Pondering UMD's value on sale

by Zack Stern { Mar 27th 2007 at 4:41PM }

Legitimate sister site, PSP Fanboy, ponders the whimper-like ~~end~~ status of the UMD format. After finding Stomp the Yard as the last UMD available for pre-order through Sony Style, and Amazon listing a few others with a release date of 2025 (read: they may be canceled), PSP Fanboy takes a moment to mourn these movie discs.

But we wonder, having bought a fire-sale Virtual Boy after it was discontinued, is now the time to scoop up UMDs on the cheap? Or should we put our money into Memory Stick and copy our own movies over, DMCA be damned?

Update: Dave Karraker of Sony wrote to remind us, "There is absolutely no truth to the rumor that we are discontinuing the UMD format for PSP." Fair enough. MiniDisc is still around, too.

Tags: dmca, format, movie, movies, sale, sony, umd

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

C. Grant @ Mar 27th 2007 4:43PM

I'd be MORE than happy to watch videos off the MS if Sony would enable full-res 480x272 video playback. Maybe once UMD is officially dead, they'll capitulate.

AirIntake @ Mar 27th 2007 4:47PM

Well, the games are still coming out on UMD, right? So it's not *completely* dead.

Tanster @ Mar 27th 2007 4:48PM

Sony should consider a standalone UMD player- and cut prices too!

Leggo @ Mar 27th 2007 4:49PM

That's like saying vinyl records are still viable because your house has vinyl siding.

required @ Mar 27th 2007 4:49PM

I don't think the format is dead, just a bit of higgledy-piggledy at pspfanboy.com. The same site lists weekly releases such as The Pursuit of Happyness, Rocky Balboa, Casino Royale, so on and so forth.

Dolla Dolla @ Mar 27th 2007 4:50PM

I recently bought 4 UMDs from a website running a promotion. It is linked from PSPfanboy, but the promotion is over. Had them shipped to my house with a total under 22 bucks. The UMDs were 4.99 a piece.

What is it with Sony and their pricing scheme? They'd be selling like mad if at a smaller price (below DVD prices). The PS2 is a testament, cause my sister just picked one up on Sunday, and now I'm enjoying Shadow of the Colossus. Beautiful.

Crono @ Mar 27th 2007 4:55PM

DMCA Be dammned, indeed!

US government: taking your rights and giving them to a faceless corporation since 1999.

PhrawzT @ Mar 27th 2007 4:59PM

UMDs suck! The copy of Spiderman 2 that came with my PSP locks up almost every time. I just rip DVDs and put them on the 2GB memory card.

Gavin @ Mar 27th 2007 5:00PM

The whole UMD thing is a misfire. It relies upon the concept that your consumer is going to need a portable device to watch movies on. How many people really want that? You can buy a portable DVD player for less. If they had only charged $9.99 for the movies it MIGHT have worked, but the studios would never go for that, even though it is a reasonable price for such a format.

Jason @ Mar 27th 2007 5:05PM

I can't fit any movies on my 4GB stick with all these game ISOs taking up space! Now THIS is living!

Agent MOO @ Mar 27th 2007 5:18PM

I see no reason these should have existed in the first place. Bub-bye

Pawsie @ Mar 27th 2007 5:20PM

the UMD is too much trouble to deal with. I own a PSP.. but like hell I'm going to get anything new for it. It wasn't necessarily a bad idea.. but why bother when DVD are the standard format. You can buy a portable DVD player for a lot cheaper than a PSP.

But this is just my opinion..

iNime @ Mar 27th 2007 5:53PM

Wow! you all suck. UMD is awesome, IT'S SMALL. I can put in my pocket. Can't really fit a portable dvd player in there, let alone a dvd. UMDs are in a enclosure, you don't have to carry around the stupid case. Buying UMDs is much more cost effective and practical than having to pay 50 bucks for a 4GB mem stick that i now have to go and rip movies convert them and load onto the MS and off each time i want to switch out cause 4gb is not a lot to work with. Damn, and then i have to have a PC around to move data on and off so i can watch another movie, thas stupid. People hated on the format before it even had a chance cause they said it was the minidisc, losers. good tech never gets a chance when stupid people make the internet jump up in a tizzy. if everyone was sooooooo smart and new what was best, you would be working in that field, making the products, and getting paid a ton of money to do so. but, you aren't, so you don't, so you won't, so you complain. just stop already. also look at the technical advantages of UMD vs your mem stick, do your math.

Mr Khan @ Mar 27th 2007 6:19PM

technical advantages of UMD vs. Memory Stick?

Winner: Memory Stick

UMD: standard optical media loadtimes (about same as the GC's, maybe a bit worse depending on the media)
Memory Stick: all digital load times (rather like the DS's cartridge read-speed, or that of a PS2 memory card)

UMD: 1.8 GB capacity
Memory Stick: possibility of up to 32 GB (although only 2-4 on the market yet)

pwnt

Dracula Jones @ Mar 27th 2007 6:25PM

iNime and UMD sittin' in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G.

sheppy @ Mar 27th 2007 8:28PM

I bought a couple UMDs on sale and I really do have to say I was annoyed. On longer films, compression rates sucked. Not to mention all these films were chopping content from the DVD version and expecting more money. And anime was just completely batshit insane on UMD. $25 for 2 episodes? The fuck do you think you are, FLCL?

Now if they were cheaper, had some exclusive features, or hell, maybe even didn't have space for trailers but I can't get director's commentary, they could have gone somewhere. $10 should have been the de facto most expensive UMD movie... period.

dukemeiser @ Mar 27th 2007 8:43PM

They failed because of a) High Price and b) Non-versatile

You can only play a UMD in one product: PSP

You can play a DVD in many products: home theatre, portable player, computer, etc.

Mr. Hand @ Mar 27th 2007 8:45PM

DVDs are cheaper, more readily available from any store (including some grocery stores, McDonalds (ew) and other places). UMDs are available in limited supply and through only a few vendors. They're also 20 bucks (if you're lucky) and they play only on PSP. God forbid I want to watch the movie with someone else (who won't want to sit in my lap).

Why was I supposed to buy UMD movies again?