VoD Movie Hobby

[Walter-S_North_Carolina]

Re: VoD Movie Hobby

...I just did my bi-monthly trip to Walmart. Today's strike included;

1) Romeo & Juliet (1996)
2) Mr. & Mrs. Smith
3) Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas .....New to D2D this past week
4) Robots
5) Frida
6) Memoirs of a Geisha
7) Happily N'Ever After
8) Jeremiah Johnson .....New to D2D this past week
9) Sahara
10) Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life


OMG, This is so much Fun!!!!

Each of them were upgraded from DVD to 1080p HDX (Jeremiah Johnson was only SD available). I feel like I am getting away with highway robbery each time I make my trips!

This ten title trip was a big haul for me. Normally, I only do about three or four. However, this week officially put me into the tripple digit club, bringing my title total to 109.

I have about 50 left to do, so it will easily take me the rest of the year since I only go on my payday every two weeks.

This is a conditional estimate assuming Disney does not release. If so, it will take me two years.

[Walter-S_North_Carolina]

Re: VoD Movie Hobby

I used the excel since I have an app on my phone that can read it. It also prevents me from accidentally buying something I own in store. I have two pawn shops near me that sell blurays for 3 dollars so it comes out to about 5 all together after I D2D them if I don't own them and want them. I just sit in the store with a pile of them looking them up to see if they eligible to convert before buying. Surprisingly even at almost 1400 I still find about 5 titles each visit.

The excel sheet took me about 20 hours to complete over the course of two weeks but mainly I was watching a movie at the same time. Put year, title, rating, format (SD or HD, probably put 3D here if I get one), comments, and UV provider I purchased/redeemed from. Took me a while since I had to look up the year and rating on many since UVVU was incorrect on many. They list 1998 or 2005 as the year on many movies that came out way before then.



It will come out of no where a week or two after you buy the drive.

Good job with the Bluray conversion. $5.00 ($3 @ store + $2 for UV conversion) is a low price to pay for a 1080p title.

[Corinthos]

Re: VoD Movie Hobby

I used the excel since I have an app on my phone that can read it. It also prevents me from accidentally buying something I own in store. I have two pawn shops near me that sell blurays for 3 dollars so it comes out to about 5 all together after I D2D them if I don't own them and want them. I just sit in the store with a pile of them looking them up to see if they eligible to convert before buying. Surprisingly even at almost 1400 I still find about 5 titles each visit.

The excel sheet took me about 20 hours to complete over the course of two weeks but mainly I was watching a movie at the same time. Put year, title, rating, format (SD or HD, probably put 3D here if I get one), comments, and UV provider I purchased/redeemed from. Took me a while since I had to look up the year and rating on many since UVVU was incorrect on many. They list 1998 or 2005 as the year on many movies that came out way before then.

I'm considering to buy a cheap BD drive so I can convert my 200 BD's but was hoping they would launch a PS3 app to D2D.

It will come out of no where a week or two after you buy the drive.

[swiss21]

Re: VoD Movie Hobby

It's great but I am being ultra-conservative with UV. I am very optimistic about the future and prefer UV, however I made the mistake of buying tons of DVDs, then was semi-liberal on BD but now more conservative. I am under 200 movies in total. I'm considering to buy a cheap BD drive so I can convert my 200 BD's but was hoping they would launch a PS3 app to D2D.

[FungManHin]

Re: VoD Movie Hobby

I have 1395 in my account and UVVU.COM times out sometimes or takes forever. Also I could reload the same section in uvvu.com twice and get different results. I D2D my entire collection that was eligible including rated and unrated version and alternate cuts when available. I put them all in an excel sheet that is uploaded to drop box so I can remember what I have and sort easily. VUDU loads for me pretty quick. CinemaNow does not and Flixster hasn't updated with new movies for me since about 100 or so.

I started to do an excel sheet but got too lazy for it. now i just place small color coded circular stickers on the spines of my titles. Green sticker represents titles I've done D2D. Purple stickers represent films that came with UV codes.

[Corinthos]

Re: VoD Movie Hobby

I have 1395 in my account and UVVU.COM times out sometimes or takes forever. Also I could reload the same section in uvvu.com twice and get different results. I D2D my entire collection that was eligible including rated and unrated version and alternate cuts when available. I put them all in an excel sheet that is uploaded to drop box so I can remember what I have and sort easily. VUDU loads for me pretty quick. CinemaNow does not and Flixster hasn't updated with new movies for me since about 100 or so.

[wildside]

Re: VoD Movie Hobby

We own about 500 titles on Vudu right now, and I have noticed that loading the entire library takes a long time. I am not surprised to hear that 10k breaks the UVVU system as that site runs at a glacial pace. What I will note that is that Vudu is the gold standard in terms of providing the user with library flexibility. Even at 500 titles, I already have difficulty finding the right movie if I have to scroll by purchase order. Since your library is a factor of seven larger, the process must be aggravating for you. Do you usually just direct dial a film via the search bar? That's what we do on Amazon.

I use the sorting features. Alphabetical by genre lets me find pretty much everything I want. And for new purchases, we sort by acquisition date.

Up to 3900 titles now, and I'm pretty much out of things to redeem on D2D...until they add more movies. (I wish Disney would get on board. And MGM.)

-- John

[goneviral]

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

Out of curiosity, how are you collating your list of needed titles? My wife and I have been going through Wikipedia's year in movies pages.

[goneviral]

Re: VoD Movie Hobby

Mat --


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

I had this issue with Amazon Video. We apparently possess one of the largest TV libraries in their system. Their software lost the ability to load all of our titles for an extended period. I got the vibe from several phone conversations that they eventually had to update their software specifically for us. Amazon handled the entire situation wonderfully, though. They gave us a free TV for our trouble, and it was selling on their site for $1,100 at the time.

We own about 500 titles on Vudu right now, and I have noticed that loading the entire library takes a long time. I am not surprised to hear that 10k breaks the UVVU system as that site runs at a glacial pace. What I will note that is that Vudu is the gold standard in terms of providing the user with library flexibility. Even at 500 titles, I already have difficulty finding the right movie if I have to scroll by purchase order. Since your library is a factor of seven larger, the process must be aggravating for you. Do you usually just direct dial a film via the search bar? That's what we do on Amazon.

[Speedaddict81]

Re: VoD Movie Hobby

Walter,

I agree that cloud storage is here for the long term. It is the safest way to store our media, especially with the redundency provided by multiple services, all with the same or similar content...now if something happened to the UV license servers, that'd be something else (and why I have paper copies of most of my D2D reciepts).

[Walter-S_North_Carolina]

Re: VoD Movie Hobby

I strategically placed EMF and the whole "cloud" is toast. You'll be happy to have a celluloid and a candle. No sound, sorry.

Barring an apocalypse, a redundant storage array remains the gold standard for long term storage of entertainment media. Being individuals, we can not afford such technology (at least most of us can't).

When the entertainment media is cloud based, it is secure and the longevity is the best from the media options currently available.

The question of new higher definition formats I think is missing the point. The underling storage of the media is what matters.

VHS Mylar and optical disks are both inferior mediums to redundant storage arrays when the question is longevity. If a consumer is wishing to safeguard their entertainment media, a cloud service backed by a financially sound organization is by far the best option.

Subsequent upgrades of display formats just lends to the "future proof" feature of retaining entertainment media with a cloud service, as they would be in a position to provide subsequent upgrades with little effort from the consumer, should the consumer choose to. At least the option would be available in that type of relationship.

Plus, the original media remains in pristine condition for perpetuity.

[jeremymc7]

Re: VoD Movie Hobby

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

I strategically placed EMF and the whole "cloud" is toast. You'll be happy to have a celluloid and a candle. No sound, sorry.

[Blurayfan]

Re: VoD Movie Hobby

I'd give it 2 years, at most, for 4k to be the new 'standard' in movies. As for that resolution on a streaming service, I think we'd need either an order of magnitude increase in internet speeds (50+ MB/sec) or some sort of loss-less compression, otherwise a download service would be the only outlet.

Comcast is already offering speeds up to 300Mb (Highest speed is being tested in limited areas). They recently just doubled the speed of two of their tiers. My package changed from 50Mb down and 10Mb up to 105Mb down and 20Mb up with no cost increase.

Also the FCC wants Gigabit by 2015.

FCC Wants Gigabit Internet Communities Nationwide by 2015

[Speedaddict81]

Re: VoD Movie Hobby

I always elect for HDX upgrades whenever possible. My only concern is whether they will eventually offer HDX to...whatever they're going to call it, Super-HDX?...when the new higher-definition 4K sets become standard. (Network TV is starting to record programs in 4K resolution, and I've seen one of the demo sets. So it's definitely coming. 5 years? 8?)

-- John

I'd give it 2 years, at most, for 4k to be the new 'standard' in movies. As for that resolution on a streaming service, I think we'd need either an order of magnitude increase in internet speeds (50+ MB/sec) or some sort of loss-less compression, otherwise a download service would be the only outlet.

[wildside]

Re: VoD Movie Hobby

Hi Walt --

I have largely gotten rid of videotapes, with the exception of a few things that aren't replaceable (yet). I keep being surprised when things I have archived on Beta tapes because I thought they would never get released on DVD, like Tales of the Gold Monkey and Quark, do in fact show up on DVD. Still holding on to the David Soul version of Casablanca and Bruce Boxleitner's Bring 'Em Back Alive. Maybe someday...

I am also a compulsive upgrader. VHS to Laserdisc, then to DVD, then to Blu-Ray. It gets to be an expensive hobby.

I always elect for HDX upgrades whenever possible. My only concern is whether they will eventually offer HDX to...whatever they're going to call it, Super-HDX?...when the new higher-definition 4K sets become standard. (Network TV is starting to record programs in 4K resolution, and I've seen one of the demo sets. So it's definitely coming. 5 years? 8?)

-- John