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Questions before purchasing VUDU

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    #1

    Questions before purchasing VUDU

    I have been invited to the evangalist list, which appears to be pretty much zero risk for me, but I have a couple questions:

    1. I have several ethernet HDTV tuners which are primarily used during prime time, however the VUDU appears to be based on some sort of P2P technology as I read that my box may share segments of movies with other users. Can I schedule or throttle off the network connection during certain hours to prevent lost packets of the HD recorings from the ethernet tuners? I also have other network media players and want to be able to control the network activity. Maybe a simple suspend all network traffic button or something would work.
    2. Where can I see screenshots of the GUI? It is not in either the QSG or Users Manual for some bizzare reason.
    3. Can the unit be controlled with Logitech/Harmony remote controls?
    4. Can I replace the stock hard drive with something like an off the shelf Seagate 1TB SATA drive?
    5. Can you organize your purchases by folders (kinda like tivos)
    6. How can I view the catalog of movies,shows, along with prices, before getting the hardware? (I want to browse the selection)
    7. There was mention of maybe allowing the use of stock USB drives to expand storage, however the TOS seems to specifically prevent this.
    8. Also the TOS seems to conflict itself where it seems to say that the user shall not share...through P2P... Then later it says that the user agrees share segments with other users... Doesnt this place the subscriber in breach of the TOS for using the service as intended and required? This is bizzare.
    9. Privacy-Does VUDU share or displose my personally identifyable information with any third party for marketing or profit, for any reason other than to facilitate shipping of the hardware, and is there a way to opt out. I dont care if they share not personally identifyable, but I dont like them sharing: Joe Blow watched POTC on Jan 1, Sunshine on Fan 8, FF4 on Sep 12, and is currently watching The Omega Man.
    10. Is there any plan on allowing the hardware to share content on NAS'es? I have several TB's I use with my Tvix boxes.

    Thank You
    Tags: None
    #2
    Re: Questions before purchasing VUDU

    Here are answers:

    1.) No, you cannot choose times to use the P2P or not use it. However, the Vudu takes up at most about 200 kbps of traffic to share. It is very un-intrusive. You can decrease that further to 100 kbps but then you lose the ability to download movies instantly. Bottom line is that the Vudu should have negligible impact on your home network. It will NOT max out your bandwidth.

    2.) You can see the GUI on the Vudu website.
    3.) No - At present the unit is only controllable through the included RF only remote or via network control (TCP/IP). RF Remotes such as the Harmony 890 will not work (the 890 is proprietary to itself).
    4.) No - you cannot replace the drive. Opening the unit violates the warranty and the format of the disk is encrypted and proprietary.
    5.) Not at present. Maybe in the future. We are on Rev 1.1 of the firmware...
    6.) You can't. The catalog is always changing and growing. If you don't like the hardware you have 30 days to return it.
    7.) The TOS does not prevent this when doing it in an authorized manner. There will be Vudu supported means for adding an external drive in the months ahead. Right now it is not supported and hooking up an external drive will do nothing.
    8.) Not sure here what you mean. I think it means that you can't use P2P sharing methods outside the Vudu for Vudu content. The Vudu does what it does. You can't do more than what it does.
    9.) No - they do not share your information AFAIK. Privacy policy should be on the Vudu website.
    10.) At present no - it will not play media from other sources. This is a possibility at some point, but the goal for this box was to have the most optimum and best Video On Demand experience possible. It was decided to perfect that before making the box a "jack of all trades, but master of none."

    Does this help?

    Comment

      #3
      Re: Questions before purchasing VUDU

      Most of your questions can be answered by either reading the FAQ on the website or performing a search on these forums but I'll answer what I can.
      • Logitech/Harmony remotes - not at this time. A highly requested feature is to add support for I/R remotes so I hope it's coming.
      • Replace stock harddrive - I'm pretty sure that opening the box will void the warranty. But other than that - I'm not sure if this will cause any harm.
      • Organize owned content - not right now but highly requested and likely being worked on.
      • Browse current selection without getting the box - not at this time. They are working on it.
      • TOS - I'm not a legal expert but I don't think that just b/c the TOS specifically mentions the fact that you may be participating in a P2P network amongst Vudu boxes that it's conflicting itself where it's told you not to share through other P2P networks. Although the language may be a bit tricky I would think common sense would prevail. They are simply informing you that the device operates over a P2P network. And they are also telling you (what should be obvious) that you can't share this digital media with anyone you choose over another P2P network.
      • Streaming media from your own network - often requested and hopefully being worked on.
      I'd say that most of the things you've asked about are being considered. I can also tell you that in the 2 months that I've owned the box Vudu has shown considerable interest in continually developing and improving the device. For a net $0 purchase I'd say you'd be dang near crazy not to take the opportunity.

      Comment

        #4
        Re: Questions before purchasing VUDU

        Sorry - looks like I started posting before you finished and we posted near the same time.

        Comment

          #5
          Re: Questions before purchasing VUDU

          Originally posted by qz3fwd View Post
          1. I have several ethernet HDTV tuners which are primarily used during prime time, however the VUDU appears to be based on some sort of P2P technology as I read that my box may share segments of movies with other users. Can I schedule or throttle off the network connection during certain hours to prevent lost packets of the HD recorings from the ethernet tuners? I also have other network media players and want to be able to control the network activity. Maybe a simple suspend all network traffic button or something would work.
          I'm not sure it'd be an issue unless you had a lot of HD tuners. I have 2 QAM HD ethernet tuners connected to the same (100 Mbit) switch as my VUDU box and HD recordings to my MythTV box are perfect!

          -- Greg

          Comment

            #6
            Re: Questions before purchasing VUDU

            I just recently purchased a 46" Sharp LCD TV. Am I eligible for a free Vudu box? I couldn't find rules on this offer anywhere.

            Comment

              #7
              Re: Questions before purchasing VUDU

              Originally posted by doughowie View Post
              I just recently purchased a 46" Sharp LCD TV. Am I eligible for a free Vudu box? I couldn't find rules on this offer anywhere.
              The TV must be purchased from the Sharp website.

              Comment

                #8
                Re: Questions before purchasing VUDU

                [quote=NA9D;13904]Here are answers:

                1.) No, you cannot choose times to use the P2P or not use it. However, the Vudu takes up at most about 200 kbps of traffic to share. It is very un-intrusive. You can decrease that further to 100 kbps but then you lose the ability to download movies instantly. Bottom line is that the Vudu should have negligible impact on your home network. It will NOT max out your bandwidth.

                How can you prefetch and view a movie at 200kbps? The box must consume more bandwidth when you're actually watching a film. At 300kbps the Yahoo music videos look pretty bad. If it uses at most 200kbps for the share piece. I would be interested to know how much bandwidth is consumed during an HD presentation and with P2P in the background. DVDs are ~9 mpbs or about 10-base-T wirespeed. They stream fine over 100mbps home networks. Vista MCE will run DVDs fine from a NAS device, up to about 10 streams a a time...then things get a little funky. It's not impossible to saturate the inside of your network.

                Comcast has already taken steps to block BITtorrent xfers, one wonders if they'll consider all P2P activity including VUDU as too bandwidth intrusive--or demand a higher payment tier for their subscribers. One can't help but wonder if VUDU or Vonage will have to someday be forced to become ISPs..

                Disk storage is so cheap...500GB SATA wavering around $100 (~100 DVDs at 5GB per) and HDMI-compliant motherboards are around $80.

                I am not saying you can build your own HTPC cheaper than VUDU, but you can come pretty darn close....

                If you drink and rent....like many of us do....the 24 hour viewing periods are ridiculous.

                Comment

                  #9
                  Re: Questions before purchasing VUDU

                  MattDawg,

                  The bandwidth usage when streaming a movie is just over 2 Mb/sec. This isn't the same as what the Vudu does when it is idle and serving movies.

                  As for Comcast protocol blocking, the Vudu protocol is not bit torrent and so Comcast doesn't know to block it. But I think with all the lawsuits going around, that they are going to have a problem continuing this behavior of blocking services.

                  But the total amount of monthly data usage the Vudu takes up is not that much. It's probably less than 30 Gigabytes (we calculate it elsewhere in these forums and I'm not doing it again). Movies themselves are around 1.5 to 2 GB in SD.

                  HD streaming, when it becomes available, will require higher than 2 Mb/sec data rate to be sure and the file size will also be correspondingly bigger.


                  As for the 24 hr viewing window - well, that's life for any kind of OnDemand rental these days be it from your cable company, Vudu, Amazon-Tivo, etc. That's Hollywoods terms at present. We encourage people to rent from the indie studios that have given Vudu users 48 hours...

                  Comment

                    #10
                    Re: Questions before purchasing VUDU

                    Originally posted by NA9D View Post
                    But the total amount of monthly data usage the Vudu takes up is not that much. It's probably less than 30 Gigabytes (we calculate it elsewhere in these forums and I'm not doing it again).
                    I just checked my routers stats. I last rebooted it on November 22 so I have an exact number for my overall network usage (5 Vudus plus everything else). My overall bandwidth usage appeared to be roughly 200 GB down and 200 GB up. Now that included traffic other than Vudu but I have to believe it was mostly Vudu. It may have been skewed by the free bourne movies being pushed to 5 boxes (40-50 GB total?) and it does include the movies we actually rented (quite a few). Anyway, it comes out to rougly 40 GB down and 40 GB up per Vudu box. Was your 30 GB estimate only for download? If so, it was pretty close.

                    It does show that the amount of data transfer isn't insignificant and people would seriously need to think before adding a 2nd box. Fortunately for me, I have the 3 WANs to balance it across. But I'm still close, if not over Comcast's magic 90 GB number on that connection (if they consider the total of down and up). Hopefully, that won't be an issue.

                    Comment

                      #11
                      Re: Questions before purchasing VUDU

                      Originally posted by redwein View Post
                      I just checked my routers stats. I last rebooted it on November 22 so I have an exact number for my overall network usage (5 Vudus plus everything else). My overall bandwidth usage appeared to be roughly 200 GB down and 200 GB up. Now that included traffic other than Vudu but I have to believe it was mostly Vudu. It may have been skewed by the free bourne movies being pushed to 5 boxes (40-50 GB total?) and it does include the movies we actually rented (quite a few). Anyway, it comes out to rougly 40 GB down and 40 GB up per Vudu box. Was your 30 GB estimate only for download? If so, it was pretty close.

                      It does show that the amount of data transfer isn't insignificant and people would seriously need to think before adding a 2nd box. Fortunately for me, I have the 3 WANs to balance it across. But I'm still close, if not over Comcast's magic 90 GB number on that connection (if they consider the total of down and up). Hopefully, that won't be an issue.
                      Given that you represent the high water mark, that would put most users with one, or maybe two Vudus, in a safe zone for even the most stingy of ISP's - commiecast.

                      Comment

                        #12
                        Re: Questions before purchasing VUDU

                        I'm guessing you don't have any pre-Vudu records to compare that with, do you?

                        Comment

                          #13
                          Re: Questions before purchasing VUDU

                          Originally posted by Nded View Post
                          I'm guessing you don't have any pre-Vudu records to compare that with, do you?
                          That is correct. I added the 2 extra WANs and this router because I knew that a single one wouldn't support 5 boxes, which was my target. But I don't have any data from my pre-Vudu days. The good news is that everything is working flawlessly. I was a little worried about the load balancing and all, but it's doing exactly what it is supposed to do. I agree that 2 Vudus would probably work on a single connection.

                          Comment

                            #14
                            Re: Questions before purchasing VUDU

                            My 30 Gig was a total guess. I was basing it on renting only a few movies - like one a weekend. It certainly could be more than that. But let's see...

                            I'm bored so I'll do the calculations here again:

                            200 kbps = 25 kBps = 1500 kB per minute = 1.5 MB/minute = 90 MB/hour = 2.16 GB/day = 64.8 GB/month

                            OK, so I was a little off, but that is assuming a constant 24/7 200 kbps upload. The box most of the time runs at half that or less which is probably where I got the 30 GB estimate from.

                            I don't consider downloads to be as significant a contributor to the data usage as uploads since they don't happen as often.

                            Comment

                              #15
                              Re: Questions before purchasing VUDU

                              Originally posted by redwein View Post
                              That is correct. I added the 2 extra WANs and this router because I knew that a single one wouldn't support 5 boxes, which was my target. But I don't have any data from my pre-Vudu days. The good news is that everything is working flawlessly. I was a little worried about the load balancing and all, but it's doing exactly what it is supposed to do. I agree that 2 Vudus would probably work on a single connection.
                              Yeah, I'm running 2 right now with a 7MB/500KB cable connection and having no problems. My initial testing seems to indicate that I can stream instant HD to both at the same time, so you should be in good shape when the instant HD software patch is released to the field.

                              Comment

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