What happens to my movies if VUDU goes out of business?

[nimmzwei]

I'm sorry if this has been already answered but I couldn't find anything in the FAQs.
ATM not knowing what will happen to my VUDU-library if they go belly-up really holds me back from purchasing anything (besides rentals). It would be really nice to know if Walmart has some kind of plan for the worst case scenario.
I guess a hey-sorry-here-take-your-money-back kind of thing won't happen. But could there be a chance that they at least transfer your rights of ownership to another service (UltraViolet, amazon)?

[Chris Gerhard]

Re: What happens to my movies if VUDU goes out of business?

I'm sorry if this has been already answered but I couldn't find anything in the FAQs.
ATM not knowing what will happen to my VUDU-library if they go belly-up really holds me back from purchasing anything (besides rentals). It would be really nice to know if Walmart has some kind of plan for the worst case scenario.
I guess a hey-sorry-here-take-your-money-back kind of thing won't happen. But could there be a chance that they at least transfer your rights of ownership to another service (UltraViolet, amazon)?

Amazon or other company operating a similar service could buy VUDU or accept the responsibility if Wal-Mart isn't able to make VUDU viable business but if no company can build a successful business like this, then there would be no company available to take the responsibility. The fact Wal-Mart owns VUDU and isn't likely to shut down the service without compensating right's owners is the only assurance I can see. If it is shut down without compensation, litigation is a certainty. If you are the type that worries about things like this, I don't see anyway you can be comfortable and would worry regardless of any assurances.

Read the user agreement to better understand your rights and decide for yourself is about all you can do.

[canadien37]

Re: What happens to my movies if VUDU goes out of business?

I'm sorry if this has been already answered but I couldn't find anything in the FAQs.
ATM not knowing what will happen to my VUDU-library if they go belly-up really holds me back from purchasing anything (besides rentals). It would be really nice to know if Walmart has some kind of plan for the worst case scenario.
I guess a hey-sorry-here-take-your-money-back kind of thing won't happen. But could there be a chance that they at least transfer your rights of ownership to another service (UltraViolet, amazon)?

If I may, let me share some insight about this issue....I have been a VUDU customer for a few years, and have over 300 movies that I own with them..
There were some situations over the years that they could have applied their TOS, but didn't because they wanted to provide great customer service...

I know it's a risk, particularly if you only stream and can't download, but I have had no problems accessing my films at any time...Another confidence booster was the acquisition by Walmart...

That said, I got an email from Blockbuster stating their service would no longer be available on my devices as of 3/31/2012....Now the device I have in my home cinema and my Vizio TV both have the app on them....Now thank God I didn't purchase any movies from them...I would still have my movies in the cloud, from what I understand you don't lose the licenses, but I will need to buy another device even though the ones I have are functional...This does not look good in the eyes of the public, IMO....The only analogy I can come up with were the Blu-ray "profiles"....What a nightmare until they got it right.....

If I understand it right, the Ultraviolet system will store your purchases independent from who you bought them from....Sorry for the long post, I thought I could be helpful with a little detail...

[randym431]

Re: What happens to my movies if VUDU goes out of business?

I don't know if anyone remembers, but walmart "once" ran another online movie service. I know. I bought several tv shows off it. Then walmart ceased the service and poof... movies no more. No allowance for customers. No refunds. No customer service. Nothing.

Movies downloaded still played until some copy protection DRM issue messed up (which happened A LOT while the service was active). Back then, you called walmarts movie customer service and they resent the DRM info to allow your purchased movie(s) to once again play.

After walmart killed their movie online service, no cs to call. And thus after a windows update, or some fluke, DRM was lost and the downloaded purchases were useless digital paper weights.

I hate to suggest this, but I totally suspect the same-o if VUDU should be terminated or sold off to another like amazon or blockbuster, where the new owners would surely just kill off the VUDU service.
Sadly in the world of online video services, that is the reality of how it works.
If VUDU were to be sold off, and I truly worry about that because after all walmart's #1 goal is the business to make money, so if walmart did sell or ceased VUDU, customers would just be out of luck. Period.

After all, that would not be the first time walmart had killed off one of their online movie services due to profit concerns, and left former customers out in the cold.

[nimmzwei]

Re: What happens to my movies if VUDU goes out of business?

Thank you for your replies.

While considering to replace my DVDs/BDs with VoD, I did a rough calculation of how often I've actually watched the discs I have in my collection and came up with some pretty shocking results.
I've got a lot of movies (old and new) that I purchased after I've watched (and liked) them, that now just sit on my shelf and haven't even gotten a second viewing.
If you factor in the amount of new stuff that is coming out and that you probably want to see as well, it gets more and more unlikely that those said movies will ever spin again.
Then there is the release of a new / better? format every few years that gives your current collection that laser-discy feel (no offense to you LD lovers out there) and before you know it you find yourself spending money on that Lord Of The Rings (Extended Edition) in 4K and 3D which you already own on DVD / Bluray / etc...
In a nut-shell: I decided to stop buying movies and just rent what I want to see. I think VUDU offers a great service for that and should they ever go out of business - well nothing is lost - and I can just move on to another service.

[Sypher67]

Re: What happens to my movies if VUDU goes out of business?

It seems like a no brainer...if company goes under release the DRM rights to the content that people paid for... but then that makes sense...

Of course there always class action law suits....but that isn't easy when a company doesn't exist anymore...

Let's just hope VUDU doesn't go the way of the DODO.... which i don't think they will as their selection is better than the other's out there ATM and you only pay for what you use...

[intel352]

Re: What happens to my movies if VUDU goes out of business?

VUDU should be around awhile, as they're picking up more users due to entering more markets (via xbox, ps3, etc). Plus the fact that they're owned by Walmart is quite helpful.


A more likely concern is what happens if Walmart sells VUDU to another competitor...

[kikar]

Re: What happens to my movies if VUDU goes out of business?

Now that they are part of Ultraviolet I have even more confidence in them and believe me on April 16th I will be in Walmart getting my DVD and HD-DVD/ Blu-ray collection transferred to ultraviolet for Vudu..... Well the ones that will transfer meaning everyone but the Disney discs.

[sunfrog]

Re: What happens to my movies if VUDU goes out of business?

They won't go out of business because the quality of their HDX offerings in awesome.

However, please add an option to turn off the automatic bump down if my connection is too slow. I hate that. I'd rather let it load for a while before I start watching than get bumped down to a crappy quality. It's my choice, let me choose it.

HDX forevah!!

[aaronwt]

Re: What happens to my movies if VUDU goes out of business?

Now that they are part of Ultraviolet I have even more confidence in them and believe me on April 16th I will be in Walmart getting my DVD and HD-DVD/ Blu-ray collection transferred to ultraviolet for Vudu..... Well the ones that will transfer meaning everyone but the Disney discs.

Did they say it could be used with HD DVDs?

[Towergrove]

Re: What happens to my movies if VUDU goes out of business?

Thank you for your replies.

While considering to replace my DVDs/BDs with VoD, I did a rough calculation of how often I've actually watched the discs I have in my collection and came up with some pretty shocking results.
I've got a lot of movies (old and new) that I purchased after I've watched (and liked) them, that now just sit on my shelf and haven't even gotten a second viewing.
If you factor in the amount of new stuff that is coming out and that you probably want to see as well, it gets more and more unlikely that those said movies will ever spin again.
Then there is the release of a new / better? format every few years that gives your current collection that laser-discy feel (no offense to you LD lovers out there) and before you know it you find yourself spending money on that Lord Of The Rings (Extended Edition) in 4K and 3D which you already own on DVD / Bluray / etc...
In a nut-shell: I decided to stop buying movies and just rent what I want to see. I think VUDU offers a great service for that and should they ever go out of business - well nothing is lost - and I can just move on to another service.

I have to wonder why you collected so many movies if you didn't watch them more than once or at all? Wouldnt you figure that out after you purchased 4 or 5 titles??
While you may have fallen out of favor with collecting, the sell thru video sales last year were around a $10 billion dollar business which is hardly chump change and shows that many many people are still interested in owning rather than renting videos. VUDU with Ultraviolet is a great extension to my film library and gives the viewer more choices which I see as an excellent thing!

[canadien37]

Re: What happens to my movies if VUDU goes out of business?

Now that they are part of Ultraviolet I have even more confidence in them and believe me on April 16th I will be in Walmart getting my DVD and HD-DVD/ Blu-ray collection transferred to ultraviolet for Vudu..... Well the ones that will transfer meaning everyone but the Disney discs.

Add Lionsgate, MGM, and independents to the list that can't be transferred.......Only Sony, Fox, Warner, Paramount, and Universal are eligible....Don't know about DreamWorks...

[sbuberl]

Re: What happens to my movies if VUDU goes out of business?

Add Lionsgate, MGM, and independents to the list that can't be transferred.......Only Sony, Fox, Warner, Paramount, and Universal are eligible....Don't know about DreamWorks...

DreamWorks Animation = yes
Rest of DreamWorks = no

[iwubuv]

Re: What happens to my movies if VUDU goes out of business?

If your worried about your movies. Convert the Ultraviolet movies only. So, even If VUDU goes out of business, you can still play your movies else where like Flixster or maybe in the future Amazon etc. Gotta remember Ultraviolet is our universal library.

[nimmzwei]

Re: What happens to my movies if VUDU goes out of business?

I have to wonder why you collected so many movies if you didn't watch them more than once or at all? Wouldnt you figure that out after you purchased 4 or 5 titles??
While you may have fallen out of favor with collecting, the sell thru video sales last year were around a $10 billion dollar business which is hardly chump change and shows that many many people are still interested in owning rather than renting videos. VUDU with Ultraviolet is a great extension to my film library and gives the viewer more choices which I see as an excellent thing!

Well, I think it is a basic "collectors" problem. When your collection exceeds a certain size it starts to soak up movies for its own good. It's not always a rational thing, you know. Took me little bit longer to "figure that out"... more like 400 to 500 titles, but I'm happy that all the movies in your collection get the love and attention they deserve...