I am this close to buying a Vudu box...

[spoonard]

...but I have some reservations:

1.) No Dolby TrueHD sound support. Will this be fixed in the future? That's one thing HD DVD/Blu-Ray has over Vudu, superior sound support.

2.) The library of 1080p movies is fairly small. I see that movies are added on a weekly basis, but when it's HD movies (Mainly what I am interested in) they only come from 3 or 4 major movie studios. Will there be deals made so we can enjoy movies from WB, Fox, New Line, Weinstein just to name a few of the biggies?

3.) Say I drop $300 on a Vudu box and really get my movie library going over a year or so only to have Vudu drop out or get forced out of the market by another media supplier? What happens to all that money I spent on movies? At least with my HD DVD collection I can continue to watch the movies I paid for. Can I get some kind of guarentee? I'm not interested in getting burned twice for being an early adopter.

[Nded]

Re: I am this close to buying a Vudu box...

...but I have some reservations:

1.) No Dolby TrueHD sound support. Will this be fixed in the future? That's one thing HD DVD/Blu-Ray has over Vudu, superior sound support.

There have been no announcements regarding this type of enhancement. You should make your decision on the published Vudu specifications.

2.) The library of 1080p movies is fairly small. I see that movies are added on a weekly basis, but when it's HD movies (Mainly what I am interested in) they only come from 3 or 4 major movie studios. Will there be deals made so we can enjoy movies from WB, Fox, New Line, Weinstein just to name a few of the biggies?

We all hope so. The library of HD content is growing exponentially at this point, and I see no reason why every studio wouldn't want to get on a successful VOD gravy train.

3.) Say I drop $300 on a Vudu box and really get my movie library going over a year or so only to have Vudu drop out or get forced out of the market by another media supplier? What happens to all that money I spent on movies? At least with my HD DVD collection I can continue to watch the movies I paid for. Can I get some kind of guarentee? I'm not interested in getting burned twice for being an early adopter.

The Vudu will continue to play purchased content even if the Vudu company goes out of business. As long as the hardware works, you'll be able to play your moves - same as your HD DVD player.

[NA9D]

Re: I am this close to buying a Vudu box...

...but I have some reservations:

1.) No Dolby TrueHD sound support. Will this be fixed in the future? That's one thing HD DVD/Blu-Ray has over Vudu, superior sound support.

My understanding is that the current chip from Broadcom that is in the Vudu does not support it. Perhaps in the a future hardware rev? The other thing is that I think the bandwidth requirement from some of the higher end audio formats is pretty large. Yes, it is a drawback.

2.) The library of 1080p movies is fairly small. I see that movies are added on a weekly basis, but when it's HD movies (Mainly what I am interested in) they only come from 3 or 4 major movie studios. Will there be deals made so we can enjoy movies from WB, Fox, New Line, Weinstein just to name a few of the biggies?

Vudu has been offering 1080p movies for about 2 weeks now. This library should continue to grow. As for other studios, I expect that it will happen as deals and contracts are signed. I've seen changes in things just in the time Vudu has been on the market. For example, all Warner Brothers movies are now purchasable/rentable on the release date. In time, the HD library should expand greatly.

3.) Say I drop $300 on a Vudu box and really get my movie library going over a year or so only to have Vudu drop out or get forced out of the market by another media supplier? What happens to all that money I spent on movies? At least with my HD DVD collection I can continue to watch the movies I paid for. Can I get some kind of guarentee? I'm not interested in getting burned twice for being an early adopter.

Any content you purchase on Vudu is good for as long as you have the box. If Vudu goes under (I don't think they will), your purchased content will still be playable. The box does not need to connect to the "mother ship" to get authorization before playing a movie (unlike other products out there right now). So your content is safe as long as your hard drive holds out. That probably concerns you. Well, I can't say when, but there is an external storage feature on the roadmap for the Vudu that will allow you to store movies on hard drives attached to the box's USB ports.

Hope this helps.

Jon

[NA9D]

Re: I am this close to buying a Vudu box...

Damn, Ed. Great minds think alike!

[Rusdude]

Re: I am this close to buying a Vudu box...

One thing that I would like to add is that, as of today, Vudu only has 1 HD movie for sale (Bourne Ultimatum) plus two other Bourne movies that your for free. So right now Vudu only has HD rentals (just like AppleTV or Xbox 360).

[spoonard]

Re: I am this close to buying a Vudu box...

One thing that I would like to add is that, as of today, Vudu only has 1 HD movie for sale (Bourne Ultimatum) plus two other Bourne movies that your for free. So right now Vudu only has HD rentals (just like AppleTV or Xbox 360).

Hmmm... I'm gonna have to wait for the HD sales to begin then. I'll keep an eye out.

[redwein]

Re: I am this close to buying a Vudu box...

Hmmm... I'm gonna have to wait for the HD sales to begin then. I'll keep an eye out.

I'm curious as to why. Maintaining a library makes a lot of sense when you don't have VOD, so you can watch what you want, when you want. It does take up a lot of space and is difficult to manage though. Trying to make it useful can cost a lot of money.

Now with Vudu and VOD, you can watch what you want when you want without ever owning anything. I honestly believe that VOD makes the need to own your own libary a thing of the past. I know I will save a lot of money renting what we watch compared to what it cost me to build and manage my own video library.

[rstone]

Re: I am this close to buying a Vudu box...

Now with Vudu and VOD, you can watch what you want when you want without ever owning anything.

Of course what redwein fails to tell you is that all TV Content is "Purchase Only" and that they have a lot of inventory of movies which are "Purchase only", mostly older movies. While it might sound great to say you can rent whenever you want, when you want...so why purchase... what he is failing to inform you is that a large selection of their offerings are in fact "purchase only". If VUDU truly wants to be a VOD rental box, they need to change the licensing agreements to allow ALLLL content to be rent-able. To suggest one can pickup a VUDU box, and rent any one of the 5037 movies/TV shows available on VUDU without ever needing to purchase content as redwein has implied, is just blantenly untrue, and misleading.

[redwein]

Re: I am this close to buying a Vudu box...

Of course what redwein fails to tell you is that all TV Content is "Purchase Only" and that they have a lot of inventory of movies which are "Purchase only", mostly older movies. While it might sound great to say you can rent whenever you want, when you want...so why purchase... what he is failing to inform you is that a large selection of their offerings are in fact "purchase only". If VUDU truly wants to be a VOD rental box, they need to change the licensing agreements to allow ALLLL content to be rent-able. To suggest one can pickup a VUDU box, and rent any one of the 5037 movies/TV shows available on VUDU without ever needing to purchase content as redwein has implied, is just blantenly untrue, and misleading.

You completely missed my point. I was responding to his statement that he didn't want to buy the box until he could buy HD movies. He wasn't happy that he could only rent them. Given that, your comments don't make much sense. I didn't mislead him since he wasn't particularly interested in renting. In fact, 100% of the movies he was talking about (the HD movies) are rentable only, which he was unhappy with. I was questioning this strong desire to buy when the Vudu product and VOD technology seem more geared toward rental. Of course I personally would love everything to be rentable today and I have said that I only intend to rent movies. I would also like the library to have 100,000 movies too. I hope that both of those things will happen some day and it seems to be moving in that direction. Since we were talking about movies, I didn't see the need to discuss TV shows.

It is very reasonable to make comments that take into account the direction the product is moving in, given that it is constantly changing. My comments were made in response to his specific statement. They were not a general statement that every movie was currently rentable any more than they were saying that every movie ever made was in the library. I believe any reasonable person reading my post would have realized that. I think you should read more closely and pay attention to the context that comments are made in before you go slinging accusations like this.

[MaxH]

Re: I am this close to buying a Vudu box...

Please keep it civil. Remember, it's only a box attached to your TV, and while we want everyone to share their opinion freely, we also must insist that it be done in a way that does not create an environment where others might be afraid to offer their own opinion.

[redwein]

Re: I am this close to buying a Vudu box...

Please keep it civil. Remember, it's only a box attached to your TV, and while we want everyone to share their opinion freely, we also must insist that it be done in a way that does not create an environment where others might be afraid to offer their own opinion.

My apologies if my tone was inappropriate. I just felt that claiming my comments were "blatantly untrue and misleading" was something I needed to respond to.

[NA9D]

Re: I am this close to buying a Vudu box...

My apologies if my tone was inappropriate. I just felt that claiming my comments were "blatantly untrue and misleading" was something I needed to respond to.

Tom,

My feeling is you weren't out of line. Rstone should never have insinuated that you were trying to lie or be untruthful. I think it is out of place when forum members start accusing each other of things like this.

It is also unfortunate that bloggers choose to twist and distort our words as well. But places like JC Penny twist things also by continuing to sell 480i SD TV sets as "new."

[rstone]

Re: I am this close to buying a Vudu box...

My feeling is you weren't out of line. Rstone should never have insinuated that you were trying to lie or be untruthful. I think it is out of place when forum members start accusing each other of things like this.

I wasn't insulted by redweins reply, he is entitled to his opinion of my assessment of his comments.

As for lying or being untruthful... redwein did state "with Vudu and VOD, you can watch what you want when you want without ever owning anything.", which is a fact. And while his intention might have not been to be untruthful or misleading, and if he thought I was implying he was doing it to be deceitful, then you have my apologies redwein... but the fact still remains that the above comment is NOT true, and COULD BE misleading to those who are looking to purchase a VUDU box, and THAT is a fact. Either way, I never said he lied, just that his statement was untrue, and misleading, which it was.

Regardless, I think it serves VUDU alot better, in the long term, for moderators to ensure that comments posted here by it's members be factually correct when making statements of how the device works, so that the expectations are set correctly prior to someone picking up a VUDU box, as your more likely to come out with a happy customer, then one who feels wronged by misleading comments, when something does not work as was implied by others on here.

[redwein]

Re: I am this close to buying a Vudu box...

In the context of the question I was asking the previous poster, which is essentially why would you wish for buying when renting is a much better alternative, my comments are neither untrue or misleading, either accidentally or intentionally. Of course when you take things out of context you can make any statement appear to mean something different than it does. That is what I believe happened here.

[rstone]

Re: I am this close to buying a Vudu box...

Of course when you take things out of context you can make any statement appear to mean something different than it does. That is what I believe happened here.

You know redwein, if you had just purely stated that with "VOD, you can..." I would not of said a thing, but when you say "with Vudu..." you are in fact implying features of how someone can use the VUDU box specifically, and when you do so and the statement is factually incorrect, it is untrue and can be misleading to potential customers. If you just don't understand that, I can't help you.