Universal Media Disc 'another Sony bomb'

So says a Universal Studios executive who, along with other Hollywood decision makers, is shunning the proprietary format.

The story "Universal Media Disc 'another Sony bomb'" published March 30, 2006 at 9:05 AM is no longer available on CNET News.

Content from Reuters expires after 30 days.

[markdoiron]

No Brainer

It seems that everyone (except Sony and some movie studio exec's) could see this one coming for months.

mark d.

[tipper_gore]

survey

A massive floating box asking me to take a survey appeared over the text while I was attempting to read this news item, and there was no way to close it. That was fun! I hope zdnet keeps doing stuff like that, because it's fun!

[KsprayDad]

Didn't get that

I use Firefox ;)
Did you win something maybe?

[Sentinel]

No surprises here

It doesn't surprise me in the least. Sony promised the world with its PSP and has failed dismally to deliver. Not only is the PSP extremely expensive, but there are also no good titles for it. Much emphasis has been put into releasing movies, which nobody or at least very few people want to watch (I wonder if the 3 inch screen has anything to do with it). However, very little effort has been put into the games released. Really Sony, do you think people actually buy handhelds to watch movies? And yet, there you are, a great platform (because the PSP really IS a good platform) but nothing good on it. I own a PSP and a few games (all four of them, acutally) and I spend my evenings crying for the mass of money I spent on a game handheld that actually has next to 15 games, out of which 10 must be crappy games and the others revamped or stripped down versions of already existing games.

[Christopher Hall]

All four?

Hyperbole? Because I've got exactly ten games for the system.

[jakec]

No one's watching because...

No one's watching becuase the UMD prices are so fraking high.

Example:
Best Buy has the UMD version of Mr. & Mrs. Smith for $29.99.
The DVD version is only $19.99.

Why would we want to pay more for a smaller screen size? Portability? Please.

Bottom line. Why pay more for less?

[shanewalker]

Come out w/ a PSP burner, blank media, and...

Make it a mini DVD and follow the DVD spec, i.e. you can author
a disc or burn using standard software.

Then you'd have a viable format. Otherwise, it's a niche, WORSE
than minidisc, as its a packaged-item only format.

Sony needs to open it up or reiinvent it for it to survive...

People are indeed ripping their own content to the PSP.

My first question for them when they announced the UMD movie
releases were: 1) WHY WOULD YOU BUY A MOVIE TWICE! and 2)
IF YOU'RE ONLY BUYING THE MOVIE ONCE, WHY ONLY FOR
VIEWING ON A SMALL SCREEN!!!

[EmbSysPro]

Agreed, open the spec!

I totally agree with you on the idea of developing an open spec for the UMD format.

The PSP is a nice platform and if users were allowed to create their own UMD discs at an inexpensive price, that would really open up the possibilities.

[KsprayDad]

Burn baby burn

Yep...

I have held off buying the PSP exactly for the reason that you couldn't create your own disks.

Come on Sony. Writable discs with a low cost USB UMD burner.

Sell your movies on Connect along with extra game unlocks etc.

Its too bad really.

[drfrost]

Who cares...

If you own a PSP you'll buy whatever media your games are on. So it won't take over the CD/DVD market, who cares. How many people bought a PSP to watch movies anyway?

[KsprayDad]

Lost functionality

I think the 'idea' of being able to watch movies created a pricing premium for those that bought it. Now PSP owners are left with a game machine with a memory stick...is it really worth the price then?

Make UMD burnable and sell the movies on Connect.

[kamwmail-cnet1]

So they only installed limited amount of Root Kits this time?

What? Nobody trusts Sony?

Duh....

[wethead]

Gee, you think?

Wasn't it an obvious bomb right from the start? I mean, you can only watch a UMD on the psp. Even if sony were to make a tv player for UMDs, the formats resolution is horible for a tv. Why would anyone waste their money to buy a movie for something they can only watch where a real tv or screen isn't available? Hmm. Do I buy this movie on umd and only watch it for the 20 minutes while I'm waiting for a bus, or do I buy this movie on dvd so that I can enjoy my home theater? Yeah, there's a tough decision.

[markdoiron]

You're Supposed to Say ...

My goodness, Jaan, what you're ***supposed*** to say is, "I'll buy it on DVD to watch at home today, UMD to watch while traveling, and Blu-Ray to watch in HD tomorrow!".

All you need do is keep an eye on Sony's marketing moves to figure that one out!

;-)

mark d.

[anarchyreigns]

Boycott Sony, Boycott Blu-ray

<eom>

[GrandpaN1947]

Yes I will, Yes I am

Man you got that right. What a better way to make Sony pay for the rootkit than to cost it millions. For the uncompensated abused consumer I promise never to buy a Sony product ever again, at any price.

POWER TO THE CONSUMER!!!

[JFDMit]

Play it again Sam

This is an old story with Sony. They're a schizophrenic company that can't decide what it wants to be. One day, they're a consumer electronics company, turning out sleek and sexy audio, video and gaming devices. The next, they're a content distributor, scared witless that all their intellectual property is leaking out the doors.

With one hand, they make the tools that enable ripping, burning, mixing and mashing; with the other, they desperately try to prevent the content they own being manipulated this way.

I remember buying a Sony Vaio laptop a few years ago. It had a Memory Stick slot so I also bought a MS Walkman, thinking that I could transfer my music from the Vaio to the WM without using cables. Oh no. Even though I had OpenMG on the Vaio, it wouldn't write directly to the Memory Stick because the Vaio's Memory Stick slot couldn' handle Sony's proprietary Magic Gate DRM technology. Sony the hardware company had made a couple of nice little devices that could work easily together. Sony the media company stepped in and crippled them.

So it is with UMD. Instead of adopting an open format for movies on the PSP, Sony came up with this UMD baloney. Which of their marketing geniuses thought that the world really needs a new proprietary media format? "Let's see, we've sold the suckers the same crap on LPs, 8-track, cassette, CD, SACD, DVD, download and Blu-Ray. What next? I know! Let's make up a completely new format that only plays on one machine and is so crippled by DRM that nobody can use it. Brilliant! Good meeting! Pass the cocaine."

Until Sony decides what kind of company it wants to be and divests itself of the rest, it will continue to stumble and fall. All it has demonstrated so far is that it is unable to reconcile its business needs with the desires of its customers.

[Tiemmothi]

I got my PSP

For gaming, and movie watching.. tho I never intending on
buying any UMD movies. I watch TV shows, cartoons and such
off a memory stick, you can get a full season of 24-26min
episodes on a 1gig memory stick and there nice length for a 30
min bus ride/commute.

In all honesty the video playback was just frosting on the cake,
and even if i could burn UMD discs I doubt i would invest in a
writer.

I want more and better (hehe mobetter) games more than I want
movies and im glad walmart is pulling the movies, it was damn
annoying to go to the game section and seeing 30 PSP boxes,
then noticing most of them were crappy movies.

[ajbright]

It's not the format, it's the price

My PSP is my in-flight entertainment. I have about a dozen movies, a couple of games (the weakest side of the PSP imho) as well as a 1GB memory stick for music and audio books.

For too many reasons to go into I don't particularly like portable DVD players or Laptops, it's a personal preference, nothing more.

So my PSP is nearly perfect, and if they would dumb down the graphics rather than the content of the games I would be buying more of those too.

The only real problem I have is the cost of UMD movies. Outside of needing entertainment when I travel (about once a quarter) there is no incentive for me to buy anything on UMD, especially when you go back to how much they cost, which can be as much as $29.99 for something that costs under $10 on DVD.

Obviously the DVD is more versatile, can be ripped if necessary (although you'd need half a dozen memory sticks to adequately entertain yourself while travelling) and can be played anywhere - including most hotel rooms.

But the portability aspect of the PSP means I will also buy the odd movie here and there. But unless they drop the price by at least half, if not more, then I will never buy more than 2 or 3 a year.

Obviously this means the format will eventually dry up completely, but by then something better will be out anyway (which doesn't mean a $400 walkman with a crappy little screen and drm'd movies that won't play on anything else).

[Bong Dizon]

People ARE watching movies on PSP but not with UMD

It's not true that "No one's watching movies on PSP." In fact, I know a lot of people watching video on their PSPs. What they aren't doing is watching video on the UMD format - Sony's closed, proprietary media format that unsurprisingly failed far worse than Betamax. It doesn't make sense for consumers to buy a UMD movie (which can only be played on PSPs) when they can buy the same movie on DVD (which can be played on DVD players and computers) and lawfully place-shift the movie on to their PSPs (using memory sticks). In countries like the Philippines were there is no DMCA-type legislation, place-shifting is valid and legal. The failure of UMD should not be used as proof that people do not want to watch video on their portable devices, because the contrary evidence is overwhelming (the success of the iPod with video). UMD failed because it's a senseless proprietary, closed format that has no raison d'etre in a connected world that always and inherently strives to be free and open.

[Zymurgist]

Absolutely.

Transcoding DVDs to play on PSP is trivial. If you bought the DVD, are you really going to buy the same content all over again for a 50% premium? How many people are going to buy UMD when a DVD can also be played on their computer and TV (where UMD cannot)?

You don't need to be a genius to see how things work in the real world: stuff that people can coax to do something cool and new is stuff that becomes popular. Stuff that is cheap becomes widespread. But most importantly, a media format that is not writable, high cost, and low resolution will never succeed -- especially if people find an alternative that's cheaper, more accessible, and complements the stuff they already have.

[skeptik]

corporate blinders

I haven't been so glad to see a format die since the DIVX DVD fiasco years ago.
Corporations need to wake up and realize that while it sounds good in the boardroom, the consumers just aren't down with the idea of closed format proprietarty anything. We aren't looking for ways to spend more of our dollars on entertainment, we're looking for ways to make our entertainment dollars go farther. The technology is here, but these companies can't seem to understand that consumers aren't willing to purchase crippled hardware/software in order to boost the revenue streams of corporations. A dazzling new product is not enought of a lure unless it improves out lives, not complicates it with more hidden costs. The only reason the iPod phenomenon is thriving is because many consumers are willing to sacrifice the quality of a CD for convenience of a download (something I'm not willing to do). People aren't buying the CD and then the download as well, but companies don't seem to understand this.

I'd actually buy a PSP mostly for movies and music with a smidgeon of gaming if I wasn't already boycotting Sony (rootkit, rootkit!) but would think for a second about buying a UMD movie.

[EDWARD31]

Why triple for a movie that can be watched 1/2 of the cost on DVD?

It all comes down to a matter of price............

[Earl Benser]

Sony sems to have a skill at commercial suicide....

There was the betamax, then the mini-disk for audio, then the
rootkits, then the UMD, then Blu_ray. What a string of losers. What
ever happened to the real Sony?

On the other hand, Sony did come out with the Walkman, and Sony
makes pretty good DVD burners. Laptops are so-so. So not every
Sony item is a loser.

But, overall, the record is not good.

[jdbwar07]

Corporate greed

The real reason why it didn't take off was because of Sony's greed. If they just asked for a reasonable price this might not be a problem, but they decided to charge more than for a DVD. The result is that no one in their right mind would buy them, which unlike a DVD can only play in one device at a low resolution. If I want a certain movie I'll get a DVD, and it's a waste of money to pay the same price (or more) again just for the PSP.

I think if Sony had sold them at $5 (at the most) they would have been extremely popular.

This whole short-term greed in the entertainment industry, their philosophy of wrining every dime possible out of each consumer, is really coming back to hurt them in the long run. (the old "What goes around comes around" thing).

[rainamem]

Love the PSP!!! I Pod Is TRASH!!!

I love my psp Now I am with the situaltion on being able to burn my own disks that would be great and that if I have to buy the movies for the psp than make them the same price that they are by dvd. I have had two ipods and they were crap they broke on me in a month. I like having an external disks for storage. and being able to play games. Now to beable to get a calendar, notes, and calulator on it would be great. and maps. lol I dont understand the web part of it but I use my lap top so it is not a big thing if anyone knows how to use the interent on the psp let me know [e-mail] I also have the psp maganger and it doesnt let me use avi but the box says that it does??? If anyone can help let me know.

[Stan Johnson]

BOYCOTT ALL THINGS SONY!

This corporation does not deserve consumer support. Never forget the ROOTKIT!

[Soulwolf]

Greed is not good Sony

Whatever the reasons you bought into Sony?s PSP, whether it was for gaming, multimedia capabilities or the many other implied functionality that never got delivered, Sony didn?t keep its word. If they were a little less obsessed with protecting their precious content and a little more concerned with their customers overall experience they might be a little more successful in the future. I suspect that the reason they never produced a set top box type player was that they are afraid it would make it easier for someone to copy to another medium. Their greed led them to cripple the memory stick method for playing video content, forcing consumers who wanted the higher quality video to buy overpriced UMD?s. Now that the format is on it?s last legs, there are a lot of angry people with another useless Sony proprietary format. The PSP as a gaming device suffers from a really bad design particularly in the placement of it?s controls. My PSP periodically resets it?s self requiring me to set it up over and over again. I just love inputting 128 bit encryption keys without a keyboard. To sum it up PSP doesn't do any one thing particularly well.