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

[redwein]

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

It makes no sense to pay 50% to sometimes 100% more for the exact same product at a local merchant.

Likewise it makes no sense to pay for American labor to manufacture anything these days as there are much cheaper alternatives elsewhere. And when we can outsource everything else because it's cheaper and it makes no sense to pay American workers to do anything because of chepaer alternatives we will have no more American workers and even Walmart will be out of most people's price range.

Personally, I avoid Walmart because I abosultely hate the experience of shopping there. I find it too crowded with too many pushy customers, messily stocked shelves, etc.

[canadien37]

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

I, for one, am curious as to how this plays out.....I look at this as a business transaction, nothing more, nothing less, between myself and Wal-Mart....I have the original VUDU box BX100...I called tech support about an issue concerning a movie I purchased...During that conversation I asked if the service would be embedded into another mfg's box, as I have a projection system and don't need a blu player nor another TV....He told me he doesn't see them going in this direction...Ok fair enough, my purpose for getting the box in the first place was for electronic sell-thru, with only the occasional rental. If it is Wal-Mart's choice as a business to limit my choices in buying from them, guess what, I'll vote my displeasure with my wallet.....

Obviously VUDU had to do this to survive, and hopefully Wal-Mart will do the right thing for their customers.....For those of us that have the VUDU box, What will happen when it finally dies? I asked what will happen to my purchased movies and was told I have a license for each one, but they are different in Brazil from Amadeus.......There are a lot of unanswered questions...Props to the VUDU guys in supporting the box up to now....I sincerely hope there is another box as a option at some point...

[redwein]

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

I'm going to wait and see too. The fact is that I really enjoy the Vudu service as it is right now (on the STB). I'll go with whoever has the best service/functionality in the end. Price will only be a secondary consideration. I think, in the best possible outcome, Walmart could use their muscle to force the studios to make more content available with fewer awkward rules. If everything else stays the same and that improves, I'm all for it.

[aaronwt]

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

Likewise it makes no sense to pay for American labor to manufacture anything these days as there are much cheaper alternatives elsewhere. And when we can outsource everything else because it's cheaper and it makes no sense to pay American workers to do anything because of chepaer alternatives we will have no more American workers and even Walmart will be out of most people's price range.

Personally, I avoid Walmart because I abosultely hate the experience of shopping there. I find it too crowded with too many pushy customers, messily stocked shelves, etc.

The Walmart stores I go to in my area are typically very clean. Clean floors, cleans shelves and no pushy customers.

If they were like you stated then I probably wouldn't go there. But that is true of any store. There is one Kmart in the area, and your description of Walmart is how I would describe that Kmart. Plus the prices are also higher at the Kmart. I don't shop there.

I'll continue using my three VUDU boxes although I'll probably be selling my LG BD390 since I'm getting rid of my six stand alone BD players and a PS3 Fat. I am just keeping a PS3 Slim and will be using my media players for all BD playback from ISOs. I'll use VUDU when I want the best quality and use the Xbox 360 as a secondary VOD source with the PS3 as a tertiary source(or for the occasional disc playback). If VUDU disappears, which I hope never happens, there will still be other choices around. Just not as good.

I might change my decision on a standalone BD player if VUDU starts offering HDX titles with higher quality audio playback, which I read a rumor about somewhere.

[vudu4me]

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

In my opinion Wal*Mart is an insidious retailer.

It's not like there aren't other national retailers available for consumers to choose from that treat their employees better and are more responsible to the communities they serve but are still price competitive with Wal*Mart.

One such retailer that comes to mind is Target. Even if you were to discard how Wal*Mart operates they don't provide nearly as pleasant of a shopping experience as Target does.

[vudu4me]

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

"I might change my decision on a standalone BD player if VUDU starts offering HDX titles with higher quality audio playback, which I read a rumor about somewhere."

aaronwt-I don't understand what you're saying. You can get HDX titles with 5.1 surround sound through your LG BD390. Why on earth would you sell your LG BD390 that has a great interface with vudu? If vudu were to go out of business you're stand alone boxes would be worthless while the BD390 has the capacity to someday add perhaps a worthy replacement.

vudu will continue to support their stand alone boxes as long as folks have them but they will spend most of their energy into their streaming service they provide for media devices that interface with them.

[aaronwt]

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

"I might change my decision on a standalone BD player if VUDU starts offering HDX titles with higher quality audio playback, which I read a rumor about somewhere."

aaronwt-I don't understand what you're saying. You can get HDX titles with 5.1 surround sound through your LG BD390. Why on earth would you sell your LG BD390 that has a great interface with vudu? If vudu were to go out of business you're stand alone boxes would be worthless while the BD390 has the capacity to someday add perhaps a worthy replacement.

vudu will continue to support their stand alone boxes as long as folks have them but they will spend most of their energy into their streaming service they provide for media devices that interface with them.

5.1 surround? I had that back in 1997.

I'm talking about high quality audio. Dolby True HD/DTS MA. Right now VUDU is using DD+ which is cetainly better than DVD but

I'm also going away from Discs. I'm using my media players to view BD ISOs. I'll be selling my BD390 because it makes more sense for me to keep my PS3 Slim as a Tertiary VOD source.(With VUDU as teh Primary and the Xbox 360 as a secondary VOD source)
DD+ is nice but there is not much differcne between the 640kbs DD+ from HDX and the DD that it is transcoded to in the VUDU box.

I still might just sell the LG BD390 and get the BD570 instead. Maybe. Once I have everything sold, I'll decide then.

[gatchel]

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

Wow. Another company swallowed up...After dark going away, the censorship is setting in. It's only time before I'll be looking for an alternative option to replace Vudu. It's a damn shame. Sellouts...

[aaronwt]

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

Wow. Another company swallowed up...After dark going away, the censorship is setting in. It's only time before I'll be looking for an alternative option to replace Vudu. It's a damn shame. Sellouts...

Nothing wrong with After Dark going away. Many other companies don't have that kind of content either. I wouldn't expect many companies to keep selling content like that in the same situation. With a larger entity it can probably be more of a PITA.

[redwein]

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

Nothing wrong with After Dark going away. Many other companies don't have that kind of content either. I wouldn't expect many companies to keep selling content like that in the same situation. With a larger entity it can probably be more of a PITA.

You mean like Comcast and DirectTV having PPV adult content? Last time I checked they were very, very large companies. They have it right alongside family oriented content. They seem to be able to trust their customers to "handle it" and don't seem to suffer any harm from providing it.

Then there is the fact that just about every major hotel chain seems to offer adult content PPV and I know they include families in their customer base. I just don't buy the large entity argument. It's just Walmart acting as the morality police which does bother me. They are free to sell what they want of course just as I am able to patronize whomever I wish if I don't agree with them.

[aaronwt]

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

You mean like Comcast and DirectTV having PPV adult content? Last time I checked they were very, very large companies. They have it right alongside family oriented content. They seem to be able to trust their customers to "handle it" and don't seem to suffer any harm from providing it.

Then there is the fact that just about every major hotel chain seems to offer adult content PPV and I know they include families in their customer base. I just don't buy the large entity argument. It's just Walmart acting as the morality police which does bother me. They are free to sell what they want of course just as I am able to patronize whomever I wish if I don't agree with them.

They don't have that content in my area on comcast. They have some adult oriented stuff, but nothing even close to the harder core stuff I saw available from the After Dark section.

[redwein]

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

They don't have that content in my area on comcast. They have some adult oriented stuff, but nothing even close to the harder core stuff I saw available from the After Dark section.

Well if the adult area is sufficeintly isolated from the non-adult area, then the extent of hard coredness really isn't an issue. Even if it were identicaly to what's on Comcast/DirecTV (and I've seen some plenty hardcore enough stuff there as well as in hotels), it wouldn't be suitable for families and would require the parents control over what they let their children watch.

My point was that simply having adult content available doesn't seem to tarnish the reputation of the many reputable companies that both do provide adult content and count families among their customer base. Once adult content is available it just needs to be controllable so that only those that want it get it. Anybody who gets upset about an offering that they can completely block from their own viewing simply because others might want to see it has overstepped their bounds, in my opinion.

If it were up to me, there would be no old musicals allowed as I don't want my kids exposed to that kind of behavior, lol.

[larrs]

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

Nothing wrong with After Dark going away. Many other companies don't have that kind of content either. I wouldn't expect many companies to keep selling content like that in the same situation. With a larger entity it can probably be more of a PITA.

I think you are right there. There is plenty of that stuff available via standalone (PC) means that I doubt many providers will go in that direction. In fact, many of the studios (like Disney) do not like the idea of their content being listed on devices beside the other.

That being said, I could see WM going so far as to require a PG13 version of R movies being made available (OK, maybe not requiring, but "encouraging"). I am torn on that. I guess it would be OK as long as the regular R version is also available....

[larrs]

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

In my opinion Wal*Mart is an insidious retailer.

It's not like there aren't other national retailers available for consumers to choose from that treat their employees better and are more responsible to the communities they serve but are still price competitive with Wal*Mart.

One such retailer that comes to mind is Target. Even if you were to discard how Wal*Mart operates they don't provide nearly as pleasant of a shopping experience as Target does.

I think WM is a great retailer (but I will give kudos to Target as well, but they do not have the selection of WM). I worked for them back in college and made a bunch of money on the few shares of stock I bought in the purchase plan- they paid me decently and benefits were good.

WM does alot of good things as far as retailers go. I can't imagine what DVDs or Blu Rays would cost if WM hadn't pushed the price envelope. They could do the same for download content...

[redwein]

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

I think you are right there. There is plenty of that stuff available via standalone (PC) means that I doubt many providers will go in that direction. In fact, many of the studios (like Disney) do not like the idea of their content being listed on devices beside the other.

Again, Comcast and DirecTV are VOD providers (very, very large ones) and they do also have adult content. Also, like I said, I think old musicals shouldn't be available. You can get that stuff plenty of other places too.