New Vudu Users Check in Here!

[metallus2000]

Re: New Vudu Users Check in Here!

Ok Deal!...lol

[NA9D]

Re: New Vudu Users Check in Here!

You can avoid the high def DVD wars by buying the new LG player that handles both formats. But at 800 clams, Vudu is way cheaper!

HD is definitely coming. I'll buy your Vudu box, Metallus if it doesn't!

[metallus2000]

Re: New Vudu Users Check in Here!

The reviews have definately been mixed!

If/when HD content is available will be the deciding factor on the success of this newest version of a movie box(and the price drops a bit).

Everyone I have talked to about it say the 400 clams is too steep to rent/buy movies. Now you might say "Well we will sell it only in high end stores then"....that will work for a bit for those who don't care about cost, but ultimately a newer technology will phase it out. The key here is to what advantage do the studios get from providing content to VUDU and leveraging that to an advantage the average Joe can use.

Right now the Toshiba HD-A20 is $350.00...add a few movies your well over 1k, same cost essentially, but at least you have HD content.

If your that disappointed or don't want to give it some time then return it....it's obvioussly not for everyone.

and yes I am waiting to buy this when it does get HD content so I don't have to enter the "HD Wars"

[NA9D]

Re: New Vudu Users Check in Here!

Hardware looks promising and it is the only reason I decided not to return it. Actually I noticed that the box after turning it off is still noisy (a fan) comparing to a similar device (turned on), such as cox cable hd dvdr.

It's probably not the fan. You forget the box has a 250 GB hard drive in it. You are probably hearing the hard drive. Still if your fan is noisy, you might want to contact Vudu about it. The boxes should be very quiet.

The inventory is terrible. From advertised 5000 movies I recognized no more than 100. Any video store with a similar stuff would be bankrupted in a week. There is no Disney Classics, no National Geographic, a very poor classic and foreign movies selection, no mention lack of TV series.

Yes, obviously, you haven't been following the complaints. First of all, Disney won't give their classic films to digital delivery. I don't think iTUNES even has that. And TV series has never been advertised and TV series aren't movies. Vudu is working on TV shows but no agreements yet. I am sure you recognize more than 100 movies. You can't tell me that you have possibly looked through all 5000.

And you have to realize that Vudu is asking the studios to embrace a new technology on the consumer's end. These are the same people who wanted to outlaw VCRs and movie rentals 20 years ago. The complaint was that it would kill the movie industry. These people have been dragged kicking and screaming and resisting every new technological innovation for the consumer since the 1930s! It will take time to swing them in full favor of the Vudu. The Vudu has a better movie library and selection than ANY OTHER legal download medium available today.

Showing movies to buy without an option to rent will kill the business immediately, I presume. Prices are just amazing. Clients are not idiots, especially today! It is possible, most of movies offered by the box, to buy at Amazon.com for half of the price. What is going on, people? By the way, how many people are going to buy the box to buy movies? To be mobile? Give me a break.

Talk to the studios on that one. The studios control what movies can be rented or purchased.

As for the prices - why are they amazing? People complain about the rental costs. Heck, my CATV VOD costs are about the same as a Vudu rental. Blockbuster is the same way...

A few words about a user interface. The remote control is strange and I don't see any reason to use it, instead a common one. A general note - if you do not have any idea how to take an advantage of a graphic interface - do not use it, please. The resolution of scanned cover art is unacceptable and pictures on a hd screen look terrible. Lists of movies in categories are not in alphabetical order and it is difficult to choose the one, you are looking for. No mention a strange titles' presentation. Suggested similar titles are useless. It would be better to give actors names or icons (recognizable!) with a link. Expected trailers are sometimes present, but I do not understand, why we can not see them in a full screen mode. Hmmm ... a big disappointment.

[/quote]

This I really don't understand. The cover art on an HD screen looks great. Are you trying to operate the box in 480i on an HD screen? What kind of connection do you have.

Movies are by default listed by release date. If you look in the interface, you can change the sort order to Alphabetic.

Trailers are probably not full screen because they are lower resolution and would probably not look good. That's a guess but your point is good.

Please take some of these criticisms and put them in a positive manner and post it in the feature request thread (ie: instead of saying that previews are not available in full screen, put in a feature request to have previews available full screen - it's a very valid point).

[mbustin]

Re: New Vudu Users Check in Here!

"The inventory is terrible"

Haven't you been following the posts in the forums?? I don't know why this comes as a big shock to you ... sorry to hear it ....

[maciejj]

Re: New Vudu Users Check in Here!

I just received my vudu box and there is my first impression. Unfortunately not really optimistic.

Hardware looks promising and it is the only reason I decided not to return it. Actually I noticed that the box after turning it off is still noisy (a fan) comparing to a similar device (turned on), such as cox cable hd dvdr.

The inventory is terrible. From advertised 5000 movies I recognized no more than 100. Any video store with a similar stuff would be bankrupted in a week. There is no Disney Classics, no National Geographic, a very poor classic and foreign movies selection, no mention lack of TV series.

Showing movies to buy without an option to rent will kill the business immediately, I presume. Prices are just amazing. Clients are not idiots, especially today! It is possible, most of movies offered by the box, to buy at Amazon.com for half of the price. What is going on, people? By the way, how many people are going to buy the box to buy movies? To be mobile? Give me a break.

A few words about a user interface. The remote control is strange and I don't see any reason to use it, instead a common one. A general note - if you do not have any idea how to take an advantage of a graphic interface - do not use it, please. The resolution of scanned cover art is unacceptable and pictures on a hd screen look terrible. Lists of movies in categories are not in alphabetical order and it is difficult to choose the one, you are looking for. No mention a strange titles' presentation. Suggested similar titles are useless. It would be better to give actors names or icons (recognizable!) with a link. Expected trailers are sometimes present, but I do not understand, why we can not see them in a full screen mode. Hmmm ... a big disappointment.

[metallus2000]

Re: New Vudu Users Check in Here!

My concern is that vudu knows when these movies are going online but they haven't posted any kind of schedule. If they had good news about more recent movies coming online shortly, I would think they would let us know because of the complaints about lack of movies.


Hit the nail on the head here...how about adding that to this site?

[mbustin]

Re: New Vudu Users Check in Here!

I for one am more likely to rent movies I wouldn't normally rent because it's so easily available on vudu. If I have to trudge back to Blockbluser I'm more likely to pass ...

I've had my box for a week and I've noticed 2 updates -- at least for featured movies and new releases -- "Blades of Glory" became available for rent today, and "Away From Her" went from buy only to buy and rent on Wednesday .... that's progress I suppose ...

My concern is that vudu knows when these movies are going online but they haven't posted any kind of schedule. If they had good news about more recent movies coming online shortly, I would think they would let us know because of the complaints about lack of movies.

I can't believe studios think we're going to buy "Firewall" or that movie with Stone Cold for twenty bucks ... hehe ... greedy SOBs ...

[maciejj]

Re: New Vudu Users Check in Here!

Also to say that old stuff is decoration is a misnomer. I enjoy movies from the 50's, 60's, and 70's. ....

A little misunderstanding. If there is no access to movies in store, because it is not possible to put them in different categories (needs many copies), movies become just a decoration. People returning a movie always want to take an advantage of being in the store and are willing to get something else without any idea, just based on a mood.

Renting business works mostly because of two reasons. First, people missed movies in theatres and want to watch them, because everybody is talking about them. Second, they want to watch a movie again soon, for many reasons. There are also people willing to spend time and money to watch the old stuff and it is really worth to talk about video stores' pricing policy in this matter.

I think, that vudu is going to make the same mistake, they do. From the business point of view, the most recent movies should be cheaper to rent/buy than others. It will encourage clients to rent/buy. Old movies, rare movies, mostly, as I said before, are desired by movies' adorers willing to pay more for watching them. What does it mean: 0.99,1.99 ... ? It doesn't make any sense. The only reason, I would consider it, is time of streaming.

[NA9D]

Re: New Vudu Users Check in Here!

OK, let's think about it. Vudu can represent a new idea of owning movies. Keeping them on the box doesn't make any sense because of a hd space and lack of backup. Login to my account would let me see my movie anytime and anyplace. I understand that it is possible to consider crime. But, in general, it is not an issue.

I would like to have movies stored on the box at least initially because then it makes the box portable. I can take and play movies in my car if I want...

No internet needed.

Actually, what I had in mind, was dealing with a buffer for a rented movies. Something like renting from Blockbuster or Netflix without a time limit for returning. Just making a new order will cancel a previous one. It means - in that moment, I returned all movies from a previous order. Just say - maximum 5 movies in one order.

That would be nice, but I doubt Hollywood would go for it. Still, it would be nice...

I don't know how does the vudu box work yet, but in my opinion, including a trailer on a DVD doesn't make any sense, at all. However it is really important to see it before buying or renting. So, I suggested to include all available trailers to a browsing process.

OK. You can watch a preview of a movie w/o renting or purchasing the movie. You are scrolling through the list, you see the title "Disturbia" and you want to see what it's about. You select to watch the preview and there you go. Previews are all stored on the box.

I think, photo galleries included to a rented movies will not improve business. However browsing the data base by movie stars' faces will do a good job. Especially, by adding categories of them. Is possible to think about age, sex, nationality, awards etc.

How do you suggest browsing by faces? Let's see, I want a blonde with an average size nose who weighs 125 pounds. Hmmm...Given the huge number of movie stars out there, the amount of faces to search through would be huge. And again, I may not remember Kate Winslet's or Kathy Bate's faces but I do know their names.

[maciejj]

Re: New Vudu Users Check in Here!

I would like to have the ability to have purchased movies eventually move off the storage on the box

OK, let's think about it. Vudu can represent a new idea of owning movies. Keeping them on the box doesn't make any sense because of a hd space and lack of backup. Login to my account would let me see my movie anytime and anyplace. I understand that it is possible to consider crime. But, in general, it is not an issue.

That's not likely to happen. Plus a lot of people like to queue up a number of rentals for a movie weekend or so forth.

Actually, what I had in mind, was dealing with a buffer for a rented movies. Something like renting from Blockbuster or Netflix without a time limit for returning. Just making a new order will cancel a previous one. It means - in that moment, I returned all movies from a previous order. Just say - maximum 5 movies in one order.

This is all part of the database sent to your box. Most movies do have previews available. You don't get the huge selection of "advertising" trailers that are put out but you do get official previews of most movies.

I don't know how does the vudu box work yet, but in my opinion, including a trailer on a DVD doesn't make any sense, at all. However it is really important to see it before buying or renting. So, I suggested to include all available trailers to a browsing process.

Hmm...I remember the name Rutger Hauer or Hillary Swank far more than I remember what they look like. But the Vudu does have photos for many of the stars and directors. More photos are being added all the time...

I think, photo galleries included to a rented movies will not improve business. However browsing the data base by movie stars' faces will do a good job. Especially, by adding categories of them. Is possible to think about age, sex, nationality, awards etc.

[NA9D]

Re: New Vudu Users Check in Here!

I have not received my box yet, but according to the discussions I have some comments for the vudu team. You should not have to store a ?bought movie? on the box. You can just store the information that I have purchased the movie in your database and let me watch it whenever I wish.

There's been a number of discussions around this. I would like to have the ability to have purchased movies eventually move off the storage on the box and back onto the "distributed" network. It makes sense from a content protection standpoint as there would be no way to extract an entire movie from a hard drive. However, the studios will not allow it.

Also, you should not to give time limits to watch a rented movie. Let me watch when I wish, as many times as I wish, and cancel the rights to do it when I order a new one.

That's not likely to happen. Plus a lot of people like to queue up a number of rentals for a movie weekend or so forth. Your idea would kill that concept. It's better to have a longer viewing window. VOD on Cable doesn't allow more than 24 hours viewing time...

More important for me is to have access to free movie trailers during browsing of your database. Preview pilots for ordered movies should be put on the box to allow quick access.

This is all part of the database sent to your box. Most movies do have previews available. You don't get the huge selection of "advertising" trailers that are put out but you do get official previews of most movies.

With exception of certain movie stars, people actually don't remember their names but recognize their faces. This should be taken into consideration while building a new browsing interface.

Hmm...I remember the name Rutger Hauer or Hillary Swank far more than I remember what they look like. But the Vudu does have photos for many of the stars and directors. More photos are being added all the time...

[Nded]

Re: New Vudu Users Check in Here!

Last month I rented "To Kill a Mockingbird" on my Vudu - yeah it's in b&w, and not even an attempt at surround sound. I treasured every minute, and I never would have thought to pick it up at a traditional movie rental store. With the Vudu I'm getting to drink deeply from the rich library of cinema classics - all at my fingertips.

[kmulder]

Re: New Vudu Users Check in Here!

Also to say that old stuff is decoration is a misnomer. I enjoy movies from the 50's, 60's, and 70's. Most of the modern movies are take offs from these types of movies. Its great to see where they come from. A serious movie buff takes a holistic view to all movies not just the current top of the crop that is being released.

If the top of the crop was available for rental. And the older movies too then we would be in nirvana.


Visit the 5 Star Cinema

[RonV]

Re: New Vudu Users Check in Here!

You should not have to store a ?bought movie? on the box. You can just store the information that I have purchased the movie in your database and let me watch it whenever I wish.

That is an interesting comment. But the problem is that when I take the box with me to a friends or family members house that doesn't have high speed internet how would I play the movie I purchased? The only way to do this is to download the movie the hard drive....

Also to say that old stuff is decoration is a misnomer. I enjoy movies from the 50's, 60's, and 70's. Most of the modern movies are take offs from these types of movies. Its great to see where they come from. A serious movie buff takes a holistic view to all movies not just the current top of the crop that is being released.