Universal Media Disc
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The Universal Media Disc (UMD) is an optical disc medium developed by Sony for use on the PlayStation Portable. It can hold up to 1.8 gigabytes of data, which can include games, movies, music, or a combination thereof.
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[edit] Overview
[edit] Specifications
ECMA-365: Data Interchange on 60 mm Read-Only ODC - Capacity: 1.8 GB (UMD™)[1]
- Dimensions: approx. 65 mm (W) × 64 mm (D) × 4.2 mm (H)
- Maximum capacity: 1.80 GB (dual layer), 900 MB (single-layer)
- Laser wavelength: 660 nm (red laser)
- Encryption: AES 128-bit
[edit] Regions
DVD-style region coding has been applied to most UMD movies, although this restriction mechanism is not enabled for game releases.
- Region 0: Worldwide (in-flight-movies, cinemas, ferries etc.)
- Region 1: United States, Canada
- Region 2: UK, Europe, Japan, Middle East, Egypt, South Africa, Greenland
- Region 3: Taiwan, South Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore
- Region 4: Australia, New Zealand, Pacific Islands, Mexico & South America
- Region 5: Russia, Eastern Europe, India, most of Africa, North Korea, Mongolia
- Region 6: China
[edit] Digital Rights Management
In an effort to combat piracy and maintain exclusive control, the UMD Disk format is proprietary, and neither blank media nor media writers are available to the public.
[edit] Applications
The primary application for UMD discs is as a storage medium for PSP games, although the format is also being used for the storage of motion pictures, and to a lesser degree, television shows for playback on the PSP. The video is encoded in the H.264/MPEG-4 AVC format, with the audio in ATRAC3plus.
The BBC began releasing a number of its TV titles on UMD in the UK, including The Office, Doctor Who and Little Britain.
Some adult films have been released on UMD in Japan[2]. Although Sony does not officially approve of such content, the enormous market in Japan for these releases is supporting the PSP's sales, and Sony has thus refrained from taking action[citation needed].
[edit] Circumvention
Despite Sony's best efforts, the UMD format has been cracked. Using a combination of insecure firmware and reverse engineering, the Sony PSP can now use a variety of homebrew games, and illegal copies of games and movies. Each disc uses a file system whose format follows the ISO 9660 standard. The ISO image can then be stored on a Memory Stick, and run via a special disc emulator program. The ISO images cannot be burned to UMD discs as UMD writables and burners are not available.
Sony has attempted to halt this type of exploitation by updating the firmware. Version 1.51 of the PSP firmware attempts to patch the exploit. Recent games also come with a 'software switch' that force users to update before the game can be played. This has also been circumvented: some applications for 1.50 report the firmware version as being more recent than it actually is, bypassing the need to update.
As of August 2005, the first batch of pirated UMD ISOs have reportedly been seen in Hong Kong for as little as HK $20 (less than US$3, €2 or £1.50).
Recently, however, Sony has prevented new games from working on an ISO loader. It is said that the firmware versions (2.00/2.01/2.50) each have specific PRXs that these newly released games call for, and former versions (1.00-1.52) do not, which would give an error message of 'FFFFFD3'. Several methods have been used to make 2.00 version games playable on the 1.5 version firmware with moderate success. Recently, an ISO loader for the PSP, Devhook, has managed to successfully emulate the 3.02 firmware, allowing 1.5 users to use the PSP's web browser, and execute games that require 3.02 and below.
[edit] Criticism
Although the UMD discs offer large capacity and the capability to store quality audio/video content, the format's proprietary nature and the unavailability of writers and blank media have spawned criticisms. Comparisons to Sony's unsuccessful MiniDisc format have brought forth further criticisms; for instance, the sliding shield which prevents direct disc contact on MiniDiscs is absent from all UMDs released to date, though it is an option according to the ECMA specification. [citation needed]
For security reasons, and to protect DVD sales, Sony has no plans to support UMD playback on normal televisions.[3] While the lack of this feature has little bearing on game sales, it has affected the sale of UMD format movies. To allow the PSP to output to a TV set requires either a third-party modification that requires the removal of the faceplate among other hardware modification, or a device such as the Nyko PSP-to-TV adapter that uses a CCD camera to display the PSP screen on a TV using RCA connectors. It has yet to be seen if such products will help poor UMD movie sales.
The smaller capacity of the UMD discs necessitates that bonus content from DVD releases be removed in large part or entirety before the movie is released on UMD for PSP playback. This has made the UMD movie releases a difficult sell in the face of affordable portable DVD players that can output to TV sets and can play the full-featured DVD releases. UMD movie pricing was also originally higher than DVD pricing, although UMDs have largely fallen to a reasonable price. Due to the slow sales of UMD movies, some retailers, such as Tower Records, began offering incentives on UMD purchases, such as 'buy one, get one free' deals.
In February 2006, Paramount Home Entertainment, Warner Home Video, and even Sony Pictures Home Entertainment announced that they were cutting back releases for the PSP, citing disappointing sales of about 50,000 per title. [4] In March 2006, Reuters reported that Wal-Mart was considering abandoning sales of the format, and that Universal Studios Home Entertainment and Image Entertainment had ceased production. [5] Other studios have reportedly reduced their commitment to the format as well.
In summer 2006, Target began pulling UMDs from shelves and replacing them with a section of independent movies selected by the Independent Film Channel. [citation needed] While not yet effective at all stores, the response from the corporation was that the UMDs will be shipped back to distribution centers to fulfill online orders through the Target website. [6] PSP games on UMD discs will be unaffected by this change and will still be carried by all Target stores.
In September 2006, a lower pricing led to a tenfold increase of sales in Japan, suggesting one of the main causes of slow sales was too high a price tag. [7]
[edit] References
- ^ Ecma International (June 2005). Data Interchange on 60 mm Read-Only ODC—Capacity: 1,8 Gbytes (UMD™) (PDF).
- ^ GameSpot Staff (June 2005). PSP procures porn in Japan.
- ^ Taylor, Jim, Johnson, Mark R.; Crawford, Charles G. [2006]. DVD Demystified, third edition, McGraw-Hill: New York, 9:71.
- ^ Sony PSP UMD movie sales not so hot – Mobilemag
- ^ "Sony's UMD facing last rites", Reuters
UMD about to be ditched by Wal-Mart? – Engadget - ^ UMDs shipped back to Target distribution centers - Video Business
- ^ UMD price drop leads to sales jump in Japan – Engadget
[edit] External links
- The Digital Bits Guide to UMD Movies including a list of movies available on UMD
- UMD Talk contains UMD articles, news & resources.
- Sony PSP Movie Sales Strong Article on the (shortlived) early success of movie sales on UMD from MP3 Newswire
- Breaking news: Sony's UMDs aren't selling well News story about the disappointing UMD sales.
- PSP Losing Movies
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