Universal Media Disc
optical disc medium for PlayStation Portable
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.
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 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. There are around 1,500 films released on UMD (around 1,000 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. 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.
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 films 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 as 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: 660 nm (red laser)
Numerical aperture: 0.64
Track pitch: 0.70 μm
Minimum pit length: 0.1384 μm
Modulation: 8-to-16 RLL(2,10)
Encryption: 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.
“Universal Media Disc” enters the record as optical disc medium for PlayStation Portable. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Universal, Media and Disc can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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