Sell off my Blu Ray's and go strictly VUDU?

[Gnatevil]

Re: Sell off my Blu Ray's and go strictly VUDU?

My 2 Cents...I love Vudu and streaming movies. I also love collecting the Blu-rays. I recently ran into an issue. My cable provider has implemented a 250G/month cap. I was sick and stuck at home so I decided to sit and watch all 6 seasons of Big Bang Theory. I have a projector and a 106" screen so I stream everything in HDx. Well, let me tell you, 6 seasons of 24 episodes at 20 min each in HDx will eat up your cap quickly. Lucky for me, it was at the end of the billing cycle so my cap reset near the end of watching everything. I went over by about 150 Gig and got a nasty gram email warning me that if I continued to go over my limit, I would end up having to pay more ($10 for 50). Needless to say, the wife was not happy. Now, if I wasn't so lazy, I could have take the blu-rays and played them that way. Now, if I decide I'm going to have any lengthy marathon movie watching going on, I will play the blu-ray instead of streaming the movies. I won't ever give up my physical discs because I want to be sure I can always watch what I want, when I want to without having to spend too much extra money.

Now I know people are going to say that I spent money on the physical discs. True, but the majority of movies now come with a Digital copy of some sort...mostly UV. I haven't purchased any movie directly from Vudu (yet) so I have both the Physical and the streaming version. I've converted my DVD and Blu-ray collection (about 600 movies) using either the D2D app or taking them to Wal-Mart. I have over 900+ movies and Tv shows in my Streaming library and over 1500 in my Physical library. Still waiting for the few studios to get on board with conversions...Disney...MGM (who's in limbo) and converting Tv shows to streaming.

And the biggest reason I started converting everything to UV was so my kids would enjoy my library of movies. They all live scattered across the country so they can't just "borrow" a movie (not that I would let them). Now they can watch whatever I have available in the cloud...which is the majority of my collection.

Bottom line, keeping the discs is a good thing. Streaming is a good thing. I'll do both.

[mjvmovieman]

Re: Sell off my Blu Ray's and go strictly VUDU?

I've been burned too many times by big companies' music services going out of business and losing my content - MTV, Microsoft and Walmart. While I have done D2D and sold off the discs, I only do that for titles I could live with losing.

Then there's the ability to lend a copy, watch special features and watch movies on the occasional bad internet day.

That's where I'm at too. I sold most of my blu-ray/DVD collection that I had converted on D2D or added to Vudu. I kept about 20 of my absolute favorites, as well as several Disney/MGM/ineligible titles with the mindset that if I lose my other other 400 titles with Vudu/UV dying, then oh well, I will live and I still own the 'must-haves.' With a mostly clear wall shelf, it was sort of liberating

[CBrown]

Re: Sell off my Blu Ray's and go strictly VUDU?

While of course, only you can determine your priorities, I'm keeping all mine for the reasons noted below (which echo many comments already made).

• Quality - 'close' isn't good enough given I bought the discs on Blu-ray, have a large HDTV and good 7.1 system as I wanted the highest quality. Streaming services will not be fully equal in the near future as they have to deal with bandwidth realities. When H.265 encoding matures and is implemented, they may be able to really match Blu-ray quality but we'll have hopefully moved on to a UHD format... I have all my movies on my home server so for home use, I don't have get them and pop-in (and deal with loading times, unskippable vs, etc), but I still have it at full quality.
• "ownership" - Amazingly folks don't seem to have learned from the issues during the DRM'd music time. UV may help overcome much of the challenge but it hasn't been around long enough to fully trust. IMO if you "buy" movies from Amazon, iTunes, Xbox, Google, or non-UV Vudu titles you are throwing your money away vs. other options. You are only getting the rights to view them in the way and on the devices that the provider determines they want to give you. I have converted all my titles that I can to UV so it gives me additional viewing options. Obviously some like Disney titles are unlikely to ever be on UV or a UV like service.
• Keeping vs. Selling - You are unlikely to net more than a few dollars on each title that you are able to sell so the effort may not be worth it. What is the value vs. the burden for the titles you have? Outside of all the extra's, quality etc, visitors like to look over my ~500 title physical movie collection, something that doesn't happen with the collection on a screen (as it doesn't happen when viewing Vudu, Netflix etc as you are looking for something specific to watch, not 'perusing') . Generates fun discussions and acts somewhat as a decoration in the movie room. For me it is a benefit, not burden at the moment.

[MaxH]

Re: Sell off my Blu Ray's and go strictly VUDU?

1. Is it legal to sell my physical media once I perform the Disc to Digital conversion. I suspect that the original media must be kept even if you paid for the D2D.

Let's not conflate what a private entity allows in their internal policies with duly enacted laws. Of course it's legal to sell your discs, but it's also a violation of Vudu's Terms of Service:

Disc to Digital:

You may have the opportunity to covert your physical Blu-ray? and DVD discs into electronic copies that may be stored and viewed through the VUDU Service via the Disc to Digital program. The Disc to Digital program is only available for physical Blu-ray? and DVD titles that have been legitimately purchased and are presently owned by you. VUDU reserves the right to refuse conversion of a title, or to limit or cancel your access to a previously converted title, if VUDU reasonably believes the title does not meet, or no longer meets, the purchase and ownership criteria set forth in this paragraph.

Now that's going to be very hard for them to enforce, but if you start bragging here about how you trade discs with people all the time and never keep any in your house for too long, they might just challenge your ownership of those titles on their service. But it's not illegal to sell them, it's simply a violation of their policy for providing us with their services.

[perezil]

Re: Sell off my Blu Ray's and go strictly VUDU?

There are two issues that quickly come to mind.
1. Is it legal to sell my physical media once I perform the Disc to Digital conversion. I suspect that the original media must be kept even if you paid for the D2D.
2. This like any other cloud based service is based on trust and expectations. There is no guarantee that the future will ever be in your favor. You can not control what others choose and how the service will mature, but you can always choose what to do with the physical media you have in your possession.



Luis P.
Billings, MT

[Lunchbox]

Re: Sell off my Blu Ray's and go strictly VUDU?

I've been battling with the same question myself.

I don't like owning a lot of physical things, though how confident am I with all digital since it's reliant on internet connection and hardware. (Router/ modem)

I have a happy medium at the moment. All digital and 5 very favorite titles which are Blu-ray DVD combos.

I started selling my physical media slowly until I felt more comfortable with digital but with the goal to rid myself of excess physical possessions. After experiencing a flood and a house fire, I found you can only grab so much, so why own so much. It feels freeing to not have so much stuff.

Just my opinion.

[BlakkMajik3000]

Re: Sell off my Blu Ray's and go strictly VUDU?

I've converted about ~90% of my collection to UV. The remaining are MGM and Disney movies, with a handful of movies that are either not sold on Vudu or the film is non-UV but the distributor is a DECE member (ex. King of New York is distributed by Lionsgate, but digital version isn't UV).

With that said, I haven't ditched my discs just yet. I'm still waiting for the release of the CFF before going "all digital".

[jeremymc7]

Re: Sell off my Blu Ray's and go strictly VUDU?

I've got rid of all my movies and gone with UV / Vudu

... with the following exceptions.

1. Not available on Vudu / UV, I have Blu_Ray or DVD
2. 3D Blu-Ray, Vudu is TOO EXPENSIVE, and most 3D titles are not UV. Also 3D on Vudu OFTEN comes with lower quanity sound / channels than the 2D version or Blu-Ray 3D.

[punking]

Re: Sell off my Blu Ray's and go strictly VUDU?

There's no way I'd sell of my current collection as (like the above poster) I see UV separate to my blu-rays, and there are a number of reasons why.

-Until CFF takes off there's no easy way of making sure that your films don't suddenly vanish, or watching them if your internet is down.
-The quality isn't as good as blu-rays (although on the average non-calibrated TV that probably isn't so noticeable)
-A large amount of my collection are Region B films not available in the USA, or they are labels like Criterion, Olive etc and many of those are not on Vudu.
-There are many films that are not converted to UV
-You can often pick up a used blu-ray for five dollars, but on Vudu the same film will be $13 or $19 dollars. Sales are few and far between.
-Few or no extras with the movies on Vudu.

People say that the quality of online streaming will improve, and there's no doubt about that. But, I have a feeling Vudu will make you pay all over again for a higher quality of a film that is already in your collection (comparable to buying the blu-ray after you've bought the DVD). Which a lot of people may be fine with.

For me Vudu is useful for that film that I like, but don't love.

[coolcatdaddy]

Re: Sell off my Blu Ray's and go strictly VUDU?

I look at a digital rental/download service like Vudu as a supplement to my physical collection of media.

Unfortunately, when you "buy" a download, unless it's in an open format, you're going to loose the ability to play it if the download service goes out of business or there are other changes. With physical media, I can have confidence that I will still have the movie to play five, ten or twenty years from now.

I still have a few vhs tapes of films that have only been released on dvd or blu-ray in the past year or two - it took the studios about twenty years to make the film available in a new format.

If you're just a casual film viewer with a few favorites that you might purchase and you've never collected dvd or blu-ray before or have just a few titles you're comfortable getting rid of, going "all digital" with a service like Vudu makes sense. You're just running the risk of re-buying a few favorites if the service goes under.

If you're someone like me, with a collection of over 2,000 dvds and blu-rays, a service like Vudu is a great way to own a hi-def version of favorites that have never been (or might not be) released on blu-ray or a standard-def version of a movie that's not currently in print on dvd. I look at is as a long-term rental. It's not going to replace my core collection of physical media, though.

[MattO]

Re: Sell off my Blu Ray's and go strictly VUDU?

I've been burned too many times by big companies' music services going out of business and losing my content - MTV, Microsoft and Walmart. While I have done D2D and sold off the discs, I only do that for titles I could live with losing.

Then there's the ability to lend a copy, watch special features and watch movies on the occasional bad internet day.

[tgmoore71]

Re: Sell off my Blu Ray's and go strictly VUDU?

I vote to sell your physical media while you still have buyers and can get paid to switch. Same thing happened with early adopters for dvd, nobody is looking to buy VHS tapes.

[lujan]

Re: Sell off my Blu Ray's and go strictly VUDU?

... I believe that these are the end times for physical media...meaning, I do not believe that BD will see as long of a success period as DVD did, and BD will fizzle out in popularity and the selections at retail outlets will start to dwindle way down...the future will be more about bandwidth vs. sinking R&D in to physical media.

This is already starting to some extent. I've noticed my local BB used to have a larger selection of BDs and now there are fewer aisles of BD titles. This is disconcerting to me as I liked to see the product a lot of times before I buy.

[Grego]

Re: Sell off my Blu Ray's and go strictly VUDU?

I've pretty much given up my physical media. I had a large collection of over 1000 discs, and I am slowly selling/trading off everything but my absolute favorites. Extra features are great, but honestly, for most movies if I watch them more than once it's a lot. I've traded a lot of stuff on swapadvd.com for things I didn't own. While I agree that the picture quality and sound is better on the bluray, UV will continue to improve and not having a giant wall of media is actually pretty liberating. I find more feelings of annoyance that my MGM, Disney and other random titles are not UV and D2D eligible much more than I ever miss my physical media.

Hi YG6, you and I are on the same page my friend. I have made up my mind to sell off my BD/DVD collection, and while I have always cherished (ALOT) my media collection...it's just not worth it anymore. I find myself pressed for storage space, downloading/streaming instead of digging out the BD, and let's face it...the movie industry is moving towards where the music industry is right now (I haven't purchased a CD in many years) but, download music from iTunes. You are correct in saying that digital movies are only getting better, it's only a matter of time until the digital media possesses just as high quality picture and sound as the BD. I believe that these are the end times for physical media...meaning, I do not believe that BD will see as long of a success period as DVD did, and BD will fizzle out in popularity and the selections at retail outlets will start to dwindle way down...the future will be more about bandwidth vs. sinking R&D in to physical media.

[YankeeGator6]

Re: Sell off my Blu Ray's and go strictly VUDU?

I've pretty much given up my physical media. I had a large collection of over 1000 discs, and I am slowly selling/trading off everything but my absolute favorites. Extra features are great, but honestly, for most movies if I watch them more than once it's a lot. I've traded a lot of stuff on swapadvd.com for things I didn't own. While I agree that the picture quality and sound is better on the bluray, UV will continue to improve and not having a giant wall of media is actually pretty liberating. I find more feelings of annoyance that my MGM, Disney and other random titles are not UV and D2D eligible much more than I ever miss my physical media.