VUDU Now Qualifies for HD

[Stanley Kritzik]

Has anyone, besides me, heard of VUDU?  Well, check it out at //www.vudu.com .

Basically, VUDU is a box with a hard drive, sophisticated software, a remote, an ethernet input and the usual video outputs, including HDMI.  The strategy for them is to be an on-line Net Flicks.  You buy or rent a movie, and while you are watching or waiting, it is downloaded -- very elegant software.  The prices:  buy the box for about $400; rent a movie for about $3; buy a movie for about $10 to $20.  A rental is on the hard drive for about 30 days.  Once you start watching it, you can pause, restart, whatever, for 24 hours, and then, you're done.  A purchased movie is yours forever.  You must have an internet connection that runs at cable modem speed for it to really make sense.

Features -- good and bad:
The remote is RF, so the box can be hidden away.  There will be an external hard drive coming, so that as one's inventory builds, one won't run out of space.  They have 30-second previews available for many films, and have release deals equal to Net Flicks for most movie producers.  A lot of their popular videos have the first 30 seconds on your hard drive, so you can buy or rent one and get started at once, while the rest downloads in the background.  The movies are available only on the video screen that the box is connected to, so one would have to walk the box into the bedroom, etc., to watch in a different viewing location -- not as easy as taking a DVD disk into another room.

So, what just happened, as a promotion is that the first two Jason Bourne movies have been made available free, in HD, to their customers, and number three, the Bourne Ultimatum, will be available for purchase in December for about $12.  I watched the first one, The Bourne Identity, and it is pretty good HD, with good Dolby sound.

This outfit is new, apparently has some big money backers, and might just make it.  I tried it out just to see what it was like, even though my wife and I don't watch a ton of movies at home.  Frankly, the technology appealed to me, and now that they are on-board with an HD capability, we may do some business with them.

Stan

[gparris]

Thanks for the review.
Not everyone wants to cough up $400 for a new way of rental, but at least it is another choice for the renter (or buyer) and it seems better than some other similar services.
Question 1:
You mentioned that the sound is "good Dolby", does that mean the blue LED on your Sony 5200ES lights up for DD5.1?
-Then at least, you are getting Dolby Digital like a DVD rental (or basic audio BD or HD DVD).
Question 2:
Can you unhook and rehook the VUDU to another set to play it back in another room?

[Stanley Kritzik]

Thanks for the review.
Not everyone wants to cough up $400 for a new way of rental, but at least it is another choice for the renter (or buyer) and it seems better than some other similar services.
Question 1:
You mentioned that the sound is "good Dolby", does that mean the blue LED on your Sony 5200ES lights up for DD5.1?
-Then at least, you are getting Dolby Digital like a DVD rental (or basic audio BD or HD DVD).
Question 2:
Can you unhook and rehook the VUDU to another set to play it back in another room?

Qood questions.

     1.  Yes, the blue bar on the receiver lights up, so Dolby Digital is coming through and being decoded.

     2.  I don't know about moving.  There's nothing to lead me to believe that I can't.  One caution: my internet connection is through a router, and the technical screen of the VUDU displays the unit's MAC address, the router's address, the gateway, etc.  Whether it will simply update itself with a move, or challenge the move is unknown (by me).  I think that info is stored only because customer units may be called upon to do some device-level sharing, not because the use license is restricted.

In short, I think what's mine is mine, and I can plug it in anywhere.

Stan