Everyone Hates UMD 275
PSP-Fanboy writes "More bad news for the UMD, which is already dying a speedy death at retail: not only are stores not stocking them, but no one really wants to buy UMD movies either. Although 40% of PSP owners claimed UMD media was a big reason why they plopped down a few hundred on Sony's pixel-spurting game brick, the complaint from actual owners is there just isn't anything worth goddamn buying on UMD."
What's new? (Score:5, Insightful)
That's the same situation as is happening with recently released DVDs... coincidence? I think not.
UMD writers (Score:5, Insightful)
cause and effect (Score:3, Insightful)
Wow, how strange... (Score:5, Insightful)
PSP in general was just a huge mistake (Score:5, Insightful)
All the way through the leadup to the PSP the gaming press was falling all over themselves to fawn over the PSP, predicting glory and conquest for their new handheld overlord. Sony said the PSP would change everything for the handheld market, and the press believed it. Then the PSP came out and it was mostly a dud; the thing didn't get any games worth playing for nearly a year, the sales weren't even high enough to outsell the GBA week to week in America, and an awful lot of the things Sony promised just plain never panned out. Meanwhile in the Japanese market, embarassingly enough, the gimmicky, ugly little Nintendo DS wound up turning into a market revolution bigger than even the PSP's wildest dreams. As the months passed after launch and the PSP increasingly failed to take over the world, the gaming press began to get a bit embarrassed. They began to realize, in the runup to the PSP launch, how many times Sony had lied to them-- and, more importantly, they realized they'd been made to look like fools.
I think the PS3 coverage has just been one extended backlash from the media for the way Sony used them. Because the PS3 coverage has been if anything the polar opposite of the PSP. The gaming media for the last year or so has bought absolutely none of Sony's hype, and has focused only on the downsides of the PS3-- and if there aren't enough negative things to report about the PS3, they just make some up. The gaming press is gunning for the PS3 to fail just as hard as they once gunned for the PSP to succeed.
Meanwhile the UMD has been an even bigger disaster for Sony's public relations. Sony is, this year, attempting to promote a media format which is absolutely vital for their future success, the Blu-Ray. Unfortunately they're doing this right on the heels of the unmitigated disaster that was the UMD format. Sony's doing everything right with the Blu-Ray that they did wrong with the UMD; they have actual studio support, the blu-rays will be playable on devices of a wide variety of types and from a wide variety of vendors, and there is clear differentiation with the format the Blu-Ray intends to replace. But the public is seeing all this happen right on the heels of seeing the laughingstock that was the short, sad life of the UMD. And since UMD is still clearly in their minds, the public is seeing Blu-Ray colored through the lens of the UMD venture-- and many of them are expecting Blu-Ray to meet the same messy fate. That's a problem. With something like Blu-Ray, a public perception of failure can become a self-fulfilling prophesy.
I keep wondering how public perception of the Blu-Ray and PS3 would have been different had the PSP just never happened.
Eh, I don't think so (Score:5, Insightful)
I think if you check with those people again, the REAL reason those 40% bought a PSP was PORTABLE media, not UMD specifically. DVD's are a bit unwieldy to carry and you certainly can't get a dvd player that small. It's about the convenience of a media device that size, not the format.
If there were an open media format with a multitude of player in that size, I think you'd find a LOT more takers.
Add in the ability to write that media at will and you've got a hit on your hands. (After the teething phase, of course.)
As a side note, DVD format suffered from other teething problems like 'low volume' and such. The real 'feature' was an amazing audio range, but that translated into 'too low/too high' audio when played back in any normal setting.
UMD Movies? Yeah. (Score:4, Insightful)
Atleast Sony added a flash-memory option to the PSP. I can rip and rerip to my hearts content. Even more... uh... well... stuff that you can't find on a UMD in the states.
If you're on a train, or a bus, or in the back seat of a car, the PSP is an awesome little gadget for a few hours of entertainment. Battlestar looks nice on it.
Sony did royally flub up though, with the whole UMD thing. If they really wanted it to take off, DVD->UMD USB converter + writable UMD discs would be a godsend.
Never gonna happen, though.
Biggest problem (Score:5, Insightful)
Why would anyone pay 30 bucks for a movie that you con only play on that little screen?
UMD as a game-format isn't a bad idea - every portable game system has it's own format.
Re:Eh, I don't think so (Score:5, Insightful)
Hate me for pointing out a MS product, but a PDA running PocketPC with a worldwide standard flash memory card (many flavours to choose from, SD, CF, etc) will play many different media formats and will play games. Heck, the latest devices have DirectX acceleration on them.
Re:Wow, how strange... (Score:3, Insightful)
Killier App of Movies/Video and the PSP (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Eh, I don't think so (Score:4, Insightful)
I think if you check with those people again, the REAL reason those 40% bought a PSP was PORTABLE media, not UMD specifically.
This is one of those results you get from interpreting polls. They probably asked people something like "did the ability to play movies on your PSP have a positive influence on your decision to buy one", or something like that with checkboxes. 40% of people said, sure, it seemed a pretty nice idea to also have that option. This then is translated to "40% claims it was a big reason". But 40% of PSP owners weren't looking for a media player. They were looking for a tiny assed playstation 1, which would get a zillion games (basically the PS 1 catalog) ported to it. If it plays movies, all the better. Sadly neither of these two scenarios really played out.
Don't blame UMD (Score:5, Insightful)
Crap stays crap. No matter how high the resolution.
Re:PSP in general was just a huge mistake (Score:3, Insightful)
Memory stick killed UMD for me... (Score:5, Insightful)
Blockbuster had UMD movies on sale not too long ago, but I just walked on by. I had them on all DVD anyway.
Re:PSP in general was just a huge mistake (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Was it necessary to use the Lord's name in vane (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:UMD writers and Reader (Score:4, Insightful)
Even if I can purchase a new movie in UMD, what's the point since I can't watch it on anything else than the PSP.
Note that I'm not asking specifically for an external player, but you cannot even plug the PSP on the TV !
So, what does that leave me with ? I can by on UMD the movies I can only watch alone which are the one I generally rent
I takes years to create a new format. Years for the public to become aware of it, years for movies to come out on it, years before blockbuster stock them
Even more generally... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Was it necessary to use the Lord's name in vane (Score:3, Insightful)
1. I'm not religious in any way, shape or form.
2. I curse like a sailor.
3. Other people cursing doesn't bother me.
4. I felt that 'goddamn' was inappropriate in the article summary. Probably because it was unnecessary.
5. (Not for you so much) It's VAIN. V-A-I-N.
Re:What's new? (Score:4, Insightful)
I work in film. Statistics show that most people become far more discriminating as far as their film tastes go as they get older. The sentiment is always inevitably ushered forth: movies are getting worse, etc.
I can roughly gauge your age by what you claim you and your friends have done as far as home theaters are concerned. Film is a cyclical business. What this means is that the same kind of films are done over and over again. Universal themes are reintroduced to new generations. Once a person reaches an age when they experience the commencement of another cycle, the new iteration is matched against the original - which holds a place in heart and memory, no doubt. The new iteration cannot win. This is why Hollywood spends it's money appealing to those who are experiencing the cycle for the first time, and the young at heart. If Hollywood spent any considerable amounts of cash trying to please you and those who utter what you say - the business would be sunk.
The UMD didn't fail because of the quality of movies. It failed because it was yet another format to keep trakc of - a format incompatible with all else. Convergence is the dog's bollocks here. Not another format.
People aren't going to less movies because of the quality. It's because there's so much else to do. With some initative, $500, and some good pot, I can produce a really interesting movie that I can share with the world. Everyone is getting their 15 picoseconds of fame, or playing WOW or languishing in the throes of porn addiction, or posting on slashdot, or watching one of 500 available channels, or sending pictures of one's dong to prospective fuck buddies (a personal favorite).
In short, movie quality is always poor to older people. But the quality of everything is always poor to older people. IT has nothing to do with the actual quality of the product but the nature of memory that paints everything in the past with rosy tint. It probably wasn't that rosy the first time around.
It's a lame lament. If you feel that it's that bad, go cop some good hydro, get wasted and watch it again. Don't forget what it meant to be a kid and enjoy yourself. Trust me.
Re:Was it necessary to use the Lord's name in vane (Score:1, Insightful)
Honestly, yeah, it's fun to see you fucking idiots get worked up over something so stupid. Consider it payback for sticking the rest of us with that monkey idiot George W. Bush.
Jesus isn't real, and you goddamn (oh noes!) idiots need to wake the fuck up, or at least stop voting. Your religion is just as wrong as everyone else's (although at least some of the eastern religions don't make people kill each other). You have no idea how stupid a church service looks to anyone with an ounce of reason. It's like a fucking rain dance.
Yeah, I'm an asshole for saying this. But at least my worldview isn't based on an ancient, crackpot, self-contradictory book.
UMD's just cost too much! Period! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:What's new? (Score:3, Insightful)
Couldn't have said it better myself. Wish you hadn't AC'd that, because that's a perfect description of most nostalgia that goes on around this site...
And the whole "The past 10 years have had NO good movies" arguments made below is pure crap. The past 5 years have had more excellent comic book movies combined than all of film history. Hell, they're not just "excellent comic book movies," some of them are simply excellent movies. And while I'll admit that the "Best Pictures" of the last few years do not stack up to some of the past ones (Crash, Chicago and American Beauty are no Schindler's List or Godfather Part II), but if you look at every decade, there are always a few years of "decent movies getting a break in a relaxed year" (Rocky I, The English Patient, Greatest Show on Earth).
Plus, there is little doubt we are living through a 2nd Golden Age of television. The number of HIGH-QUALITY shows in the 00's (including some premiering in late 90s) has been amazing: 24, Alias, Sopranos, Sex & The City, Firefly, Lost, King of the Hill, Family Guy, Grey's Anatomy, Smallville, West Wing (when it was good), etc.