VUDU Surpasses 1,000 Custom Installer Milestone

[elwaylite]

http://sev.prnewswire.com/computer-e...0102008-1.html

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Oct. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Following on the heels of a successful launch of HDX, the highest quality on-demand HD format available anywhere on cable, satellite, broadcast, or the Internet, VUDU announced today that it has reached an additional noteworthy industry milestone. The company now has more than 1,000 professional home installation companies in its national distribution network.
"HDX is rapidly becoming the solution of choice for HD home theater enthusiasts nationwide. We are pleased that in just seven months of shipping VUDU XL, we have signed up over 1,000 home theater dealers," said Mark Jung, CEO of VUDU. "Their commitment to VUDU means that consumers throughout the US will be able to enjoy the highest quality 1080p on-demand movies on their home theater systems."
"VUDU was an obvious product choice to supply to our membership and their clientele, as HTSA offers its dealer members only the best in home entertainment," says Richard Glikes, executive director of the Home Theater Specialists of America. "The overwhelming success of the VUDU Internet movie player is a testament to the quality of the product and the importance of its ability to download media in high-def. VUDU is highly regarded among our dealers."
VUDU's home theater resellers are specially trained experts who are committed to providing consumers the best in home electronics and are licensed to sell the VUDU XL.
VUDU XL is the top of the line VUDU Internet movie player, with a terabyte of local movie storage, seamless integration with home theater and whole house control systems from all the top brands in the market, and the ability to output HD simultaneously over HDMI and over component for whole house video switching.
With space to build a collection of more than 500 SD movies, VUDU XL is targeted at discriminating movie collectors and home theater owners who want instant access to their collection without the overhead and inconvenience of managing physical media. VUDU XL is fully endorsed by all major Hollywood and independent studios and newly released movies are typically available on the same day as the DVD becomes available. The VUDU catalog has more than 10,000 titles including a quickly growing HD and HDX collection.
Released earlier this month, HDX is the highest quality on-demand HD format available anywhere on cable, satellite, broadcast, or the Internet. Designed to deliver an optimized cinematic experience to owners of 40 inch and larger HDTV's and projectors, HDX with VUDU's TruFilm technology features a virtually artifact free 1080p picture and immersive, high definition sound.

[aaronwt]

Re: VUDU Surpasses 1,000 Custom Installer Milestone

"...newly released movies are typically available on the same day as the DVD becomes available...."

I thought this was atypical?

[NA9D]

Re: VUDU Surpasses 1,000 Custom Installer Milestone

"...newly released movies are typically available on the same day as the DVD becomes available...."

I thought this was atypical?

For purchase it is not...

[elwaylite]

Re: VUDU Surpasses 1,000 Custom Installer Milestone

Thats true, they do have the Sd up quick.

Wonder when we'll be able to buy HDX same day

[NA9D]

Re: VUDU Surpasses 1,000 Custom Installer Milestone

Thats true, they do have the Sd up quick.

Wonder when we'll be able to buy HDX same day

At 10 Gig a movie, you'd get about 25 movies before you run out of space. Even the people who can afford an XL would only get maybe 100 movies but probably less than that.

They need to get some sort of external storage working first...

[aaronwt]

Re: VUDU Surpasses 1,000 Custom Installer Milestone

For purchase it is not...

OK. I forgot about purchases. I'm usually only looking at rentals since that is what all the HD titles are.

[gregg098]

Re: VUDU Surpasses 1,000 Custom Installer Milestone

Im still a fan of the cloud method. Have a few movies on the box, the rest are still there, waiting, lurking...ready to be downloaded again. I know its a licensing issue, but there needs to be a workaround. The end user should never have to buy extra storage. I dont have any movies on my box capable of being archived (except the HDX demo).

[NA9D]

Re: VUDU Surpasses 1,000 Custom Installer Milestone

Im still a fan of the cloud method. Have a few movies on the box, the rest are still there, waiting, lurking...ready to be downloaded again. I know its a licensing issue, but there needs to be a workaround. The end user should never have to buy extra storage. I dont have any movies on my box capable of being archived (except the HDX demo).

Agreed. To me this is the most logical and hacker/pirate proof method of movie storage...

[elwaylite]

Re: VUDU Surpasses 1,000 Custom Installer Milestone

Agreed. To me this is the most logical and hacker/pirate proof method of movie storage...

I like it. I buy tv episodes on Amazon, I can go back and watch them again just by clicking the link.

[gregg098]

Re: VUDU Surpasses 1,000 Custom Installer Milestone

I forget where I read it. I think it was here?
Anyways, its supposedly an issue that since you, the end-user, owns the movie so you cant store it on someone else's (Vudu's) servers. I also remember someone mentioning that another service had a workaround for this and that was where you pay for the storage in terms of a monthly agreement. So you would pay a few $$ a month, and in return, you are owning/leasing space on the company servers to store your movies/shows. Now, if this is true, and again, this is from some other post by a non vudu employee, I would think people would pay a few dollars a month (something to keep it legal so you are "leasing" the space...$1 anyone?) to archive movies.

Just my opinion. I dont know all the details of the licensing agreements, but my 2 cents.

[elwaylite]

Re: VUDU Surpasses 1,000 Custom Installer Milestone

I forget where I read it. I think it was here?
Anyways, its supposedly an issue that since you, the end-user, owns the movie so you cant store it on someone else's (Vudu's) servers. I also remember someone mentioning that another service had a workaround for this and that was where you pay for the storage in terms of a monthly agreement. So you would pay a few $$ a month, and in return, you are owning/leasing space on the company servers to store your movies/shows. Now, if this is true, and again, this is from some other post by a non vudu employee, I would think people would pay a few dollars a month (something to keep it legal so you are "leasing" the space...$1 anyone?) to archive movies.

Just my opinion. I dont know all the details of the licensing agreements, but my 2 cents.

Im all for that idea. $5 for every tetrabyte or something, sign me up.

[Nded]

Re: VUDU Surpasses 1,000 Custom Installer Milestone

When contemplating the cloud concept, don't forget to make an allowance for the cost of the additional bandwidth requirements. When the movie is stored on your Vudu (and hopefully your LAN someday), there are no further expenses associated with watching again. If it's out on the cloud, there's a cost associated with sending that data to you over and over again.

I much prefer the local storage model, as that gives me something I can manage and control, vs. some storage server in the sky that could go down, or heaven forbid, be shutdown in the future.

[gregg098]

Re: VUDU Surpasses 1,000 Custom Installer Milestone

True. The option for both would alleviate that.

[redwein]

Re: VUDU Surpasses 1,000 Custom Installer Milestone

I much prefer the local storage model, as that gives me something I can manage and control, vs. some storage server in the sky that could go down, or heaven forbid, be shutdown in the future.

I guess you haven't spent thousands of dollars on storage servers that some of us have. For storing it yourself you have to factor in how much space you would ultimately need to store an ever growing collection of movies. Plus, if you store it yourself, you have to deal with equipment failure and potentially lost data that way too. Sure, you can back it up, use RAID 5, etc., but that adds to cost and complexity.

I have an idea. Wouldn't it be great if they would only have some compact optical format that you could store in something like a bookcase .

In all seriousness, I've tried to make the point many times, VOD makes the need for owning your own gigantic collection of movies rather unnecessary. I can guarantee you that I spent way more money on my collection then I ever would have if I could have paid a rental fee each and every time we watched one of them. We only have the collection so we could pick a movie that matched whatever mood we happened to be in without having to run out to Blockbuster, etc. There are a few movies that it may make sense to buy because you are positively going to watch them many times but that has got to be a miniscule percentage.

When I hear people looking forward to managing terabytes of self stored movies (which I have already done) I really think they are missing the potential of VOD. Overall you are likely to save money by always renting and you don't have to worry about either the service going away or losing data to a hardware failure. If it goes away, it is likely because there is another vendor that won the battle and you have nothing "invested" in the content.

[MaxH]

Re: VUDU Surpasses 1,000 Custom Installer Milestone

Agreed. To me this is the most logical and hacker/pirate proof method of movie storage...

And licensing shouldn't be that hard. All content is kept, and existing keys are always valid, but the studios can block the distribution of new keys only, not the access to content from those with valid keys. But "should" is such a misleading word when you are talking about licensing content from the mafiAA.