I was given a Vudu system as a gift. I got it all set up, looked beautiful on my Sony 46" LCD, and rented my first movie for my daughter. She watched it a couple times, and then a few days later it was only available to buy. I thought, OK maybe there was an issue with the system. The next weekend the wife and I wanted to watch a movie, but all three movies we were interested in are only available to buy, not rent. This was frustrating as we thought this system allowed for rentals as well as purchase. Prior to all this I had an Apple TV 1.0, which was a good system, but I eventually sold it before they released ATV take 2. I thought the Vudu would be a worthy replacement, especially since Vudu has such an excellent catalog of movies, compared to Apple. I have since purchased another Apple TV, but still have the Vudu. I still would like to see rentals come back to Vudu as this is what most people want. I would like to see more competition out there in the rentals. At this point though, Vudu doesn't stand a chance. We need rentals more than we need purchases!
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Re: Disappointed
The last time I checked there were significantly more rentals available on Vudu vs. purchases. It would help if you could list the titles that caught your eye, but only were offered by the studios as purchase. Regardless, everyone here agrees with you that we'd like to see the studios offer rental and purchase options for every title. If you take the time to read some other threads you will learn of the legal nightmares that prevent this from happening. -
Re: Disappointed
You'll find a very good explanation of this at the top of this forum in the thread at http://forum.vudu.com/showthread.php?t=2556
I'd still like to know what movies you were trying to rent. For example, if your daughter was looking for a Disney title, they recently forced Vudu to change the catalog to have 2 seperate entries - 1 for rental and 1 for purchase. If that is the case, you may have been confused by what we think is a poor marketing decision by Disney. It will help us if we can document this with specific users like yourself.
Please post the titles you were wanting to rent.Comment
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Re: Disappointed
Some things you should know:
- AppleTV's rentals are going to basically be the same as Vudu. If a movie isn't available to rent on Vudu, it likely won't be on AppleTV either. The studios are tending to treat all players in the digital distribution world as equal. The same rules and content pretty much apply to all across the board.
- Movies come and go from rental and/or purchase based on the licensing agreements discussed in my sticky post on this. Additionally, movies are pulled out of the catalog when they premier on premium channels like HBO.
There's significant search capabilities in the Vudu and you can certainly explore a lot of different movies and other content with it.
And yes, it is disappointing that not everything is rentable. But we just don't have that right now...
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Re: Disappointed
So are you saying that Disney mandated that the rental and purchase options will be listed as two separate movies? That's strange and confusing.Originally posted by Nded View Post
I assume that using the "Similar Movies" option should help you find the right choice though.Comment
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Re: Disappointed
There is no one "Disney" there are separate business units and one handles purchases the other handles rentals...Originally posted by jleavens View PostComment
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Re: Disappointed
Update, as of this afternoon 3,725 of the 5,118 titles in the Vudu catalog offer rental options.Comment
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Re: Disappointed
Yes. Disney mandated this and AFIK, Vudu has two separate files for rental and purchase as well! It's odd, but yeah, that's what Disney requires.Originally posted by jleavens View PostComment
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Re: Disappointed
Welcome mcvaughan, we feel your pain.
We'd like to see everything rentable, too, as others have said. And as I'm so fond of saying, Vudu could very easily have EVERY movie available to rent...by dropping the 1,493 (according to Nded) movies with no rental option. That would still give them a huge lead over AppleTV and other similar devices, but I like to think that if just one person wants to purchase a movie, then why the heck not offer that as an option?
Personally, I hold a faint and deluded hope that by offering both, the studios will eventually see how much more they can make from renting and decide to ease up, but I'm not optimistic.
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Re: Disappointed
Additionally, the movies you want may be new releases. New releases are available for purchase only on Vudu but rentals come generally 30 days later for those movies (AppleTV has the SAME issue). Warner Bros. release purchase and rental on the same day, but so far they are the only ones doing this...Comment
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Re: Disappointed
I sure hope this wasn't a "drive by posting" and that the OP will let us know what movies he was trying to rent.
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