VUDU on Yahoo

[redwein]

Re: VUDU on Yahoo

But I won't buy 7 of these and scatter them around my house, that is a waste of money even if I were exceedlingly wealthy..lol

I would argue that one doesn't know what they would do with their money if they were exceedingly wealthy until they actually become so. Even so, people with exactly the same financial situation prioritize their spending differently from one another.

It does not do the job of a combination of products available to me as a consumer....IE HD DVD, a surround sound player and a movie in a plastic box.

I think this is a matter of time.

BTW 5 VUDU boxes?...I hope they don't come out with Parent-child technology for add-on's in the house....or some folks will get nice Christmas presents from you..;-)

I thought the same thing initially. You can look at some of my first posts on this forum. As it turns out, I don't want to ever buy movies anymore. I only want to rent them. I would rather that all movies be rentable and the viewing window changed to 48 hours than any of the other suggested features. From that perspective, having the parent-child thing would be ok but wouldn't change anything for me. Sharing content throughout the house is only beneficial if you own the content, it takes time to download, or you can get cheaper secondary boxes. Since I don't want to own any movies, they download instantly, and I already spent the money, it wouldn't affect me.

[metallus2000]

Re: VUDU on Yahoo

Supply vs demand? Price vs technology? geeks vs common man?

Boy are we getting philosopical or what? What used to be called smoke and mirrors...;-) The main questions 3 or 4 of us want answered are not being answered....and we are the ones who want it to be good.

It does the job it intends to do, which is probably the best argument. It will serve me up to 5k movies at my whim. But I won't buy 7 of these and scatter them around my house, that is a waste of money even if I were exceedlingly wealthy..lol

It does not do the job of a combination of products available to me as a consumer....IE HD DVD, a surround sound player and a movie in a plastic box.

It will be the start of a new concept in watching movies and will be known as breaking open the field, the Holy Grail of movie boxes...with a blemish or two....

BTW 5 VUDU boxes?...I hope they don't come out with Parent-child technology for add-on's in the house....or some folks will get nice Christmas presents from you..;-)

[redwein]

Re: VUDU on Yahoo

Not bad, actually. I'm sure I am not representative of the average consumer for stuff like this. I sometimes question whether or not it's an obsession. The big thing I want is to never have to deal with physical media again. I explore every promising avenue to reduce my need to buy, rent and handle physical disks. So far, this looks like the best alternative. At least I hope that's how it plays out.

[mbustin]

Re: VUDU on Yahoo

Terrastations, 5 vudu boxes, 3 HD TiVo Series 3 boxes ... you're my gadget hero ... life must be good ...

[redwein]

Re: VUDU on Yahoo

When DVDs first came out, they did not have 5,000 titles available. If you only wanted to watch what they had, you could have completely done away with VHS. Taht wasn't the case. I just retired my last working VHS player this week. It took some time for DVDs to surpass VHS in their ubiquity. It certainly took more than a few weeks.

The point was that people who bought DVD players when they fist came out, paid a lot more than people who buy them today. Also, they had to continue to use their old VHS for their existing collections and when they wanted to rent or buy anything that wasn't available on DVD, which was almost everything. That sounds exactly like what is happening here, though having 5,000 titles available is way ahead of what you could get in the first 3 weeks of the first DVD player being availalble.

You are faulting them for not having every movie you want to see in the first several weeks of their product availability. By your standards, CDs and DVDs should have failed as well and we all know how that went. If they had the same numbers as DVDs initially had and had every single new release available as soon as it came out, it might have satisfied you but others wouldn't have liked that as much. My wife tends to buy tons of DVDs to add to our collection. They are probalby 10% new titles and the rest are older titles that she happens upon by browsing. She has already drastically cut her DVD purchases because of Vudu, which cuts my work of having to rip them onto my TeraStations. This is exactly what I wanted to accomplsih. This is useful to us now and we only see it as getting better. Eventually, I envision never dealing with physical media again. The key word is eventually.

[bqmeister]

Re: VUDU on Yahoo

Many folks who buy Bluray players retire DVD players. I retired (actually moved my dvd player to another room) when I got my hd-dvd player.

I honestly don't know what purpose a DVD player should serve, other than to play movies you already own, after getting a dedicated movie download box.

So yeah, you still need a way to play movies you already own. But after getting a vudu and still needing to go to blockbuster to rent transformers?

Crazy.

[Petercarbo]

Re: VUDU on Yahoo

1. No one likes the $400.00 price (even with the secret $100.00 discount code) By the way hope you didn't get yours at 400?..;-)
...

So what is the code or where can I get it?

[redwein]

Re: VUDU on Yahoo

The issues involved in making a universal remote are trivial compared to what Vudu needs to do. Vudu has to deal with network issues, studio issues, technical issues regarding their protocol. The universal remote has to map buttons to signals.

It is very likely that Vudu will be able to replace your DVD player someday, just not right now. The points that were being made about Vudu's price seemed to say that it would be too high even when it reached perfection. That's why the comparison to the price of unversal remotes and other products was made.

CD players didn't instantly replace tape decks. Heck, I think they still come in some cars. DVDs didn't instantly replace VHS. Faulting Vudu for not instantly replacing DVDs at this stage of its life is a little difficult for me to understand.

[bqmeister]

Re: VUDU on Yahoo

Why do you think that a remote control with no hard drive, no ethernet port and a small processor is correctly priced at $399 but the Vudu is not? Please expound on that?

Well, truth be told, I don't have a $399 remote. I've opted for the lesser $130 harmony. I like the concept of the higher end remotes, but don't like the button feel or layout as much as the model I have (with the removable face-plates).

I have owned more expensive remotes. I think my most expensive, including the RF add-on, was $280. Factor in the x10 ir to rf receiver I have, and it's easily over $300 on remotes.

I also looked at the pronto's in the past, but I really like hard buttons, so the pronto's weren't for me. Although they are great products.

Because - they do their job well. They effectively replace all other remotes and make confusing home theater setups easy to operate. My wife can push one button and immediately be watching TV. That is a very successful product. Setup is a breeze. These expensive remotes make intimidating setups much less intimidating for visitors to my theater.

So why is it better than vudu?

It does it's primary job well.

Universal remote job functions - replace existing remotes, simplify control of devices, make things work together easily and do it well. Check, check, check, check.

Vudu's job functions - replace DVD player, change the way movies are delivered, deliver content in High Definition, and make the movie watching experience as good as or better than it is today.

Well, no, no, no, no. I still need my DVD player (or HD DVD player). Same Day DVD releases are not available on vudu. Content is not in HD. Movie watching experience is actually worse due to lack of dolby digital or dts audio.

AND to top it all off, vudu won't even work with my fancy schmancy universal remote!!!!

[cmunguia]

Re: VUDU on Yahoo

come on now, anyone who thinks that $399 is to much, then please wait until the Vudu is within your budget.

If I earn $1 million a year then $399 is no big deal.

If I earn $30 thousand a year then I would wait until the unit is $99

[redwein]

Re: VUDU on Yahoo

When will HD be here? If it's here in 3 years, it's too late. If it's not available by Christmas (actually by Christmas shopping season, or Thanksgiving, it's too late).

And exactly how much experience do you have launching a new technology and product to make such a proclamation? Are you honestly telling me that if the company manages to stay afloat and does what you are asking by next Christmas, everyone would magically say "I gave you a chance, Vudu, and I refuse to buy it now."? That seems a little ridiculous. I could only see that if some other product came out that was better.

On a note about price. I paid $900 for my first Tivo Series 3 and I just paid $600 for my 3rd one. I am not price sensitive and would have paid significantly more for the current product. I'm sure it comes as no shock to them that people want the price to be lower and that it will need to come down to succeed in the mass market. That has been heard. None of that feedback really matters at the moment though if they are selling as many boxes as they want. That will come into play later on.

[NA9D]

Re: VUDU on Yahoo

My only comment to this is that if you don't own the Vudu now, you have no idea, absolutely none about what it can do. If you don't want to pay $400 for it then fine. No skin off my neck. That is your choice and I agree it's a lot of money. If the value proposition is not there for you I understand. It's no a box for everyone.

But please don't come in here and try to impugn those of us who feel that price is not the sole factor here. And we are willing to wait for an improvement in the content and the quality.

HD is coming a lot sooner than you think. It certainly won't be 3 years and I am guessing it won't even be 3 months.

If you think the arrangements with the studios are crappy, then I encourage you to attempt to start your own company doing the same or similar thing and then I am sure you can get better arrangements and licensing deals.

I'm the number one cheerleader because I believe in the product and over the last 10 months, I've put a lot of sweat equity into finding the issues and bugs in the dang thing so all of you guys can have an excellent and enjoyable movie experience!

At the same time, it's not a box for everyone. If you don't want to pay $400 then fine. Don't complain. Just don't purchase it. The real problem is that you want the box badly but you just don't want to pay the money for it. Again - fine. Give it 6 to 9 months and the price will likely be a lot better, the content will be better, etc. Just don't insult those who have been the early adopters and made the investment to get the company off on the right foot so that later on you and everyone else can enjoy the product at a cheaper price.

I'm not buying a $400 device that won't give me same day releases and new releases that lack 5.1.

HD is coming. Ok. WHEN.

When will HD be here? If it's here in 3 years, it's too late. If it's not available by Christmas (actually by Christmas shopping season, or Thanksgiving, it's too late).

When we vudu have HD?

And I almost have to say it's not the studio's fault, but rather Vudu's fault. Vudu is making crappy agreements with the studios. Their (vudu's) folks need to make better agreements to get better movies, sooner, with better audio and better video quality if they are to succeed. Vudu needs to push better for agreements more favorable to vudu.

[redwein]

Re: VUDU on Yahoo

Ok....

I made my points earlier...I won't keep harping on them...

It is interesting on the fierce loyalty this box generates...;-)

Now let's all play nice in the sandbox....mine is coming for Christmas...

I think the whole thing is pretty easy to explain. Most of the people who would buy at this stage are early adopters. They understand the state of the technology and the initial pricing and would typically not be bothered by either. That group of people is much smaller than the market that Vudu is ultimately going after. Those that don't fit the early adopter profile would probably be bothered by both and should wait.

Now what should Vudu do under these circumstances? They probably would not be able to manage selling a million of these boxes in their first quarter and probably have a business plan that doesn't assume or require it. It is quite possible they have all the business they can handle at the moment and that would mean that the price is right where it should be at this point in the cycle (only weeks into selling them).

Note that early adopters being happy with the initial offering while openly saying that they expect the product to improve and come down in price is really not an indication of "fierce loyalty". It is an understanding of reality in a process that they have seen happen many times before (e.g. CDs, DVDs, cell phones, flat panel TVs, etc.) To those of us who see it that way, this is just another cool product that seems to satisfy a need that was previously unsatisfied. The part about satisfying the masses is something that will definitely have to come for this to ultimately succeed, but it certainly does not have to at the moment.

[NA9D]

Re: VUDU on Yahoo

gonna have to go with Vudu.

Why do you think that a remote control with no hard drive, no ethernet port and a small processor is correctly priced at $399 but the Vudu is not? Please expound on that?

[bqmeister]

Re: VUDU on Yahoo

Also, do you have a Vudu or are you basing the crappy audio comment on the review? The audio is not at all crappy, IMHO. Yes, not all of it is in DD5.1 and that's an annoyance, but I've never noticed crappy audio. The studios are the ones at fault for the lack of DD5.1.

And HD is coming. Relax on this would you guys? It's all about getting the studios to agree to license the stuff...

I'm not buying a $400 device that won't give me same day releases and new releases that lack 5.1.

HD is coming. Ok. WHEN.

When will HD be here? If it's here in 3 years, it's too late. If it's not available by Christmas (actually by Christmas shopping season, or Thanksgiving, it's too late).

When we vudu have HD?

And I almost have to say it's not the studio's fault, but rather Vudu's fault. Vudu is making crappy agreements with the studios. Their (vudu's) folks need to make better agreements to get better movies, sooner, with better audio and better video quality if they are to succeed. Vudu needs to push better for agreements more favorable to vudu.