"Wal-Mart Is Said to Be Buying Vudu Movie Service"

[mebby]

Re: Wal-Mart to buy Vudu

Amen.

+1

I've been meaning to reply to that post for a while now but I don't have to any longer.

[mebby]

Re: "Wal-Mart Is Said to Be Buying Vudu Movie Service"

That's absurd. You could argue that it's only correct to watch it in a movie theater, or perhaps there is only 1 "correct" seat in the theater as the people in the back get a different experience than the people in the middle. It would also be incorrect to listen to it on anything other than a certified THX sound system perhaps. Even in your house, you could have the background noise or lighting detracting from your utopian view of perfection/correctness.

The reality is this is entertainment and it's sole purpose is to entertain viewers in whatever way the prefer. It isn't about correctness.

I agree completely.

[Chrys]

Re: "Wal-Mart Is Said to Be Buying Vudu Movie Service"

Well, it was stated by someone involved in the deal that After Dark would be removed "immediately".

After Dark has already been taken down. The message when you try to use After Dark says that your Vudu account will be reimbursed for any rental vidoes not yet viewed. It didn't say anything about bought videos that are stored on Vudu. I've never bought a Vudu video so I don't know how a purchase works, that is, if you can download to your LG player in my case. I know you can download to the Vudu box.

[redwein]

Re: "Wal-Mart Is Said to Be Buying Vudu Movie Service"

Yes it is, the set up you've described is simply the wrong way to watch anything that was originally filmed in widescreen. You may 'prefer' watching an incorrect setup or a pan and scanned reproduction, it doesn't make it the correct aspect ratio.

You wouldn't go to an art museum and look at the works on display though a piece of black cardboard with a 4" by 3" hole cut out, would you?

That's absurd. You could argue that it's only correct to watch it in a movie theater, or perhaps there is only 1 "correct" seat in the theater as the people in the back get a different experience than the people in the middle. It would also be incorrect to listen to it on anything other than a certified THX sound system perhaps. Even in your house, you could have the background noise or lighting detracting from your utopian view of perfection/correctness.

The reality is this is entertainment and it's sole purpose is to entertain viewers in whatever way the prefer. It isn't about correctness.

[Schwack]

Re: Wal-Mart to buy Vudu

If I boycotted all the companies that have issues, I wouldn't be able to purchase anything. Every company I've worked for, and every company that anyone I've ever known has worked for(including the US government) falls into at least one of those categories mentioned.

Time to leave your fanatsy world.

Amen.

[aaronwt]

Re: Wal-Mart to buy Vudu

The reality jstrait is that most Americans are only concerned only with themselves and the little bubble they live in, and rarely see past the 10 feet in front of them, or how their actions affects others outside their own little bubble. I doubt you will get any kind of "real reaction" from the majority of those on this forum, regarding Walmart. Most Americans could care less or are concerned enough to do a little homework to see what kind of businesses they are supporting. After-all they are more concerned about saving a buck than human rights violations in a country they can't even see. Nor are they concerned that Walmart offers the lowest wages in the retail industry, use sweatshops in China, offers less than half their employees any kind of health insurance, drives down wages and increases poverty in communities, forces local small businesses to close, cares little for the safety of its workers, discriminates against women, and repeatedly brakes child labor laws, etc. So you shouldn't be surprised jstrait by the lack of any real reaction from most of those on here. Captialism is alive and well in this forum.

If I boycotted all the companies that have issues, I wouldn't be able to purchase anything. Every company I've worked for, and every company that anyone I've ever known has worked for(including the US government) falls into at least one of those categories mentioned.

Time to leave your fanatsy world.

[Citizen Erased]

Re: "Wal-Mart Is Said to Be Buying Vudu Movie Service"

Excuse me, it isn't really a matter of being "correct" or not.

Yes it is, the set up you've described is simply the wrong way to watch anything that was originally filmed in widescreen. You may 'prefer' watching an incorrect setup or a pan and scanned reproduction, it doesn't make it the correct aspect ratio.

You wouldn't go to an art museum and look at the works on display though a piece of black cardboard with a 4" by 3" hole cut out, would you?

[MaxH]

Re: "Wal-Mart Is Said to Be Buying Vudu Movie Service"

I love this Wal-Mart hysteria! Let's see how Vudu operates moving forward. If, in fact, Vudu changes for the worse...then I can see dumping it and canceling my subscription. however, I'd rather wait and see.

Well, it was stated by someone involved in the deal that After Dark would be removed "immediately". Whether you use it or not, removing content that has already been purchased AND at the same time reducing the content selection are troublesome choices based not on whether they are profitable, but on the company in question trying to limit the behavior of their customers. Of course, we're free to use another VOD service that has adult content, but that's not the point; Vudu customers are (or were) free to turn off the ability to even see After Dark as a choice in the interface via their online account, but now that choice is being taken away, and questions about already-purchased content haven't yet been answered. The Kindle 1984 debacle made it obvious that refunding licensing fees is not satisfactory compensation for "stealing" content that the customer had purchased through DRM revocation.

Personally, I will of course wait to see how they handle this in practice, but if they carry out the changes as predicted, I know I'll be very disappointed.

[redwein]

Re: "Wal-Mart Is Said to Be Buying Vudu Movie Service"

I know that Wal-Mart WAS responsible for the issuing of separate so-called "Full Screen Edition" DVDs when both versions would not fit on one disc, because Wal-Mart demanded the movie studios do so after their uneducated customers complained about "the black bars". (There is already plentiful information on the internet about how widescreen is the CORRECT way to display a movie

Excuse me, it isn't really a matter of being "correct" or not. I prefer full screen to the bars on top and I am not uneducated and I know exactly what the tradeoff is. With the bars on top (let's say they occupy 25% of the total screen just for argument sake) I really only have 700-800 lines of resolution to display the image. It's true that I see more "information" on the left and the right of the screen but much of that isn't terribly important and the overall picture is smaller and lower resolutiion vertically. With full screen I use the full 1080 lines of resolution so the part I can see is higher resolution than the widescreen format, at the expense of losing some information on the periphery. Even if they just used the original number of lines and zoomed it to fit, the image is still bigger and more enjoyable for me to watch. That is what I prefer.

[Schwack]

Re: "Wal-Mart Is Said to Be Buying Vudu Movie Service"

I love this Wal-Mart hysteria! Let's see how Vudu operates moving forward. If, in fact, Vudu changes for the worse...then I can see dumping it and canceling my subscription. however, I'd rather wait and see.

As far as caving into a big player, nowadays -- who isn't? Apple, Google, etc...are all scooping up smaller companies. It this economic climate, can you blame the smaller companies? It's a form of survival.

[Electric Frenzy]

Re: "Wal-Mart Is Said to Be Buying Vudu Movie Service"

I'm done with Vudu now. I haven't shopped in a Wal-Mart in 2 years. I refuse to support Wal-mart and prefer to support the "little guy" (aka Vudu in this point).

Selling out to Wal-Mart is the simultaneously the most and least american you could've done.

I'm very disappointed....but money is money right?

Anyone wanna buy my STB before I a brick it?

[gibbs0828]

Walmart Acquisition & After Dark Closing

Hey everyone,

I found an article on line that's kind of a culmination of what everyone's been talking about.

My intention is to merge the comments into one thread...

Cheers!

[rstone]

Re: Wal-Mart to buy Vudu

The reality jstrait is that most Americans are only concerned only with themselves and the little bubble they live in, and rarely see past the 10 feet in front of them, or how their actions affects others outside their own little bubble. I doubt you will get any kind of "real reaction" from the majority of those on this forum, regarding Walmart. Most Americans could care less or are concerned enough to do a little homework to see what kind of businesses they are supporting. After-all they are more concerned about saving a buck than human rights violations in a country they can't even see. Nor are they concerned that Walmart offers the lowest wages in the retail industry, use sweatshops in China, offers less than half their employees any kind of health insurance, drives down wages and increases poverty in communities, forces local small businesses to close, cares little for the safety of its workers, discriminates against women, and repeatedly brakes child labor laws, etc. So you shouldn't be surprised jstrait by the lack of any real reaction from most of those on here. Captialism is alive and well in this forum.

[Alan Smithee]

Re: "Wal-Mart Is Said to Be Buying Vudu Movie Service"

When Wal-Mart closed their rent-by-mail DVD service, they sold their subscriber list to Netflix.

[raaurora]

Re: "Wal-Mart Is Said to Be Buying Vudu Movie Service"

I remember in the early days of Netflix, Wal-Mart tried their own DVD service...made a mess of it....and dropped it. Why they think they are better prepared for the VOD market is beyond me. I am worried this is the beginning of the end for my Vudu service.