Ultraviolet question.

Digital copies and ultra violet are highly compressed versions. Nothing like the Blu-ray.

I think they share some tech/standards but my impression has always been it's a cheap version for the mobile crowd. Watching a movie on a phone? Never....what a waste.

ultraviolet has nothing to do with phones... it's a digital copy DRM locker...

you redeem the code, link your UV account with various streaming services, then stream the movie

some movies will have a download option which i have yet to even try using so i can't say much about it

but generally speaking the quality will be what you can expect from streaming services like vudu

Anybody know how to get to the digital download movie on the TDKR bluray? I've been through all the menus on regular use, and haven't seen any mention of any UV feature...or am I supposed to put the dvd disc in my computer so it comes up in iTunes?

Well, my TDKR came with a coupon for flixster.com's ultraviolet thing, so you register your movie there and can stream from there, or download to your computer once you download the flixster app for your computer...

If you go down this path of digital movies, you'll need several different accounts because not all of the movie studios use the same site.

http://www.vudu.com/movies/

http://www.flixster.com/

http://www.cinemanow.com/

http://www.uvvu.com/

This doesn't even include the iTunes digital ecosystem and a few other sites, including Disney which is doing their own thing.

Just before xmas I updated all my Ultraviolet coupons from discs, which I thought was more a one-stop sort of thing rather than them franchising it in various guises to "retailers".

I had a coupla Disney discs, when setting up to do their thing they had a pop up saying they're closing up 12/31/12 so didn't bother.....or have they somehow replaced it? Nothing at the time pointed to a supplemental service, so curious what you know...

Wow, this is more complicated than I thought! How did they think any Joe Schmoe would bother doing all this footwork for a DD?

Ah, your particular choice of words is evidently the clue I needed...look for the coupon in the case! Who looks through the paper stuff anymore, right? I found the info...tnx!

So my new question is...I have setup my account and redeemed my code. Do I just download the DD wherever I want to play it, or do I need a special Flixster/UV player app on my iPad device to download/decrypt the DD?
Edited by Mr. Hanky - 1/12/13 at 8:56pm

Thanks for the link. I figured out pretty much the same process by bumping around here and there. Holy smokes!...I don't mean to sound like a big complainer, but I'm surprised that throwing an ancient golden ring into a volcano wasn't one of the steps on that list to make this all work.

I went to the Flixter site, redeemed my code at the special UV portal, established a Flixter account, started iTunes, got the Flixter app, connected my iPad, sync'd my apps (also discovered the TDKR sync app for IOS is not compatible with my dusty older generation iPad), then logged in to Flixter on the iPad, navigated to the MyMovies area, and FINALLY clicked download on the TDKR movie. Man, was that a voyage or what???...and they make the UV thing sound so cool in the advert on the bluray disc. They should tell you that you will need a Tier 3 IT specialist to guide you through that forest.

Hey, you're the one who wants to watch it on an ipad...

Actually, I don't. If I want to watch the movie, I watch it on a big TV using the disc player. All of the contortions came about because I wanted to put it on the iPad that I maintain, that my mother uses, so she could watch it at her leisure. Is it even that important for her uses?...probably not. After a certain point, it was more of an exercise just to explore how this UV thing works, after all. All I can say is that it is not nearly as smoothed out as I would have anticipated.

I'm with you, just yanking your chain a bit.

I also thought it was much simpler, I just waited until I had a few certificates (I have relatively few BluRays compared to some, and only some of those came with the extra dvd or Ultraviolet copies) and just do it in a session on the Ultraviolet website. I only did that as I was going to visit family over xmas and wanted to have something perhaps to entertain myself with or if the family hadn't seen some of these, to have these as backup. I had no idea that Ultraviolet had marketed it's tech to "retailers" (believe that is the phrase they use on their website) and that I'd be going to various other websites and making new accounts/passwords, various software to be downloaded to my computer and all that crap, I just kept seeing Ultraviolet copy so figured I'd be going to Ultraviolet.com and having a simple way of managing it all.

I don't have an ipad, no smart phone, no long trips by plane where I'm just sitting there bored....so the mobile or downloadable versions are only so much use. At 2.65 gigs for the TDKR download (only 1.5 gigs for Wrath of the Titans), can't imagine it's going to look all that great if I hook my laptop up to my flat panel even via HDMI, but I haven't tried yet. A good 50% of a movie like TDKR for me is the audio through my 7.3 setup, not the dialog or detailed plot development let alone watching it on a tiny screen.

I hear ya! I think you hit on the big factor about UV that is not as implied. Instead of being a unified UV app and account that you setup, it's really just a consortium of service providers that studios will employ one or the other, that you will have to chase down to redeem your token for a particular movie. Even that is getting 1 step too far in my book. In current day, it seems pretty obvious that the way you set something like this is you either redeem your code at an iTunes store for i-devices or GooglePlay for Android devices. No extra accounts, no extra apps, no hunting down websites...just leverage the infrastructure that is already in place for pretty much all mobile devices on the planet.

Ultraviolet is a mess, IMHO. I've had to create accounts on uvvu, paramountmovies, flixster, sonypictures, and vudu so far, and there is zero consistency in service. Some will let you stream to mobile devices, and others won't. And I had to enable 3rd party cookies in my web browser settings. There is no question that these streaming services are far lower quality than BDs, and I wouldn't consider them for my primary home theater viewing. But there are times I'm in the gym on the elliptical for 30-60 minutes, and I'd rather watch something I enjoy on my Droid than the various commercial jam packed crap espn/foxnews/etc they have on the tvs. I'm sure many others have times when they are out and about with some time to kill and could use ultraviolet on a mobile device.

Waiting in a long line at the store, post office, DMV or dentist with my kids is about 1,000,000 times more bearable when I can hand them a phone with a movie on it. (And NOT a streaming copy that is going to pause every seventeen seconds--a digital copy stored on my phone.) I definitely prefer to watch a movie at home, but when I'm on the go or have to kill two hours waiting to be released from jury duty, it can be nice to have a few movies on my phone.

I don't like streaming video, and I don't enjoy creating multiple accounts on multiple websites just to redeem one UV code that can only be viewed by downloading a new app and creating yet another account that has to be linked to one of the other accounts, etc. It's like they tried to come up with the most convoluted method possible for digital copy management and Ultra Violet was the result.

I agree. But they are trying to simplify it. These days you can redeem almost all UV codes on Vudu, even if the insert tells you to go to the studio's UV site. So basically you need "only" 3 accounts: One at Vudu (for redeeming and high-quality streaming), one at Flixster (for downloading to mobile devices), and one at uvvu.com (which is your UV "locker" and needs to be linked to the two others).

Since I often have to sit through long flights, watching movies/TV shows on the iPad is really a good way to pass the time. Also, streaming in "HDX" quality on Vudu is not bad at all if you don't have access to the BD (and you can share your UV movies with a limited number of friends/family who don't own the BD). I'd prefer if iTunes and Google Play would join UV. I don't like to be locked in to one particular platform. Right now I'm pretty happy with Apple's iDevices, but if something better comes along I'd like to be able to switch without losing access to my digital copies ...