Master Vudu discussion - place to talk about your Vudu experience - Page 13

Ok - close enough to $99. I just pulled the trigger when I saw this post come across by Samsung Blackjack. I went to Bust Buy - they still had the old $299 price posted - I made them look it up on the web site - and bingo. I am now a prowd owner of a Vudu box for $149. Doing my part to stimulate the economy - your welcome Barack Obama.

Now with my luck:

Vudu will go out of business in 2010 :-)
or
HDXstream will come out with their box with 7.1 DTS MA support and a netflix all you can eat model
or
Vudu will introduce a new box with BluRay quality and 7.1 uncompressed audio

---- and I will want to upgrade - giving my wife one more reason to be pissed at me for this expensive hobby.

I received e-mail from tech support that no plan exists for HDMI 1.3a so no to DTS-MA in the foreseeable future.

XStreamHD is already defunct.

Swanni predicts AppleTV and Vudu both will be gone in 2009. He also predicted AppleTV would be gone in 2008 last Jan. and it is interesting to note he predicted HD DVD would prevail over blu-ray at one point.

http://www.tvpredictions.com/swannisix122808.htm

Are we to live our lives in fear of what might happen? Don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

[quote=kevivoe;15752102]XStreamHD is already defunct.QUOTE]

Swanni sounds a lot like my stock broker -- I should hire him.

When did XstreamHD go defunct? I new they were on life support and did not show up for CES. But there web site is up and running -- I was not aware that they had flat lined

It works. Just make sure the Vudu is secure since it has an HDD. I download and transport either to the homes of friends or just on trips. It works great in the car or at the destination.

Remember when nobody showed up for the CES 2008 HD DVD press conference?

That's why I say XStreamHD is defunct.

Toshiba kinda canceled their CES conference though because of Warner's choice. No need to get into it here - but they had to throw out what they had to work on and nothing new could be done in 3 days time.

why can i not set my video preferences to 1080p or 1080i on this box? It is stuck on 480p

ok - i was able to force the setting by hooking up to a different TV and then switching it back. I suspect that this is one of the pains of this box not having hdmi 1.3.

My video processor is HDMI 1.3

I was able to at least get 1080i. My projector only supports 1080p 60hz - does this mean i can not get 1080p to work on the Vudu?

Again one more reason to stick with BluRay?

I was told to click the box marked "preferred by TV" in video settings. My projector connects at 1080p/24 for HDX.

It is my understanding that if your display does not support 1080p/24 the vudu will output 1080i. This is probably more of a psychological disadvantage than something perceptible.

bald

I thought most blu-ray discs were 1080p/24. I think video series like Planet Earth are 1080i/60.

People like to predict the demise of Vudu. But there's one "killer app" that would make it easy for me to buy one: streaming from arbitrary sources. I know the box didn't have that capability when it was first introduced, but maybe it has been added?

I.E. if this device can also act as a generic streamer, then it's almost a no-brainer to buy it. It means that even if the company goes out of business the box still has value. Without that, why should I risk hundreds of dollars on a niche startup company?

Can someone verify if Vudu service is working? I have been getting NETWORK DOWN for 2 days now. I do a connection test and I get OK on both home connect and internet but network service is down?

I can't rent anything. I can browse the catalogs though.

I rented a movie yesterday. You should reboot the box and see if it is OK after that.

I watched the duchess last night in hdx - it was downloaded friday night. last night i started the download on rocknrolla hdx.

bald

I doubt that you'll be able to stream "from" the Vudu box ("generic streamer"), but if/when the Vudu Labs development tool kit is released developers will be able to construct plugins ("killer" Apps) that once installed in the Vudu box will let you play video streams from different sources "to" the Vudu box. You might be able to use your home computer and other Internet service providers as sources of Video streams.

Do you mean I can get to Netflix with such an application. This is similar to playon for the PS3 that allows access to Netflix?

At this point it's all "speculative"... we don't know what kind of APIs will be open to the Vudu box via this "rumored" Vudu Labs development kit. But I can tell you that when Vudu Labs fuctionality was added with firmware 2.1.1 it allowed the Vudu box to access Youtube, On-Demand TV, Picasa, Flickr, Now Being Watch and some Games... So the "potential" to add other online content providers channels exists.

I rented and purchased yesterday and last night with no issues with either.

Blu-Ray discs are 1080/24 but I am still able to watch them on my 1080P/60 projector using 1080P setting on my Blu-Ray player and my video scaler.

It would be nice if the Vudu box could work both ways, i.e. stream "to" it and stream "from" it. That would allow easy MRV. But just being able to stream "to" the box from a home media server would be sufficient. Then I would know I wasn't buying a potential "hanger queen". OTOH, if I owned a Vudu, I'd rent maybe 2 HD movies a month; I don't think my $10/mo would be enough to keep Vudu in business. They need more revenue per user than that. So maybe they shouldn't be listening to my opinions on the features they need.

I visited the Vudu web site and read up a little on Vudu Labs. I like it (in principle).

I used to think that too.

Since Jan. 15, 2009 (when I first started with Vudu) through Feb. 8, 2009

6 $0.99 SD movies
4 $5.99 HD/HDX movies
4 $3.99 SD movies

In 3 weeks my family has done 14 movies. I have only seen 9 of them. Wife and/or daughter and/or son have done some on their own. $46 in 3 weeks. I think we have saved the purchase of 2 blu-ray discs and at least 4 SD discs.

We've also rented 2 Red Box movies since. Home theater is pretty popular in our neighborhood.

Sounds equal to a Netflix unlimited 8 disc plan with unlimited streaming

In a similar period of time, our family used NF @18.99/mo (BD enabled) and viewed 12 movies, 4 being BD. We didn't stream anything.

yup - in this economy - netflix is a tough model to beat

I use NF as well, though now it is mainly for the streaming because my NF experience used to go something like this.

I am in the mood to watch movie "A" ,well movies "D" and "E" showed up today because "A" still had a wait. Oh well I will have to wait a few days or weeks for "A" to show up. I can either watch "D" and/or "E" and send it back so "A" shows up or I can let them set on the counter and run to BB to get a movie I am in the mood to watch.

If I had to wait for movie "A" it wasn't that big of a deal but my only backup was the other discs that I had gotten from NF and either they were movies my wife wanted or I just didn't want to watch them right then. With Vudu I have most of the movies I want to watch at my fingertips. If for some reason I can't rent a movie I really want to see because of the VOD window I still have other options right at my fingertips.

I now only purchase BD that I find I will watch again and again. I also rent the ocassional BD for the "theater AQ". Those, however, are getting fewer and fewer. The Vudu HDX/HD is a great blending of quality and convenience that make it worth every penny. I could go back to the 20 bucks a month NF plan and watch the movies I want somewhere around the time that I want to watch them, but paying as I go for movies that I want to watch when I want without having to get my lazy butt up out of the chair is priceless.

An example of a Vudu plus is... the other day I had some friends over who have kids, I do not, so while the adults were conversing the kids wanted to watch a couple of movies I turned on the filters and explored Vudu for 3 star and above rated G family movies and came up with a list for the kids to choose from. They narrowed it down to two and away they went the first being Horton Hears a Who. What I am getting at is there was no need to run out to BB, no searching through my collection to find something they would like, just click click scroll click. That is something that 20.00 a month can't do.

Looks like you save more money than me. I however started watching most of the movies 6 seconds after I selected them and the HDX 4.5 hours after selecting them.

How long did you wait to watch a movie you selected? 1-2 days I guess. By the way, I can queue HDX (blu ray equivalent) movies on Vudu also. I pick 5 and the DL until they are all delivered. Should take 24 hours to get 5 ... I can begin again the next morning and my "queue" (hard drive) will have more movies than I can watch.

SD and HD are instant so the wait is 6-14 seconds. If Vudu ever offered a monthly fee plan similar to Netflix, it would be over for any disc based distribution. IF the studios supported all releases to digital distribution, disc based methods would be extinct in 2 years time.

I just got Vudu -- and I had not thought of it as a way to lower my Netflix bill. I currently spend $47 a month for eight discs and have plenty of selection - lowering it to $20 a month and rent the occasional Vudu download makes sense.

Regarding Vudu destroying netflix business model - an all you can eat plan would help - although you still would have the question of quality. I have not done an a/b comparison of bluray and vudu.

It would be interesting to hear if anyone has done that.

Bluray is absolutely stunning and I would hate to give up the picture and sound quality for convenience - although the IPOD model would suggest that I am in the minority on this one.

The only problem with this model is that a watch approximately 30 movies a month - don't watch a lot of TV - and if I do it is on BluRay (i.e. Damages, Dexter etc). As such - the Vudu model would cost me $150/month which is 3x the top Netflix model of 8 movies on hand at any give time.

Do you have plans for things like ESPN Monday Night Football in the fall or other live sports?