http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/ Engadget Comments for Sony may open up PSP UMD format http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/Had there been a MD DataDrive at any point ... MD would have become huge ... well, maybe they finaly realized that, but I won't belive this until there is a UMD recorder you can actualy buy ... and that is not crippled to uselessness ...]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/Dec 19th 2005 1:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/
They will, no doubt, also introduce huge licensing costs as well.

What movie/music company would sell their material on these heavily licensed discs for a tiny, tiny, tiny market share?

What consumer would buy a UMD for a movie that they can get in higher-quality format (and probably cheaper too) on DVD?

This is NOT a license to create UMD burners.

This is balderdash. The UMD as an open format is dead on arrival.]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/
UMDs are HUGE compared to flash cards in physical dimensions. Their require ENORMUS amounts of power compared to flash memory cards.

Stuffing a UMD in a handheld device is a giant step backwards for technology.]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/
If you are a company that makes products, you can pay for the privilege to add UMD support to your device to allow it to play movies and music on the device, much in the way a 3rd party can developer a Memory Stick reader. The 3rd party still has to pay.

This is the dumbest thing I have heard. The idea of stuffing an optical disc into a portable device has a butt-ton of problems. Why would anyone want to do that when it can play a TINY selections of music and movies from a single company (Sony)?

Why would a 3rd party want to deal with the battery issues that have plagued the PSP’s moving parts, the fragility of the media and the ejecting UMDs? Why build a product that has to compete with the PSP but can’t play games? Why not build a cheaper, smaller, battery-efficient, flash-based music-movie player?
]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/
3rd Parties will be allowed to build/sell UMD players (for only music and movies), but UMD content will come from Sony. You won't be able to get a UMD burner, probably ever. In some ways, it is even MORE restrictive than ATRAC3, cause you can't put anything on a UMD but you can convert songs to ATRAC3.

As #5 points out, why in the world would any company want to build something around such a phony 'standard' is beyond me.]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/
If they had done it with the MD, it would have been great. At that time there was no cheap flash memory and a small, rewriteable, optical disc could have been a huge success.

Now, even if they would do it, it would just be stupid, as pointed out before.

Of course, what they are actually doing, telling people how great it would be to use UMD in everything, that's just boring. It's the same scheme they try over and over again. MD, MS and now UMD ... make Sony rich by using their media ... yawn ...

Without recorders they will never have a chance, out side of Japan ... and even with'em, now it's far too late ...]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/Dec 19th 2005 1:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/Dec 19th 2005 1:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/

"Sony will give companies access to the movie and music variants of the technology so that they might produce multimedia players that support UMD, he says. The company will keep the game format to itself and thus stop other companies from developing competing gaming products."

It says that 3rd parties can build movie/music players that use the UMD.

I think #5 is right. This is dumb.


]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/I only hope the UMDs will be out shortly after the PSPs since I can't wait while using the included 32megs.]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/Dec 19th 2005 1:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/
How about 3 years down the line, well into the PSP's lifespan?

The price of flash memory is falling so fast it isn't even funny.

#5 is right. It makes no sense to force an optical drive into a portable unit like this. Capacity of flash will increase as price falls but the capacity of this drive is fixed. It also introduces a host of other issues related to size, battery, durability and load times.

UMD is a dumb idea in this day and age. Had it come around 5-10 years ago, it could have been HOT! These days it looks like trying to fit a record player in your car.]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/Dec 19th 2005 1:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/Dec 19th 2005 1:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/Dec 19th 2005 1:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/Dec 19th 2005 1:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/Dec 19th 2005 1:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/
I read a Times article today that slammed the PSP for not having a hard drive. THIS is the area where the rapidly falling flash memory prices will make a huge impact, since you can buy a single card (with, say, 8GB on it for $100 in about a year or so) and download movies and music directly to it. At this point the cinemanow.com style "Media to Go" model makes more sense, but for now, UMDs address the same problem that DVDs do for other consoles.

Just my 2cents...]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/
Hard Drive? Too much power comsumption.

They've incorporated a memory stick slot and a UMD drive. You can run media from either or. Thats how they were able to give a demo for the psp way back in august when games weren't even on UMDs yet.]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/Dec 19th 2005 1:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/Dec 19th 2005 1:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/ Like I said, the format does have potential, especially given the fact that it's in a plastic cartridge. But a burner and blank media MUST be made available. By the way, how do you figure UMD burners will lead to piracy? Except for that Clinton abortion known as the DMCA (which states that you can't make any copies of any media for any reason, including for your own personal archival purposes), there is a concept called "fair use". "Fair use" means that you can make backup copies, and personal duplicates (ie for home, the car), and digital format rips for your personal use (ie in your personal mp3 or video player). You can already put audio/video on a memorystick and play it in the PSP, so what the hell's the difference if it's on a UMD?]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/
On the other hand the PSP is an eyecandy, a nice gadget. Making a proprietary media format for it is the way to make the money flow. At least for 3-4 years which is enough because it is nothing fundamentally new.

Sony will continue to promote UMDs as "cool", because they really look cool as the PSPs and that is enough for the customer. I guess at the end they will open the format to other companies. And that's it. Just another scam.

The future (not only for portable devices) is in non-rotary media i.e. static memory.]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/90% margin on software - there is simply no way they could get those margins with flash memory or any other media. Cartridges? They do not have the sustained transfer rate to play audio or video. So if you want a portable game console, that oh by the way, also plays audio and video, and you expect the company that sells it (at a loss at this point) to make money on the software, then you are stuck with the optical media.

All other game developers and media distribution companies already have access/license to UMD burners by the way.

To the question at hand, would a UMD burner make any sense for consumers? Absolutely, if you want to transfer a few hours of music or a video recording of your kid's birthday party cheaply. Will Sony do it? My money is on "no".]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/
As far as my PSP goes, I love it to pieces as a media player... and then it also does games, web browsing, and other nifty things all in a 16:9 brilliant widescreen. Programmers are starting to have a field day with the PSP.

As far as this disks go, it's a nice size for media. I can imagine them making recordable versions for other devices of theirs... video and still cameras for example. So maybe a USB Reader is possible eventually. A writer/re-writer would be nice eventually but I'm not going to wait with bated breath.]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/Dec 19th 2005 1:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/Sony: "Hey look at this, we should stop making huge amounts of money on UMDs because i saw a guy on the internet saying it was a stuipd idea"
just stop complaining about it and except it]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/Dec 19th 2005 1:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/
Xelos,
Don't get ahead of yourself. Nobody's telling sony what to do from a financial perspective. You're misinterpreting the message we're trying to send.

People are simply giving ideas on how to improve the product in question, and when we see something we don't like, we constructively criticize it. IE UMDs. Your little "sony doesn't give a shit what we think" comment is irrelevant, it has nothing to do with anything. We already know this. These opinions give gamers out there an idea what to expect from the sony psp, so stop acting as if this information is pointless, cause it ain't. On that note, I'm out.

PS: Don't be an idiot, thanks.]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/
Sony can still maintain what can or cannot be done with the format... they are just allowing companies to make devices that can read the umd for music and video use...

Sony is still strong against umd burners
and if sony says no to burners it means NO
]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/
I also have rips of all my music. I rip at 384K, because I want to preserve the fidelity of the music (I don't care what anyone says, 128K is NOT CD Quality, and it hurts my ears to listen to). Problem is, this makes for triple the file size (3MB per minute), and you fill up a 512MB card reeeealy quick with those. I don't want to spend $250 on a 2GB card, I'd much rather spend it on a burner and pay $10 apiece for discs.

I still don't understand how having UMD burners available will allow piracy... I can rip a movie, save it on my PSP's MemoryStick, and pass it to you. You then hook it up to your computer and offload it. Now you have a copy. It's the same argument that happened when cassettes came out, when VHS/Beta recorders came out, when CD's came out, and when DVD's came out. Every time the opponents have lost. They will this time, too. PSP is too great and too versatile of a device to die from something as stupid as the non-availability of burnable media.]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/
To me, it seem to only make sense that sony would evenualy market a umd burner and media like any of it's other CD/DVD products if they want the format to continue to grow.

Sony as a company should know that by now.

The people who shelled out 250 bux for the PSP units would gladly pay another 250 bux for a burner as well.

Short term, they will wait while they rake in the bucks from licensed sales through other media companies.

Long term, they will eventualy release a burner but don't expect it to cost less than you paid for your PSP]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/
As stated before... UMDs are extremely cheap to produce at the moment. But in the future, Flash Memory cards will be cheaper then now and obviously more widely used. And sinse sony has got us used to using the little iddy bitty flash media cards.. it wont seem weird to the average user to use. (thats also one reason that mini discs failed. Most users were intimidated by the new 'toys'. People tend to stick with what they are used to)

Another point (dealing w/sony upgrades); Sony could easily sell upgrades to what formats can be read by the psp. Ex.. you could buy software packages.(would that even be possible?)]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/Dec 19th 2005 1:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/Dec 19th 2005 1:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/Dec 19th 2005 1:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/Dec 19th 2005 1:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/Dec 19th 2005 1:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/
Sony has far more to lose by releasing a UMD Burner, Piracy alone would cost them $300 million a year, Sales of there Crappy MS stick would fall back to nothing, No one would buy Sony's movies they would just convert there own DVD's to UMD using nero, HiMD would be Destroyed loosing all that R&D developement they recently invested in it. When it comes down to it PSP is on top right now, DS is losing, and if Sony has absolute power over UMD discs than it gains more $$$ Don't expect a Burner to ever release because they won't.]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/
Although I'm in no way in favour of piracy, the possibility of pirating software will only sell more PSPs. Not to mention the fact that UMD discs would be a very cheap and effective method of storing music. I have a 1GB memory stick, and it filling up fast.]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/Dec 19th 2005 1:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/ being a long time user (and service tech) of many Sony products ik can imagine the future of UMD:
They will release a camera, it will be "Photo" but due to the capacity and datarate of the UMD will be Camcorder too, so there are your Blank UMDs. Maybe some models of audio players "photo" capable (like ipods)so you can see your stills in your player and PSP, i know it sounds stupid since that is what the PSP does, but remember that sony don't keep only few models of their products/media.
About the burner and the blank UMDs, the Burner will NEVER release even from Sony the blank UMDs will exist but only to be used in Sony Recorders (cameras with no option to enter data trough USB)And they will not be cheap Maybe $20 release and $15 Drop.
]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/Dec 19th 2005 1:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/Dec 19th 2005 1:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/Dec 19th 2005 1:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/
that will be nice if they just release UMD burners and sell UMD blank disks commercially so we can just buy a UMD burner n couple disks (maybe rewritable disks too) rather than buying memory sticks cuz i'm sure 1GB or 2GB memory stick would the same price as UMD burner]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/My name is Corey Witsken. And I really, really, really want a PSP. The are soooooooo awesome. Just on Sunday October 23, 2005, my friend Zach and I were getting something to eat at Fairfield High School's cafatieria,and I saw these kids with PSP's, and I said to them "you guys are so lucky". So if you guys could send me one(a PSP) at the address of 1175 Rulison Ave. 2nd floor that would be terrific. Sincerely, Corey Witsken]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/
Also, can somebody please say if there is a way i can burn onto umd and how?]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/21/sony-may-open-up-psp-umd-format/Dec 19th 2005 1:47AM