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AppleTV HD vs. Vudu - First Impressions

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    AppleTV HD vs. Vudu - First Impressions

    OK, I had some free time tonight and decided I'd do a quick check on the HD quality of ATV vs. Vudu.

    The movie I rented on both boxes was The Core.

    AppleTV took between 1 and 2 minutes before I could watch the movie. Vudu was instant of course. AppleTV downloads around 6 Mb/sec on my connection give or take a bit.

    I am using the component output on the AppleTV and HDMI on the Vudu.

    To me, the AppleTV image is not as crisp or sharp or bright as the same image on the Vudu. I seem to notice more banding of images as well. I noticed what you would call "jerky" motion or what seemed to be that during a panning sequence early in the movie on the AppleTV. However, that same sequence appeared the same way with the Vudu. It's really hard to tell.

    Audio quality is the same on both - DD5.1.

    It's very close between the two but I think Vudu edges AppleTV out by a slight amount.

    Anyone else care to comment?

    The cool part is that my number of HD rentals that are available just went up huge. As I said in another post, ATV has a lot of the same movies that Vudu has. But it has some Vudu does not have and Vudu has some that ATV does not have. So I do like the fact I have both.

    I also think ATV has a slight edge when displaying the movie info screen. They did a really nice job with that and they also did a nice job of putting a bar at the bottom of a movie info screen that shows what other movies people that rented the particular movie you are interested in also rented.

    I don't like the fact that with ATV the only initial "text" on a movie is none - You only view the poster and sometimes that's hard to read.

    #2
    Re: AppleTV HD vs. Vudu - First Impressions

    They have a category for HD titles,so that helps to find HD titles. But it would really be nice if you could list the titles by release date to help find movies I haven't seen yet.

    They have the same drawback as Vudu in that I have to go to the detail listing of the title to determine it's picture and sound quality. It only takes 2 tiny logos to show this on the movie list icons and I can't figure out why it's not done. To be fair Vudu now displays the HD logo with it's latest version, but not the Dolby logo for sound.

    Comment


      #3
      Re: AppleTV HD vs. Vudu - First Impressions

      Originally posted by RobertHodge View Post
      They have a category for HD titles,so that helps to find HD titles. But it would really be nice if you could list the titles by release date to help find movies I haven't seen yet.

      They have the same drawback as Vudu in that I have to go to the detail listing of the title to determine it's picture and sound quality. It only takes 2 tiny logos to show this on the movie list icons and I can't figure out why it's not done. To be fair Vudu now displays the HD logo with it's latest version, but not the Dolby logo for sound.
      I've seen people requesting DD logo (at least when you bring the banner in focus), but I haven't seen a definitive response. Could any of the mods say if it's being implemented in the next release?

      Comment


        #4
        Re: AppleTV HD vs. Vudu - First Impressions

        Originally posted by Rusdude View Post
        I've seen people requesting DD logo (at least when you bring the banner in focus), but I haven't seen a definitive response. Could any of the mods say if it's being implemented in the next release?

        Those are the 2 that are important to me but I would like to see an icon also for widscreen, fullscreen, and (maybe) stereo. Without a DD icon I would probably just assume it's stereo.

        Comment


          #5
          Re: AppleTV HD vs. Vudu - First Impressions

          We know as much as you know when it comes to features of the next release. I to would like to see the DD logo on the placard screen.

          VUDU is just like any other company, it keeps the feature set under wraps until they either do a press release or actually release the software. Keeps the competition guessing.

          Comment


            #6
            Re: AppleTV HD vs. Vudu - First Impressions

            OK. It's my thread, let's pull it back to comments on ATV vs. Vudu.

            Comment


              #7
              Re: AppleTV HD vs. Vudu - First Impressions

              Originally posted by RonV View Post
              We know as much as you know when it comes to features of the next release. I to would like to see the DD logo on the placard screen.

              VUDU is just like any other company, it keeps the feature set under wraps until they either do a press release or actually release the software. Keeps the competition guessing.
              I realize you can't say anything about the next release.

              So just nod once if the DD logo will be there.

              Comment


                #8
                Re: AppleTV HD vs. Vudu - First Impressions

                Okay, back to scheduled programming:
                -- How many HD movies are actually available for rent?
                -- What are your thoughts on the interface? It seems a lot of people aren't pleased.
                -- Is there any functionality (rental-related) that ATV has done better than Vudu or is it a wash?

                Comment


                  #9
                  Re: AppleTV HD vs. Vudu - First Impressions

                  I have a question. If ATV doesn't use P2P, does that mean that it really doesn't use your network much unless you are watching movies? With 5 Vudus working 24/7 I have a lot of background network traffic. Comcast is coming out with 16Mb/s service here in 2 weeks. I would drop my 2 other WANS and just use that but I think I still need my 3 WANs to not be a traffic "abuser". If ATV were near equivalent to Vudu in every other way, the light use of the network when no movies were being watched would be a big plus for me.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Re: AppleTV HD vs. Vudu - First Impressions

                    I haven't counted how many HD movies are on ATV right now, but it's at least as many as Vudu if not a few more. The user interface is fine. Somethings like the movie info pages, I think are done a little better.

                    Movies do have chapters as well so that's nice, but trickplay (rw/ff) is easier on the Vudu. ATV's trickplay sucks and always has.

                    In terms of redwein's question on the network - no it doesn't use any network activity unless you are syncing to it or using it to stream something.

                    In terms of rental functionality, well, ATV takes longer to authorize playback. If you have rented a movie on iTunes/ATV and downloaded it and go to view it later, you have to authorize the playback and that takes a few seconds. You have to be connected to the internet as well. With Vudu, once you download it, you can take the box and go someplace where there is no internet and see the movie. No can do with ATV. So I think Vudu has the edge there too.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Re: AppleTV HD vs. Vudu - First Impressions

                      Originally posted by NA9D View Post
                      In terms of redwein's question on the network - no it doesn't use any network activity unless you are syncing to it or using it to stream something.
                      So it effectively would let me get rid of 2 WANs and save about $70/month in the process. I am quite interested to see how people really like it compared to Vudu. Maybe I should buy one myself to check it out. My wife is really the one I have to keep happy. She will end up using the one that works better for her in a very unbiased manner.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Re: AppleTV HD vs. Vudu - First Impressions

                        Originally posted by redwein View Post
                        So it effectively would let me get rid of 2 WANs and save about $70/month in the process. I am quite interested to see how people really like it compared to Vudu. Maybe I should buy one myself to check it out. My wife is really the one I have to keep happy. She will end up using the one that works better for her in a very unbiased manner.
                        It's not instant view. It wouldn't hurt to buy one - just gives you more options. And places like BestBuy have the 30 day money back guarantee (though I'm not sure if Apple products are covered under that but they might be).

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Re: AppleTV HD vs. Vudu - First Impressions

                          Originally posted by NA9D View Post
                          The user interface is fine.
                          So did I miss something when I looked at it ?

                          How do you find new releases?

                          How do find movies that are coming soon and when?

                          How do you look at titles in a genre with-in the last year?

                          How do you find TV shows and all its related episodes?

                          How do you find classic movies?

                          How do I find 4 star rated movies?

                          How do I find the most popular movies rented by others?

                          Maybe I didn't spend enough time with it, but I sure couldn't figure it out.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Re: AppleTV HD vs. Vudu - First Impressions

                            Uh, let's see:

                            Top Movies = most popular
                            Search = Search for a movie
                            Genres = Select the genre you want to browse
                            TV Shows = Go to the TV show section - it's all in there and quite substantial

                            Now, being able to view by studio or view in the last year or so forth is not there. Vudu does have better search/sort capabilities for sure. And it's quicker. When I said the UI was OK, I meant the way it is generally set up and the overall look and feel.


                            Originally posted by RobertHodge
                            So did I miss something when I looked at it ?

                            How do you find new releases?

                            How do you find movies that are coming soon and when?

                            How do you look at titles in a genre with-in the last year?

                            How do you find TV shows and all its related episodes?

                            How do you find classic movies?

                            How do you find the most popular rentals by users?

                            Maybe I didn't spend enough time with it, but I sure couldn't figure it out.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Re: AppleTV HD vs. Vudu - First Impressions

                              Originally posted by NA9D View Post
                              Uh, let's see:

                              Top Movies = most popular
                              Search = Search for a movie
                              Genres = Select the genre you want to browse
                              TV Shows = Go to the TV show section - it's all in there and quite substantial

                              Now, being able to view by studio or view in the last year or so forth is not there. Vudu does have better search/sort capabilities for sure. And it's quicker. When I said the UI was OK, I meant the way it is generally set up and the overall look and feel.
                              But when it sucks that I can't easily find a movie that I'm interested in, isn't that considered a UI issue?

                              Comment

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