Is VUDU LIVING UP to your EXPECTATIONS?

[Nded]

Re: Is VUDU LIVING UP to your EXPECTATIONS?

It really comes down to personal priorities. Some folks are so focused on immediate access to the latest releases that it could be classified as an obsessive compulsive disorder. Other folks put little or no value on what's new from movieland, and only care if they can find something that appeals to them at the time they are ready to watch something. The folks in the second group may not even be aware of what the studios have made in the last year (or years!). They just don't care. Certainly there is a wide range of priority positions between these two extremes, and all are valid from the perspective of the holder of the viewpoint.

Are you old enough to remember the days BEFORE we had Video Tape players? What some folks are feeling entitled to (i.e. same day access to everything that's ever released), was not even conceivable not too long ago. Anybody who reacts like this is a life and death issue has definitely got their priorities out of whack. After all, it is really just "make believe" and not an issue of substance.

[redwein]

Re: Is VUDU LIVING UP to your EXPECTATIONS?

If one is so busy, is it not better to have it available as soon as possible, as you will not know for certain when available time will present itself? If one wants to "watch what one wants to watch when one wants to watch it," is it also not better to have the option of watching it sooner, rather than later?

This makes no sense. If you are too busy to watch it on the first day, watching it on the first day isn't an option, let alone a solution. Also, given VOD, it doesn't matter when I can watch it since I can decide to watch it and then just do it. Sometimes I don't have time to watch any movies for weeks and then can watch 2 or 3 in a day. When I do get the time, I want my mood and viewing companions to determine what I watch, not what I happen to have sitting there from Netflix. VOD gives you the flexibility to do that. In fact, I would say that is the whole point of it.

Of course having it sooner is always a good thing. It just isn't the end of the world if it isn't.

[Glassjoe]

Re: Is VUDU LIVING UP to your EXPECTATIONS?

I don't mean to be rude here, and I do like the Vudu product so far...but I do want to point out that the mentality of, "I'm very busy and therefore do not need to see a movie right when it comes out on DVD" is flawed, in my humble opinion.

If one is so busy, is it not better to have it available as soon as possible, as you will not know for certain when available time will present itself? If one wants to "watch what one wants to watch when one wants to watch it," is it also not better to have the option of watching it sooner, rather than later?

Again, I like this product and these discussions and I am not intending this to be rude or directed at anybody in particular...just trying to get my mind around this sort of thinking.

[redwein]

Re: Is VUDU LIVING UP to your EXPECTATIONS?

I have 12 movies in my wish list and most of them are available to rent now. The others will probably be available by the time I get to them. By that time, I expect that there are others that I will add to my wish list. So, for me, there is no need to use anything else to rent movies.

How could this possibly be? Well, I don't need to watch a movie the first day it is available on Netflix, though I do want eventually everything that is available there to also be on Vudu, but a several week delay would mean nothing to me. As long as I have a queue of movies I know I want to watch and many more to go browsing through if I'm not in the mood for any of those, what else would I need?

[paularino]

Re: Is VUDU LIVING UP to your EXPECTATIONS?

Well, I did notice that my original post was about marketing, and how VUDU may have misled us in wording they used on the website and in press releases in trying to explain to us in selling terms what VUDU is, and I said the higher-ups may want to look at this and change it, and looks like they followed the advise and did.

Most of the wording I quoted and selling points they tried to use are no longer there and this should help EVERYONE, because there should be no false hopes.

I was one of the 1st buyers because it sounded so good, and I really wanted/loved new technology - which from everything I thought I researched and read from the site, basically said "no more physical video store needed" plus MORE HD content.

Now don't get me wrong in the least, I like the box and the technology, it's friggin great - come on, INSTANTLY being able to play a streamed HD movie and having an awsome cool user interface to find, search & select CERTAIN movies, and ALL ON DEMAND is the best of the best, and believe me, I WANT TO use the box so much more, but like I orig said, it just didn't have the ability from what was told to us to do so.

But thank goodness in this case for the non-subscription model, because I'm hoping so bad that one day it may get there, and I can turn it back on and be excited once again like the day I ordered it.

It SHOULD get there - after all, VUDU has the most ducks in a row for it to happen.

[Rusdude]

Re: Is VUDU LIVING UP to your EXPECTATIONS?

I confess -- out of the box, I was disappointed with amount of content since I didn't realize I wasn't seeing latest updates. Now, I view it more favorably especially since there is more clarity as to when movies will become available for rent. I am also curious to see which titles will be offered in HD and how fast that catalog grows.

Having a subscription option would be nice and I am sure that if it's economically viable, Vudu must be trying to negotiate that with content providers.

At any rate, content is the king. It's interesting to see what other companies will offer. Apple reportedly only will have Fox and Disney for rent and Netflix's streaming library isn't currently as complete as Vudu's from what I hear.

[Nded]

Re: Is VUDU LIVING UP to your EXPECTATIONS?

Heres the current Poll results:

***** 5 Stars - I love it. It's what I hoped for! 0 - 0%
****.. 4 Stars - I'm impressed and am hoping for a few more goodies 7 - 14.58%
***.... 3 Stars - Its good, and Im convinced it's going to get better 21 - 43.75%
**...... 2 Stars - Not bad, but it has a way to go before I'm happy 16 - 33.33%
*........ 1 Star.. - Not yet what I expected 4 - 8.33%

This has been metioned before, but I'll frefresh memories of the folks who might have missed my earlier rant. This poll was written by a clown that didn't think through the layout or how to balance the qeustions (your truly). This poll has 1 negaive response (#1). Response #2 is neutral ground with an optomisted hint. response 3 & 4 are cleearly positive, 5 should not have been include as up to now we did not have a Holy Grail upon wich to hang our vote (i.e. Star Trek Moves). I'm gonna fix the poll to make it easier for other to follow the intent of the poill.

If you have other Poll suggestions, plese sent then to one of the moderators,

[mebby]

Re: Is VUDU LIVING UP to your EXPECTATIONS?

As with any poll, we should all keep in mind that not all people (more like - no two people) read the question the same way. So while polls are generally a decent way of gauging the pulse of a population they should still be taken at face value.

I think, as NA9D has suggested, that the BEST way for really understanding how people feel about this product is to browse the forums. I think in general, most people that have it are pleased with it but each of us has are own desires for improvements and within that list of desired improvements are probably 3-4 very common themes (which I won't reiterate here b/c someone else has already done that in another post).

On a very positive note - as I was playing with the Vudu last night I realized how much I really like the (and I don't really know what to call this) movie suggestion buckets that Vudu offers in the "Find Movies" section that groups movies into certain "fun" categories such as "action packed" and "award nominees"

That feature is pretty cool and I almost always find 5-10 movies that I'm really interested in watching in there. Just anothe reason that I think Vudu is head and shoulders above anyone else out there. Think about it - any provider is going to have the same issues with the studios that Vudu has (presumably - I may be wrong) so at the end of the day it all comes down to the interface and Vudu is a clear winner here. I have to agree with what most people are saying around here - that competition is excellent for Vudu. The competitors should help spur the studios along which should in turn improve the Vudu library. If Vudu already has the best interface and all the providers have the same basic library of movies then why NOT go with Vudu right? Money will be the next determining factor...

[bqmeister]

Re: Is VUDU LIVING UP to your EXPECTATIONS?

stats are fun...

did you know that 100% of people on death row ate bread the day of thier crimes...this means eating bread will make you a bad person...lol

if you still want to play with the stats...4 stars dropped from 44% to 14%...
or..
more people voted 3 or less than 4 or more (on the original post results...as posted by you...)

i still think Vudu is good and poised to become great if they can negotiate with the studios and cut the price (just a little to make it more practical for the masses)

Regarding price, a lot of it will come down to what netflix offers. If netflix provides a somewhat decent set-top box that plays about 6000 movies/TV shows and has a price of around $99, instant comparisons will be made to vudu.

and the comparisons will likely focus on # of movies and price. HD will be a plus for vudu, but that's assuming Netflix doesn't have any HD Plans.
Vudu may be a superior product (although it's still a bit early to say for sure) but vudu will have a tough time convincing people it's $300 better.

Yeah, I made a lot of assumptions with this post. If Netflix debuts at $199 and vudu knocks $100 off the price of their box, it's a better situation, but content (and COST of content) will play a big role. Netflix with their subscription service pricing will be seen as an advantage by most.

[dg900rr]

Re: Is VUDU LIVING UP to your EXPECTATIONS?

stats are fun...

did you know that 100% of people on death row ate bread the day of thier crimes...this means eating bread will make you a bad person...lol

if you still want to play with the stats...4 stars dropped from 44% to 14%...
or..
more people voted 3 or less than 4 or more (on the original post results...as posted by you...)

i still think Vudu is good and poised to become great if they can negotiate with the studios and cut the price (just a little to make it more practical for the masses)

[NA9D]

Re: Is VUDU LIVING UP to your EXPECTATIONS?

These are the poll results:

4 14.58%
3 43.75%
2 33.33%
1 8.33%


Most people give the vudu 2 or 3 stars for the database. Not 3 or 4 stars.

58% may say 3 or 4 stars. But 87% say 2 or 3 stars. Big diff.

Touche. I stand corrected.

We can twist the statistics all day long though. I guess the way I look at it is that based on the wording of the questions, that a 3 or 4 is that you are happy with things and that a 1 or 2 is that you are unhappy. So there are more people that are moderately happy to happy than people who are unhappy.

That's the fun about statistics!

[bqmeister]

Re: Is VUDU LIVING UP to your EXPECTATIONS?

These are the poll results:

4 14.58%
3 43.75%
2 33.33%
1 8.33%


Most people give the vudu 2 or 3 stars for the database. Not 3 or 4 stars.

58% may say 3 or 4 stars. But 87% say 2 or 3 stars. Big diff.

[bqmeister]

Re: Is VUDU LIVING UP to your EXPECTATIONS?

I'm betting almost everyone else who bought it early or now thought - "GREAT, WE CAN FINALLY THROW AWAY OUR BLOCKBUSTER CARDS AND CANCEL OUR NETFLIX SUBSCRIPTION, AND MAYBE NOT EVEN BUY THAT BLU-RAY PLAYER YET, CAUSE THIS SOUNDS LIKE WE'RE GONNA HAVE THAT SAME LIBRARY OF NEW RELEASES OR POPULAR HIT MOVIE SELECTIONS THAT THEY HAVE AT OUR FINGERTIPS"!

I absolutely positively agree with this statement. This is how it was marketed. Vudu was to replace all other rental streams AND provide HD content to boot.

Well, the HD content is coming, but it won't be cheap. It'll be interesting to see how good the content is.

No, it hasn't lived up to my expectations. But I have to admit I'm enjoying it nonetheless. I don't get all new releases day of release. Rental periods are too short and rentals are too expensive. Too many movies are not available for rent. But I'm still finding plenty of movies I do like. When watching a movie with some family, they'll spend an hour or more looking at which movie to rent. There are plenty of good choices, but it's difficult for everyone to agree on something. If I had netflix and 3 movies at home to choose from, it'd be much more difficult. We could go to blockbuster, but then we'd spend an hour there.

Vudu has a long way to go to meet my expectations. But I am still enjoying it.

I can't/won't recommend it to anyone else yet purely based on cost. But if they lowered the cost (Significantly - $99) and add a subscription service, I'd probably bore people to death recommending it.

[NA9D]

Re: Is VUDU LIVING UP to your EXPECTATIONS?

correction...

most people do not give the database 3-4 stars.
on 1-1-2008 your post shows:

4 stars (44.9%)
2stars (24.49%)
3stars (20.41%)

the current poll results show: 3 stars (43%) then 2 stars (33%)

How do you figure?

If I add the percentages of people who rated the Vudu 3 to 4 stars using your numbers I get: 44.9% + 20.41% = 65.31%

Anything about 50% is most.

And actually, for the most recent numbers for the new poll it is:

43.75% give it 3 stars and 14.58% give it 4 stars. Cumulative percentage is therefore 58.33%.

It's still a majority. If you got 58.33% of the vote in an election, it would be considered pretty much a landslide...

Anyhow, I'm glad you are liking your Vudu experience!

[dg900rr]

Re: Is VUDU LIVING UP to your EXPECTATIONS?

correction...

most people do not give the database 3-4 stars.
on 1-1-2008 your post shows:

4 stars (44.9%)
2stars (24.49%)
3stars (20.41%)

the current poll results show: 3 stars (43%) then 2 stars (33%)


as for me. is Vudu what i expected? yes, and more.
this is the best new product i have ever seen.
nothing to learn, just use it. (better exereince than my macbook, and that says a lot because Steve Jobs wants everything to be simple and work flawlessly right out of the box.)

the only issue right now is the size of the movie catalog...
but if you are comparing to netflix or BB, both of those have had years to build up their catalogs and have about 100,000 titles each.
Vudu says 5,000 , so i expected it to be a limited choice....for now.