VoD Movie Hobby

[Walter-S_North_Carolina]

Re: VoD Movie Hobby

Mat --

Thanks for the suggestion about the My Movies app. I'll definitely check it out.

I own about 10,000 movies (about 3,800 on Vudu), and the physical media hasn't been sorted since our last move 8 years ago. With Vudu I can at least find anything I want to watch.

For anyone rushing to put a large collection online -- Vudu is the only service that actually works as promised. The more films you have in UV, the more problems you run into. Both Flixster and Cinenow fail to load your complete library. And the uvvu.com web site shows no movies at the moment (the February update was supposed to fix it, but didn't. Next update, hopefully.)

-- John

John,

I work in technology. My colleagues and I were having a discussion over lunch last week about the most reliable storage.

Mylar in VHS tapes will stretch. DVD's will scratch and even if they don't the National Archives say compact disk reflectivity ages after seven years. Digitizing onto a redundant storage array is considered the gold standard, but maintaining such a system for personal use is prohibitively expensive.

This leaves cloud based services as the best for personal use. The longevity is then dependant on the financial security of the company offering the service.

I do think your entertainment collection will be around a very long time, maintaining pristine condition.

When I take a title into be converted from DVD media to VoD, I am mindful it will be around a very long time and always take the extra effort to upgrade from SD to HD. I am wondering if you have the same thought.

Sincerely,

-Walter

[wildside]

Re: VoD Movie Hobby

Mat --

Thanks for the suggestion about the My Movies app. I'll definitely check it out.

I own about 10,000 movies (about 3,800 on Vudu), and the physical media hasn't been sorted since our last move 8 years ago. With Vudu I can at least find anything I want to watch.

For anyone rushing to put a large collection online -- Vudu is the only service that actually works as promised. The more films you have in UV, the more problems you run into. Both Flixster and Cinenow fail to load your complete library. And the uvvu.com web site shows no movies at the moment (the February update was supposed to fix it, but didn't. Next update, hopefully.)

-- John

Also, for keeping tabs on what films we want to watch etc I use a fantastic little app that is available for most platforms (ios, android and pc for starters) called "My Movies". When you add a title to your collection you can set a "location" for it too. We all have films scattered on different formats, Vudu, itunes, Blu-ray, DVD, Media centres etc so thats pretty useful. The interface is pretty nice, with good sorting and filter options too.

I hope some of this helps a few of you with your own collections. My regards,

Mat

[Smackos]

Re: VoD Movie Hobby

Right to clarify on the above and also to input in this great thread..

I'm relatively new to all this, November last year I picked up a copy of Men in Black 3 on BD. Up until then all I had ever done was use VUDU for renting films. I stuck my UV code up and that set the ball rolling I guess. Soon I realised that I too could have a joint UV account, with family members all contributing whatever they purchased into one central collection. There are five family members involved in our UV group and we all set out from the start with just one rule.. As a minimum barrier of entry, we each agree to purchase at least one new UV release a month each. Basically for the price of a single film, each of us get five new films to watch each month, sometimes more. As far as disc to digital is concerned we each just put up whatever we want, usually 4 or 5 films a week go up on average. So last month I personally purchased "Argo" and "Flight", in return the rest of the family added "The Man with The Iron Fists", "SkyFall", "Chasing Mavericks" and "Life of Pi". Thats not withstanding the 36 titles we D2D'd in February too.

The one word of caution I would suggest though when putting together any family group is that, although you can have up to six members within a group, you are limited to being able to only STREAM 3 UV titles at any given moment between you. All of us use our own individual VUDU accounts to watch films by, why wouldn't we since Vudu is the best Video service on the market. To combat the limit of 3 simultaneous streams at any given time, if we want to watch a title we haven't seen before on the service then we DOWNLOAD it first via our Ps3's ready to watch. You are allowed to DOWNLOAD a UV title five times so that fits us well. The way we figure it is, with so many new titles added between us each month, the chances of four or more of us all wanting to actually STREAM any old title on any given night is minimal at best. Personally I always keep just one odd title downloaded just in case but I haven't had to resort to the fallback title yet. I hope some of this gives people ideas on how they too can approach setting up a family UV account etc. Also, don't forget that any family group works through UV sub accounts under one main account. Sure I'd love to have been able to invite the likes of Walter into our group, but since we both have our own main UV accounts then it becomes an issue with merging UV accounts etc, which right now UV is nowhere near enough ready to handle confidently. The easiest option if starting up is just to limit yourselves to three members, with fresh UV accounts between you.

Also, for keeping tabs on what films we want to watch etc I use a fantastic little app that is available for most platforms (ios, android and pc for starters) called "My Movies". When you add a title to your collection you can set a "location" for it too. We all have films scattered on different formats, Vudu, itunes, Blu-ray, DVD, Media centres etc so thats pretty useful. The interface is pretty nice, with good sorting and filter options too.

I hope some of this helps a few of you with your own collections. My regards,

Mat

[Fofer]

Re: VoD Movie Hobby

Careful only two of those links can be VUDU and all the other services suckkkkk, jmo

The linking (ie: sharing) is handled on the UltraViolet page: https://my.uvvu.com
(and links UltraViolet accounts)

So what do you mean, "only two of those links can be VUDU?"

[Ruinit]

Re: VoD Movie Hobby

Wow. You guys rock. I'm enjoying this hobby too and building up my library but 1000+ is just amazing.

I also read this interesting comment on Engadget, you might be intrigued as well:


(emphasis mine)

Relevant details here: http://www.uvvu.com/faqs.php#question-14

"You may share your UltraViolet account with up to 5 other people, and each member can have their own sign-in name/password, parental control settings, and other personalized details."

There is nothing mentioned in these terms about needing to be family members, or even under the same roof.

The possibilities are endless!

I did start checking this out, the only catch is that in order to link/share UV accounts, you have to feel comfortable sharing UV login details (ie: name/password.) Not that any damage can be done to accounts, you can't even remove titles as best I can tell! But if you're cool with that, you can link up with 5 other people, each who have libraries of their own, for one mega library that the whole team can share.

So who wants to team up with me?

Careful only two of those links can be VUDU and all the other services suckkkkk, jmo

[Fofer]

Re: VoD Movie Hobby

Yeah it is fun and a little expensive, for me anyways ... lol I now have over 1300 titles in my UV locker.

I have over 1,000 movies now

Wow. You guys rock. I'm enjoying this hobby too and building up my library but 1000+ is just amazing.

I also read this interesting comment on Engadget, you might be intrigued as well:

"I think one of the best things about UV and Vudu is the fact that you can link accounts. I have uploaded about 100 movies between using those little inserts that you get with your blurays and going to walmart. I have 5 other friends that also are linked to the same account and all have put up their own movies. We now have about 350 movies on one big account that we can all access, so now when ever one of us buys a movies the others get it automatically put onto threre account to watch as well. So now we take turns buying the new movies and registering them for everyone instead of purchaseing every new movie individualy.

(emphasis mine)

Relevant details here: http://www.uvvu.com/faqs.php#question-14

"You may share your UltraViolet account with up to 5 other people, and each member can have their own sign-in name/password, parental control settings, and other personalized details."

There is nothing mentioned in these terms about needing to be family members, or even under the same roof.

The possibilities are endless!

I did start checking this out, the only catch is that in order to link/share UV accounts, you have to feel comfortable sharing UV login details (ie: name/password.) Not that any damage can be done to accounts, you can't even remove titles as best I can tell! But if you're cool with that, you can link up with 5 other people, each who have libraries of their own, for one mega library that the whole team can share.

So who wants to team up with me?

[Fofer]

Re: VoD Movie Hobby

Trick is keyboard typing from a small remote. Anyway...

The iOS and Android apps for Roku have keyboard entry. Also, http://remoku.tv is a web app you can use on a computer to control your Roku, and that has keyboard entry too.

[Walter-S_North_Carolina]

Re: VoD Movie Hobby

Mylanta, you have 1300 titles on Vudu? I have 70 and it's already getting hard to scroll through all of them when trying to find one with 70. I can't imagine how long it takes to scroll through all of them with 1300. I'm talking about scrolling through them on the blu-ray player where I watch them. I don't like to watch movies on a laptop or tablet as the video is too small.

@ home on the two plasmas, I use a PS3 and a Roku-XD. Both fly through the scroll. Perhaps your Bluray player has a lower end CPU in it.

@ 99 titles, I see no lag.

FYI, there is a new Roku-3 which just came out yesterday. It has a beefie CPU in it.

http://www.roku.com/why-its-cool

Also, I understand with the Roku, you can do a title search, and it will query all your installed apps for a match (Vudu, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu+). That makes searching a large library like those easy. Trick is keyboard typing from a small remote. Anyway...

[Ruinit]

Re: VoD Movie Hobby

Mylanta, you have 1300 titles on Vudu? I have 70 and it's already getting hard to scroll through all of them when trying to find one with 70. I can't imagine how long it takes to scroll through all of them with 1300. I'm talking about scrolling through them on the blu-ray player where I watch them. I don't like to watch movies on a laptop or tablet as the video is too small.

It's not bad, I use Roku mostly to play mine and I just hooked up my new Roku3 seems snappier I haven't watched a movie yet to see if it has to be reset like the others

What I do is figure out what I'm in the mood for and sort by Genres and Tomatometer so it's not so bad. Now when I am just looking for something to watch it becomes more complicated, kinda like looking at Netflix or Amazon prime, only I don't have all the junk they do

[lujan]

Re: VoD Movie Hobby

Yeah it is fun and a little expensive, for me anyways ... lol I now have over 1300 titles in my UV locker. I have some movies that aren't UV but I am totally against buying movies I already own that aren't UV unless they are a very nice deal like VUDU runs on occasion. Sub $10 HDX's if the movie is good I will buy it. I am waiting on MGM and my movie list will grow even larger. My family has varying taste in movies so it is quite easy to amass a large collection. I could easily have 2000 movies if they MGM and Disney joined UV and some of the hold outs from other studios were added. But frankly I prefer watching movies at home to going to the theater. Over priced, over crowded, noisy, uncomfortable, kids running around and crying yea my home is better!! lol

Mylanta, you have 1300 titles on Vudu? I have 70 and it's already getting hard to scroll through all of them when trying to find one with 70. I can't imagine how long it takes to scroll through all of them with 1300. I'm talking about scrolling through them on the blu-ray player where I watch them. I don't like to watch movies on a laptop or tablet as the video is too small.

[Walter-S_North_Carolina]

Re: VoD Movie Hobby

How do you get the movies on the Kindle Fire, since you can't access the Play store, and I didn't think there was a vudu app in the Amazon App store?

Flixster to the rescue. Works like a champ.

[echopulse]

Re: VoD Movie Hobby

How do you get the movies on the Kindle Fire, since you can't access the Play store, and I didn't think there was a vudu app in the Amazon App store?

[Walter-S_North_Carolina]

Re: VoD Movie Hobby

I recently discovered VUDU and the D2D program. For Christmas my wife bought me a portable blu-ray player. I thought there has to be a better way to watch movies on the go. I was aware of digital copies and UV, but I have never redeemed them. So starting in January I began redeeming my movies and also using the d2d program. I started with 4 titles at Wal-Mart and it was a success. I then waited for the home d2d program. I now have 272 titles. I love the convenience, also when I recently went on vacation I loved being able to take my movies with me.

For me personally it has opened my eyes to owning titles just digitally (which is what the studios/Vudu want). I really don't want to store physical copies anymore.

I am curious how the CFF will work. I also think that Disney will have to commit for UV to be successful.

Mr. Woodrow Jr.,

Hello. I too love no local hard disk storage is needed. I get a simple roku with an HDMI output and my entire library is at my fingertips. Also, as you suggest, the entire library is mobile on my iPhone and my kids' Kindle Fires.

I work in the technology sector. Some of my co-workers have vast amounts of home storage utilized to view their movies. I am talking in the terabytes.

I use no storage. Zero. To me, that is a convenience I am more than happy to pay for. I just reach for the Roku remote.

Plus, as I wrote, this is a hobby I have come to enjoy.

Sincerely,

-Walter

[woodrowjr]

Re: VoD Movie Hobby

I recently discovered VUDU and the D2D program. For Christmas my wife bought me a portable blu-ray player. I thought there has to be a better way to watch movies on the go. I was aware of digital copies and UV, but I have never redeemed them. So starting in January I began redeeming my movies and also using the d2d program. I started with 4 titles at Wal-Mart and it was a success. I then waited for the home d2d program. I now have 272 titles. I love the convenience, also when I recently went on vacation I loved being able to take my movies with me.

For me personally it has opened my eyes to owning titles just digitally (which is what the studios/Vudu want). I really don't want to store physical copies anymore.

I am curious how the CFF will work. I also think that Disney will have to commit for UV to be successful.

[Walter-S_North_Carolina]

Re: VoD Movie Hobby

I found out about Disc to Digital late in March when it was first announced, and immediately became very excited. At that time, I thought all titles from participating studio's would be available. I was a little disapointed with the initial list of only 4000. I wasn't able to find as many titles on that list as I had hoped. But I did find about 30% of my collection. I did those first. Then, I began to buy titles from half.com to replace the 30+ titles that were stolen from my room when my house was rented out to college students while I was in the Navy. That made each title about $4 total with shipping. Then I added $2 or $5 to upgrade, making it a great deal over buying a new DVD or blu-ray. I didn't care if the disc had scratches, came with a case, or even played at all. I got the cheapest one I could find. I didn't care about the physical disc. Once I converted it, I donated it to a family member or close friend. Out of the 200 DVD's I started with, they have all been converted with the exception of about 15 Disney titles, and 7 non-Disney DVD's. I have only converted about 10 of my 60+ blu-rays. But I do love collecting titles. I have made about 15 EST purchases, and 30 redemptions. My sub-account friend has also added about 30 of his to the account, So now I have over 300 titles in my account. There are about 10 I would like to get rid of, the ones that flixster put there, but I flixster won't do it.

good idea. $9.00 per cloud stored / HDX title. Way to work the system.