The End of the 50% Conversion Special and Unresolved Titles

[rtalbot]

Re: The End of the 50% Conversion Special and Unresolved Titles

Well I converted what should be the last batch of D2D films of mine during the 50% off sale.

18 films in this last conversion, and hundreds more before that.

It's been a nice ride. I will still continue to convert films but at a much smaller rate.

[SpeedRacer2K]

Re: The End of the 50% Conversion Special and Unresolved Titles

None that we've been made aware of. I mention it to Dan H. when I ask for updates on my problem with the Xbox 360 app.

[Stackfan]

Re: The End of the 50% Conversion Special and Unresolved Titles

Has their been a decision to extend or not yet?

[wiscesq]

Re: The End of the 50% Conversion Special and Unresolved Titles

I ended up converting over 1000 discs during this sale. I choose SD because I was primarily interested in streaming the movies to my tablet (which can't handle the HD or HDX movies). That said, now that I have this big library there are a lot of titles I would be interested in upgrading to HDX if the price is right. If VUDU replaced the disc-to-digital sale with an upgrade sale (e.g. upgrade 10 or more movies for $1.50 apiece), then I would probably keep spending money with them.

I was initially reluctant to embrace the UV system, and I was especially not interested in paying again for movies I already brought once (twice in some cases, where I also had the VHS). The $1/ movie sale price was low enough that I was willing to spend money for the convenience of a legal digital copy stored in a convenient on-line cloud library. I have a similar reluctance to buying a higher definition version of a movie that I already own. George Lucas got people to buy multiple copies of the Star Wars movies by offering them in different formats and with different "special editions", but I think that is really the exception rather than the rule. I think most people, if they buy a movie at all, only want to buy it once.

I also have to be honest, of the 1000+ movies now in my library, I watch maybe 1 or 2 a week. I would guess that most people watch most of their movies a couple of times at most. The appeal of the on-line library is having access to the movies IF I want to watch them, not that I would be watching them so much I'd wear out my physical media. Since UV is essentially just a licensing database, the only real cost for the service providers is the bandwidth for the streaming. I can't imagine that the actual cost of bandwidth to stream a licensed movie is very high if I only stream it a couple of times in my lifetime. The additional cost for streaming HD, probably isn't that much more. From a pricing standpoint, I don't think the price is determined by costs so much as it is determined by demand (how much are people willing to pay). With that in mind, I think VUDU maximizes its revenues, and subsequently its profit, by keeping the cost very low and relying on high sales volume. Vudu got $1000+ of my money because of the $1 price point. If the price point had been $2/ movie, I probably would have been much more selective in which movies I converted and the total amount of money they got from me would have probably been much lower.

I hope they come to the same conclusions. If they want to charge me $15 to upgrade a movie, I will upgrade none. If they charge $5, I'll probably upgrade 10-15. If they charge $2, I'll probably end up upgrading 100 or so. At $1.50 I'd do several hundred and at $1 I'd probably do most of them.

[edmaul69]

Re: The End of the 50% Conversion Special and Unresolved Titles

This really should be a permanent fixture of the program.

I agree. It will slow my converting to a screeching halt. Not really that bad but it will slow me down greatly. but im on a fixed income so its hard to justify doing it at even 2 dollars. I however have rediscovered my movie collection this way. I kept all my dvd's in sleeves in cd boxes cause i dont have the room for all the cases. Problem then was i never trifled through the boxes for a movie. Now i go through the movies on vudu every day and watch a couple of them. Its nice that i can have something to do on the days i cant get up and moving.

[TrackZ]

Re: The End of the 50% Conversion Special and Unresolved Titles

This really should be a permanent fixture of the program.

[LuzRinggold]

Re: The End of the 50% Conversion Special and Unresolved Titles

Technically it ends at the beginning of next week, the 30th is Monday, but I would check out no later than Sunday in case there are any screw ups.
Daniel informed us of the last extension on Jan 22, 2014, when the planned end date was January 31, so we are close to that time frame right now, but prepare for the worst, hope for the best.

Right, what I meant was that we have 1 week left...7 days.

[Grey Ghost]

Re: The End of the 50% Conversion Special and Unresolved Titles

That is the "official" date when the discount will end. Vudu's silence on this subject tells me that we better be aware that this discount will end at the end of the week. If I remember correctly, last time they told us that they would be extending the discounts 2 or 3 weeks before it was supposed to end. If they extend it then obviously I am fine with that, but I am expecting it to end.

Technically it ends at the beginning of next week, the 30th is Monday, but I would check out no later than Sunday in case there are any screw ups.
Daniel informed us of the last extension on Jan 22, 2014, when the planned end date was January 31, so we are close to that time frame right now, but prepare for the worst, hope for the best.

[LuzRinggold]

Re: The End of the 50% Conversion Special and Unresolved Titles

That's been there since shortly after the previous expiration; the last extension was posted here shortly before then. What folks are looking for is a statement from Vudu as to whether or not it will be extended past the 30th; I doubt that page will be updated till after the 30th.

That is the "official" date when the discount will end. Vudu's silence on this subject tells me that we better be aware that this discount will end at the end of the week. If I remember correctly, last time they told us that they would be extending the discounts 2 or 3 weeks before it was supposed to end. If they extend it then obviously I am fine with that, but I am expecting it to end.

[RBBrittain]

Re: The End of the 50% Conversion Special and Unresolved Titles

The "official word" on their D2D page..."This Promotion is available from May 29, 2013 through June 30, 2014".

That's been there since shortly after the previous expiration; the last extension was posted here shortly before then. What folks are looking for is a statement from Vudu as to whether or not it will be extended past the 30th; I doubt that page will be updated till after the 30th.

[MaxH]

Re: The End of the 50% Conversion Special and Unresolved Titles

I accept the fact that VUDU could end D2D at any time. My assumption is that it won't happen in the near term. I guess I have always regarded the special rate as intended to do exactly what it did for me - made me interested enough to start converting, which started me down the slippery slope of purchasing titles directly from VUDU. I have to believe that attracting and building market share will continue to be a need for some time - unless there is a better way to get there, the D2D system seems like an effective way to accomplish that (even better with a special attached). Frankly, if D2D was no longer an option I would likely be much more selective than I am today and spend less overall.

Just to clarify, no one expects D2D or at-home D2D with VuduToGo to end any time in the foreseeable future, just the discount of 50% when doing 10 or more purchases with VuduToGo.

[timshel]

Re: The End of the 50% Conversion Special and Unresolved Titles

Most of my difficulties come with certain studios. I can usually correctly predict which of the participating studio discs in my collection will give me the most difficulty.

For me there is no clear pattern. Looking through my boxes of discs with problems I see no particular studio that causes more problems than another. Closest thing to a problem I can anticipate is any double-sided disc, as a high percentage of them cannot be identified. Even there, I can plug in and fail to ID 7-8 in a row and then have the next 4 work just fine.

[LuzRinggold]

Re: The End of the 50% Conversion Special and Unresolved Titles

It would be great if VUDU could give us official word on whether the date will be extended again or not.

The "official word" on their D2D page..."This Promotion is available from May 29, 2013 through June 30, 2014".

[hellmutt]

Re: The End of the 50% Conversion Special and Unresolved Titles

It would be great if VUDU could give us official word on whether the date will be extended again or not.

[RBBrittain]

Re: The End of the 50% Conversion Special and Unresolved Titles

Beta testing isn't related to sales, it's related to bugs and stability. If Vudu feels that they have a stable product that they, and their customers, can live with then I don't see why they would extend the date again.

"Beta" can also mean "we don't wanna lock ourselves into doing this forever", whether they're debugging it or not.