Universal Media Disc
The Universal Media Disc (UMD) is a discontinued optical disc medium developed by Sony for use on its PlayStation Portable handheld gaming and multimedia platform. It can hold up to 1.8 gigabytes of data and is capable of storing video games, feature-length films, and music. UMD is the trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment for their optical disk cartridge (ODC).[1][2]
Video storage format[edit]
While the primary application for UMD discs is as a storage medium for PSP games, the format is also 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 or PCM. Video stored on UMD is typically encoded in 720×480 resolution, but is scaled down when displayed on the PSP. To date there are around 1500 films released on UMD (around 1000 are common for all regions and around 500 are region exclusives).
The American punk rock band The Offspring released their Complete Music Video Collection on the format.[3] The BBC released a number of its programmes on UMD in the UK, including The Office, The Mighty Boosh, Doctor Who and Little Britain. WWE also released some wrestler highlights and documentary content on UMD format, such as The Monday Night War, Jake "The Snake" Roberts: Pick Your Poison, and WWE Raw Homecoming (a special episode of WWE Raw celebrating the return to USA Network); the only WWE pay-per-view released on UMD format was WrestleMania XXIV.[4]
Tupac's performance, Live at the House of Blues, was also released on the UMD, which also included several music videos, including Hit 'Em Up.[5][6]
Some adult films have been released on UMD in Japan.[7]
Availability and support[edit]
UMDs offer large capacity and the capability to store quality audio/video content; however, the format's proprietary nature and the lack of writers and blank media made adoption difficult. The UMD format never saw implementation on any device other than the PlayStation Portable, and as a result the market was very limited compared to those for other optical media formats. Buyers were generally put off by the high price of UMD releases, which often retailed at comparable prices to but lacked the extra content found on DVDs. Poor sales of UMD movies early in the format's life caused major studios like Universal and Paramount to rescind their support.[9][10] Retail support of the format experienced similar troubles, and in 2006 Wal-Mart began phasing out shelf space devoted to UMD movies, with other chains soon following suit. By 2006 most non-specialty retail stores had stopped bringing in new UMD movies and no longer had a separate section devoted to them, with a few stray unsold titles mixed in among the regular PSP games.[11]
In late 2009, Sony began pushing developers away from the UMD format and towards digital distribution on the PlayStation Network in preparation for the launch of the digital-download-only PSP Go, which was the first (and only) PSP model to not include a UMD drive.[12] However the system experienced lackluster sales compared to previous models, with most consumers still choosing the UMD-compatible PSP-3000 model, which continued to be sold alongside the PSP Go.[13][14] Despite the earlier push for PlayStation Network releases around the PSP Go's launch, over half of the PSP's library was only ever available in UMD format including Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII and Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, though there have been a few PlayStation Network–only releases since the PSP Go's launch, such as LocoRoco Midnight Carnival. Still, most new games continued to be distributed via UMD, and, aside from those published by SCE, not all have been released on PlayStation Network. In 2011, the PSP-E1000, a budget PSP model with a UMD slot but without Wi-Fi (and thus no internet connectivity), was released, and is the final revision of the PlayStation Portable.
Since 2011 , there have been no more movies released on the UMD, After the PS Vita Release.
The successor of the PlayStation Portable, the PlayStation Vita, dropped the Universal Media Disc support in 2011, March 21 in move similar to the PSP Go Discontuation, focusing instead on digital downloads and opting for low-profile flash-based media for its retail software. 2014 marked the discontinuation of the PlayStation Portable, which rendered UMDs are no longer avilaivable on the PSP,due to the Region Lock, which began in 2014, November 17.
UMD can be dumped into normal disc image files (.iso or .cso), using a cracked PSP for the optical drive. This file can be loaded by a cracked PSP or PS Vita from a MemoryStick, using a hacked version of the game download functionality. Sony are shutting down their online servers in 2019, January 18. They are also ending their Virtual Shop in 2022.