ATV Customer .. Fed up just ordered Vudu

[Nded]

Re: ATV Customer .. Fed up just ordered Vudu

I guess your other option would be to unplug your Vudu and wait until next week when you can be one of the first new customers to experience the fast update process.

On the other hand, you can wear the badge of being one of the last folks to experience the old system - sort of a badge of honor

[HeadHodge]

Re: ATV Customer .. Fed up just ordered Vudu

Well wonderful .. I bought the box partially under the assumption I would be able to use it today because of this update.

I just confirmed with 'John' in tech support that this 'feature' wont be 'live' until next week when 1.4.0 gets pushed in guided setup right now GS is still 1.3.1

So .. er .. not a great initial Vudu experience here so far

Sorry to hear that the new VUDU release timing is causing problems.

But I don't think it will take until next week to get your box fully updated. It took about 2 days for my box when I first plugged it in, about 3 months ago.

So even though it's not exactly the Nirvana everyone was hoping for, I don't think it will be that bad either.

Are you able to watch anything at all right now? I think I was able to when I got mine, but now I can't really remember.

Regards

[Nded]

Re: ATV Customer .. Fed up just ordered Vudu

I'd think you'd have access to the "free" Bourne HD titles right away.

[Riekl]

Re: ATV Customer .. Fed up just ordered Vudu

I apologize for my previous post, the tone was not what I intended.

I am disapointed but not 'mad' 'angry' upset' at Vudu. I like the product and hope one day to possibly participate in the beta program if they have need of another tester.

I just get frustrated when things don't make 'logical' sense. They role out a great heavily demanded new feature in 1.4.0 but then limit in such a way that it still impacts the people they were trying to help with it. No harm would have come from a burried 'Update Catalog now' button.

[HeadHodge]

Re: ATV Customer .. Fed up just ordered Vudu

now that you've upgraded to 1.4, you can even play what we call "headless movies" (which you wouldn't be able to do with 1.3)

Well that's not totally true. Have you seen some of the titles available when you search the "Horror" genre??

[HeadHodge]

Re: ATV Customer .. Fed up just ordered Vudu

I guess your other option would be to unplug your Vudu and wait until next week when you can be one of the first new customers to experience the fast update process.

On the other hand, you can wear the badge of being one of the last folks to experience the old system - sort of a badge of honor

I don't remember, but did I ever tell you about how I use to walk 5 miles in the snow to get to an internet cafe to check my email??

Now I've got a new one. Did I ever tell you about how I use to have to wait 2 days to get a database update on VUDU??

[NA9D]

Re: ATV Customer .. Fed up just ordered Vudu

As Greg has stated, you'll be able to watch new titles as they show up in the database even though you don't have all the heads yet. The reasons for the no "update catalog" button are many. The bottom line is that once your box is up and running the catalog is always up to date.

ATV doesn't have this problem because the catalog is not stored on the box nor are heads stored on the box. This is why you have to wait for content from them.

[Riekl]

Re: ATV Customer .. Fed up just ordered Vudu

Bleh .. bit myself on the butt .. brought the vudu home .. hooked it up and realized i left the remote at work (i live 45 mins from work ) so i cant show the wife anything. Damn me for not getting the IR interface so i could use my harmony !

[Greg]

Re: ATV Customer .. Fed up just ordered Vudu

Bleh .. bit myself on the butt .. brought the vudu home .. hooked it up and realized i left the remote at work (i live 45 mins from work ) so i cant show the wife anything. Damn me for not getting the IR interface so i could use my harmony !

I _think_ this may still work: if you have a USB mouse around, you may be able to use it as a temporary remote. You have to plug your mouse in before you boot your VUDU, however, and I'm not sure whether this still works, but it's worth trying!

-- Greg

[Riekl]

Re: ATV Customer .. Fed up just ordered Vudu

O .. M .. G Greg you rock ! Works !

I was about to go to best buy which is across the street and buy a $100 hauppage card to er 'borrow' the ir receiver inside it has the same connector and i 'think' it would work.

This is infinitely better .. Thank you !!

[Greg]

Re: ATV Customer .. Fed up just ordered Vudu

O .. M .. G Greg you rock ! Works !

I was about to go to best buy which is across the street and buy a $100 hauppage card to er 'borrow' the ir receiver inside it has the same connector and i 'think' it would work.

This is infinitely better .. Thank you !!

You're very welcome!

Oh, regarding the IR receiver, please note that if you do want to go the IR route you must use VUDU's IR dongle: other dongles could damage your VUDU forever (and would most likely void your warranty too).

Enjoy your VUDU!

Cheers,

-- Greg

[NA9D]

Re: ATV Customer .. Fed up just ordered Vudu

Another option for controlling the Vudu is to call customer support and have them turn on network control. Hagen from Vudu wrote a pretty simple to use command line interface that allows you to connect to and control the Vudu from a terminal window on your computer. Not as elegant as the remote, but hey, it works.

And yeah, as Greg said: only use the Vudu IR dongle. PLEASE!!

[NA9D]

Re: ATV Customer .. Fed up just ordered Vudu

I wonder if the 1.4 improvements really only work for boxes that are shipped with 1.4. That would make sense since some important new functionality happens during the guided setup. If you do the guided setup under 1.3 and then got upgraded to 1.4, it wouldn't do the same thing as if you did the guided setup under 1.4.

It should. Trust me - Vudu can make it happen. All of us who beta tested this feature had already upgraded to 1.4 before testing it out. Vudu could force you to go through guided setup again. Reikl, if you really want to see it happen, I'd call customer service and ask them to force your box into guided setup so you can get the updates. You'll need to watch the tutorial and reactivate the box (you don't need to set up a new account or pay more money to do this) and then it should pull the database update.

Vudu goofed by not having the servers ready to force the update when the software was released. Oops!

But shipped boxes likely have software on them that is not even up to 1.3. Boxes in the warehouse or at a store could have 1.0 or 1.1, etc. on them. So it's not valid that you have to have a box shipped with 1.4.

[Jake]

Re: ATV Customer .. Fed up just ordered Vudu

Reikl, if you really want to see it happen, I'd call customer service and ask them to force your box into guided setup so you can get the updates. You'll need to watch the tutorial and reactivate the box (you don't need to set up a new account or pay more money to do this) and then it should pull the database update.

Vudu goofed by not having the servers ready to force the update when the software was released. Oops!

But shipped boxes likely have software on them that is not even up to 1.3. Boxes in the warehouse or at a store could have 1.0 or 1.1, etc. on them. So it's not valid that you have to have a box shipped with 1.4.

For a couple of technical reasons we waited until after all boxes in the field were upgraded to 1.4 before enabling the quick-database-update feature (it went live Friday). Won't go into detail, but lets just say some of those reasons are to lay the groundwork for 1.5 features

The fast update is actually independent of going through guided setup - so if, for example, you unplug your box for a month then plug it back in, you will update to the latest fairly quickly (though the pretty posters will take a bit longer). It happens automatically, so there shouldn't be any need to reset to guided setup...unless you just REALLY want to experience every feature of the box.

[NA9D]

Re: ATV Customer .. Fed up just ordered Vudu

For a couple of technical reasons we waited until after all boxes in the field were upgraded to 1.4 before enabling the quick-database-update feature (it went live Friday). Won't go into detail, but lets just say some of those reasons are to lay the groundwork for 1.5 features

I can understand the reasons behind that and I can understand how it might take a while for 1.4 to propagate to all customer boxes.

Cool on the 1.5 features. No, HeadHodge, I do NOT know what they have planned at this point...