Vudu Now has 99 HD Titles for Rent

[RonV]

Re: Vudu Now has 99 HD Titles for Rent

Yes but they can be outfitted with digital converters so your old 13" B&W will still work in a HD world. I am still waiting for my coupons.

[NA9D]

Re: Vudu Now has 99 HD Titles for Rent

I think you need to request them. I should go do that...

[HeadHodge]

Re: Vudu Now has 99 HD Titles for Rent

Most people don't even have an HD set. I would be shocked to see BD even come close to replacing DVD in 18 to 24 months, if ever.

That is one feature I did like about HD-DVD over BluRay. Every movie I rented in HD-DVD also allowed you to flip the disc over and play it on a standard DVD. It was nice because it didn't force you to go out and buy a HD-DVD player or to rent a seperate version of the movie to watch it.

But as far as HD TVs go, Hi Def players have options to play the movies in a compatible 4:3 TV format. So I don't think that what type of TV a person owns is really an issue.

[Rusdude]

Re: Vudu Now has 99 HD Titles for Rent

That is one feature I did like about HD-DVD over BluRay. Every movie I rented in HD-DVD also allowed you to flip the disc over and play it on a standard DVD. It was nice because it didn't force you to go out and buy a HD-DVD player or to rent a seperate version of the movie to watch it.

But as far as HD TVs go, Hi Def players have options to play the movies in a compatible 4:3 TV format. So I don't think that what type of TV a person owns is really an issue.

Actually, not every HD-DVD was dual-format. If I recall, dual-format disks had a retail price about $10 (not that most people bought stuff at MSRP given all the specials).

[RonV]

Re: Vudu Now has 99 HD Titles for Rent

I think you need to request them. I should go do that...

I did the week the website went live....That would have been the first week of January....

[NA9D]

Re: Vudu Now has 99 HD Titles for Rent

I did the week the website went live....That would have been the first week of January....

What website? All I found today was an 800 number...

We are WAY off topic now...

[MaxH]

Re: Vudu Now has 99 HD Titles for Rent

I think you need to request them. I should go do that...

I believe they expire 90 days after you request them, so if prices drop in 4 months, you're SOL. I'm waiting until I see them free or nearly free after the coupon, and until I have read some reviews. The coupons will be offered for a while, but once you request them, the clock starts ticking.

[RonV]

Re: Vudu Now has 99 HD Titles for Rent

What website? All I found today was an 800 number...

We are WAY off topic now...

https://www.dtv2009.gov/

[aaronwt]

Re: Vudu Now has 99 HD Titles for Rent

Yeah, but you see this is all changing rapidly. 12 months from now, there will be no incentive for JC Penny to sell 480i TVs as no broadcast TV will be in SD any longer. Of course, sell anything places like JC Penny and WalMart may continue to sell such sets on the unsuspecting public. But will manufacturers continue to make them long term? I doubt it.

So people will start buying HD sets because that's all that will be available. Second BR players can play standard DVDs. Third, I image in that BR players have SD outputs. So there's really no reason other than cost ones to produce standard DVDs any longer. Once the cost of the BR players drop, there's no need to produce two sets of discs.

There are plenty of 480P(extended defnition) sets still for sale. Last week I went to three different Bestbuy stores(looking for another A35 HD DVD player). Surprisingly the TV section that had the most people in it was the smaller TV section. The 19", 26" etc sets and smaller. Many of these
sets are 768P and many are only 480P. They all have a digital tuner so they will be ready for the digital transistion. All OTA broadcasts will be forced to digital in 2009, although not necessarily HD.
And one thing these people aren't going to be worried about feeding these sets is BD. The majority of people, even the ones with 1080P sets(which is still the vast minority)Most people are perfectly fine watching DVDs on their HD sets. UNless the BD studios plan to force people to use BD by not releasing the title on DVD, I just don't see the masses spending the money. And I don't see the studios walking away from all that money that DVD provides.

But it doesn't matter anyway since all of us VUDU owners are pretty much covered.

[Nded]

Re: Vudu Now has 99 HD Titles for Rent

I do not think this word "atrat" means what you think it means.

[NA9D]

Re: Vudu Now has 99 HD Titles for Rent

Aaron,

I agree that most people out there really will have no need for the HD capabilities of a BR player. However, there are economics to keep in mind. The studios will have to continue to produce two different standards of discs. The hardware manufacturers will have to produce two different types of hardware. This makes no economic sense. Now that the industry has standardized on a next generation disc format, it is sill for them to continue supporting a format that is what 15 years old or more. That's like Microsoft saying they'll continue to support and put out products for Windows 95.

It's a simple thing to now phase out the standard DVD player and move exclusively to the BR format. It's going to take some time, but if player prices drop to reasonable levels, then there's no reason not to. BR players can put out downconverted video so it meets the needs of everyone who has an SD or ED TV.

Look at how quickly the VCR has pretty much withered. In a period of a couple of years, stores like Blockbuster went from have VHS and DVDs to pretty much no VHS (maybe there's still a handful). This happened very rapidly.

Or look at how Laserdiscs disappeared quite rapidly around 1997 or 1998 - right when DVD players began to really show up on the market. Given the rapid advance of technology today, I really don't think this transition is going to take long at all.

[aaronwt]

Re: Vudu Now has 99 HD Titles for Rent

But when those formats were out there weren't very many choices. Now you have numerous ways to get your movies and they are all trying to get a piece of the pie. I doubt any format will have the mass acceptance that DVD had. There are just too many ways to get your movies now like Comcast On Demand, Xbox Live, Apple TV, Unbox, and of course our favorite here(at least my favorite) VUDU.

[NA9D]

Re: Vudu Now has 99 HD Titles for Rent

Who knows. Maybe you are right. Maybe I am right. Maybe some other new format will come along for physical media and make us both wrong. Only time will tell. As one friend pointed out, "It's all just going to get better and better."

[RonV]

Re: Vudu Now has 99 HD Titles for Rent

But when those formats were out there weren't very many choices. Now you have numerous ways to get your movies and they are all trying to get a piece of the pie. I doubt any format will have the mass acceptance that DVD had. There are just too many ways to get your movies now like Comcast On Demand, Xbox Live, Apple TV, Unbox, and of course our favorite here(at least my favorite) VUDU.

I could see that if VOD continues to grow the content owners will only have to deal with maybe 3 channels.

• Standard Def DVD
• High Def DVD (not HD-DVD)
• VOD

From a distributor point of view its almost zero cost to them to deliver the VOD channel. They just have to deliver the RAW source and the approved VOD vendor takes care of the encoding and encryption of the source.

[Rusdude]

Re: Vudu Now has 99 HD Titles for Rent

I don't remember it very well, but I think VHS->DVD transition took awhile even though VHS->DVD is a greater improvement over DVD->Blu-Ray (that's what "analysts" say). I'd think DVD will be around for 2-3 years before it's going to start being phased-out from store shelves. It will have to do with prices of HD sets (very low nowadays) and, more importantly, BR players and media.

By mid-2008 we're supposed to se $299 players, so under-$199 is what some experts think we will see (due to more manufacturers and smaller & cheaper parts). So, in that light, in 2-3 years Blu-Ray players will be dirt-cheap just like DVD players right now.