Open Letter To Vudu Management

[redwein]

Re: Open Letter To Vudu Management

And even if Netflix and Apple get in on the game with their own version, who is to say that Vudu won't continue to innovate. They are going to be 9 to 12 months ahead of everyone else in this space. They aren't standing still.

That's not fair. You aren't hampering Vudu by insisting that they can't make progress for 18 months.

[Nded]

Re: Open Letter To Vudu Management

That's not fair. You aren't hampering Vudu by insisting that they can't make progress for 18 months.

Great, it's Opposite Day!! Can I get in on this?

OPPOSITE MODE ON

Face it, Vudu is doomed. The box has been on the market for 90+ days and they haven't made any changes since day 1. The content is the same as October 1, the software is the same as October 1, and nothing "new" has been announced by the company in ages. There's nothing unique or special to the Vudu experience. Besides, everything else on the market is miles ahead of Vudu and delivering greater features.

OPPOSITE MODE OFF

How'd I do???

[Petercarbo]

Re: Open Letter To Vudu Management

Well, since I have managed to ruffle too many feathers, I will agree I am the minority on this forum. But if you think Vudu is a success right now, I don't know what else to say.

I like Vudu; I am not trying to bash them. I am trying to state what I see to be a problem. I and most of you are early adopters and enthusiasts. I buy plenty of things ahead of the rest, like most of you. My brother & friends on the other hand are people who buy something once it hits mainstream. All their complaints are mainstream & majority. I usually don't see things become mainstream until they own them. Every one of them that owns something (DVR, iPods, Netflix, HD def TV's, etc...) is usually where I see the mainstream line. When they own them, the item has become a success. After I see them purchase things, I usually don't see items go the way of the Dodo.

I am not saying that Vudu will die; I don't know what the future holds. I do know that every person I know has the same complaints and refuses to buy a Vudu for these two reasons.

1. They think the price of the box is too high.

I am sure Vudu will lower the price sooner or later. But if it's later and someone like Apple starts renting. Which it looks like it will. Let's face it Apple doesn't have to do it better. IPods aren't the best but they are #1.

2. I gave my brother a Vudu for Christmas (evangelist), one friend purchased Vudu (using Evangelist). They all hate that they have to wait for rentals. None of them want to buy movies from Vudu. They want to rent, period.

I am sure there are people that will buy. I just think that Vudus success will come as a replacement for Netflix, Blockbuster or whomever. I don't believe for a second that they will become successful by selling movies for people to own. I don't know what plans they have and any money that can be made is good for them. Either thru renting or selling. But I am willing to bet that most want this as a rental device. And every time I can't get a movie from Vudu I go thru Netflix and Vudu just lost money.

So before you start attacking my comments as anti Vudu, I will close by saying that I would like nothing more than to be able to sit down pick up my Vudu remote and have the choice to buy or rent whatever movie I would be able to get from Netflix, BB or whomever at the same time as them in HD and 5.1 surround. I would love to cancel my other accounts and just use Vudu, but I can't. So hopefully they can fix this before someone else comes along who does.

[NA9D]

Re: Open Letter To Vudu Management

Great, it's Opposite Day!! Can I get in on this?

OPPOSITE MODE ON

Face it, Vudu is doomed. The box has been on the market for 90+ days and they haven't made any changes since day 1. The content is the same as October 1, the software is the same as October 1, and nothing "new" has been announced by the company in ages. There's nothing unique or special to the Vudu experience. Besides, everything else on the market is miles ahead of Vudu and delivering greater features.

OPPOSITE MODE OFF

How'd I do???

You forgot that they have only filler content for all their 5000 movies that are amateurish. Your forgot that the good movies don't have DD5.1 but that the amateur movies do.

You forgot that mass market retailers like JC Penny aren't selling this and therefore that Vudu won't survive.

[NA9D]

Re: Open Letter To Vudu Management

1. They think the price of the box is too high.

I am sure Vudu will lower the price sooner or later. But if it's later and someone like Apple starts renting. Which it looks like it will. Let's face it Apple doesn't have to do it better. IPods aren't the best but they are #1.

Peter,

No worries here. Open and frank discussion without getting personal and emotional here is what we are all about. You are sticking to the facts as you see them and report them. No problem.

About the price and about Apple.

Today the iPod is a HUGE success. However, when it first came out, it had only 5 Gigs of storage. It cost $399. It worked on one platform that accounted for less than 5% of the worldwide computer user base. There were cheaper players that did more that had more storage. The pundits said that no one would buy it and that it was too expensive.

They were wrong as history has shown.

Now Vudu doesn't have the marketing prowess of Apple. But what really made Apple a success was the simplicity of the iTunes model and the ability to give what the customer wants. On iTunes, the DRM scheme was unified and the same across all labels. It was easy to get what you wanted, etc.

Vudu is the closest I have seen to that in the movie world. Yeah, they don't have every movie (well, and iTunes doesn't have every artist either) and the rental timing thing does make ya grumpy. But the "expensive" product can still sell.

[redwein]

Re: Open Letter To Vudu Management

So before you start attacking my comments as anti Vudu, I will close by saying that I would like nothing more than to be able to sit down pick up my Vudu remote and have the choice to buy or rent whatever movie I would be able to get from Netflix, BB or whomever at the same time as them in HD and 5.1 surround. I would love to cancel my other accounts and just use Vudu, but I can't. So hopefully they can fix this before someone else comes along who does.

I actually thought this post was quite reasonable and I agree with much of what you say. We probably just are giving Vudu different levels of the benefit of the doubt moving forward. The good news about the issue of someone else coming along and doing it first is that, if it truly is the studios which are causing the problem, I think any potential competitors will run into the same issues. If someone with a lot of muscle comes and bashes the door open, Vudu should benefit too. If that happens then how well the product actually works will be a big differentiating factor. I think Vudu has a head start there and they can hopefully maintain that lead.

[longhorn]

Re: Open Letter To Vudu Management

Peter,

No worries here. Open and frank discussion without getting personal and emotional here is what we are all about. You are sticking to the facts as you see them and report them. No problem.

About the price and about Apple.

Today the iPod is a HUGE success. However, when it first came out, it had only 5 Gigs of storage. It cost $399. It worked on one platform that accounted for less than 5% of the worldwide computer user base. There were cheaper players that did more that had more storage. The pundits said that no one would buy it and that it was too expensive.

They were wrong as history has shown.

Now Vudu doesn't have the marketing prowess of Apple. But what really made Apple a success was the simplicity of the iTunes model and the ability to give what the customer wants. On iTunes, the DRM scheme was unified and the same across all labels. It was easy to get what you wanted, etc.

Vudu is the closest I have seen to that in the movie world. Yeah, they don't have every movie (well, and iTunes doesn't have every artist either) and the rental timing thing does make ya grumpy. But the "expensive" product can still sell.

Would the iPod have been quite the success if it were a completely closed system, i.e. the only music that could play was that which was purchased from the iTunes store? One key factor in the iPod/iTunes system's success was that a user could import all his or her previously-owned content by ripping CDs, and then use the great UI and interface to navigate and play back.

Vudu is different in that a user can not (yet) import their DVD collection or other owned content (e.g. home video) and store it on the hard drive. Perhaps the studios are playing hardball here, or perhaps it is a feature that will roll out later. But I think that would be a nice additional selling point for most consumers.

I agree with you that we are in the early days....Vudu is young, and has lots of potential. Will be exciting to watch this space evolve.

[Limey]

Re: Open Letter To Vudu Management

The King is Dead -Long live the King - consumers are fickle; mass market growth is via rental-option to to new content within +/- 5days of DVD release; the box is a box and is nothing without content - add up all the high-end users/DVD archivers and HT'o'philes and what you get is a rounding error on the addressable market.

The format wars are all but over - it's BR - HD is the proverbial dingleberry in this market. New Content is good. New content delivered >10days after I can get it from any one of the other retailers is not good. Vudu box that does nothing but access + store vudu media not good...more so, when you consider it isn't portable (the media that is.)

Format stabilization + earlier availability = good + my $$
HD movies OD + >10 day availability = good (HD) + NOT my money.

As I said in the originating post(s), the service and box is good enough; the "return" on box variants and service upgrades is insignificant next to adding new content...buy the content at a loss if needed; put ads on the the box to pay for it (if needed) just get the content and release schedule on par.

[Petercarbo]

Re: Open Letter To Vudu Management

Basically to sum it up; I just don't want to see a product like Vudu get killed by someone like Apple. Vudu is probably the one product I have purchased and there have been allot, that is near perfect.

Out of the problems I see Price and Rental releases dates. Vudu can control one. I would've like to see them get them in more hands with a cheaper model than target a more niche market with a more expensive one.

Problem number two, I know is a studio thing, but I hate seeing a great product like Vudu get killed down the road because the studios refused to release movies in a timely manner. There is absolutely no reason for this. People will not buy because it's not available for rent. So the delays are useless. The studio's greed unfornately could effect a great product.

[Nded]

Re: Open Letter To Vudu Management

I'm not privy to any details on this matter, so I can offer an hypothesis.

Last month we saw the same day HD release of Bourne Ultimatum. Perhaps this was a "test" by at least one studio to prove that the Vudu company could keep the content away from the consumer until the approved date/time. With any luck, Vudu passed the test and the same day release negotiations have moved on to the next phase.

Again, I have no knowledge of this matter. I do know that Vudu has demonstrated the ability for same day release. Heck, later this month they will be proving the ability to release exclusive Vudu Only HD content. The way I sees it, things are headed in the right direction.

[aaronwt]

Re: Open Letter To Vudu Management

Isn't VUDU supposed to be enabling the capability to add an external USB drive soon? That could allow them to put out a box with a small hard drive, say 80GB and then the customer could connect their own USB drive. I have Terabytes of drives sitting around that I could stick into an enclosure for use with their box. I want to get the VUDU but my price point is $200 with some movie credits. And I guess with my 30/5 FIOS connection I should have some quick downloads.

[redwein]

Re: Open Letter To Vudu Management

My guess is that you won't ever be able to use your "own" USB drive. Look at the Tivo expander solution. It only works with drives that are specifically sold for that purpose. The drive can't be used by any other device or computer without completely reformatting the HD. When it is working with the Tivo, Tivo employs some type of RAID like system and every video file is partially stored on the internal and the external drive. I'm sure this had more to do with licensing issues with the content providers than anything technical. Given that, I don't see how Vudu would be able to be less restrictive than that.

[aaronwt]

Re: Open Letter To Vudu Management

My guess is that you won't ever be able to use your "own" USB drive. Look at the Tivo expander solution. It only works with drives that are specifically sold for that purpose. The drive can't be used by any other device or computer without completely reformatting the HD. When it is working with the Tivo, Tivo employs some type of RAID like system and every video file is partially stored on the internal and the external drive. I'm sure this had more to do with licensing issues with the content providers than anything technical. Given that, I don't see how Vudu would be able to be less restrictive than that.

The TiVo drive is an eSATA drive while the VUDU only has USB.

[redwein]

Re: Open Letter To Vudu Management

The TiVo drive is an eSATA drive while the VUDU only has USB.

The drive hardware wasn't the point. The point was that you can't use an off the shelf hardware compliant disk drive with Tivo for the reasons mentioned. The same reasoning applies to USB hard drives and Vudu.

[Nded]

Re: Open Letter To Vudu Management

FYI, as far as I know, off the shelf USB drives are on the roadmap - the drives will have to be formatted/encrypted by the Vudu, and deditcated to such.