Sony's UMD problems about to get much worse
3/30/2006 11:53:36 AM, by Ken Fisher

Those cute little optical discs that serve as a storage medium for the PSP are about to be kicked to the curb, at least in the environs of Beverly Hills. While Sony will undoubtedly continue to promote the format and also use it for PSP games, the hope of turning the PSP into an entertainment device that would chomp away at movies stored on UMD are quickly fading.

In February the writing was on the wall: weak movie sales meant that retailers were scaling back plans, and studios were scaling back releases in response. Now, however, the bleakness is setting in as studios start axing release plans in response to chatter that Wal-Mart is thinking about dropping UMDs altogether. A Wal-Mart pull-out would likely be read as a death sentence by others in the retail sector.

Unidentified sources with Universal Studios Home Entertainment summed up matters grimly:

"It's awful. Sales are near zilch. It's another Sony bomb -- like Blu-ray."

An executive at Paramount had similar tidings of unjoy and smackage, saying "We are on hiatus with UMD... Releasing titles on UMD is the exception rather than the rule. No one's even breaking even on them." To hit the trifecta, another studio executive speaking anonymously said, "No one's watching movies on PSP; It's a game player, period."

Currently, Universal and Paramount are stalled on UMD releases, while Buena Vista (Disney) and Twentieth Century Fox and even Sony are scaling back their existing plans.

When the PSP struts around Rodeo Drive, you get the sense that everyone in the movie business snubs it. That wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't being snubbed in the movie section of most retailers, too.

Not the end of PSP movies
Even if UMD fails, it's not the end for the PSP's entertainment options. The company is still working away on its PSP Media Manager, which it hopes will be embraced by more and more PSP users as a way to access more than games on the handheld device. Additionally, we also believe that the company is planning to use its online gaming service to push content to the PlayStation 3 and the PSP. With a PSP revision in the works, Sony is shifting its attention to internal flash storage. They're still going to try and work the movie angle for the PSP, but the little shiny UMD isn't likely to be a part of that future.

UMD, some say you were a DUM idea.

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If I had enough money to own both hand-held consoles I would in an instant but even then I wouldn`t be buying any UMD movies. The price of UMD movies on the PSP down under were up to and over $30 with prices barely being reduced over time. A major waste of money in my opinion.

I read that this morning and laughed. of course it's a stupid idea, it was right from the start! Did they really think they'd have enough people buying PSP's and regularly buying full-priced movies just for viewing on the tiny PSP screen to justify all the money they'd need to make to break even with UMDs? Absolutely loony.

but its portable

And you can get a portable DVD player that plays normal DVD's for cheaper.

portable true, yet that's only one of a few pro arguments. i feel this would be a dum idea. (purposely misspelling dumb there folks)

I don't like how Universal said Blu-ray was a "bomb", since it isn't even in major use yet. Personally I feel it will beat HDDVD, but then some people thought Betamax would beat VHS.

As for the UMD, I see no surprise in the flatlining sales. With a little know-how you could take your regular DVDs and put them on a memory stick for the PSP, plus still have a useful disc afterwards.

A portable dvd player may be cheaper...but its still big!! I'd rather carry something that plays movies in my pocket.

It was a terrible idea to begin with. The movies are the same price as, of not MORE than normal DVD's and don't even contain any special features. I read an article about this in the April issue of GI, and they said that UMD movies may continue, but strictly for action and horror movies. Just give up on it, though. It's ended up costing Sony more than it's made them. What they need to do is charge a small fee to be able to download movies onto it. It would be much cheaper, for the companies and the consumers.

Exactly Shake. Way to think outside the box.

I think the problem is most people own a PS2 and of course that is a dvd in itself, so it was a very risky idea that just hasn't come through for sony. Why watch it on a small screen PSP when u can just use your PS2/any other dvd to watch full screen movies. Gotta mention also that watrching movie on a PSP equates to more money being spent on batteries, I heard PSP movies eat up battery life!

1) Most people don't use the PS2 as a DVD player since it is of low quality and awkward to use, even with a remote.

2) PSPs are portable. Full-size TVs, with PS2s, are not.

3) The PSP has a rechargable battery.

Sounds like you should send an email to sony with this idea.

PSP's are extremely expensive.
UMD's are extremely expense and can only be used with PSP's.
PSP's have tiny screens.


You want to completely throw tons of money away to watch full-priced crappy versions of movies on a small screen when you can spend alot less and just buy the normal DVD, go ahead. And wonder why everyone is laughing at you.

I have still yet to even SEE a PSP, and i live in a decent sized city!!

I always say it: the swiss-army knife approach usually doesn't work well with game consoles or handhelds.


I'd rather carry a "big" portable DVD player so I don't have to re-buy some of my DVDs, and so I can see what it going on the screen. Also, I don't believe that my favorite DVDs have been made into UMDs. Unless A&E has put out Monty Python on UMD.



Yeah, you can also get screens for your PS2 from Pelican and other companies.
Also, most of the PSP games are ports of PS2 games. Some PSP games (Liberty City Stories) have come out on the PS2 as well, so the PSP really has no exclusive "killer app."



I think it'll come to a truce (like the DVD format), because one of them (or both) will realise that going into a format war wil just waste a lot of time and money.

I'm with you Burnsy, I don't own a PSP and don't plan on getting one either. I was just countering DeathBringer's seemingly uneducated points. And then you countered mine.

Great. Way to make me feel like a jackass. I actually thought you were seriously defending the damned thing.

Essentially the concept of being able to play movies on a hand-held console is rather ingenius but in my opinion Sony just went about it completly the wrong way. Selling them on UMD discs for prices higher than actual DVD's was just a disaster waiting to happen. Shake's idea of downloadable movies is brilliant and would have been a smart move by Sony.
There was always going to be the issues of the screen being too small to watch movies on, amount of battery power used for playing a movie etc...... but if the movies were cheap and easy to store then people would be willing to live with these other issues that all hand-held and home consoles have.

Blu-ray hasn't even been released yet. Besides Blu-Ray is back by more companies than HD DVD

PSPs are just.... Eek.

People buy game portables for games.
Not for the wacky over-expensive cost of movies.

Want movies? Get an MP3 Player with a good screen.

1.UMD is a proprietry format (no freedom for other companies to release other players to push the format).
2.UMDs are more expensive than DVDs with less features.
3.You can convert a DVD to play on the PSP through the memory sticks (No need to buy a favourite DVD as a UMD).
4.You can pick up a portable DVD player with a larger screen for less than a PSP (while the PSP is easier to carry around it doesnt make much difference in the back of a car.).
5.Major movie studios couldnt/wouldnt release enough content.
6.The porn industry didnt take much of an interest.
7. A bigger player in the portable media sector (Apple) provided the same content in downloadable format for a lot less (and with no need to carry little discs around).
8. No obvious way for consumers to store their own content on the UMDs.
9. Sony themselves seem more concerned with pushing Blu-ray.

Release the PS3 and a home player with a blu-ray/DVD/CD-Rom drive and a burnable UMD drive. Allow consumers to put their music, photos, home movies (and lets be honest commercial DVDs) on them for viewing on the PSP and play their UMDs on their TV sets (assuming they can solve scaling issues). Of course they would have to release the format to other companies and find a way to protect the games.

Bleeding heart, I agree with all your points except one: The porn industry DID take interest in UMD, just not in North America. There were/are plenty of porn UMDs in Japan.