Suggestions from new users!

[NA9D]

Re: Suggestions from new users!

WOW! What a great post! This is great. I just saw this now. I think you did a fantastic job covering all the bases here. Let me address these one by one...

1) Rentals, rentals, rentals. The VUDU video library is good, but ideally everything should be available for rental.

Completely agree! It's got to be the number 1 feature request. It is being worked on.

2) Television shows. No need to say much here. With a complete library of television shows, VUDU could really destroy cable.

I don't know any specifics, but AFAIK, this is something Vudu wants to provide.

3) HD content. Period. If the VUDU can build a big library of high-definition content, it could end the HD-DVD vs BluRay battle in a jiffy.

Coming and ASAP. The big issues are with you guessed it - the studios. I know Vudu wants to provide this as quickly as possible.

4) Restart function. The VUDU needs a menu option to restart the box.

I'd agree. But there's rarely a need to restart the box. It is quite stable. And pulling the power cord will not at all hurt it. The box is built very well and robust.

5) A 1080p mode that's not 1080p/24.

Since my TV is only 1080i maximum, I can't really comment. I am sure though that if the Vudu hardware is capable of supporting other 1080p modes that it will do so in time.

6) Captioning. I'm surprised this doesn't exist already. From what I've read on the forums, VUDU would have to make a separate stream of the film that includes captions.

This is probably feature request number 2 or number 3. I know it's something Vudu wants to do but the technical hurdles with a video stream are very different from that with a DVD. On a DVD, the captioning is in a completely different track and file for all captioning not just CC. I found this out the hard way as I was watching a movie on my Roku HD-1000 that I'd ripped that had captions in it. It's got to be possible as iTunes is now supporting it in their downloads which use H.264 like the Vudu...

7) Product roadmap or upcoming features. I'm not looking for the company's 12 month strategy, but I am interested in what's coming in the next 1-2 releases.

I've been fortunate to be working with this box since late February as one of the first 25 or so testers. Not even those of us in this group know the full plan. I can tell you though that this thing will get "gooder and gooder!"

8) Demo content. Include an SD and HD demo reel.

Agreed. It's been requested.

OK VUDU community, what are your suggestions? What do you think of my suggestions?

Outstanding! Keep posting!

[mbustin]

Re: Suggestions from new users!

I've been fortunate to be working with this box since late February as one of the first 25 or so testers. Not even those of us in this group know the full plan. I can tell you though that this thing will get "gooder and gooder!"

It would still be nice to get a general idea from Vudu on their future plans and priorities ...

[NA9D]

Re: Suggestions from new users!

It would still be nice to get a general idea from Vudu on their future plans and priorities ...

Well, compiling some public info here:

- HD is a plan
- TCP/IP control of the box is a plan
- External storage is a plan

But beyond that, I would agree that it would be nice to give users a better idea of what is coming up. Seriously, anything I would state beyond this would be speculation.

Perhaps Gil or someone else can chime in here...

[timchen]

Re: Suggestions from new users!

This is probably feature request number 2 or number 3. I know it's something Vudu wants to do but the technical hurdles with a video stream are very different from that with a DVD. On a DVD, the captioning is in a completely different track and file for all captioning not just CC. I found this out the hard way as I was watching a movie on my Roku HD-1000 that I'd ripped that had captions in it. It's got to be possible as iTunes is now supporting it in their downloads which use H.264 like the Vudu...

CC is a lot easier than subtitle on DVD. For CC you just send them out along VBI data to video encoder and TV will display them (if CC turn on). Subtitle you have to print them pixel by pixel... I wonder if you have used that layer of display for drawing menu...

To embed CC or subtitle into bit stream, there are registered and unregistered user data fields in SEI payload. Most encoder should have that feature which allows you to put in user data. Same for retrieving them at decoder.

[RonV]

Re: Suggestions from new users!

Yes but you forgot one thing. Who is providing the CC data? It would be up to the studio to deliver the CC data file and also the orignal source with the triggers.

[timchen]

Re: Suggestions from new users!

Yes but you forgot one thing. Who is providing the CC data? It would be up to the studio to deliver the CC data file and also the orignal source with the triggers.

I don't believe that's a problem.
Almost every DVD movie I rent has closed caption or subtitle or both. Aren't they come from studio?

[NA9D]

Re: Suggestions from new users!

I don't believe that's a problem.
Almost every DVD movie I rent has closed caption or subtitle or both. Aren't they come from studio?

Yes, it is. Because if the source material obtained from the studio does not have that it's not possible to provide the CC data. You act like Vudu should just be able to do everything. Why do you care anyhow? You said they would not sell 100 boxes the first month.

Vudu does not rip DVDs and then encode them. I don't know how they get the source material, but AFAIK, it may or may not have the necessary info with it. It's not as easy as you allege. We had this same topic come up a month or so ago with someone. If you are interested, I'd suggest searching for that thread...

[timchen]

Re: Suggestions from new users!

From negotiate with studio to purchase/produce your own CC, something can be done and someone did it already.
Hey, I guess that's your problem.

[NA9D]

Re: Suggestions from new users!

From negotiate with studio to purchase/produce your own CC, something can be done and someone did it already.
Hey, I guess that's your problem.

timchen,

Why must you just sit there and throw stones the whole time at everything Vudu does and second guess everything? The fact is that Vudu knows this is something important. Of course, they want to do it. The fact that it didn't make it into rev 1.0 of the software means nothing about if the feature will be available in the future. Of course it can be done, but Vudu felt it more important to make sure they had deals with studios to provide plenty of content; they felt it important to make sure users had instant access to movies with good picture quality and an easy to use interface. There's a TON more features they want to add in the future and I would hazard to guess that this is one of them. It's better for Vudu to have what they have now with the product released in time for Christmas than to not have one or more of these important features yet have captioning. Only so much can be done in rev 1.0 of a product. Mac System 6 was not anything like OS X Leopard and Windows 95 is not what Vista is. So just because a product doesn't have a feature or capability when first released does not mean it won't have it later on.

But what do you care. Vudu is going to go out of business and won't even sell 100 boxes the first month according to you...

[RonV]

Re: Suggestions from new users!

Volker has just confirmed that its up to the studios to provide the subtitles and that closed captioning is not avaiable on HDMI. His is the link to the post:

http://forum.vudu.com/showpost.php?p=11293&postcount=16

[mag12203]

Re: Suggestions from new users!

Whats the diff b/w cc and subtitles any how?

[NA9D]

Re: Suggestions from new users!

Whats the diff b/w cc and subtitles any how?

I believe CC text is generated by the viewing device (ie: the TV - the CC signal is sent by whatever is sending the content and the TV decodes it). Sub-titles are sent by the device providing the video content...

[RonV]

Re: Suggestions from new users!

Closed Captioning is a function of the TV set. The signal is embeded in the frame sync data and the TV does the decoding. There are 4 channels and usually only 1 or 2 channels contain data out of the 4.

Subtitles are an additional stream that was founded by the DVD working group. They are put into the stream by the decoding technology. The are hosted on the DVD as subpictures/bitmaps with clear backgrounds. Its my understanding that there is support in the current DVD standard for 32 differnet subpictures / subtitles in the VOB file that contains them.

[timchen]

Re: Suggestions from new users!

Why suddenly I was throwing stone at Vudu?
Let's check what I did in this thread. Which part is stone throwing?

Post #15: I pointed out there are other people also providing VOD service. I also said closed caption is desired.
Post #19: explain there are two way to show captions, closed caption and DVD subtitle. And I explained how they work.
Post #21: I said it shouldn't be difficult to do it since almost every DVD has at least one of them.
Post #23: (for getting CC source) negotiate with studio, produce your own... it's up to Vudu to make it happens.

I mean Vudu is both the content and player vendor in this business model. It's really up to Vudu to support it ... or not.

Yes you can say HDMI does not support CC; yet don't forget other players with HDMI output just use subtitle to display cations.
Yes in your deal with studios didn't include CC source; yet studios have them, it's there with for ask.

I see so many excuses about why you didn't do it, I understand them. It would be nice if we also see statement like:
" Well, we don't have it right now since it's our REV 1 player. We will need to go back to negotiate with studios to get subtitle source. Once we embed them into bit stream, we can display it as CC when TV is selected output and we will have to print subtitle as HDMI is selected"

Yes I said earlier if Vudu keep a high price for box ($399) and only provide limited title for rent, Vudu may not sell over 100 boxes in the first month.
Yet Vudu lower price with a $100 coupon offer after two weeks, and throw in another $50 later, now there is no way to be sure I was right or wrong.

Please don't take so personally. That was my way to say Vudu needs to lower box price, provide a lot more titles. Otherwise Vudu may go out of business in several years.

timchen,

Why must you just sit there and throw stones the whole time at everything Vudu does and second guess everything? The fact is that Vudu knows this is something important. Of course, they want to do it. The fact that it didn't make it into rev 1.0 of the software means nothing about if the feature will be available in the future. Of course it can be done, but Vudu felt it more important to make sure they had deals with studios to provide plenty of content; they felt it important to make sure users had instant access to movies with good picture quality and an easy to use interface. There's a TON more features they want to add in the future and I would hazard to guess that this is one of them. It's better for Vudu to have what they have now with the product released in time for Christmas than to not have one or more of these important features yet have captioning. Only so much can be done in rev 1.0 of a product. Mac System 6 was not anything like OS X Leopard and Windows 95 is not what Vista is. So just because a product doesn't have a feature or capability when first released does not mean it won't have it later on.

But what do you care. Vudu is going to go out of business and won't even sell 100 boxes the first month according to you...

[redwein]

Re: Suggestions from new users!

I still see subtitles and CC as one of those things that a small number of people find very important but most people never use. I have a lot of friends who watch TV, movies, etc. Not one of them ever uses them (unless it is a foreign film). Don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying they shouldn't do it. I'm just saying that delaying it makes sense if they can do other things that appeal to a larger percentage of their target market.