Recordable UMD?

[London Geezer]

Right, this came up on another thread, and instead of going off topic there, i thought this deserved its own thread...

What are the possibilities that PSP will feature recording capabilities, so that a normal DVD movie can be recorded on UMD (maybe converted in MPEG4 format) to be viewed on-the-go??

I think Sony should consider this, i would definately buy the thing just for this features. Of course they will have to assess the risk, in line with copyright laws and piratery... But i see it feasible.

What do people around here think?

(not sure this has been discussed and resolved already...)

 

[ChryZ]

UMD - Universal Media Disc:
* Ultimate Portable Disc for SD System *
- 60mm
- Laser Diode: 660nm
- Dual Layer : 1.8GB
- Transfer Rate: 11Mbps
- Shock Proof
- Secure ROM by AES
- Unique Disc ID

I doubt UMD will be recordable. ROM (read-only-memory) and AES indicate strong DRM measures. If the PSP is heading in the same direction like Sony's current mpeg4-recordables, then you'll be able to playback mpeg4 from a MemoryStick. They released a few month ago a small mpeg4 vcr, that records via analog signal to MemoryStick for PDA usage/playback.

 

[London Geezer]

I think they should consider that possibility. UMD could become what MD never was...

 

[Panajev2001a]

I think they want to sell it to the Movie and Music companies as the latest advance in piracy protection and allowing MPEG4 AVC playback from Memory Stick modules ( they seem to be supporting the Pro model, which can go .1GB ) together with ATRAC3 Music ( and possibly MP3 ) will allow people to play their imported videos and music on the PSP.

If I remember correctly PSP's VME supports AAC format for music which is the same one iTunes supports.

this would make sense as Sony announced in the past they had intention of offering the same kind of service as what we know as iTunes or the "new Napster": selling songs on-line for like $0.99 per song.

They could do similar things to what Apple does with the iPOD: if you want to take the song downloaded from the online service to your portable device, it has to be a device that reads the file format you downloaded ( iTunes files are .m4p which can be only directly exported to either the iPod or you can burn them onto CDs as standard CD track ).

Probably a model like the NetMD will be chosen: you cannot get out stuff from the Memory Stick unless you created that data in the Memory Stick itself through for example a camera add-on.

 

[London Geezer]

But isn't it a waste of resources? I mean they have UMD on PSP, why use the Memory stick? UMD is going to be much cheaper than a 1GB Mem Stick...

 

[Panajev2001a]

You save games on Memory Stick and you do not need a 1 GB one... MiniDisc can hold like 128 MB or something like that ?

With MPEG4 ( the lower than TV screen resolution [on a smaller monitor than your 27'' TV too ] ) and ATRAC3 you will be able to store a decent amount of video and music even on relatively small Memory Stick modules.

UMDs should not be too expensive and should be the solution you choose for new movies and music with the Memory Stick that allows you to expand the PSP's multi-media capabilities.

 

[notAFanB]

With MPEG4 ( the lower than TV screen resolution [on a smaller monitor than your 27'' TV too ] ) and ATRAC3 you will be able to store a decent amount of video and music even on relatively small Memory Stick modules.

I'm guessing at around 128MB you could probably fit around 2hr of moderate quality video.

 

[GHost]

MD is 140MB, if someone is interested in the technology here is a good site to visit. It's advantage is it's price, you can quite easy have 100 of them just for ~$200 or something, and that's 13.5G, portable, durable (no HD or flash can stand what my MDs have been trough...), 1000000 re-recordings supported by specification... with DRM implemented long before it got it's name, if that's a concern. Now if Sony can keep that outstanding price performance a rewritable UMD would be a killer. BTW I somehow assumed (and am still hoping) this is the case from the beginning, being one of the happy MD-owners...

 

[Paul]

Sony will release Memory sticks specifically for PSP to be sold in a Video game store.

Although you can always use a regular memory stick, however the PSP ones will be somewhat cheaper and will come in a certain size, probably 32mb.

 

[London Geezer]

Well i think it's a waste of opportunity... UMDs can hold much more than memory sticks and are much cheaper (assuming the disc-based cheapness is kept, which i assume it will)...
If i were Sony i would use that to bring MANY more customers in than they would with the lame Memory stick idea... I mean, they have a disc that holds more than 1GB of data, and they want us to use a 32M Mem Stick?

Doesn't make sense, given the potential... MD never became what Sony wanted it to be, still it was pretty successful. UMD could be MD successful successor.....

 

[Panajev2001a]

Well i think it's a waste of opportunity... UMDs can hold much more than memory sticks and are much cheaper (assuming the disc-based cheapness is kept, which i assume it will)...
If i were Sony i would use that to bring MANY more customers in than they would with the lame Memory stick idea... I mean, they have a disc that holds more than 1GB of data, and they want us to use a 32M Mem Stick?

Doesn't make sense, given the potential... MD never became what Sony wanted it to be, still it was pretty successful. UMD could be MD successful successor.....

MD was murdered by the fact that early $200 players could not record music from computers or stereos and you needed MD writer module in the Stereo.

MD left a sour taste to many people right at the beginning because of its cost and the fact that basically nothing was coming out for MD: no content sold in MD in stores basically.

NetMD now is a great tool as it answers very well to the needs of those who want portable MP3 players and in Japan at least it is doing very well.

Still, I do not think that UMD needs to be re-writeable right away; DVD was not when it was launched and neither was the CD when it launched.

 

[Panajev2001a]

Also, Sony would not force you to 32 MB Memory Stick modules ( btw, Samsung and other people are starting to produce more and more Memory Stick modules so the over-all price should fall in the next year before PSP's launch ) as you can use up to >1GB Memory Stick Pro modules.

I know they are more expensive, but Content Providers feel safer if you ask them to release content on Read-Only discs rather than Re-Writeable ones ( they have Read-only versions of Blu-Ray and HD-DVD/AOD after-all ).

 

[Deadmeat]

....

I think Sony should consider this, i would definately buy the thing just for this features.

Kutaragi Ken explicitly stated that there won't be UMD-R to please hollywood executives.

Hell, the PSP won't even have a digital out for security reasons, so why do you expect to see a UMD-R???

 

[Paul]

There will be no UMD-R or RW.

Memory stick suits the need fine.

 

[hey69]

memory sticks costs to much
I believe they are the most expensive memorycards at the moment.

for that reason alone, i don't plan to buy a fotocamera made by Sony

 

[akira888]

Re: ....

I think Sony should consider this, i would definately buy the thing just for this features.

Kutaragi Ken explicitly stated that there won't be UMD-R to please hollywood executives.

Hell, the PSP won't even have a digital out for security reasons, so why do you expect to see a UMD-R???

To be honest if I was a third party game vendor I would not be elated to see UMD-R(W) either - to to say that this is done to appease Hollywood is a little much.

 

[marconelly!]

Hell, the PSP won't even have a digital out for security reasons, so why do you expect to see a UMD-R???

Perhaps there will be a digital audio out? I'm assuming they need something like that if the device supports 7.1 audio channels. Then again, that would imply there needs to be some kind of video out too. Perhaps something equivalent to what PS2 can output? (RCA/S-Video/Component)

 

[Deadmeat]

...

to to say that this is done to appease Hollywood is a little much.

You can pretty much tell when Kutaragi mostly talks about watching movies on PSP and how PSP is going to be the next walkman, etc. I don't recall that Kutaragi even mentioned gaming; it wasn't high on Kutaragi's priorities.

Perhaps there will be a digital audio out?

That would compromise the security of UMD audio discs.

Again, Kutaragi has gone to a great length to please Hollywood executives and music labels; this means no digital output, no PC UMD drive, no UMD-R, heavy encycription, etc. And this probably is what is required of a new media format to entice hollywood and record executives tired of battling MP3 and DivX downloaders.

 

[marconelly!]

That would compromise the security of UMD audio discs.

Hmm, good point, but I kinda don't see the point of 7.1 audio if some earbuds are all that you'll be using for listening.

In any case, I'd imagine they will let you download songs from the albums you own like they already do if you buy CDs.

 

[ShinHoshi]

It would be great if you could use the Memory Stick just to run some emus on PSP. A SNES emu would be perfect.