Master Vudu discussion - place to talk about your Vudu experience - Page 57

I see it at Walmart, sometimes it's $40 and sometimes it's $50. They also usually have a cheapo Magnavox Blu-ray player with built-in wifi that streams Vudu for $68. I've seen this item in two of my local Walmarts.

I was curious about this RCA media player, so I checked to see if anyone had uploaded a hands on review of it at youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGmycgxlHpI
The Netflix app is the old Ver 5 that was on the PS3. But the reviewer isn't too fond of the included remote.

My wife and I watched Sabrina (1995) last night on VUDU since it was their 99 cent Valentine's Day special. The HDX stream was flawless, the picture gorgeous and the sound was DD - this was on my WD TV Live streamer. A nice experience and well worth the buck.

It's coming out on Blu this year

I have a Gateway LT20 Netbook that plays DVD rips using Media Player Classic Homecinema just fine, and also works fine with Verizon Flexview. This week I tried using the Netbook with VUDUToGo on the train (no WiFi)and was quite disappointed. The audio was fine, but the video stuttered and couldn't keep up. The movie I had downloaded was SD. I also tried it with the (free) PAN AM pilot episode and the performance was the same- unwatchable!

The Netbook has a 1.6Ghz Atom processor, 1GB memory, and runs Win7 Starter SP1. This seems to match the Adobe AIR client requirements (installed with the VUDUToGo client). I'm running the Netbook in "High Performance" mode (not Power Saver or Balanced).

Anybody know how to "tweak" the client (or the Netbook) to get it to work with a Netbook? Would another GB of memory do the trick, or is this a processor issue?

--hourglass

Maybe because it's only a single core CPU. The last time I tried VUDU on my netbook it was fine. and that has a 1.2Ghz dual core CPU(no hyperthreading) I guess i need to check it out again.

I also run all my PCs, Laptops in balanced mode. Since if it needs more processing power, it will increase the speed. Although my Netbook always runs at 1.2Ghz since the CPU can't go to a lower multiplier.

Just watched some of the 3d trailors using my PS3, was impressed!

In a recent discussion in another thread Roger Dressler stated that the difference in encoding efficiency of DD+ 5.1 as compared to basic DD 5.1 is generally 2:1. I asked if that meant that the 384 Kbps 5.1 DD+ sound streamed by Netflix was roughly equivalent to basic DD 5.1 at 768 Mbps and he confirmed that, but was doubtful that any service was streaming DD+ 5.1 encoded at 384 Kbps as that was a common bit rate used for encoding basic DD 5.1 for television broadcast. It took a few posts to convince him that Netflix was doing that (with some discussion to clarify the structure of DD+ and what its "core 5.1 encoding" is). Here are some relevant excerpts:


That's not to say that any of Netflix's 384 Kbps DD+ 5.1 encodings are necessarily superior to a corresponding 448 Kbps basic DD 5.1 encodings on DVDs, but at that bit rate they potentially could be.

To bring this back to the thread topic, has VUDU ever stated the bit rate of DD+ 5.1 as used in its streams (or DD+ 7.1 recently introduced for some streams)? EDIT: A VUDU engineer answered that question once in their site forums here; the answer was 256 Kbps. That was back in 2007, so that may well have changed since (EDIT: I was wrong--the post was from March of 2008). I'd certainly expect them to be using a higher bit rate for their newer 7.1 channel DD+ encodings.

Back in 2007 VUDU was only downloading the content and it was only SD at that time. They didn't offer HD until later. And then streaming is more recent.
I've had VUDU over four years now. Things have certainly changed a lot since I first got my VUDU boxes.

Is there a way to see what the actual bit rates are? Folks must understand bit rates can change with each title and subject to change with different encodes for the same title. With data caps implemented or being implemented I would say the IPTV providers are interested in lower bit rates, not higher.

I would think that if folks were really concerned about top quality sound (and pic) they would simply rent or purchase the Blu-ray disc. For sometime now most titles have been released on Blu-ray with Dolby TrueHD and/or DTS HD-Master Audio. Both are lossless formats.

Disclaimer: I do own stock in Dolby Labs, this info is available in a personal summary that is linked in my signature line.

I was pretty impressed with my first VUDU watch. Put on Troll Hunter using my freebie, and found the video and audio to be excellent for streaming. I also liked that I could watch it again within 48 hours of first viewing.

I did get buffering on the second run through, but my internet connection has been flaky. Maybe I should step up to Time Warner's Turbo offering.

I also find that for the price, VUDU is worth the new releases and the HD experience. I just don't see the worth of comparing it to Redbox's $1 discs. Two very different markets (even though I use them both.)

My first experience with VUDU was flaky too, buffering and kicked down from HDX to HD early in the movie "Cowboys and Aliens". After I swapped out the router (Linksys to Buffalo) the last 2 movies I have watched have been flawless. I am hard-wired so it wasn't a wireless problem, whatever issues I was having with the Linksys router weren't readily apparent. I also have the standard Road Runner plan 10Mbps down/1Mbps up which occasionally spikes higher early in the download.

I'm hardwired, too, with a D-link router. But all my computers have had some issues with internet with different routers, so something else is going on with mine.

Apparently some AVRs will tell you the bit rate of the sound stream they're processing, though not mine (it will tell me the format and the sample rate). I suspect that Netflix's sound encodings are CBR, but I can't prove it.

Netflix obviously wants to reach the largest group of customers for their streaming video service as possible and for that reason tries to keep the bit rate of their streams as low as they reasonable can, but 4800 Kbps 1080p video plus 384 Kbps for 5.1 sound is only 5.2 Mbps and you don't need network service any faster than 7 Mbps to stay ahead of that (6 might do it if available bandwidth on your connection to their servers is always rock solid). Not everyone requires their highest quality video and sound and the 192 Kbps stereo encodings are pretty good, with Pro Logic matrixed surround elements usually intact. Right now titles with available DD+ sound are a minor subset of their library, being only about 1000 (7% or so; about a third of their titles have available HD video encodings).

Certainly this doesn't compare with lossless audio on BDs. The name of the game in streaming is convenience, not maximum quality. I never said that Netflix's DD+ 5.1 sound was the best available, just that it was very good and possibly better than DD 5.1 on DVDs.

I'm not such an avid A/V-ophile as to require the finest quality from everything that I watch, and I can't afford the top spec equipment with which to enjoy it in any case. I want to see the big screen, big sound blockbuster special effects extravaganzas on BD first, but good-to-excellent quality streaming or downloads (ala VUDU, etc) are good enough for most things. Anything to keep from having to drag my lazy ass out to obtain a disc or even to walk across the room to find and insert one into a drive .

I always like when folks tell it like it is . Came from a small farm in the south so a little physical work does not bother me, in fact, my Ph.Ds say I need to do more of it . Several years ago there was a commercial that showed a live human head on a pedestal because everything was automated and we had lost our need for mobility. It seems like that is the direction we, as humans, are headed. I love my toys, gadgets, remotes, pads, GPS, phones, etc. as much as the next person but in some areas I prefer some old fashion devices.

For rentals, I'd prefer streaming.

If it's something I'd like to keep, I'd rather have the disc. I like that Blu-ray players can do both.

Looking for a list of bd players that are currently able to play vudu 3d.

Does anyone know if Vudu 3d movies are in 1080p when using a PS3?

I posted this in another thread where you were asking this--I'm reposting it just in case anyone else in this thread cares about the answer:

Here's a statement from a VUDU engineer as posted to their forum on November 1st (

here) which confirms 720p only:

So only BDs played on the PS3 get 1080p24 for 3D; games and other apps get 720p60 for 3D.

Vudu being considered a "game" also explains why we're locked into 60Hz for 1080p and RGB color format.

I don't know that VUDU is considered a game. There may only be one set of APIs available for construction of 3rd party applications, whatever they might be. Those APIs apparently do not expose all the same capabilities for video playback as are available for the BD player function. Who knows what the rationale for that is.

I check VUDU's 99 cent Rental of the Day fairly often. Today's offering is the 2011 remake of Footloose (70 % Rotten Tomatoes).



http://www.vudu.com/movies/#!content/209964

Does anyone think posting this is a good idea or is it too temporary to be of use? All comments are welcomed.

My ears tell me that whatever bitrate VUDU uses for DD+ 5.1, it does not sound anywhere near as good as a regular DD 5.1 on DVD or, of course, anywhere near the sound quality on blu-rays.

Which is why I limit streaming to films that are primarily dialogue based and documentaries.

If VUDU wants more money from me, they need to up the sound quality. There is no way I was going to watch Mission Impossible (Ghost Protocol) via VUDU. I waited for the blu-ray disc rental from block buster.

If you want to take that on, I'm sure someone will it useful. I personally won't, since I have it sent via text everyday. And it's prominent on their site and their Facebook page and their Twitter feed. But I know not everyone has a texting plan or uses Facebook or Twitter or wants to go to the site every day to check.

So in a nutshell, I'm sure someone would find it useful if you posted it here, but it's information easily found various other places. I would find the concept similar to posting the new releases from InstantWatcher every day here....why not just go to InstantWatcher?

Someone from Dolby who worked on the DD+ encoding system stated in these forums that the old encoder was twice as efficient as basic Dolby, so even 256 Kbps DD+ has the potential to exceed the quality of 448 Kbps basic DD on DVDs; of course, it can't touch the lossless encodings usually used on BDs. Dolby recently announced a new DD+ encoder which exceeds that 2:1 efficiency without requiring new decoding firmware in DD+ capable AVRs and STBs.

Perhaps the "potential" might be there, but there is something lacking, particularly on the low end, when it comes to VUDU streaming.

It basically sounds equivalent to cable TV in 5.1 -- perhaps a tad better.

Why doesn't VUDU implement a choice for the consumer -- those that have high bandwidth get better sound quality too.

Sounds tons better than that on my equipment. Not as good as BDs, but far, far better than DVDs or television. The MI: Ghost Protocol soundtrack was impressive--sharp imaging and lots of boom. Whatever.

Fair enough, those same thoughts went through my mind. As an aside the 99 cent movie for today is Captain America.

I don't use any of those social networks so your comment about getting a text alert from VUDU is a surprise. There is nothing that I can find on the VUDU website that allows for that option. Do you have a link?

Log into your Twitter account and follow "vudufans"; enable your account to text tweets to you and turn on mobile notifications for vudufans.

Following tweets by VUDU, Netflix and Amazon is the only reason I have a Twitter account. I also follow AmazonVideo and amazonappstore with mobile notifications enabled and get tweeted with the Amazon 99 cent movie of the day and free Amazon Android app of the day.

That's exactly how I use Twitter (see, it can be useful and you don't have to get bogged down into the social aspect of it....heck, I haven't even logged onto Twitter for 6 months or so, since I only use it for text notifications of a few things).

Vudu seems to only post a few things each week (the daily 99 cent movie, the new releases, and they run a weekly photo contest at Facebook where you can win $5 credit for identifying screencaps, so they send Tweets when that contest starts each week). I think it ends up being about 10 texts a week, which is ok. Used to have Redbox set up that way, but they posted too much crap to their Twitter feed (in the neighborhood of 10-20 crap Tweets each day), but you can sign up for text alerts for the free code only through their site to only get those.