Walmart Entertainment’s Disc-to-Digital Service Powered by VUDU - Page 7

This is good news! I'm definitely in for a Team America HDX copy.

Just start a new thread.

larry

So the service is live.

My question is: if people didn't take the time to watch the movies they have on their shelf, why will having them in the cloud make them watch the movies more? It's the same movie. Hollywood is once again charging you more $$ for the same exact movie, and in the case of a bluray movie, at a lesser quality.

The reason I don't watch the movies on my shelf much is mainly because of time. Having a movie in the cloud isn't going to give me more time to watch them. They will sit in the cloud gathering digital dust like my movies on the shelf gather real dust.

On the other hand I do use Amazon's and Google's clouds for music 1) because they are free and 2) I can use it in the car (it works decent via 3G). They also have a download option to store a local copy on the phone.

But music is different than movies.

For normal adults that drive themselves to work, you can't watch movies in the car while driving. In my case I am not going to watch a movie in the cloud more just because it is in the cloud. I have a disc player under every TV I have, it is easy enough to watch them as is, yet I still don't do it.

Movies in the cloud might be good for children in the backseat of a car (assuming the download option pops up soon), and people who travel a lot. But I see the appeal for (young) adults on the go being quite limited.

My question remains - If I don't have the time or desire to watch them from my shelf how will that change with them in the cloud?

It won't because you have no desire to re-watch movies (same as a blockbuster store or Redbox kiosk having copies of movies you don't want to re-watch isn't going to cause you to re-watch those movies). Same reason I have no interest in this and sold off most of my DVD collection which at one time totaled ~750....they just collected dust.

But there are many people who maintain media servers of movies on them that might be interested in a cloud solution rather than spending the time and costs associated with ripping and storing them locally or wanting to be able to access the collection in hotels/airports or the car (yes, there are people with kids who will watch a movie in the car...shocking, I know).

I feel that I wasted my time having to explain that.

I didn't realize that this service is meant to solve the time/desire to watch a film "problem" that you presume some users to have.

Presumably having a film more easily available would increase consumption of it.

Presumably. If you are OK with watching a 2hr movie in 15 minutes segments on the train, etc.

Not shocking. I already noted it:


So next time don't.

Okay. Then you answered your own question?


It's already been mentioned but, say I don't want to maintain a media server at home or have to deal with the storage requirements/additional labor/legalities of ripping Blu-rays. Maybe I want the convenience of a digitally streamed file as opposed to an optical disc. Perhaps I have multiple tv's I'd like to serve and would prefer a $49.99 Netgear NeoTV over more expensive streamers or Blu-ray players.

A $2.00 Ultraviolet digital copy may represent the path of least resistance.

I won't. Seriously, don't use it if you're not interested. The answer why some people would be interested is blatantly obvious.

Oh wait....how the hell did you get removed from my ignore list? I just realized who you were. Well, back you go.

The path of least resistance would be to just use the discs and players you already have and not give Hollywood more money for content you have already purchased.

They include UV for free when you purchase a new disc yet charge for it for old discs.

So has anyone here been to walmart and done this? How did it go? Any issues? what about movies like Dark Knight were you can only rent HDX but not buy?

I know this is wishful thinking, but is there a possibility of converting hd-dvd discs?
Thanks!

I plan on bringing some this weekend to find out.

I did it today. I took 5 SD dvds and switched them to HDX. I went online to Walmart and linked my UltraViolet account to Vudu. Then it runs you thru the procedure of entering the dvds and making them HDX.
All you do is print it out and then take dvds and printout to Walmart. Everthing went pretty smooth but they counld'nt find the Walmart dvd stamp and they looked for it for 15 minutes. So I'm on the Honor System.
I went home and there they were in My Vudu account. Also Paramount put my UltraViolet movies in the Vudu account which was sweet. No Warner ( Flixster) yet.

mark

So did I. I took 7 SD movies and switched over to HDX. I had been talking to the Photo Center lady a couple of days before so she knew what to do and it was very fast. I got home and had all 7 in my Vudu account in HDX.

Just got back from Walmart where I had 3 DVD movies changed over to HDX. Of course the young guy behind the counter was busy in photofinishing but eventually got around to helping me. I handed him the list of movies that I had printed off the VUDU website after linking my account to UV. He gave the list a blank stare for a while then said the process was new to him and he would have to consult a fellow worker (directly behind me was the Walmart/VUDU Disc to Digital standee). After he got off the phone she came in from wherever she working to train him. He filled out the Disc to Digital Form with my name, email and phone number. They asked that if I had other shopping to do it would be done by the time I finished. When I returned they had processed everything and only required my payment. After I got home I checked my VUDU account and the three titles were listed as Own. The only reason I went this route was because the three DVD movies that were upgraded to HDX show no signs of ever coming to Blu-ray although I still hope they do. The movies were The Dead Zone (1983), Somewhere in Time (1980) and City of Angels (1998). When I rented Sabrina (1995) in HDX a few months back I was pleasantly surprised by how good the picture looked. I'll be watching one tonight to see if the quality upgrade was worthwhile.

What a coincidence! I also did "Somewhere In Time" from SD to HDX.

I just did my signup online. and since it created an UltraViolet account, I decided to purchase my first Ultra Violet title. Mission Impossible 4. So once I get it I should have access to it on the VUDU site.

I also see that my HD titles I purchased from VUDU over 3 years ago showed up on my UltraViolet account as well.

I went to the Vudu webpage and had a look at their "See Vudu in action" video. The link is near the bottom of the homepage.

Is it just me or is the quality quite poor?

Was that from a PC? Isn't SD only available from a PC?

EDIT: Yes, only SD from a PC.

Sony titles in HD can be viewed via PC. You have to do it through flixster though. Im looking forward to the next UV step which is the Common File Format (CFF). Thats what collectors will be collecting and placing on their home storage devices. The CFF is coming in June and I am hearing the CFF is like a DVD Iso where you can have chapter title pages and other extras much like those on BD and DVD.

People will lap this service up like kittens sipping warm milk . The sell thru market in 2011 (EST and Physical) was around $10 Billion dollars which is hardly chump change and shows that many many people still want to Own movies.

I find that I want choice. If I like the movie I buy it, if not then the rental was all that Im out for.

My husband and I enjoy collecting movies and watching them on all our devices but I dont watch many longform videos on my ipad. I save that for music video and TV series.

I'm still unclear as to how this works. If I add a disc to my library can I share it with my parents who live in Fl? ie: Will they be able to watch it? If so this would be a good compromise for them because I have a vast video library and they have hardly any movies at all and a blu-ray player with Vudu.

Yes. I am currently sharing my Ultraviolet account with my parents who live out of state. I have a Vudu account that I linked to UV and they have a separate Vudu account linked to the same UV account so we have our own passwords but all share the same library.

OK, cool. It's certainly easier to do this than to ship stuff back and forth across the country using media-mail. I'll have to tell my parents about this.

The only problem I'm seeing about linking the two accounts is that not all of my Vudu movies are showing up at the UV site and not all the UV movies are showing up at the Vudu site. Don't know why?

Are you talking about movies you previously purchased on Vudu or that you converted with Disc to Digital(D2D)? If previously purchased my guess is those titles are not on the D2D list yet. Any movie purchased through D2D should defintely be showing up on the UV website.

Yes, all the D2D movies are showing up on the UV site (although some will link back to Vudu because they don't support direct access) but one of my UV site movies is not showing up at the Vudu site. Harry Potter and the Deatly Hallows Part 1 is not showing up but Part 2 is showing up even though I have a UV copy of both. Doesn't make sense to me?

The linking of the different UV sites isn't working right now, I signed up on UV.com and Vudu.com easily but when I went to link them it wouldn't work. Flixster.com is offering a free UV movie if you link using your Facebook account but I couldn't get it to link. I read Amazon was going to join UV but I haven't seen anything on their website yet, anyone know what's going on with Amazon?

Did you try to link Ultraviolet to Vudu through the Disc to Digital link on vudu.com? That is how I did it (haven't even converted any moves yet) and it worked perfectly.

The only way to get the Flixster movies through Facebook to link to your UV account is if you already have a Flixster account linked to Ultraviolet and you are already logged into said account on your browser before you try to redeem the Facebook movies. Otherwise it will try to open you a new Flixster/Ultraviolet account which is a mess that my friend had to deal with until he bought a Warner movie and linked it through them.

Amazon has announced plans to distribute UV movies through one unnamed studio, likely Warner, back at CES but has not rolled out any UV functionality yet. Will only be a matter of time before they are onboard with all the studios and distributing UV content.