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Wal-Mart Gots the Vudu!

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Not sure what to make of Wal-Mart’s acquisition of Vudu.  At first glance, the pairing seems like an odd combination.  Sure Wal-Mart wants in on the streaming business but is it a right fit for both companies or should I kiss my useful Vudu box good bye?

Speaking of Vudu, did you catch my five-part initial review back in 2008?  No?  Here’s the links if you’re interested in Vudu.

VUDU Christmas Special

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The online video service VUDU has drastically lowered the prices of their set top movie player box. Normally, a VUDU box goes for $299, but as a Holiday special, the price is now $99. You have to read the fine print though since you also have to purchase $50 in movie credit to get the $99 deal. But in order to watch movies on the VUDU box, you’d have to buy credit anyways so no biggie.

For some background info, read my previous posts about VUDU.

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Save $100 on Vudu

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Vudu has just reduced the price of its standard set top box by $100, now going for $295.

Recent customers who paid the original $400 Vudu price tag can get $100 worth of movies as compensation. Nice.

If you’re considering getting a Vudu box, check out my review and experiences:

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Review: Vudu Movie Service (Part 5: The Final Installment)

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I purposely waited until Macworld Expo for the final installment of my Vudu movie service review. After rumored and now confirmed movie rentals available in the iTunes Store and on the AppleTV, the online movie landscape has drastically changed. Vudu has a great idea and is fairly easy to set up. It’s a very convenient service but has some bad and ugly points.

Unfortunately for Vudu, the second rendition of the AppleTV attacks Vudu’s weaknesses. I complained that movies on Vudu stay on Vudu. Not so with AppleTV where you can move content to your Mac, your PC, your iPod, or iPhone. AppleTV continues to tap into other content sources like your iTunes, iMovies, and iPhoto and also displays online content from YouTube and Flickr.

A lustery black Vudu box goes for $399 and $999 for the HD focused XL model. The alpine white AppleTV goes for $229 for a 40-GB model and $329 for 160 GB.

Then there are the intangibles benefitting Apple. Like the sprawling iTunes ecosystem where you can find iTunes gift cards just about anywhere. With Vudu, your own credit card transactions are the only way to go. You can’t receive gifted movies or capitalize on discounts with Vudu.

movie-studios
Uploaded with plasq‘s Skitch!

And the relationships. Do you care or know which movies belong to the various movie studios? Me neither. Steve Job understands this and has forged relationships with all the major studios so your favorite movies are available in iTunes and AppleTV. These relationships are also how some DVD discs now include digital versions of the movie for immediate playback.

So while I think Vudu is still a good service, very recent announcements by Apple might lead to the downfall of Vudu.

If you’re not an Apple fan and want to give Vudu a try, check out the 50% off discount offered by Hawaiian Telcom, and you also get the bundled goodies. Or you can buy a VUDU Box direct from Amazon.

Previous Vudu posts:

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Review: Vudu Movie Service (Part 4: the Good, the Bad, the Ugly)

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Continuing my review of the Vudu movie service, let’s look at the good, the bad, and the ugly of Vudu.

The Good

Vudu remote control. The Vudu box’s remote control has got to be one of the simplest and easiest to use of high tech gadgets. Instead of loading up on buttons, tiny LCD displays, and more complications, Vudu went the simplistic route. Like an Apple remote control, the Vudu features a minimal set of buttons in a great form factor. The curvy black remote sits nicely in your hand and the scroll wheel for up and down and left to right movements has got to be a breakthrough. Don’t know why more remotes don’t feature a clickable scroll wheel.


Bundled goodies. Vudu is including a few goodies to entice users. To introduce HD content to users, Vudu is including The Bourne Identity and The Bourne Supremacy in HD (a value of $50), and you can complete the triology by buying The Bourne Supremacy in HD for $25. To kick start your Vudu experience, customers also receive $50 in credit when buying a Vudu box until the end of January 2008.

Cost of rentals and purchases. The price structure of renting and buying movies on Vudu is reasonable. Not necessarily the cheapest prices, but well within reason. Here’s a simple price comparison for my purchase of the movie Superbad.

  • Vudu $19.99
  • DVD from Best Buy $19.99
  • DVD from Amazon.com $16.99
  • Unbox $14.99
  • iTunes Store N/A

You don’t get the extras available on DVDs but don’t have to wait for the disc to arrive in the mail or drive to a store. The Unbox cost is cheap, but unless you have a Tivo, you’ll have to watch the movie on your computer.

HD available. Movies on HD are being introduced to Vudu starting with the Bourne series. But Vudu recently upgraded its hardware lineup to include the Vudu XL that can better handle HD content.

The Bad

Movies available. Okay, not necessarily bad, but available content on Vudu could be better. While the service touts over 5000 videos available, scanning the movie count on my Vudu box usually shows 4700-4800 flicks available. Still decent and recently, Vudu has started to include television shows into its lineup.

No portable content. All movies in Vudu stay with Vudu. Unfortunately, subscribers cannot move Vudu content to other devices such as computers or iPods. You have to watch Vudu videos on the Vudu box.

No other content. Vudu is a one trick pony, only able to show movies from the Vudu service. As of yet, you cannot add your own content to the Vudu box for display. So while you may have movies, videos, pictures, and other content on your computer, you cannot display them on the Vudu box. Kind of a bummer especially when family members want to relive Christmas hijinks.

Constant network activity. My broadband provider, Oceanic Cable Road Runner, hasn’t said anything about my bandwidth usage since my Vudu box went online, but there must be a significant increase. All the lights on my cable modem are more or less solid green all the time, day and night. I don’t know how much data is being transferred but the activity never stops.

The Ugly

Initial cost. The single most ugliest aspect of Vudu is the starting price of $400 for the box. While the mentioned goodies help defray the cost, it’s still steep. Fortunately, I received my test unit completely free for evaluation purposes, but if it weren’t free, I wouldn’t have purchased a Vudu on my own. And the Vudu XL I mentioned previously? That super capacity Vudu box costs $999.

No blue LED? Talking aesthetics, the black Vudu box with blue highlights is visually stunning. But why then ruin the front of the Vudu box with green and orange LED lights? Why not go with matching blue LEDs?

Previous Vudu posts:

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Review: Vudu Movie Service (Part 3: Convenience)

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In Part 1 of my Vudu review, I profiled my movie watching habits and in Part 2, I talked about setting up the Vudu box. For this segment, let’s look at the convenience of Vudu.

Pulp reader susie commented that going to the old fashioned neighborhood Blockbuster was still her MO. In my younger, single days that’d be true. But in my stage of life with young kids, a visit to Blockbuster is just too hard. Getting the kids packed then toting them around the store looking for a movie is not worth the effort. Can you relate, parents?

One more comment about Netflix. While getting DVDs in the mail was easy, I must admit that Netflix came with a certain level of stress. Watching a movie then getting the disc back in the mail quickly so the next movie would come added undue stress. Letting DVDs sit unwatched was also somewhat stressful. Not looking for more stress in my life, letting go of Netflix was cathartic.

So this is where the convenience of Vudu comes in. Buying or renting movies on Vudu is super easy. There’s no driving involved and with a 30-day rental period, the stress of finishing a movie is minimal.

How easy is it to get a movie on Vudu? It’s this easy.


I’m McLovin it! And don’t forget, the movie is downloading off the Net as you’re watching. The quality and speed ain’t too shabby, huh?

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Review: Vudu Movie Service (Part 2)

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Part 1 of my Vudu review focused on the Vudu service and my movie watching habits. Part 2 looks at setting up and getting the Vudu box online.

The Setup
Getting the Vudu box connected was straightforward. Connect the included yellow, red, and white cables, connect the Ethernet cable, screw in the small RF antenna, and plug in the power.

Make the Net Work
Since Vudu relies on the Internet to get its movies, you need a decently fast Internet connection. Vudu has their speed test application to test your connection. My Road Runner connection fluctuated in test results anywhere from 2300 kbps to 4000 kbps for downloads and 750 kbps for uploads, getting a green light for Vudu use.

But here’s the tricky part. My cable modem and home router are no where near my television set. How do I get the Vudu in my living room connected to my cable modem in another room? You gotta go wireless! The Vudu has a wired Ethernet jack and does support Wi-Fi via a wireless adapter according to the Vudu FAQ. The FAQ also has a list of tested routers but does not show my router of choice, Apple’s AirPort Extreme. But I can safely say the Vudu works with the Airport Extreme base station.

And here’s another wrinkle with this wireless setup. The 802.11n AirPort Extreme is just the base station providing wired and wireless connections. How do I connect the Vudu that is rooms away? Fortunately, I also have the “companion” product, Apple’s AirPort Express. While I mainly use this pair for streaming music to my home stereo system via Air Tunes, together both devices allows for a wireless distribution system (WDS). Luckily, I already had a WDS set up so plugging the Vudu box into the AirPort Express is all that was needed to get online.

Initialization
Once connected and powered up, the Vudu box plays an audio and video test to help confirm the setup. Then the Vudu box automatically goes through a four step initialization process:

  1. Pairing the remote with the Vudu box
  2. Viewing a Vudu tutorial
  3. Checking for online software updates
  4. Informing users to leave the Vudu box powered on

The overall initialization process took about 15 minutes as software version 1.1.2 was downloaded and installed.

Once complete, you’ll see the Vudu navigation screen and can start looking for movies.


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Review: Vudu Movie Service (Part 1)

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What do you think of when you hear about voodoo and movies?

How about Major League’s Pedro Cerrano making offerings to Jobu to banish fear out of his bats? How about a scare tactic used against Nick Nolte and Jacqueline Bisset in The Deep? Or how about a convoluted plot of revenge in the Blue Bayou between Denise Richards, Neve Campbell, and Matt Dillon in Wild Things?

Did you ever imagine this?


Vudu.com is a new on-line movie service letting customers rent or buy movies using their sleek Vudu box. Vudu joins Tivo, AppleTV, Netflix, and Joost (to some extent) in the watch-at-home movie market.

Thanks to a grassroots viral marketing campaign by a dedicated employee, I managed to get a Vudu box to witness Vudu’s movie magic. Let’s take a look.

Me and Movies
Me and movies? I’ve been to two movies in about two years – Star Wars III and X-Men: The Last Stand where everyone dies. That’s it. So, I’m no critic, and my only recent exposure to films has been watching trailers.

There are other sources for movies you say? How about a Tivo partnered with Amazon Unbox? Sorry, for some reason, I never cared for Tivo’s monthly subscription fees. How about an AppleTV along with the iTunes Store? I’m still an old school holdout without a HDTV unlike these guys. Until my current set breaks, I’m sticking with it, and that’s why no AppleTV since it only supports newer television sets with HDMI or component video. I’m looking for the composite yellow or S-video port. Netflix is good, and I used to be a subscriber. Again those monthly fees started buggin’ me especially when I watched very few discs in a month. I don’t got the time to keep watching flicks or have the effort to burn copies of the discs. So there went Netflix. Joost? Well, it’s neat and looks good on my big screen Mac, but content is lacking. Watching a channel only of Transformers cartoons is fun for only so long.

My movie profile summarized – I don’t like monthly subscription fees (sorry Tivo and Netflix). I need to support my retro, analog television set (sorry AppleTV), and I want some decent selection of content (sorry Joost and iTunes Store).

Welcome to Vudu
The Vudu service is at the sweet spot of fitting my needs. Users buy or rent movies without any monthly fees. The cost of movies is reasonable ranging from $3 to rent up to $20 to own ($24 for HD movies). And content selection is good with nearly 5000 movies and now television shows.

Here are a few obligatory unboxing shots.

The Vudu packaging (the box is heavy!)

Took a page out of Apple’s playbook with the cardboard covering with a special message.

All the accessories you need.

The Vudu box.

The included instructions are minimalist and are kinda funny when it says stuff like this targeted for Everyone.

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