Upgrade from HDX to UHD

[AnemicOak]

Re: Upgrade from HDX to UHD

I'm curious if this will work with bluray itunes codes or just from the itunes store.

Does iTunes differentiate? Redeemed movies show as a purchase in your account history.

[jeremymc7]

Re: Upgrade from HDX to UHD

I swear Apple upgraded SD to HD files a long time ago but I'm not sure, especially since I (currently) use Vudu exclusively.

[Cranston37]

Re: Upgrade from HDX to UHD

I swear Apple upgraded SD to HD files a long time ago but I'm not sure, especially since I (currently) use Vudu exclusively.

I think it might have been a free upgrade from 720p to 1080p when the Apple TV got upgraded

[jeremymc7]

Re: Upgrade from HDX to UHD

I think it might have been a free upgrade from 720p to 1080p when the Apple TV got upgraded

That's a great deal for those Apple owners. Upgraded to 1080p and soon to 4k all for FREE.

I always wanted the best picture and sound, which meant Vudu. Apple was always behind the leader. Soon, very soon though Apple will be in a similar level to Vudu.

[ValZho]

Re: Upgrade from HDX to UHD

All this comparison to physical media really needs to stop. With physical media you have so many other costs to consider -- producing the actual physical media (discs, cases, covers, inserts), all the time, research, and energy in estimating correct production runs (how many discs do you make?), delivery costs both in direct-to-consumer and retail, if there's a problem with the discs (rare, I'm sure) then you have recovery/replacement costs, warehousing costs for the physical media that you produce, reprinting if you underestimated demand, and on and on not to mention all the manpower needed to manage all that inventory (estimate demand, store, stock, ship, etc). The costs for delivering digitally are surely minuscule compared to the costs of delivering physical media; the studios themselves aren't even responsible for digital delivery either (that would be Vudu, iTunes, Amazon, etc. that are providing the network infrastructure). The other studio benefit to going digital would be that it eliminates cannibalization of profits from used-disc sales -- if you buy something on disc, then you can sell that disc, and it can be resold again and again blocking the studio from any potential profit each time. With digital, that just can't happen.

There are a ton of upsides for studios in digital deliver. While there are a lot of upsides for consumers as well (mostly convenience) there are several downsides to consumers that really need to be addressed:

• You must maintain an account in whichever digital service you are wanting to use, e.g., Vudu (i.e., no anonymous watching of media)
• You must have internet capable of streaming the movie every time you watch anything
• You are at the mercy of the service to maintain their systems, maintain quality of service, keep your particular movies available for streaming, remain online, not go out of business, etc.
• The hardware you use to watch your movies absolutely could become unusable. Compare this to, say, buying a DVD and a DVD player ... if you maintain it, your DVD player will never just stop being able to play your DVDs. On the other hand, a streaming service may eventually become unusable on your current computer. In other words, given enough time, you almost certainly will have to upgrade your hardware just to continue watching your currently purchased media.
• There is absolutely no way to offset the cost of purchasing movies by selling the ones you don't want anymore. Likewise, there is no way to purchase used media at a reduced price. In other words, to go digital you will likely spend more money more often.

Digital has some unique implementation/delivery differences over physical media that (should) have HUGE implications:

• Not only is knowing whether someone actually owns a movie is no longer extremely difficult to do, it's built into the system.
• Delivering any content in the entire catalog to any consumer used to be costly (time and money), but now it's trivial.

However, studios (or maybe Vudu) keep wanting to treat digital the same as physical media: buy a "digital copy" for the same amount of money (even though it costs them less), take on all the additional risks (and some rewards) of letting someone else maintain and store the copy in good faith that both they and you will maintain access to that copy, and force you to repurchase the exact same media if it is made available in a different format.

That last part is particularly salient. With physical media, it makes sense to have to repurchase. If I own a cassette tape, and then buy a CD player, a new physical thing has to be physically produced (and all the associated costs) for me to be able to listen to that same media on a new device. The same is absolutely not true for digital. Vudu doesn't charge me $20 to be able to play on a Roku, and then another $20 to be able to play on an Xbox, and then another $20 to be able to play on a laptop, and so on. For them, it doesn't matter... no matter what, it's a digital stream going out to a device. What's the difference between a HDX and UHD stream? Essentially, the amount of data going out. I can see the justification for charging a little bit more for UHD vs HDX because higher resolution = larger storage and stream requirements, but a complete repurchase?

Studios/Vudu should be incentivizing customers to choose digital (which saves them production and distribution costs and eliminates used sales) by offering a clear upgrade path. A consumer that knows that there is a clear upgrade path to their purchases is probably much more likely to purchase and is probably much more likely to upgrade (rather than repurchase). Heck, I thought that's what HDX was at first... it's HD, but if you pay the extra for "X" then you will always have access to the highest res version of the movie down the road. I was sadly mistaken, but this is an option that should seriously be considered. If you could pay $30 for the UHD version or $40 for the... we'll call it... "Forever HD" version (you will always be able to access the highest res version available), which would you pick? I would pick the FHD one every time. Would I spend $30 to buy the same movie I paid $30 to buy on UHD, which I paid $20 to buy on HD? Nope. Would I spend $30 to get the UHD version of a movie I already paid $25 for for the HD blu-ray... nope. Would I spend $5-10 to upgrade that same movie (and most other movies in my library) to UHD... you bet.

The bottom line is that keeping the whole "repurchase" mindset I don't think is so much about greed as it is momentum (keep doing what you've always done) and a fundamental misunderstanding of the differences between the new media (digital) and old (physical) and customers' mindsets. If they really understood those then greed would dictate that they offer upgrade pricing.

...ok that was long and rambling. Hopefully something I wrote made sense to someone!

[tomandshell]

Re: Upgrade from HDX to UHD

That's a great deal for those Apple owners. Upgraded to 1080p and soon to 4k all for FREE.

I always wanted the best picture and sound, which meant Vudu. Apple was always behind the leader. Soon, very soon though Apple will be in a similar level to Vudu.

When Apple is providing a free upgrade to 4K for available titles you already own in HD, yet Vudu is asking me to pay another $24.99, I wouldn?t say that they are at a similar level. It’s no contest.

My Vudu activity has stopped until I see them match the new industry standard of free upgrades established by Apple.

[jeremymc7]

Re: Upgrade from HDX to UHD

When Apple is providing a free upgrade to 4K for available titles you already own in HD, yet Vudu is asking me to pay another $24.99, I wouldn?t say that they are at a similar level. It?s no contest.

My Vudu activity has stopped until I see them match the new industry standard of free upgrades established by Apple.

As mentioned previously in one form or another:

I?m far more concerned about UV going under then I used to. At the moment I?ve decided to sit on the fence and see what shakes out in the next so many months. I?ve also started redeeming the iTunes copies of movies that I stopped (double) redeeming years ago when I felt much more comfortable with UV and all the choices for UV providers which have mostly dried up. Also I?ve bought the latest AppleTV which I haven?t bothered with for years. With AppleTV offering Vudu and iTunes and especially with all the increasing instability of Roku it seems like a good choice. Until the shakeout I?ll have a ready to go backup wh never I want. Sure there are titles I have on Vudu that I don?t have on iTunes but I also have (older) titles on iTunes that aren?t on Vudu or are only available in better then SD on iTunes.

[aaronwt]

Re: Upgrade from HDX to UHD

That's a great deal for those Apple owners. Upgraded to 1080p and soon to 4k all for FREE.

I always wanted the best picture and sound, which meant Vudu. Apple was always behind the leader. Soon, very soon though Apple will be in a similar level to Vudu.

The best picture and sound? No offense to Vudu, since I've been using them for almost ten years now. But streaming is not the best picture and sound. You get that from disc.

[jeremymc7]

Re: Upgrade from HDX to UHD

The best picture and sound? No offense to Vudu, since I've been using them for almost ten years now. But streaming is not the best picture and sound. You get that from disc.

best picture and sound*

* not including physical media, of digital streaming services.

[djh101]

Re: Upgrade from HDX to UHD

The other studio benefit to going digital would be that it eliminates cannibalization of profits from used-disc sales -- if you buy something on disc, then you can sell that disc, and it can be resold again and again blocking the studio from any potential profit each time.

This is why I never understood why digital movies tend to cost more than Bluray movies. Most of my Vudu collection came from UV codes for this reason; a lot of older movies cost between $4 and $10, with a UV code, while the same movie can be anywhere from $10 to $20 on Vudu.

The bottom line is that keeping the whole "repurchase" mindset I don't think is so much about greed as it is momentum (keep doing what you've always done) and a fundamental misunderstanding of the differences between the new media (digital) and old (physical) and customers' mindsets. If they really understood those then greed would dictate that they offer upgrade pricing.

You'd think that giant corporations would understand basic economics--the marginal value of a movie that I already own but in lower resolution is going to be much less than for a movie that I don't own at all. As such, the optimal price for upgrading a movie is not going to be the same as it is for purchasing the movie new.