Wal-Mart to cease UMD movie sale |
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New retail reports indicate Wal-Mart may drop UMD movies from their shelves soon, further increasing the crisis of the short-lived format.
Not even a year after UMD movies reached their economical peak, more and more Hollywood studios such as Universal and Paramount are pulling out of the market again as sales are going down drastically.
"One unnamed president of a major studio is quoted as saying, "No one's watching movies on PSP. It's a game player, period."
Rumors of a few months ago stated Sony wanted to emphasize the multimedia side of it's handheld even more. But what's it going to mean for Sony in light of this trend will be an interesting issue to follow.
19 Jumps Custom firmware 5.50GEN-D now out
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Comments [refresh]
maybe if sony found a way to make them cheaper than DVD's they would have abit more of a chance,i own a couple and find them handy, but at the current cost i can't see myself having any kind of a "collection", maybe their hoping the movie download service they talked about will save their ass
Yep - 21 Pounds for Potter? No 'effin way dude! 6.99 for the manga titles! That more like it... I have all of those. Come on Sony - We don't pay >$15 for DVD's so please don't pretend UMD's are worth more.
Exactly. Sony and the rest of them need to wise up and sell the movies for $10 US Dollars each -- at most. $20+ for an old movie? Hell no.
Too bad -- I found UMD movies quite handy on long vacations.
yeah I would rather copy to memory stick to save money and keep the idea of portability. I only wish sony would have provided alot more affordable memory space like ipod has. Does anyone know a good way to store lots of mp4 files online for personal use without having to share them and risk someone getting upset do to copy right laws?
And why would you buy a UMD when you can just buy the DVD and rip it to your mem stick?
If UMDs were cheaper, then maybe there would be a reason to buy them.
cuz people want that DVD jam packed with all those extras, not to mention, they can watch it on a big screen, not just ther PSP
And liek the guy above me, Its easier to just rip it to your mem stick, sure not as good quality, but UMD videos arent that great
Maybe if all UMD movie were like the Stewie Griffin Story UMD, which had all those cool extras and stuff, then UMDs woudl live longer
nocomment
I have not bought one UMD. The only reason I would was if it came bundled with the DVD, like they're planning. For jsut a few bucks more I get a UMD version? Sure. But to pay almost the same price for a UMD as the DVD with no features? Ahhh.. no.
I'll stick with ripping my movies and putting them on the memory stick until the bundles start coming out.
how did they not know this would flop? - minidisk anyone? - on the plus side maybe we'll soon see slashed prices on umds
It's sad that the PSP has come to this. It is such an awsome system yet it has so many problems.
Yes I'm 44 today own a PSP with 2GIG mem stick, 99% its used for watching movies mainly from memory stick , UMD's a far to expensive, I hope the new firmware lets me watch more formats though ( AVI, MPG etc). What a toy and got it free as well...
well, this doesn't particularily surprise me. WE all know the PSP wont die, so this is GOOD! (Price cuts)
I still put movies on my mem stick and enjoy them so...
Pas de probleme!
"It's sad that the PSP has come to this. It is such an awsome system yet it has so many problems."
Not so much problems, just Sony attempting to make money in non-existant markets.
I agree with the other posters though, why pay so much to get a movie on a tiny screen when you can rip and encode a movie from DVD onto your PSP.
Check out http://play247.com loads of cheap UMD's for Ā£6.99
i actually like UMDs, i have more of them than games. with the current crop of games being so poor, i find UMD movies a lot lot better. i think its worth paying the price just for the portibility. im against the whole ripping thing, since it takes up huge amounts of space on the memory stick that, to me, is better used for music.
MAKE THEM CHEAPER YOU RETARDS
I'd buy more of them is they were cost-effective; but $14.99-$29.99 for a movie that's only playable on the PSP??? Yet another example of clueless, over-paid executives making the important decisions...
Seriously, if UMD movies were $9.99 or less, they'd capture a much larger audience; until that point, then forget it. I'm just in awe that no-one at Sony has taken this approach.
umds are crap.
who would want to spend that amount of cash to watch a movie on a tiny screen?
who pays for dvd's these days anyways
too many spoilt kids in the psp scene
many of which are seen here.
I live in Poland and I've to say that UMDs have 3-times even 4-times higher price than DVD here!! That's ridiculous! I'd love to buy some UMDs but they even don't have the price level of DVD and should be at least 10% cheaper then regular DVDs. As we say in my country: āthere wonāt be any bread from that flourā They must reduce prices of UMDs if they still want to sell them. PSP to TV (video out) connection, they mentioned some time ago, also would bring some positive effect I guess.
No, people don't want to fork out 30 dollars for what amounts to a bare bones cd.
I watch a hell of alot of video on my psp..and none of it was umd
No, people don't want to fork out 30 dollars for what amounts to a bare bones cd.
I watch a hell of alot of video on my psp..and none of it was umd
UMDs by themselves are not worth it. But remember the news a whole ago, that Sony was going to release DVD+UMD combos:
http://pspupdates.qj.net/2006/02/umds-to-be-bundled-with-dvd-blu-ray.html
They probably should have done that sooner. I'd love to pick some of those up (in fact, I need to check the stores to see if they actually came out last tuesday). But buying a UMD alone for the prices they were charging? Not a chance. A DVD is a much more practicle format, more valuable. UMD is a nitch thing. It'd be nice to be able to grab 'em for ~$5 each, get a movie that I can almost watch on the go (dang PSP battery life), but it's not something I'd watch very often.
there are a lot of quality movies but they are too expensive. if they reduced the price they could make a killing.. i think its great that we didnt go out and buy them.. by not buying we sdhowed what we are willing to pay for and what we are not willing to pay.. if they put them all on sale for 9.99 or less i would buy several because at this point memory sticks are too expensive and too small to fit my movies and home brew... im waiting for a 4gb solution.. hopefully bigger
yeah, there is only 1 reason why UMD movies don't take off...
you pay MORE but you get LESS...
compared to DVDs; why would i pay more for a lower-resolution movie that's been cropped for a different screen (film purists balk at such modifications with good reason) AND has little to no "extras"?
simply, i wouldn't and most consumers agree. no amount of "portability" outweighs that fact.
drop the price appropriately
The price isnt the real problem, its morel ike the selection of movies and the popularity. They are converting popular titles that people already own on DVD and they dont give any incentive for people to purchase the UMD.
Extras arent worth the heavy price tag. They need to combine movies in media packs so people buy more then 1 UMD at a time. US is having problems but overseas they dont seem to.
Also people who convert videos have done so and if you own the dvd why buy to watch it in higher qualuty then a lower quality is just fine.
UMD's are too expensive, Sony release some old movies for them as well. So you end up paying Ā£Ā£Ā£ $$$ for crappy old films.
For 5$ a UMD, i'd be in Walmart every weekend buying movies. Even duplicates of ones i already have on DVD. Make the UMD movies cheap and everyone would buy them even non-PSP users. Home UMD players would be in demand, and Sony could have a chance to make another killing.
Pardon my cowardice,
I watch movies on my PSP all the time (traveling for work/ waiting anywhere... etc.). I watch more movies than I play games. I have yet to purchase a single UMD movie though (not counting the one that came with my PSP's). The cost is absurd. I buy the DVD and copy it to a memory card. The quality is not as good but at least I'm not getting taken like a fool. $ony needs to wake t. f. up!!
They also need to stop trying to prevent homebrew. I am new to the homebrew scene (as of my first PSP purchase date). As a newb to this scene, it seems to me that most of the homebrewers are not in it to pirate games/movies/music but rather to get the most out of their purchase. IR shell/Commander, PSP Radio, PSP Rhythm, PSP PDA, WiFi Sniffer, PSP uo_YDICT_060108 and the like are all really great programs IMO.
I wish I had the money to support all these homebrewers (i will be donating in a couple of paychecks when I can afford it). If not for the homebrew scene I would have returned my first PSP and never bought the second one. Homebrew sells the device. I personally know of at least 10 people who ran out to buy a PSP after witnessing what I was running on mine!!
So once again Wake up $ony!!! Your products are usually great. I've owned 3 PS2's, all of my tv's are $ony (the HD one was far from cheap) , two PSP's, a car and home audio set up, as well as cameras and more. Some of the only things I own that aren't $ony are my Bose headphones ($ony's noise cancelling headphones were weak).
THE LEAST YOU CAN DO IS SELL US UMD MOVIES AT A FAIR RATE!!! It's not like I couldn't just download it for free and screw $ony and the movie studio's not owned by them out of any money at all as I'm sure many people do.
A.J.
Thanks to all of those who Homebrew programs. you are the best.
Ya know, it's like I always say, if they WERE NOT restricted by so many laws and regulations, then sony WOULD be adding much better features. In this day and age people get sued on a daily basis, it's practically a lucrative way of making money for some. Just look at this sorry company taking Sony to court for using what they claim is THEIR technology ( BS!! ) . So what does sony have to do ? They have to redesign their controllers just to appease some lil weazels who want to cash in on SOny's success. So really, it's not stupidity on Sony's part. They just have to jump through so many hoops just to get stuff out the front door. I don't blame them for making their own proprietary design and having a go at it . If it doesn't work then hey, back to the drawing board. I don't see this in anyway Sony's fault none-the-less, and I at least commend them on their effort . Whatever they come out with in the futrure probably won't be eye popping spectacular, b ut I don't ANYTHING will please you lil whining bit##es anyway, so why bother :P..lol?
Also, 90% of what WAL-MART SELLS is crap too, are you gonna go somewhere and trash Wal-Mart too, and then where?? I mean WTF is going to TRULY satisfy you whining sniveling lil twits anyway??? GROW THE F##K UP AND GET A LIFE, CUZ IT GETS OLD COMING HERE AND SEEING YOU COMPLAIN!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!
with memory sticks getting larger why would people buy umd movies. $ony can't milk the cash cow forever.
Yep lower the Price and they would sell, on the upside I hope Walmart dumps them for $5.00 each and Sony finally allows for 480x272 encoding with a FW Revision..
Walmart won't dump them, they'll sell them back to the suppliers.
No wonder they are not selling very well.... about Ā£15 per UMD Movie which can only be watched on a small PSP Screen!!!???!!... Would rather buy a DVD so I could watch it on a big screen and even convert it to put on the Mem Stick!!..
Drop the price of a UMD Film to Ā£2 each and then they will see sales go Well up :)
Man, I just read the same comment like 30 times! You people sound like a broken record!
However, I can't really add anything because there is only one major theme here: UMD MOVIES JUST PLAIN SUCK. =)
lol ^^^^^^
whoever poted that is definately a sony fanboy.
i got 1 umd which is the free spiderman 2 umd lol ;)
i would buy umds but i cant find good ones i got a 1.5 and use pmpmod so i get near umd quality movies through my mem stick which is 2gb, and im planing to get a 4 gig later, but it is true umds are expensive compared to dvd's maybe bundles or cheaper umds will make sells go up
p.s you shouldent be fanboys/girls you should try everything.....
sony is just being stupid trying to force their useless media format onto the consumers. they have already failed doing so with betamax and minidiscs. umd movies are going to fail the way it is. i seriously hope sony doesn't fail with blu-ray and ps3 though, cuz blu-ray actually seems useful.
When are you going to realize that the reason why everything is going wrong with UMDs are the price.
You are trying to make the same amount of money off of UMDs as DVDs which is not possible considering your offering less in features for more dollars.
You've already ripped us off with double and triple dipping for the uber edition of the dvd that should have been released in the first place instead of a barebones, non-anamorphic transfer then you release a better version 6 months later, and finally a Superbit version gets released.
UMDs are not DVDs and you should understand that not everyone is a sucker in technology. You've already made your money back with the original dvd release of a movie, not to mention the theater boxoffice. You should try to break even approach to get everyone not to rip dvds but to enjoy and get addicted to UMDs.
I have alot of games and alot of movies... Eventually there will be an adaptor for the PSP from SONY for the play back on TV. The exec that said the PSP is only a gaming platform is an idoit. It does much much more than play games.
i mean i understand in theory why they are so expensive: the licensing is the expensive part, regardless of the picture quality. but, sony really should have found a way to negotiate a better price a LONG time ago. especially now that universal is pulling out, the UMD movie is dead and most likely irrecoverable.
stupid execs - what idiots - I spelled it right this time.
@++good
Sony wouldn't do that because UMDs were never meant to replace DVD, that's Blu-Rays job. I do think that people would go for the bundle though, I would.
If Sony released some sort of UMD-RW that you could burn multiple times using a reader/writer (similar to one used for memory sticks that you don't have to install inside your computer), then they could prolong the use of the discs.
If they opened up an online shop like iTunes for movies that you could download and burn onto your UMD-RW for a discounted price, then they could have a massive audience.
It's too bad that Sony execs never think this way though.
the whole reason that they are pulling umd movies because they are soo damn easy to steal. My homie jacks that stuff everytime hes at target wallmart and sells them for like 5 bucks each. If they secure it like the games it would probly sell better.
"i mean i understand in theory why they are so expensive: the licensing is the expensive part" - I dont get it... Licensing of the UMD format?, or the Movie? Why the vast price range Ā£6.99 -> Ā£25.99+ ??? Okay - the Manga films are not as high quality as say *cough* Potter... (Not a fan) By why th Ā£19 difference? Good quailty transcoding only needs to happen once! - Come on SONY - I know you're reading this... Give a statement!!! SAVE THE FORMAT!!! (Regards, Author of PSP Renderware.)
and they'll do fine
If UMD movies were a lot cheaper as some said, about $5 each that would be great. It would also be very great if Sony released that much spoken of PSP-to-TV device, so UMDs could be viewed on a TV. However, as good as that sounds, I am sure the resolution and quality would suffer from the transision of a UMD resolution to a TV.
Honestly, I cant help it but how DID nobody notice that they would fail? I've seen a UMD movie for 40$. Thats the biggest pile of **** ever.
Umds should be cheaper but, I like the idea of watching movies on the go with my psp and I don't want umds to be another failure for sony. But every good thing must come to an end.