in 2 years now. Absolutely none of the movies released in the last 2 years appealed to us. We didn't download any of them either; they're not worth watching, not even for free.

          Make some decent movies and we will go see them and buy the DVDs. Make crap and/or DRM the DVDs to the hilt, so that I can't even take screenshots while watching it on a computer, and you won't get our money. If you really think that the reason ticket and DVD sales have fallen so is because there is more to do than you are deluded. There has always been much more to do than go to a movie theater or watch a DVD. None of that has changed. What has changed is that the movies coming out aren't worth watching.

          In short, make some decent movies, not yet another remake of an old sitcom or a movie based on a good game that is an insult to the game itself. Then sales will rise. The current decline has nothing to do with there being more to do besides go to a movie or with piracy. Those are excuses. Stop making the excuses and make some decent movies. We really do want there to be some movies worth watching again.

        • Re:What's new? (Score:3, Insightful)

          by BTWR ( 540147 )
          IT has nothing to do with the actual quality of the product but the nature of memory that paints everything in the past with rosy tint. It probably wasn't that rosy the first time around.

          Couldn't have said it better myself. Wish you hadn't AC'd that, because that's a perfect description of most nostalgia that goes on around this site...

          And the whole "The past 10 years have had NO good movies" arguments made below is pure crap. The past 5 years have had more excellent comic book movies combined than all o

        • Re:What's new? (Score:3, Interesting)

          by Znork ( 31774 )
          "What this means is that the same kind of films are done over and over again."

          Sounds like it's definitely time to end the farce called copyright.

          Promoting "the progress..." eh.
      • Re:What's new? (Score:2, Informative)

        UMD failed because there is nothing worthwile to watch anymore; I am down to watching one movie a week and I still go to Blockbuster and spend most of my time wondering who approved a movie where Carrot Top is the President.

        The artistic quality of the content has never had anything to do with adoption of the medium. Eight Track didn't die because of the success of K.C. and the Sunshine Band. UMD just offered very little value proposition. The first rule of any medium is that it be useful. To the consume

        • Hmmm, maybe, maybe not. Hollywood/TV is having problem with the simple fact the HDTV highlights the body in ways that makeup no longer covers.

          While on some level I don't really mind the concept of perhaps Actors/Actresses becoming perceived as simply actractive than the artificial "Flawless" that's perceived today (Intellectually, of course we realize it's fake. My hormones are however pretty determined that, yes, of course Charlize Theron really looks like that.), is there any industry more affected by the
  • UMD writers (Score:5, Insightful)

    by 9mm Censor ( 705379 ) * on Saturday May 20, 2006 @04:52PM (#15373254) Homepage
    I would certainly embrace the UMD format if I could purchase a writer for it. I would rather buy a writer and blank media, and transfer my existing media to play on a PSP, but I am not gonna rebuy movies to watch on a PSP when I already have them on DVD.
    • by gutnor ( 872759 ) on Saturday May 20, 2006 @07:42PM (#15373706)
      Yeah and also a reader.

      Even if I can purchase a new movie in UMD, what's the point since I can't watch it on anything else than the PSP.
      Note that I'm not asking specifically for an external player, but you cannot even plug the PSP on the TV !

      So, what does that leave me with ? I can by on UMD the movies I can only watch alone which are the one I generally rent ... and where can I rent them ?

      I takes years to create a new format. Years for the public to become aware of it, years for movies to come out on it, years before blockbuster stock them ... unfortunatly in a few year there will probably a PSP2 that will requires yet another format ( I guess UMD will be to small ) and this year is the year of HighDefinition which another format war and really UMD is no match.

      • One can rent UMD discs for now at local video stores here in Ireland.

        That said, the mind boggles as to who rents *or* buys them. Maybe there's far more PSP users here than I thought.

        Interestingly there are a lot of second-hand PSPs in the game shops at the moment. I wouldn't even spend the 200 that you can get them for now though. 150 I'd possibly consider it.
        • That said, the mind boggles as to who rents *or* buys them. Maybe there's far more PSP users here than I thought.

          It's more likely that wholesalers are giving good deals on UMD movies to the rental places. If they can make back the wholesale price of a UMD in 1 or 2 rentals, then even a bargain-bin sale of the things later could net a profit.
  • True True (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Renraku ( 518261 ) on Saturday May 20, 2006 @04:53PM (#15373261) Homepage
    Everyone does hate UMDs. Someone at work bragged about buying two movies on UMD for cheap, but realized that the DVD version is the same and that the quality blows on UMD.

    Just give the PSP a gig of flash memory so you could rip a DVD and put it in memory anyway...
  • cause and effect (Score:3, Insightful)

    by yincrash ( 854885 ) on Saturday May 20, 2006 @04:54PM (#15373265)
    don't stores not stock it because people don't buy it?
    • It's a vicious circle of Schrodinger's chickens and eggs. It gets worse and worse with seemingly no way out, and nobody can know which was the initial cause.
  • Well, no, I don't (Score:2, Informative)

    by mobby_6kl ( 668092 )
    I just don't give a shit.

    But if I did, I wouldn't expect them to make any movies just for the (U|W)MD, so the only problem would be price.
  • by Bin_jammin ( 684517 ) <Binjammin@gmail.com> on Saturday May 20, 2006 @04:58PM (#15373278)
    A proprietary format with no option of buying a reader/writer is dying? Hint Sony: your locked formats suck. I'm talking Minidisc, UMD, Beta, MS, etc. Nobody wants to support hardware when the only reason you're locked into it us because the parent company won't license third part manufacturing. You're a company that's on the rocks financially, and this has a lot to do with it. Join the rest of the world with standardized formats and your profits will jump. UMD itself isn't bad, but the fact that I can't write my own means I'll never buy a PSP. Yours truly, The known universe.
    • by booch ( 4157 )
      The MiniDisc format was not completely proprietary. It was developed by Sony, but licensed to nearly all of the major audio equipment companies. Over 20 manufacturers made MD players and records [minidisc.org].
      • I apologize in advance for throwing gasoline on the flames, but rarely have I ever considered an audio company to know heads from tails about technology. Audio is audio, it has not seen any dramatic changes in decades, just incremental improvements here and there. They're far too busy playing numbers games and hyping nonsense jargon to sell the latest rehash of the same old product.

        Sony is #1 when it comes to selling us worthless garbage. They will go to great lengths to make sure their product doesn't w
        • Sony IS a technology company and was long before they bought out loads of media companies. Good grief if you didn't want to flamed on pedantdot.org you should have checked that one first.
    • Not all the formats you mention were "locked". But Sony does have a talent for inventing new formats (some of them really nice — I always thought Beta was superior to VHS), and then marketing them in precisely the wrong way, guaranteeing that nobody will adopt them.
      • beta was great as long as you don't mind switching tapes in the middle of the movie. and having two tapes to rewind.

        VHS won not because of picture quality, but rather because Beta failed to fill a simple requirement of fitting an average length movie on one tape at release.
        • That's nonsense. Beta could do up to 5 hours. I started patronizing video store while Beta was still available, and I don't recall ever seeing two-cartridge movies.

          Sony itself is probably responsible for the myth that Beta was useless for long recording times. It was stupid of them to ever try to sell L-125 tapes, which couldn't hold more than 45 minutes, even at slow speed. And although "standard" L-500 tapes could record over three hours at slow speed, I seem to recall that early Beta VCRs only had one

    • Being optimistic, this is a foreshadow of what is to come if the content industry continue their ways. Sony is merely the forerunner of this way: they really think that the 'pirates' are a small minority that should be locked away, and that the public at large is happy to buy the same content over and over again (in different formats sometimes) and just watch and consume.

      Well the news is: that does not work.

      If the politicians worldwide continue to criminalize 95% of (young) people, the effect is that no con
  • by one-eye-johnson ( 911152 ) on Saturday May 20, 2006 @04:59PM (#15373283)
    the sky is still blue and shooting yourself in the foot still hurts.
  • *sniff* :'( (Score:5, Funny)

    by UMD ( 976120 ) on Saturday May 20, 2006 @05:06PM (#15373308)
    Well, fuck you too!
  • by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 20, 2006 @05:11PM (#15373322)
    I don't think Sony still has any idea what kind of a giant PR disaster the PSP has been for them.

    All the way through the leadup to the PSP the gaming press was falling all over themselves to fawn over the PSP, predicting glory and conquest for their new handheld overlord. Sony said the PSP would change everything for the handheld market, and the press believed it. Then the PSP came out and it was mostly a dud; the thing didn't get any games worth playing for nearly a year, the sales weren't even high enough to outsell the GBA week to week in America, and an awful lot of the things Sony promised just plain never panned out. Meanwhile in the Japanese market, embarassingly enough, the gimmicky, ugly little Nintendo DS wound up turning into a market revolution bigger than even the PSP's wildest dreams. As the months passed after launch and the PSP increasingly failed to take over the world, the gaming press began to get a bit embarrassed. They began to realize, in the runup to the PSP launch, how many times Sony had lied to them-- and, more importantly, they realized they'd been made to look like fools.

    I think the PS3 coverage has just been one extended backlash from the media for the way Sony used them. Because the PS3 coverage has been if anything the polar opposite of the PSP. The gaming media for the last year or so has bought absolutely none of Sony's hype, and has focused only on the downsides of the PS3-- and if there aren't enough negative things to report about the PS3, they just make some up. The gaming press is gunning for the PS3 to fail just as hard as they once gunned for the PSP to succeed.

    Meanwhile the UMD has been an even bigger disaster for Sony's public relations. Sony is, this year, attempting to promote a media format which is absolutely vital for their future success, the Blu-Ray. Unfortunately they're doing this right on the heels of the unmitigated disaster that was the UMD format. Sony's doing everything right with the Blu-Ray that they did wrong with the UMD; they have actual studio support, the blu-rays will be playable on devices of a wide variety of types and from a wide variety of vendors, and there is clear differentiation with the format the Blu-Ray intends to replace. But the public is seeing all this happen right on the heels of seeing the laughingstock that was the short, sad life of the UMD. And since UMD is still clearly in their minds, the public is seeing Blu-Ray colored through the lens of the UMD venture-- and many of them are expecting Blu-Ray to meet the same messy fate. That's a problem. With something like Blu-Ray, a public perception of failure can become a self-fulfilling prophesy.

    I keep wondering how public perception of the Blu-Ray and PS3 would have been different had the PSP just never happened.
    • by mrchaotica ( 681592 ) * on Saturday May 20, 2006 @05:41PM (#15373408)
      I keep wondering how public perception of the Blu-Ray and PS3 would have been different had the PSP just never happened.
      I think it would still be pretty bad, because even if there was no PSP or UMD, there was still Beta, MiniDisc, ATRAC3, MemoryStick, DRM, rootkits, etc.
      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        Comment removed based on user account deletion
        • I'm not familiar with the technical specifics of different kinds of flash memory either, but I'm fairly sure it's because 99% of everything else on the market uses either CF or SD, so the Memory Stick reeks of a Sony cash grab. It doesn't really do anything special and Sony's the only company supporting it.
          • Just as a side comment, I love SD cards, of course, everyone can have his preference but, that is the reason I bought a Canon camera and why I love my RCA SD-mp3 player and my small HP "SD reader" [hd.nl] (so tiny and compact).

            I believe people should standarize like that, I just buy SD compatible devices, likewise, I have some SD cards which I can use for whatever I feel, the biggest is a 2GB card, but the nice thing is that they are very small so I could carry 10 with me (of course I never do that, usually I only
        • People hate them because they cost more then a same sized CF/SD/MMC/XD and are the only thing built in to Sony hardware.
        • The only thing Memory Stick accomplishes is that it makes all Sony gear useless because it won't interoperate with anything else.
        • Basically, the Memory Stick does nothing better than any of the competing formats, yet came out after all of the rest of them.

          Compact flash stores a fat lot more than Memory Sticks. And unlike MS, CF has the controller chip onboard, which means that CF devices from 1998 built for 16 MB of memory can happily co-exist with a modern 4 GB card. Yet a Memory Stick device will never be able to accept anything bigger than what it was designed for. CF, by comparison, has been forwards and backwards compatible si
        • Because everything else in the universe uses SD (Except high end digital SLRs and a few consumer cameras). If your device uses XD or mini SD, there are adapters to use the chips in a regular SD reader. SD is cheap, Memory Sticks are not. Many computers (my girlfriend's laptop, for example) have SD readers built in, which makes them like a super high density floppy disk, and simplifies your life because there's One Standard. Memory sticks make you have to go out, buy a seperate reader, you can't always buy M
    • PSP has more shelf space in most game shops here in Ireland than any other handhelds. There's a brisk trade in second-hand PSPs and games (though I'm not sure if that just means different people are using PSP for a while, and then giving up and passing it on). There's even plenty of UMDs for sale/rental from game shops and video rental shops.
  • by Aladrin ( 926209 ) on Saturday May 20, 2006 @05:11PM (#15373325)
    Although 40% of PSP owners claimed UMD media was a big reason why they plopped down a few hundred on Sony's pixel-spurting game brick

    I think if you check with those people again, the REAL reason those 40% bought a PSP was PORTABLE media, not UMD specifically. DVD's are a bit unwieldy to carry and you certainly can't get a dvd player that small. It's about the convenience of a media device that size, not the format.

    If there were an open media format with a multitude of player in that size, I think you'd find a LOT more takers.

    Add in the ability to write that media at will and you've got a hit on your hands. (After the teething phase, of course.)

    As a side note, DVD format suffered from other teething problems like 'low volume' and such. The real 'feature' was an amazing audio range, but that translated into 'too low/too high' audio when played back in any normal setting.

    • by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 20, 2006 @05:30PM (#15373374)
      If there were an open media format with a multitude of player in that size, I think you'd find a LOT more takers.

      Hate me for pointing out a MS product, but a PDA running PocketPC with a worldwide standard flash memory card (many flavours to choose from, SD, CF, etc) will play many different media formats and will play games. Heck, the latest devices have DirectX acceleration on them.
      • Some even have a 640 by 480 screen. No more trans-coding!
    • by wfberg ( 24378 ) on Saturday May 20, 2006 @05:53PM (#15373447)
      Although 40% of PSP owners claimed UMD media was a big reason why they plopped down a few hundred on Sony's pixel-spurting game brick

      I think if you check with those people again, the REAL reason those 40% bought a PSP was PORTABLE media, not UMD specifically.


      This is one of those results you get from interpreting polls. They probably asked people something like "did the ability to play movies on your PSP have a positive influence on your decision to buy one", or something like that with checkboxes. 40% of people said, sure, it seemed a pretty nice idea to also have that option. This then is translated to "40% claims it was a big reason". But 40% of PSP owners weren't looking for a media player. They were looking for a tiny assed playstation 1, which would get a zillion games (basically the PS 1 catalog) ported to it. If it plays movies, all the better. Sadly neither of these two scenarios really played out.
    • "If there were an open media format with a multitude of player in that size, I think you'd find a LOT more takers."

      Fair enough. Sadly, Sony doesn't play that game. For me, the UMD would have been a home run if Sony had either put a TV-out on the PSP or made a DVD player that also had a UMD slot. In addition to that, they had enough space to put the PSP formatted version of the movie in addition to a broadcast sized version of it. If they had done those two things, I would have considered purchasing UMDs
    • There are 80mm mini-DVDs commonly available. Capacity is 1.4GB for single layer, 2.8GB for dual layer. UMD is a bit smaller - 65mm - but has a capacity of only 1.8GB dual layer. Considering there are plenty of commondity portable players for full sized DVD, price and power aren't an issue.
    • It's about the convenience of a media device that size, not the format.

      Side note, how many movies can you cram in an iPod's HD compared to the same pocket volume in UMDs + PSP?

      To us it's about convenience.
      To Sony it's about copy control.
      • how many movies can you cram in an iPod's HD

        Which major studio feature films are available for iPod download? Space-shifting doesn't work in most major developed markets, almost all of which have something resembling the DMCA.

        To Sony it's about copy control.

        It's also about copy control to the other five studios in the MPAA.

  • UMD Movies? Yeah. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by HaloZero ( 610207 ) <protodeka&gmail,com> on Saturday May 20, 2006 @05:13PM (#15373329) Homepage
    The games aren't too bad. It's an effective way to deliver content, save for the loading times, maybe. I was surprised to find that spinning the disk didn't really eat that much in terms of battery life (note to self: recharge devices before road trip).

    Atleast Sony added a flash-memory option to the PSP. I can rip and rerip to my hearts content. Even more... uh... well... stuff that you can't find on a UMD in the states.

    If you're on a train, or a bus, or in the back seat of a car, the PSP is an awesome little gadget for a few hours of entertainment. Battlestar looks nice on it.

    Sony did royally flub up though, with the whole UMD thing. If they really wanted it to take off, DVD->UMD USB converter + writable UMD discs would be a godsend.

    Never gonna happen, though.
  • Biggest problem (Score:5, Insightful)

    by DesireCampbell ( 923687 ) <desire.c@gmail.com> on Saturday May 20, 2006 @05:22PM (#15373355) Homepage
    The biggest problem with UMD was the idea that consumers would buy movies on UMD. Which wouldn't have been too outlandish, if the UMD movies cost less than DVD versions.

    Why would anyone pay 30 bucks for a movie that you con only play on that little screen?

    UMD as a game-format isn't a bad idea - every portable game system has it's own format.
    • UMD as a game-format isn't a bad idea - every portable game system has it's own format.

      Except for those few PDAs that haven't already become smartphones. On a PDA, you can stick a game on CF or SD and run it.

  • however (Score:4, Funny)

    by minus_273 ( 174041 ) <aaaaa@@@SPAM...yahoo...com> on Saturday May 20, 2006 @05:35PM (#15373381) Journal
    everyone loves katamari!
  • Being able to store movies/video on the PSP and not having to lug around those UMD discs everywhere is the killer app of movies on the PSP. The last thing I want to do when lugging around the PSP is having to lug around a million UMD's discs.
  • Don't blame UMD (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Saturday May 20, 2006 @06:08PM (#15373489)
    When there's no content worth getting, it doesn't matter if it's on UMD, DVD or HDDVD.

    Crap stays crap. No matter how high the resolution.
    • Crap stays crap. No matter how high the resolution.

      Yeah, but if the resolution is high enough, you can sometimes see the steam coming off it...
      • As long as I don't have to smell it...

        Quite seriously. You can see it in every entertainment medium. Games came first. Rez rised, polycount rised, gameplay plummeted. Movies are following now. To be honest, an old black-and-white Hitchcock can be by far more entertaining and thrilling than a current action movie, loaded with explosions and stunts.

        So far, I've been hard pressed to find a single movie within the last 10 years that didn't have a plot SO threadbare that you could see through it in minutes. The
  • by Hamster Lover ( 558288 ) * on Saturday May 20, 2006 @06:27PM (#15373535) Journal
    Why would I buy a UMD movie when I can rip it to my 1 GB memory stick and watch it from there? I can't really tell the difference between Spider-Man II on UMD and ripped from DVD to memory stick anyway. Of my friends that have a PSP they've done the same: bought a larger memory stick and used one of the half dozen tools out there to convert their DVDs. In the end it's actually more convenient than UMD even if I wanted to watch a UMD movie because I can put whatever video content I wish on the stick.

    Blockbuster had UMD movies on sale not too long ago, but I just walked on by. I had them on all DVD anyway.
  • by MojoStan ( 776183 ) on Saturday May 20, 2006 @06:40PM (#15373568)
    I'm surprised TFA didn't mention UMD's competition from high-capacity memory cards for playing movies. Note that the max capacity of UMD is 1.8GB and the PSP has a flash memory card slot for Sony's Memory Stick Pro Duo format. Movies can be played from these memory cards and several easy-to-use utilities exist for ripping DVDs and encoding into MPEG-4 at the PSP's 480x272 resolution.

    Movies on memory cards don't have DVD-like menus like UMD movies do. However, I'm sure many users like the memory card's rewritability, PC compatibility, and ability to use existing DVDs to make PSP movies.

    4GB Memory Stick Duo cards were released this month and Dell sells it for $136 (most sellers price it around $200). 2GB Memory Stick Duos have fallen to around $80-$90.

    Also, the PSP displays photos and plays MP3 and AAC. UMD is not dead because they distribute their games on it. Remember, the PSP actually plays games, too.

  • I've always wondered why the PSP was never given a hard drive, especially considering the success of the iPod which ultimately proved a successful HDD consumer device is possible. Ripping out the UMD and putting a 60GB drive in makes quite a bit of sense. You could then offer PSP format films on each DVD disc and it wouldn't necessitate a new medium.

    Ok, so in reality the UMD is only there to stop piracy, but you could get a lot of UMD 1.8 GB films and games on a 60GB drive, then have some kind of iTunes-li
    • Are you serious? I have to agree with these other replies, that's just retarded.
  • I agree.. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by donaldGuy ( 969269 ) on Saturday May 20, 2006 @10:54PM (#15374128) Homepage
    I'm stupid.. I bought a PSP rather than an iPod because I thought it would work as a media player AND be able to play games... where's the downside? *fills up whole memory card*

    Well, only 512MB of space for one.. well they will release good movies on UMD then I can watch them on the move, I can't do that on an iPod *cue release of 5th Gen iPod*

    Yea but I'm sure they're will be good games for PSP....
    now I'm looking at not getting as good a loptop so I can enough cash left over to buy a new iPod.
  • by onevulcanme ( 970002 ) on Sunday May 21, 2006 @02:14AM (#15374701) Homepage
    In my opinion UMD movies just cost too darn much, period! I purchased a PSP several months ago and purchased a couple of games. Basically, I like the system but don't like the prices. When I look at UMD's I then go over and check the prices out for full DVD's and realize that I would be better off purchasing a DVD. I think what would really have made UMD's successful is if their price was so affordable you could buy lets say 5 of them for the cost of one DVD. If that had been the case I think people would have started gathering huge collections of UMD movies. But when you have to choose between a DVD movie and a UMD movie in reality unless you are someone that never has time to sit down and watch a movie the DVD is the way to go. For example, hypothetically if I rode a bus back and fourth to work and never had many friends over then UMD movies might be the way to go. But if I am going to ever want to watch the movie with friends or watch it on a bigger screen then I won't have the option. I really like the idea of UMD's for the PSP. Also, I would love it if you could purchase episodes of TV programs such as battlestar galactica on DVD's for a few dollars. If that was the case I would have many by now. But once again, the price point is simply too high for many people.
    • I would love it if you could purchase episodes of TV programs such as battlestar galactica on DVD's for a few dollars. If that was the case I would have many by now. But once again, the price point is simply too high for many people.

      That's just one of many of the reasons for piracy.
  • by cyrax777 ( 633996 ) on Sunday May 21, 2006 @03:05PM (#15376754) Homepage
    Would have been the way to go pay a couple bucks extra and you also get the UMD version of the movie along with the dvd and Im sure they would have sold like hotcakes. Also since a ton more UMDs are in circulation release a stand alone portable UMB movie player for under 100 dollers. Im sure if Sony had done that UMD movies wouldnt have flopped so bad.
  • is there just isn't anything worth goddamn buying on UMD

    What the fuck!
    isn't worth worth a damn maybe but not isn't anything worth goddamn.
    I'm not a religious nut, or a language nazi...
    But when you start casually using this kind of thing in an article for no fucking good reason at all it's a sign of the endtimes.
    The endtimes for slashdot that is. There's a method for moderating comments, but I think it's long past time that VA/slashdot gave us a means for moderating the god damned articles themselves

"Conversion, fastidious Goddess, loves blood better than brick, and feasts most subtly on the human will." -- Virginia Woolf, "Mrs. Dalloway"

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