Apple - Charging Same $ for 4K as HD plus upgrading all HD movies to 4K for FREE!

[satinkzo]

Re: Apple - Charging Same $ for 4K as HD plus upgrading all HD movies to 4K for FREE!

According to Speedtest.net, the average broadband speed in the U.S. is just under 55mbps (and that was last years study). Hell the average mobile speed is over 20. I check my speed regularly & it is always around 95mbps (Comcast). I'd say your 18mb puts you in the lower end minority.

As far as your resolution vs. display size comparison goes, 60" is just about the upper limit when it comes to 1080p content, but keep in mind Vudu's HDX is NOT a true 1080p representation of the source material. Compression methods & lowered bitrates contribute to a degraded image when compared to Blu-ray or even broadcast signal. If I sit 3 feet away from Vudu's stream on a 60" display, compression artifacts & a general mottled appearance are noticable. Also keep in mind that iTunes will support HDR10, which Vudu currently does not. HDR is where UHD really shows off.

I am in no way an Apple or iTunes fan, which was a major deciding factor to why I chose Vudu & UV over their proprietary platform. I am confident that Vudu MUST step up their game here, and if they don't it's possible with the advent of the upcoming Movies Anywhere system the migration to iTunes will be a detriment to their sales, and their future.

I have to say it's probably a good that installing Home Theaters is just a hobby for you, because if you showed up to install mine for pay and told me to "just sit farther away" I'd probably send you packing.

LOL, I was looking at similar data... I was thinking that it really sucks that they can only get 18mbps as that is really low. Also, as stated, 4k is not a big deal to me as much as HDR... which just so happens to only be implemented on 4k/UHD and even VUDU promised to support HDR10 and hasn't yet. It's going to be a very critical rest of year for me if VUDU can step up on existing promises and then also match competition. Even Amazon has to have an answer to apple's free upgrades to UHD and dual HDR10/DV support

[IPhoneUser]

Re: Apple - Charging Same $ for 4K as HD plus upgrading all HD movies to 4K for FREE!

It only makes sense that if Apple is offering 4K for the same price as HD, then they will have no reason to carry HD films any more. Similarly, I can't see Vudu selling an inferior version of a movie for the same price as Apple. What will surely happen is that once the UHD becomes available, Vudu will stop carrying the HD version. Similarly, it won't make sense for Vudu or any other digitial provider to carry multiple encodes of films if no one is willing to buy them. Vudu's technology allows their streaming to adapt to their customers hardware. You could do this without providing additional encodes. Nevertheless, considering how many titles are still making their way to blu ray, it will be years before we amass a decent 4K library.

[jeremymc7]

Re: Apple - Charging Same $ for 4K as HD plus upgrading all HD movies to 4K for FREE!

I had many similar thoughts yesterday.

UV seems to be dying with all the other services we've lost over the last couple years. It really was starting to make me worry UV and / or Vudu might be forced out over the next couple years.

Even though the whole family in running on an Apple ecosystem I went with Vudu / Roku for the HDX, 7.1, & 3D options Apple didn?t offer and eventually UHD. With 3D more less dead and Apple now offering UHD I?m seriously concern this could be the final nail in the UV coffin.

The problem with jumping ship is that I?ve got 2000+ movies with UV/Vudu and (currently) Apple isn?t offering an import/matching service for movies like they did with MP3 files to get every over to their music service.

For certain I won?t be buying UHD on Vudu if the prices don?t align. Likewise I don?t plan to ?jump ship? but I will likely replace the Roku?s with Apple TV?s now and just keep my collection across box Vudu and Apple, instead of just Vudu.

[jeremymc7]

Re: Apple - Charging Same $ for 4K as HD plus upgrading all HD movies to 4K for FREE!

It only makes sense that if Apple is offering 4K for the same price as HD, then they will have no reason to carry HD films any more. Similarly, I can't see Vudu selling an inferior version of a movie for the same price as Apple. What will surely happen is that once the UHD becomes available, Vudu will stop carrying the HD version. Similarly, it won't make sense for Vudu or any other digitial provider to carry multiple encodes of films if no one is willing to buy them. Vudu's technology allows their streaming to adapt to their customers hardware. You could do this without providing additional encodes. Nevertheless, considering how many titles are still making their way to blu ray, it will be years before we amass a decent 4K library.

If anything I would think SD would go away and HDX would stay for people with lower speed connections and digital downloads. SD is old enough that HDX could be the new SD.

[Cranston37]

Re: Apple - Charging Same $ for 4K as HD plus upgrading all HD movies to 4K for FREE!

If anything I would think SD would go away and HDX would stay for people with lower speed connections and digital downloads. SD is old enough that HDX could be the new SD.

I say for simplicity just have 1 purchase tier and let the consumer's equipment stream what it can.

[jeremymc7]

Re: Apple - Charging Same $ for 4K as HD plus upgrading all HD movies to 4K for FREE!

I say for simplicity just have 1 purchase tier and let the consumer's equipment stream what it can.

I would agree expect some consumer don't to pay (extra) for something they won't use. There's still a massive market for DVD only consumers.

[quackman]

Re: Apple - Charging Same $ for 4K as HD plus upgrading all HD movies to 4K for FREE!

Competition is a good thing. As long as Vudu actually competes! I also have a lot invested in Vudu, despite having all the Apple devices. I think Vudu will step up their game because they must.

I do wish for a Movies Anywhere type of system as long as it includes Vudu, iTunes, Disney, and Amazon. I'm afraid though that we would lose the ability to share our movies and disc to digital would probably cease. These are the two main features of UV that may be holding up an agreement between them. Okay, sorry, I have digressed from the thread topic.

[CDBlue]

Re: Apple - Charging Same $ for 4K as HD plus upgrading all HD movies to 4K for FREE!

I had many similar thoughts yesterday.

UV seems to be dying with all the other services we've lost over the last couple years. It really was starting to make me worry UV and / or Vudu might be forced out over the next couple years.

Even though the whole family in running on an Apple ecosystem I went with Vudu / Roku for the HDX, 7.1, & 3D options Apple didn?t offer and eventually UHD. With 3D more less dead and Apple now offering UHD I?m seriously concern this could be the final nail in the UV coffin.

The problem with jumping ship is that I?ve got 2000+ movies with UV/Vudu and (currently) Apple isn?t offering an import/matching service for movies like they did with MP3 files to get every over to their music service.

For certain I won?t be buying UHD on Vudu if the prices don?t align. Likewise I don?t plan to ?jump ship? but I will likely replace the Roku?s with Apple TV?s now and just keep my collection across box Vudu and Apple, instead of just Vudu.

Hopefully if this happens, the studios will be forced to allow us to transfer our UV library to another system. I mean UV is backed by the studios (minus Disney of course), and if there are no providers left, it would look really bad on the Studios: They sold us a product that can't be used anywhere!

Personally I can't wait until there is only 1 system. This whole UV vs Keychest, where some movies work in Amazon/iTunes/DMA/VUDU and other movies work in UV/VUDU is kind of a headache.

[quackman]

Re: Apple - Charging Same $ for 4K as HD plus upgrading all HD movies to 4K for FREE!

Hopefully if this happens, the studios will be forced to allow us to transfer our UV library to another system. I mean UV is backed by the studios (minus Disney of course), and if there are no providers left, it would look really bad on the Studios: They sold us a product that can't be used anywhere!

Personally I can't wait until there is only 1 system. This whole UV vs Keychest, where some movies work in Amazon/iTunes/DMA/VUDU and other movies work in UV/VUDU is kind of a headache.

Yes, I also prefer one system for all. Even if it means losing the ability to share movies, as much of a bummer as that would be. To me, one system is more important than everything else.

[gong0704@hotmail.com]

Re: Apple - Charging Same $ for 4K as HD plus upgrading all HD movies to 4K for FREE!

there are a few reasons i think why apple upgrade HD movies to 4k automatically. may not be accurate, but hear me out and see if it might make sense.

itune's looks more like a platform, hd movies mostly comes with itunes extra, however SD movies does not. with all the programming behind itunes extra and presentation of the movie menu, i think apple wants to have a consistent look and not having different versions in terms of HD and 4k. So when apple sell a movie, there are only two version (4k and sd) and this help them managing catalogs, orders and how softwares (on iphone, ipad, apple tv and itunes) handle all of them consistently so they don't have to do a lot more works. (vudu handles extra differently)
apple wants the users to have a good user experience (unified tv app), the one version for one movie really helps that. And their app only need to handles how it's streamed (resolution, buffer and etc).
apple might reluctantly refuse to change its whole platform to just add 4K title, so it made deals with studios to agree with them.
And this also a big news for them and they should have offer 4K long time ago and they can't wait any more.

Think about why we are on vudu in the first place for a lot of people, it's because UV codes from blu-ray and we accumulate a lot of UV titles. Then vudu have great pricing, good stream, different devices. but in terms of overall browsing and viewing experiences, I really prefer apple's itunes, but too bad, there aren't that many codes (ultimately good price) for movies on itunes. But if i would buy itunes movies if the price was right (like 10 movies from 90s or 80s hit for $15 or $20). And this upgrade to 4K thing, really help me to start to buy more on itunes.

VUDU is like a flea market (or walmart), you can get mostly everything, but studios are doing their own things, UV and non-UV, extra are handled differently. so i would really hope that vudu would offer similar offer for 4k titles, but i wouldn't get my helps up.

[IPhoneUser]

Re: Apple - Charging Same $ for 4K as HD plus upgrading all HD movies to 4K for FREE!

there are a few reasons i think why apple upgrade HD movies to 4k automatically. may not be accurate, but hear me out and see if it might make sense.

itune's looks more like a platform, hd movies mostly comes with itunes extra, however SD movies does not. with all the programming behind itunes extra and presentation of the movie menu, i think apple wants to have a consistent look and not having different versions in terms of HD and 4k. So when apple sell a movie, there are only two version (4k and sd) and this help them managing catalogs, orders and how softwares (on iphone, ipad, apple tv and itunes) handle all of them consistently so they don't have to do a lot more works. (vudu handles extra differently)
apple wants the users to have a good user experience (unified tv app), the one version for one movie really helps that. And their app only need to handles how it's streamed (resolution, buffer and etc).
apple might reluctantly refuse to change its whole platform to just add 4K title, so it made deals with studios to agree with them.
And this also a big news for them and they should have offer 4K long time ago and they can't wait any more.

Think about why we are on vudu in the first place for a lot of people, it's because UV codes from blu-ray and we accumulate a lot of UV titles. Then vudu have great pricing, good stream, different devices. but in terms of overall browsing and viewing experiences, I really prefer apple's itunes, but too bad, there aren't that many codes (ultimately good price) for movies on itunes. But if i would buy itunes movies if the price was right (like 10 movies from 90s or 80s hit for $15 or $20). And this upgrade to 4K thing, really help me to start to buy more on itunes.

VUDU is like a flea market (or walmart), you can get mostly everything, but studios are doing their own things, UV and non-UV, extra are handled differently. so i would really hope that vudu would offer similar offer for 4k titles, but i wouldn't get my helps up.

I don't think so. I think the reason there is going to be such a huge price cut is because the majority of customers are not willing to pay 50% more for what they perceive as a minimal upgrade from HD to UHD. For customers with average equipment, the difference between HD and UHD is far less dramatic than SD to HD.

Don't forget it's the studios that pushed UV. I can't imagine a future system that does not incorporate UV.

[gong0704@hotmail.com]

Re: Apple - Charging Same $ for 4K as HD plus upgrading all HD movies to 4K for FREE!

I understand what you saying. Indeed, 4K is not asy sell if people owns HD. But if studios decide to let 4K to be monopoly, like what Disney is doing. Apple can't do this and they are not doing it for Disney movies. What is the reason behind the apple's move and what does it mean, it's interesting.

I don't think so. I think the reason there is going to be such a huge price cut is because the majority of customers are not willing to pay 50% more for what they perceive as a minimal upgrade from HD to UHD. For customers with average equipment, the difference between HD and UHD is far less dramatic than SD to HD.

Don't forget it's the studios that pushed UV. I can't imagine a future system that does not incorporate UV.

[IPhoneUser]

Re: Apple - Charging Same $ for 4K as HD plus upgrading all HD movies to 4K for FREE!

Why would Vudu have an answer? Wouldn't it be up to the studios? None of their non UV titles have 4K versions anyway.

[Wasteland]

Re: Apple - Charging Same $ for 4K as HD plus upgrading all HD movies to 4K for FREE!

I would love to see a discounted upgrade option for us here at Vudu. I would upgrade all my titles that have UHD now if we were offered discounts for upgrading. As it stands, I still just buy HDX.

[Millerland]

Re: Apple - Charging Same $ for 4K as HD plus upgrading all HD movies to 4K for FREE!

Why would Vudu have an answer? Wouldn't it be up to the studios? None of their non UV titles have 4K versions anyway.

I wrote UV and they said it was up to the media provider who you purchased the content through.