The Universal Media Disc (UMD) is a discontinued

optical disc An optical disc is a flat, usuallyNon-circular optical discs exist for fashion purposes; see shaped compact disc. disc-shaped object that stores information in the form of physical variations on its surface that can be read with the aid o ...

medium developed by

Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...

for use on its

PlayStation Portable The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 12, 2004, in North America on March 24, 2005, and in PA ...

handheld gaming and

multimedia Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms, such as Text (literary theory), writing, Sound, audio, images, animations, or video, into a single presentation. T ...

platform. It can hold up to 1.8

gigabyte The gigabyte () is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. The SI prefix, prefix ''giga-, giga'' means 109 in the International System of Units (SI). Therefore, one gigabyte is one billion bytes. The unit symbol for the gigabyte i ...

s of data and is capable of storing video games, feature-length films, and music. UMD is the

trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a form of intellectual property that consists of a word, phrase, symbol, design, or a combination that identifies a Good (economics and accounting), product or Service (economics), service f ...

Sony Computer Entertainment Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC (SIE) is an American video game and digital entertainment company that is a major subsidiary of Japanese conglomerate Sony, Sony Group Corporation. It primarily operates the PlayStation brand of video game co ...

for their optical disk cartridge (ODC).

Video storage format

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 A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

and, to a lesser degree,

television show A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming platf ...

s for playback on the PSP. The video is encoded in the H.264/MPEG-4 AVC format, with the audio in ATRAC3plus or

PCM Pulse-code modulation (PCM) is a method used to Digital signal (signal processing), digitally represent analog signals. It is the standard form of digital audio in computers, compact discs, digital telephony and other digital audio application ...

. 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 1,500 films released on UMD (around 1,000 are common for all

regions In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

and around 500 are

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

exclusives). The American punk rock band

The Offspring The Offspring is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Garden Grove, California, in 1984. Originally formed under the name Manic Subsidal, the band currently consists of lead vocalist and guitarist Dexter Holland, Bryan "Dexter" Holland, ...

released their '' Complete Music Video Collection'' on the format. The

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

released a number of its programmes on UMD in the UK, including ''

The Office ''The Office'' is the title of several mockumentary sitcoms based on a British series originally created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant as '' The Office'' in 2001. The original series also starred Gervais as manager and primary charac ...

'', '' The Mighty Boosh'', ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...

'' and '' Little Britain''.

WWE World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) is an American professional wrestling promotion. It is owned and operated by TKO Group Holdings, a majority-owned subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings. A global integrated media and entertainment company, ...

also released some wrestler highlights and documentary content on UMD format, such as the ''

Monday Night War The Monday Night War or the Monday Night Wars, was an era of mainstream televised American professional wrestling, from September 4, 1995 to March 26, 2001, in which the World Wrestling Federation's (WWF; now WWE) '' Monday Night Raw'' (later ' ...

'', '' Jake "The Snake" Roberts: Pick Your Poison'', and ''

WWE Raw Homecoming Raw Homecoming was a television special that was broadcast live on October 3, 2005 on the USA Network. It was named as such because it was the first edition of WWE's flagship show '' Monday Night Raw'' to air on the USA Network since 2000, aft ...

'' (a special episode of ''

WWE Raw ''WWE Raw'', also known as ''Monday Night Raw'' or simply ''Raw'', is an American professional wrestling television program produced by WWE. It currently airs Live television, live every Monday at 8 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) on Netflix. The show fe ...

'' celebrating the return to

USA Network USA Network (or simply USA) is an American basic cable television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Media Group division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. It was launched in 1977 as Madison Square Garden Sports Network, one of the first national sports ...

); the only WWE

pay-per-view Pay-per-view (PPV) is a type of pay television or webcast service that enables a viewer to pay to watch individual events via private telecast. Events can be purchased through a multichannel television platform using their electronic program ...

released on UMD format was

WrestleMania XXIV WrestleMania XXIV was a 2008 professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) List of WWE pay-per-view events, event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was the 24th annual WrestleMania and took place on March 30, 2008, at the Camping Wo ...

. 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''. Some

adult film Pornography (colloquially called porn or porno) is sexually suggestive material, such as a picture, video, text, or audio, intended for sexual arousal. Made for consumption by adults, pornographic depictions have evolved from cave paintings ...

s have been released on UMD in Japan. Sony reportedly took offence at adult film studios publishing pornography on the medium, but claimed that they were unable to restrict films on UMD like with games and other software for the PSP.

Specifications

ECMA-365: Data Interchange on 60 mm Read-Only ODC – Capacity: 1.8 GB (UMD) * Dimensions: approx. 64 mm (diameter) × 4.2 mm (thickness) * Maximum capacity: 1.80 GB (dual layer), 900 MB (single-layer) * Laser

wavelength In physics and mathematics, wavelength or spatial period of a wave or periodic function is the distance over which the wave's shape repeats. In other words, it is the distance between consecutive corresponding points of the same ''phase (waves ...

: 660 nm (red

laser A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word ''laser'' originated as an acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radi ...

) * Numerical aperture: 0.64 * Track pitch: 0.70 μm * Minimum pit length: 0.1384 μm * Modulation: 8-to-16 RLL(2,10) *

Encryption In Cryptography law, cryptography, encryption (more specifically, Code, encoding) is the process of transforming information in a way that, ideally, only authorized parties can decode. This process converts the original representation of the inf ...

: AES 128-bit The case dimensions for UMD discs are 177×104×14mm.

Provisions

According to the official ECMA specification Sony designed the UMD to support two possible future enhancements and products. #Protective Shutter: Similar to the MiniDisc and 3-inch

floppy disk A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, a diskette, or a disk) is a type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined with a ...

, this protective shutter would shield the inner disc from accidental contact. #Auto-Loading: UMDs were designed for possible future slot loading devices with Auto-Loading mechanisms.

Region coding

DVD region coding has been applied to most UMD movies and music. However, all PSP games are region-free, although some require pay-to-continue. *Region ALL: Worldwide (region-free) *Region 1: North America, Central America, Latin America *Region 2: Europe (without Russia or Belarus), Japan, Middle East, South Africa, Greenland *Region 3: Southeast Asia, Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong *Region 4: Oceania, South America *Region 5: Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, India, Pakistan, Africa (without Egypt or South Africa), North Korea, Mongolia *Region 6: China

Availability and support

UMD offers large capacity and the capability to store quality audio/video content; however, the format's proprietary nature, the lack of writers and accompanying blank media, made adoption difficult. The UMD format never saw implementation on any device other than the

, and as a result the market was very limited compared to those of other optical media formats. The high price of UMD movie releases were another contributing factor: they often retailed at comparable prices to

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

, but lacked extra content. Poor sales of UMD movies early in the format's life caused major studios like Universal and

Paramount Paramount (from the word ''paramount'' meaning "above all others") may refer to: Entertainment and music companies * Paramount Global, also known simply as Paramount, an American mass media company formerly known as ViacomCBS. **Paramount Picture ...

to rescind their support. Retail support of the format experienced similar troubles, and in 2006,

Wal-Mart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores in the United States and 23 other ...

began phasing out shelf space devoted to UMD movies. In late 2009, Sony began pushing developers away from the UMD format and towards

digital distribution Digital distribution, also referred to as content delivery, online distribution, or electronic software distribution, among others, is the delivery or distribution of information or materials through digital platforms. The distribution of digital ...

on the

PlayStation Network PlayStation Network (PSN) is a digital media entertainment service provided by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Launched in November 2006, PSN was originally conceived for the PlayStation video game consoles, but soon extended to encompass smartp ...

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. 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. Despite the earlier push for PlayStation Network releases around the PSP Go's launch, over half of the PSP's library was only made available in UMD format including '' Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII'' and '' Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep''. There have been a few PlayStation Network exclusive 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. The successor of the PlayStation Portable, the PlayStation Vita, did not include UMD support, nor was it added throughout its lifespan. In move similar to the PSP Go, Sony focused on digital downloads and opted for low-profile flash-based cartridges as the system's main media format. UMD releases of films ended in 2011. Games were published on UMD up until 2013. Production of UMDs ended when the last Japanese factory producing them closed in late 2016. UMD can be dumped into disc image files ( .iso or .cso), using a modified PSP. This file can be loaded by a modified PSP through the

Memory Stick The Memory Stick is a removable flash memory, flash memory card format, originally launched by Sony in late 1998. In addition to the original Memory Stick, this family includes the Memory Stick PRO, a revision that allows greater maximum storage ...

, similar to titles that were distributed through the PlayStation Network.

References

External links

Article on the 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.
UMD Movie Database

Partial archive of film releases on UMD
{{Sony Corp Audiovisual introductions in 2004 Audio storage Discontinued media formats Ecma standards Japanese inventions PlayStation Portable Products and services discontinued in 2016 Video game distribution Video storage