Umd Dead!!!

Enola Bomber · 18-07-2006, 06:48 AM

Well, i used to have a little hope for Sony, but after watching Attack Of The Show last night, that all faded once hearding the official news... UMD is officially dead. Thats right people, on top of all of Sonys other misfortunes, all publishers/producers of UMD disks for sonys PSP are officially dropping out from making anymore. It seems that they feel it is pointless, and arent making nearly enough off of them to warant making anymore. As if all the other news about sony isnt enough to make you worried about their future, their PSP is now officialy installed with the lastest case of the Betamax. Ouch. If Sonys ps3 and its bluray disks suffer the same fate, this industry giant might just be down for the count This leaves only one question, whats next in store for Sony?

KH0RNE · 18-07-2006, 07:04 AM

I never understood UMD's, why would some one buy a psp to play movies? My portable DVD player has a bigger screen, a longer battery life and the best part, it plays DVD’s!!! I don't have to just watch the movies that are on UMD or buy movies that I already have on DVD!! I knew this was going to happen; I am surprised it lasted as long as it did.

Wingman1977 · 18-07-2006, 07:40 AM

Sony doesn't own the bu-ray technology nor did they invent it. Blu-ray is a joint venture with a bunch of companies. Sony is the one that is using it the most (Notebooks, desktops, home player and ps3).

Enola Bomber · 18-07-2006, 07:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wingman1977

Sony doesn't own the bu-ray technology nor did they invent it. Blu-ray is a joint venture with a bunch of companies. Sony is the one that is using it the most (Notebooks, desktops, home player and ps3).

who said sony owned/invented blu ray? I said Sony and their bluray meaning they are including it in the system, in reference to the next possible betamax that comes pointlessly installed like the psp/umd failure. didnt say they owned it though, you just misread.

Jeet · 18-07-2006, 07:54 AM

well thats ths difference between UMD and Blu-Ray, the UMD was only used on the psp and Blu-Ray is intregated by a few companies. even if the ps3 tanks, sony will still have plenty of money from tv/electronics and movies

Enola Bomber · 18-07-2006, 08:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeet

well thats ths difference between UMD and Blu-Ray, the UMD was only used on the psp and Blu-Ray is intregated by a few companies. even if the ps3 tanks, sony will still have plenty of money from tv/electronics and movies

Jeet, you having been paying attention to the facts as of late my friend. Sony is depending on the PS3s success BECAUSE they arent making mony from their electroinics and movies.

BLaz · 18-07-2006, 08:39 AM

UMD Movies failed because of the pricetags. $15-25 for a UMD movie that had no features compared to a DVD was a ripoff, despite how much I love my PSP.

UMD itself is not a failure, it was UMD movies that failed.

As for Blu-Ray, its nothing like UMD. Only the PSP could read UMD, which limits its market appeal. Blu-Ray will work the same way (in terms of appeal) as DVD has. There will be portable BR players, stand-alone BR machines, BR technology in computers, and others.

Enola Bomber · 18-07-2006, 08:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BLaz

UMD Movies failed because of the pricetags. $15-25 for a UMD movie that had no features compared to a DVD was a ripoff, despite how much I love my PSP.

UMD itself is not a failure, it was UMD movies that failed.

As for Blu-Ray, its nothing like UMD. Only the PSP could read UMD, which limits its market appeal. Blu-Ray will work the same way (in terms of appeal) as DVD has. There will be portable BR players, stand-alone BR machines, BR technology in computers, and others.

The real question here is not what Blu Ray can do, or how it will be used, it is, is everyone out there really eager to upgrade their DVD collection? Right now as consumers we can download burn and have access to every movie in very good quality video/audio. It it really worth it? Not for me. I have a collection of bought and burned dvds that spans over 700 from different parts of the world. Do i care to upgrade them all as well as my dvd player for the sake of a little quality difference? No. Can you burn HD or Blue Ray? Not yet, and when you can, you need to invest in a new burner and more expensive blanks. Im not willing to start this all over again, and I think alot of others are happy with the way everything is right now, and neither will they. HD DVD and Blue Ray are not going to fly, and the only reason they are even coming out is because the DVD sales are down so much because we all download/burn our movies. They are trying to stop this, and if we buy into it, they can.

TurkeyRap · 18-07-2006, 09:03 AM

That whole UMD thing was really dumb. Sony has got to do something fast if they want to win this race.

LiveResistance · 18-07-2006, 09:19 AM

I have been hearing that places like Wal-mart would not be selling UMD movies, because they weren't selling very many. I guess it is no surprise that the whole thing is getting discountinued.

gps · 18-07-2006, 09:30 AM

UMD Movies never made any sense to me, their death comes as no suprise to me. I thought it was a silly idea from the start.

I don't really know what to expect from the upcoming "format war" because it just seems a little early to have new formats and new hardware to buy.

Grindstone · 18-07-2006, 10:26 AM

gps, you reflect the mindset of millions of consumers, that is, "why change now?''.

As KH0RNE stated, the UMD was very limited, especially when you could buy a portable DVD player for less with a bigger screen. Since UMD wasn't used beyond the PSP (so far as I know), it had a very limited niche crowd to cater to. Once the popularity for the PSP waned, what were they going to do with the UMDs? Seems it was destined to fail...

Blu-Ray is somewhat different as that tech can be placed in PS3s, Blu-Ray players, computers and whatever else they decide to use it in.

Shotty · 18-07-2006, 10:30 AM

Can't the same thing be said about Blu-ray. For the average ps3 gamer why would they buy a movie that only works on the ps3. Atleast with HD-DVD some of the movies work on both HD-DVD players and DVD players. These disc cost abit more but it way cheapers than lets say buying a standard dvd version and a high def version. HD-DVD is more people friendly, it more durable and even if you scratch it you can use the standard DVD polishing devices to fix it. Blu-ray is not like that the data is on the surface with basically a sticker covering the data. 1 scratch and that's it $80 game goes into the garbage can. With HD-DVD the data is between 2 pieces of plastic just like DVD, so you can have a scratch on the bottom of the disc and since the plastic is relatively think you can polish out the scratch and the disc is still readable.

BLaz · 18-07-2006, 11:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shotty

Can't the same thing be said about Blu-ray. For the average ps3 gamer why would they buy a movie that only works on the ps3.

No, there will be standalone Blu-Ray players, portable BR players, computers that use BR. Heck the PS3 doesnt even have an actual BR player - Sony is using the Cell technology to have BR work in the PS3 (smaller manufacture cost).

n2pizza · 19-07-2006, 09:06 AM

i have a question.does this mean that they wont be making anymore games or is it just the movies

Enola Bomber · 19-07-2006, 11:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by n2pizza

i have a question.does this mean that they wont be making anymore games or is it just the movies

just the movies

camwilson04 · 19-07-2006, 08:36 PM

its great for games though, beats anything other memory

oli · 26-07-2006, 03:06 AM

sony's luck seems to get worse and worse doesnt it..

fred nizzle · 26-07-2006, 09:38 PM

if sony would just forget about the stupid proprietary media, they would be much better off. UMD, MINIdisc, etc. all failures. MD did a little better for one reason: recordability. the only hope that i ever had for UMD to finally take off is a way to record onto, and over it. the PSP rocks, but $25 for a movie i can't watch in my home system?? or even my computer?? come on now.. so let me get this straight, i have to pay around $45 to be able to watch a movie both in my home and my PSP?

i definitely have my money on hd-dvd being the surviving high def media. microsoft has WAY more strength than sony does, and they did the best possible thing. they are putting out a separate unit that integrates with the core. genius. sony is forcing all of their customers to invest in blu-ray. what if it fails?

one question: where would we all be right now if sony had decided to release the playstation 2 using the divx format? exactly.

Shotty · 26-07-2006, 10:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fred nizzle

if sony would just forget about the stupid proprietary media, they would be much better off. UMD, MINIdisc, etc. all failures. MD did a little better for one reason: recordability. the only hope that i ever had for UMD to finally take off is a way to record onto, and over it. the PSP rocks, but $25 for a movie i can't watch in my home system?? or even my computer?? come on now.. so let me get this straight, i have to pay around $45 to be able to watch a movie both in my home and my PSP?

i definitely have my money on hd-dvd being the surviving high def media. microsoft has WAY more strength than sony does, and they did the best possible thing. they are putting out a separate unit that integrates with the core. genius. sony is forcing all of their customers to invest in blu-ray. what if it fails?

one question: where would we all be right now if sony had decided to release the playstation 2 using the divx format? exactly.

Exact same case for ps3, why would I buy a movie that only plays on a ps3.
Sure I can get a standalone player but thats over a grand. And considering that sony's main market is causal gamers the future don't look so bright for blu-ray.