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UMD Approved As An ECMA Standard

Posted by Zonk on from the maybe-someday-it-will-be-universal dept.

News for nerds writes "Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. announced today (press release) that the UMD (Universal Media Disc) optical-disc physical format which holds 1.8GB, used in Sony PSP, has been approved as a standard format by Ecma International, and would be submitted to ISO/IEC as well."

15 of 61 comments (clear)

  1. What's Holding UMD Back by Hobart · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Exhibit A - Tron for $13 on DVD
    Exhibit B - Tron for $26 on UMD
    Why are they expecting consumers to pay more for less?
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    1. Re:What's Holding UMD Back by KDR_11k · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Well, with movies a larger screen is desirable and a portable DVD player isn't THAT large, you won't whip it out for waiting in the supermarket queue as you would with a game device so the lower flexibility won't directly affect you. If you absolutely need a movie player this small you can use a flash card but seriously, when you have the time for watching a move you probably have the space to use a portable DVD player.
      Music players are smaller and have writable media anyway so you're not limited to the ten songs (eight of which are filler) the RIAA decided to grant you on the UMD.

      --
      Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
    2. Re:What's Holding UMD Back by demi · · Score: 2, Interesting
      ...when you have the time for watching a move you probably have the space to use a portable DVD player.

      I don't understand this argument. I guess it might be true while you're watching the movie, but whatever player you're using doesn't magically appear in your hand when you're ready to use it, along with its discs. You have to carry it around, which is when the space is taken up.

      --
      demi
    3. Re:What's Holding UMD Back by NanoGator · · Score: 3, Insightful

      "Why are they expecting consumers to pay more for less?"

      A.) Prices will go down. DVDs started out at $30ish. Heck, I saw UMDs for $15 at Walmart yesterday.

      B.) It depends on if there really is a market for mobile movies.

      C.) We won't know if consumers really will adopt this or not for another year or two.

      I've yet to understand the sticker-shock reactions around here. You'd think a web-site populated by tech-heads would understand the whole concept of new things launching at high prices.

      --
      "Derp de derp."
    4. Re:What's Holding UMD Back by KDR_11k · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I assumed that if you have to go somewhere and know that you'll have enough time to watch a movie you'll probably have a backpack, suitcase or other larger case. If you didn't know you're going to watch a movie and only have the pockets in your pants you're not very likely to carry a movie UMD with you anyway. When I stuff a game system into my pockets I don't carry any spare games.

      --
      Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
  2. Hooray by Winterblink · · Score: 2, Funny

    Maybe now the U in UMD might carry some significance, because right now it might as well be PMD for Proprietary Media Disc.

    --
    "I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar."
    -Hoban Washburn
  3. WTF is UMD? by Mensa+Babe · · Score: 4, Informative

    The Universal Media Disc (UMD) is an optical disc medium developed by Sony for use on the PlayStation Portable. It can hold 1.8 gigabytes of data, which can include games, movies, or music.

    Unlike the Minidisc, another proprietary Sony-developed format, blank media will not be commercially available, in order to avoid piracy. However, there has been recent discussion about the UMD movie and music formats being opened by Sony, although it is not clear if this will result in the development of UMD "burners" (through CD or DVD burners). Sony has said that it intends to keep the game-formatted UMD specifications to itself, in order to avoid competition (and presumably to profit from licensing fees).

    It has recently been found out that if the disc is removed from its casing and shaved down to fit into the mini DVD slot in a DVD drive that it will register on your computer. However, no files are shown if the game disc has been written on.

    * Dimensions: Approx. 65 mm (W) x 64 mm (D) x 4.2 mm (H)
    * Diameter: 60 mm
    * Maximum Capacity: 1.80GB (Single-sided, dual layer)
    * Laser wavelength: 660 nm (Red laser)
    * Encryption: AES 128-bit

    Picture 1

    Picture 2.

    More info.

    Editors: please add this links to the story. Thank you.

    --
    Karma: Positive (probably because of superiour intellect)
  4. Too small by XBL · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Not the physical size, but the storage capacity. Leave it to PSP and let's come up with something better. How about a 3 inch double-density DVD product? Would be about 2.8 Gig. And it's already standardized.

  5. Wrong 'Universal' by Aero+Leviathan · · Score: 3, Informative

    It's not [Universal [Media Disc]], it's [[Universal Media] Disc].

    It's named because it can contain a relatively wide variety of types of media (audio, video, games); not because the number of devices it can be played in (for now, only the PSP).

    Ambiguity of the English language. Gotta love it.

    --
    ~ Aero
    1. Re:Wrong 'Universal' by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Isn't all digital storage 'universal' in the way you describe it? I can put text, image, sound, video, etc. on a CD; the same holds for floppies, (Sony) memory sticks, etc.

  6. Re:The ECMA standardizing affects this.. how by KDR_11k · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It creates demand for UMD burners.

    --
    Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
  7. Remember the reason UMD is being accepted... by kc32 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Sony is allowing porn on it.

    1. Re:Remember the reason UMD is being accepted... by bugbeak · · Score: 2, Informative

      You thought you were joking, weren't you... Click.

      Click.

  8. I kid you not by porkchop_d_clown · · Score: 3, Informative

    I got snail spam from RadioShack yesterday hawking a personal DVD player the size of a DVD case and it's on sale for $99 I honestly think UMD is another dead-end format.

    --
    Clear, Dark Skies
  9. Re:another.... by CokoBWare · · Score: 2, Informative

    Don't forget that when you read the press release, the footnotes clearly state there was _no_ approval of the logical layers of the UMD standard (which includes the security - read DRM - features of the format).