Walmart Entertainment’s Disc-to-Digital Service Powered by VUDU - Page 8

Finally an anamorphic version in the correct aspect ratio 1:85:1!! Right off the bat I could see it was brighter with better color, the resolution was decent, a clear improvement over the awful DVD although you can see that the source it was mastered from was less than ideal. Sound is Dolby Digital (not Plus) stereo and still sounds a little harsh, again going back to the master. Wife (and I) are happy with the upgrade.

As far as your other questions posted I don't think anything other than what is purchased for upgrade at Walmart will show up in your VUDU account. When I linked to UltraViolet and I could see the 3 DVD upgrades plus after joining the Sony UV website and entering the code for my Drive Blu-ray afterward I could see all 4 movies. I added the Flixster app to my iPad and was able to stream the Drive movie plus it's available for download. It would be nice if Flixster played my UV movies through my WD TV Live streamer but then that would defeat the Walmart/VUDU model to make you pay for a Blu-ray to HD streaming version.

EDIT: I just received my Ghost Protocol Blu-ray and entered the code on the Paramount URL provided. It showed up in the UltraViolet account and in my VUDU account as a Promo/Own - SD version.

I can't get mine to show up at all. The only place I can play my HD ULTRAVIOLET copies of Hugo and ghost protocol are on the paramount website. They don't show up in vudu.

However, the SD "DIGITAL COPY" (itunes compatible) of the movies will show up in vudu.

Is ultraviolet just a big load of crap? It's of no use to me if I can only play it on the movie studios web page.

I had no problem with my Ghost Protocol from BestBuy and UV when I input the ibnfo on Tuesday. It showed up in my VUDU and UV account right away after entering the info at the Paramount site. And it showed up as owned HDX on VUDU.

I actually had started watching it from VUDU until I realized that it was cropped and then switched to watching the BD ISO.

Ghost Protocol is cropped on Vudu? Bummer. Someone send them an email.

One thing I also noticed about Ultraviolet is that while Paramount gives HDX copies, WB gives only SD. Talk about cheap...

I saw that to with Ghost Protocal also Hugo was cropped. But Tin Tin and Transformers 3 was not. Weird

mark

They can only encode what the studios give them. If they give VUDU a cropped version, then that is what they have to use.

I am so confused.
I know I can buy movies on vudu.
I know I can upgrade DVDs and blurays to digital copies on vudu at Walmart.
What I don't know is this, I have a few digital copies on my computer iTunes from the copy that comes in my bluray packaging, can I put that on vudu to stream?

Right. Although the studios themselves might be unaware as to which transfer they gave themselves. Makes little sense to give Vudu a cropped transfer, especially since they are pushing it as "blu-ray in the cloud". A cropped transfer is not the same content.

When you consider this is primarily about money and not quality it's easier to understand sub-par transfers.

There shouldn't be an issue of surprise with UV. You shouldn't have to wonder if you are getting HD or SD or cropped or not. There should be standardization.

Well when UV is marketed as a give-away with a disc purchase I guess they figure you get what you get, and don't complain.

My Ghost Protocol didn't work so they issued me a new code but it shows up as only SD on Vudu. I don't know why some of us are getting HDX versions and others only SD versions? I bought mine (the Blu-ray BB exclusive) at Best Buy as well.

There are standards. Each company is following their own or otherwise they might not be part of this if forced to do something they may not want to do. Hopefully things will change for the better once this has been around for a bit.

larry

I assumed it was a Paramount issue. So I shot off an email yesterday asking why?

mark

Apparently each company (Paramount in this case) can't even keep track of their own standard:

I'd rather have the digital version fill the whole screen. Btw I emailed vudu tech support and they upgraded me to hdx for free

The OAR of Hugo is 1.85:1. It's not a scope movie.

I just emailed them myself. Let's see if they do the same for me?

+1......I am waiting for this too.....Also the announcement of what devices are UV compatible.....UV is supposed to be DLNA compatible, so we will see...If I can download my owned HD movies to my NAS.....That would complete my wishes for this service.....

OK, still a bit confused. Got my elderly parents set up on Vudu (that took a while), now, how do I link them to my Ultraviolet account? Is it as simple as adding an account with their email address to my Ultraviolet account, because I did that and my movies haven't shown up on their account yet.

For what it's worth, I converter a lot of DVDs and hd-DVDs to digital at Walmart. They were completely clueless. Had I been dishonest I could have told them they were blurays to upgrade for only $2. Still, $5 is not bad for he copies of movies you own on DVD, but aren't "worth" upgrading to bluray. As far as I'm concerned, the hdx picture quality is perfectly acceptable for most movies. Still, things like lord of the rings, star wars, iron man thor, etc require bluray.

Did they respond to the email confirmation from UV when you linked them to your account?

I figured it out. They signed into to UV wrong. I had to do it for them. It's working now.

It's amazing though, they have like a 1mbps connection and they're fine with SD movies too. They don't want to pay for the bump up in quality. Oh well.

Any way to convert older "digital copies" to ultraviolet

Amazingly some people don't care. I have friends who chugged along at 768K for the longest time but complained that YouTube buffered constantly. Then I helped bump them up to 1.5 Mbps and they were happy. Since they belonged to Netflix and were paying for streaming and 1 disc (this was before Netflix split their services) I tried to interest them in streaming but they weren't willing to pay for a faster internet speed. One DVD in the mail was just fine.

I figured it out! You have to create an account with Paramount Digital site first and then link it to your UV account and then it will correctly show as an HDX movie at the Vudu site.

I would like to just give my 2 cents of why I enjoy this service. In the past I never considered buying digital movies because for one the quality could never come close to blu-ray (heck, it barely reached DVD quality), and for another I didn't like being locked into a particular software/hardware eco-sphere (such as Apple or Microsoft products). But on the flipside I really wanted all my media in a digital format so I would no longer need the discs to watch them and also make them very portable, so I could do anything from watch them on any TV in the house or take them on the go, while still retaining top-notch quality.

My only option was to build both a media server with many TB of storage, along with an HTPC to stream it to my main home theater. After many years of wanting to do this, I just have never got around to it, mainly because I just haven't had the money to do it all. Not to mention I was dreading going through the whole tweaking process of making sure I was getting the proper quality.

With Vudu/UV these worries have been alleviated for the most part. I now have top notch quality with Vudu HDX, although not quite Blu-ray, especially with the audio, but close enough for casual viewing. If I want the best experience I still have my original Blurays. And now with UV, I don't have to worry about being stuck with one software/hardware company, plus I still have my discs to call my own. While I have to pay extra to transfer my discs over to digital, hopefully in the future all new discs will come with a UV copy free of charge, so this will alleviate any extra costs which will save in the long run compared to building a server/HTPC.

I was of the same opinion as you and resisted going with digital movies even though I've been a registered Vudu user since 2008 or 2009. I have recently changed my mind to a certain extent. I have converted those SD DVDs that are available on Vudu as HDX copies to digital and have those available as portable movies on the rare occasions (once or twice a year) that I travel. I still have the very high quality (audio) blu-ray disks for most of my day-to-day watching. This way, I have the best of both worlds.

The fact that no one knows if, when or how much any potential future fees will be to maintain a UV collection makes me hesitant to start a UV collection.

In two years I don't want a message to pop up telling me to pay another $5 just to watch MY movies.

It would still be cheaper for me to pay some small fee as opposed to the huge up front cost for building the server/HTPC and subsequent hardware replacement. Plus I love the convenience, I've already switched over to Spotify for my music, and if I wasn't so heavily entrenched with Xbox, I'd already have switched my gaming over to Onlive.

I truly do understand your concern of why anyone should have to pay for something they already own, but I just don't see that in the same light. I look at it as I pay a one time fee for the license and then from there I pay (if I ever do pay) to store my movies so I can view them anywhere. I already do this with Dropbox to store my pictures and home movies, so why not do it for my movie purchases? But with Dropbox if I stop paying for that online storage, all those files are gone, but with UV if I stop paying for one of their partners services, my license is always still there to be used elsewhere.

Lastly, the main reason this doesn't bother me so much is I've never stayed with one format once a new comes out. When DVD arrived, I ditched my VHS movies and bought everything new again on DVD, and now that same has happened with Bluray. It's been quite the expensive process. So I guess the idea of buying a license and paying a small service fee to always have the best quality feels like the better deal. Now of course, my tune may change if that fee ends up being outrageous, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Until then, I still have my discs.