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Data Storage Media Entertainment Games

UMD Approved As An ECMA Standard 61

Posted by Zonk 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."
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UMD Approved As An ECMA Standard More

UMD Approved As An ECMA Standard

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  • The disk diameter is 60mm, or 2.36 inches.

  • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Sunday June 26, 2005 @01:05AM (#12912418)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Exhibit B - Tron for $26 on UMD
      Why are they expecting consumers to pay more for less?

      Yeah, for that price it better be big enough to derez someone, but convenient enough to carry on my back.

      END OF LINE.

    • because they have a big dick, and consumers have such small holes...
    • it's more for different, not more for less. you can't watch a dvd on a portable psp-sized device.

      plus of course the price is based on volume, not just "size".

      i take you point though - it doesn't seem anything near good value to me
      • 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

        • Re:What's Holding UMD Back (Score:3, Interesting)

          by demi ( 17616 )
          ...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.

          • 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.
        • 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.

          wow, you're grocery store must SUCK if you have time to watch a movie in the checkout line. I mean, i barely have enough time to whip out my gameboy and play a few rounds of pokemon. i still fail to see the need for a movie player in a portable gaming device, especially since the true joy of a portable system is the ability to whip it out and play in quick spurts

      • I kid you not (Score:4, Informative)

        by porkchop_d_clown ( 39923 ) <mwheinz@nOSpAm.me.com> on Sunday June 26, 2005 @07:17AM (#12913389)
        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 [radioshack.com] I honestly think UMD is another dead-end format.

    • Re:What's Holding UMD Back (Score:4, Insightful)

      by NanoGator ( 522640 ) on Sunday June 26, 2005 @04:53AM (#12913086) Homepage Journal
      "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.
      • If Sony absolutely TANK the price of UMD disks to half that of a regular DVD, it'll becoming a real contender. Until then, UMD continues to get bad press at record breaking level. And bad press is really hard to shake off.

        • "If Sony absolutely TANK the price of UMD disks to half that of a regular DVD, it'll becoming a real contender."

          Maybe, but in reality all it really needs to do is be a little cheaper than DVDs. Again, though, that depdends on if there is a mobile movie market.

          "Until then, UMD continues to get bad press at record breaking level. And bad press is really hard to shake off."

          Heh. I hate to break it to ya, but UMD isn't breaking any bad-press records. Slashdot's boo-hooing about it, but the PSP news site

      • 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.

        We understand the concept when the "new thing" is actualy in some significant way "better" than what came before...

        UMD's aren't significantly better than, say, a 3" DVD, and suffer many drawbacks (can't get blanks, dont work in billions of DVD players, etc). Slightly higher density but totaly proprietary? No thanks. D

        • "We understand the concept when the "new thing" is actualy in some significant way "better" than what came before..."

          It is, it's a lot smaller. A PSP, for example, is a LOT more portable than a portable DVD player. I agree, it's a crappy medium for standard playback on a TV. For a portable media, other than being a little pricey, it's fine.

          "Double the price of a DVD for what, 1/4 the quality?"

          Again, it's a lot smaller. A lot of people just don't seem to get this. (Which is fine, that says to me t
    • They simply don't think too high of their consumers:

      A) When faced with the problem of the failing square button, Kutaragi just said that it didn't matter, because the PSP was "the most beautiful thing".

      B) Sony just refused to fix PSPs with dead pixels. They said it was just natural with that kind of screens.

      They know their customers can be trated like shit. So, why it is so that they expect you to pay more for a movie in UMD than the same movie in DVD?

      STOP. BUYING. SONY.

  • Hooray (Score:3, Funny)

    by Winterblink ( 575267 ) on Sunday June 26, 2005 @01:05AM (#12912421) Homepage
    Maybe now the U in UMD might carry some significance, because right now it might as well be PMD for Proprietary Media Disc.

    • Wrong 'Universal' (Score:4, Informative)

      by Aero Leviathan ( 698882 ) on Sunday June 26, 2005 @01:20AM (#12912482) Journal
      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.

      • Re:Wrong 'Universal' (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward
        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.
        • Yes, most media are more compact than Compact Disks, 3.5" floppies aren't exactly floppy (which is why they are called stiffies in some parts of the world), etc. Would you prefer "Optical Medium #021" or something?

          • Re:Wrong 'Universal' (Score:1, Insightful)

            by Anonymous Coward
            Yes, most media are more compact than Compact Disks, 3.5" floppies aren't exactly floppy (which is why they are called stiffies in some parts of the world), etc. Would you prefer "Optical Medium #021" or something?

            The point is that CDs were more compact than the medium they replaced (LPs); DVDs were digital and more versatile than the media they replaced (Laserdisc, VHS, and some uses of CDs). UMD is not more "universal" than the media it's trying to compete with. That's the problem.
          • 3.5" floppies aren't exactly floppy (which is why they are called stiffies in some parts of the world)

            I'm pretty sure it's because the DISC (i.e. the cookie, the magnetic medium) is floppy. Hard disk platters are made of aluminum, now glass, decidedly unfloppy media.

            Also, the 8" and 5.25" discs that preceded the 3.5" floppy had flexible jackets, so the whole thing was pretty floppy, as you might recall.

      • The name works purely because Universal Studios has released a few things on UMD. Nuff said...
    • Well, the V in DVD hasn't really come true yet either. I've only been able to watch movies, play music and store data on the discs. I was looking for more Versatility, like chopping wood or frying eggs or something.
  • What exactly does standardizing this format do that wasn't already done? It appears that the PSP has been selling games perfectly fine while the disk was unstandardized. Does anyone have any insight as to what this organization can do?

  • WTF is UMD? (Score:4, Informative)

    by Mensa Babe ( 675349 ) on Sunday June 26, 2005 @01:11AM (#12912453) Homepage Journal
    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 [wikimedia.org]

    Picture 2 [wikimedia.org].

    More info [wikipedia.org].

    Editors: please add this links to the story. Thank you.
    • Someone revoke her MENSA membership. You're talking to the editors in comments? Even better, you're telling them to fix something?

      Please seek help.
    • Unlike the Minidisc, another proprietary Sony-developed format, blank media will not be commercially available, in order to avoid piracy

      If it is not commercially available it is not possible to create the disc contents. You probably mean they don't want to sell the empty discs to end users.

  • Too small (Score:3, Interesting)

    by XBL ( 305578 ) on Sunday June 26, 2005 @01:13AM (#12912463)
    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.
    • By double-density, I meant dual-layer. Oops, these are not floppies :-)
    • That's the medium the Gamecube uses, a portable Gamecube would be a wet dream for many Nintendo fanboys.
    • "And it's already standardized."

      And that's exactly why they're not using it. Sony Studios or any other MPAA member doesn't want to sell movies on a medium that can be easily reproduced.

      I'd say one of the reasons we're seeing such a big push for a new HD-DVD standard is the fact that we now have dual-layer DVD-Rs on the market.
  • DRM-encumbered format.

    let me be the first to say "fuck off and die"

    • Re:another.... (Score:3, Informative)

      by CokoBWare ( 584686 )
      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).

  • Remember the reason UMD is being accepted... (Score:3, Funny)

    by kc32 ( 879357 ) on Sunday June 26, 2005 @02:37AM (#12912727)
    Sony is allowing porn on it.
  • It seems as if the UMD will stay Sony only, at the moment. As in, not many other manufacturers and distributors will pick it up unless Sony offers them incentives to do so.

    Unless Sony make it clear what the UMD can do for other companies, their product will not become as popular as it potentially could

  • Sony Computer had shipped 2.97 mln PSP units by the end of March, and 5.70 mln units of game software for PSPs. This number is far below that of the sales of Nintendo Co Ltd's Nintendo DS portable game consoles, which reached 5.27 mln units over the same period.

    Does no one see anything fishy in those statistics? The PSP shipped on March 24th in the US, while the DS shipped in November. So of course the DS will have a better install base.

    In any case, I've heard a lot of whining hear about hte fact

  • Since it is now a standard, doesn't this mean that it will just let other companies make portable (and non-portable) movie players that use it?

    Therefore the people that would get a PSP just for the movies would just get a cheaper device that does not play game?

    Then again I suppose why would you buy a moive player when for a little more money you can get a good video game player too?

    I just dont see how sony will benifit from the UMD standard. Unless you somehow have to pay sony to make a UMD player/maker.

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