I have a love/hate relationship with Vudu. There are many things that I love about the platform, but it seems that for every one thing that I love, there are two things that annoy me. I know for a fact that I'm not the first to bring up most of these points, but I hope that this may help - even in a small way - regardless. So, let's start with the smallest issues (in my opinion), and work our way up:
Number 7 - The Resolution of the Cover Art: I own a 4K TV, and I have to say, while this is a relatively small thing, it can be noticeable and irksome at times. The resolution of the cover arts (or posters, or whatever you would like to call them) for the movies is very low. Like... 2005-flip-phone-camera low. It'd be nice to have HD tiles, or at least more than 200 pixels in height. Also, and this may be asking too much, but I think it'd be pretty cool if we were able to upload our own cover art for the movies, like with the gaming platform, Steam. There are some movies that have cover art that should be changed (like Zathura), and giving us the option to do so ourselves would be pretty neat.
Number 6 - The UI: I don't have much to say about the UI, but it's definitely a bit outdated and could use a refresh. It's a bit of a double-edged sword to be asking for something like this, because, as the old saying goes, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it". But if there were a way to update the UI without fundamentally changing the main controls and such, that would be ideal.
Number 5 - User Profiles: It'd be nice to have user profiles like Amazon and Movies Anywhere have. It's not a huge deal, but it'd be a nice QoL feature.
Number 4 - Missing Episodes and TV Bundles: So, during a recent sale of Nickelodeon TV shows, I noticed something peculiar. There were entire seasons of specific shows that had multiple missing episodes. It actually stopped me from buying Drake & Josh and iCarly. Weirdly enough, it seemed like it occurred in a pattern at times (every other episode in Drake & Josh?). On the topic of TV bundles, some TV series don't even have the "Bundle & Save" options. Two examples spring to mind. The first being Ash vs Evil Dead, which has a Season 1&2 Bundle, and the 1-3 Bundle is available via D2D, but it's not available to buy otherwise. The other is Psych. They have all of the seasons, the musical special, and the movie, but they don't have a bundle for all of those (or even just all of the seasons). This is my favorite TV show, so I'm biased, but I'd love to own this digitally.
Number 3 - Movie Bundles Appearing Separate: This a common gripe with Vudu. If you aren't aware, in your library, you can purchase a movie bundle (for example, the Saw 7-film Collection in HD), and if you make an additional purchase of a movie within that bundle (like Saw in 4K), it will appear as a separate movie from the bundle, despite being a movie included in the bundle. Additionally, if you buy a collection such as John Wick 1-3, and they release John Wick 4, it will not update the bundle as John Wick 1-4, but you will have the 1-3 bundle, and then the fourth movie (this also happens with TV shows). On top of that, there are no discounts provided if you already own a movie within a bundle, and you can buy bundles of movies that you already own individually!! The simple solution to this? Keep the bundles in the store so the discounts are still there, and then, when purchased, make it add the individual movies to your library, instead of the bundle.
Number 2 - Inconsistent Quality with Streams: This one is particularly annoying to come across. Occasionally (not very often), you will find a movie that may be labeled as HD, but the stream that Vudu has for it is definitely not HD. Thankfully, I haven't come across this in a non-MA movie, meaning I was able to just switch to a different platform and continue watching, but this is pretty unacceptable. The two movies I've noticed doing this are Paul (2011) and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. It was never my Internet being weird, as the second I switched to a different platform, the quality was fine.
Number 1 - Two-Factor Authentication: Easily the most important feature on this list. Two-factor authentication is just a must on the Internet today, and it's a damn shame that Vudu doesn't have it. I love that they let you see active devices and allow you to choose to deactivate specific ones (MA weirdly doesn't have this), but two-factor authentication takes priority over this.
That's my list. If anyone thinks I missed anything, or they would like to add additional missing TV episodes, missing series bundles, or bad HD streams, please do!
Number 7 - The Resolution of the Cover Art: I own a 4K TV, and I have to say, while this is a relatively small thing, it can be noticeable and irksome at times. The resolution of the cover arts (or posters, or whatever you would like to call them) for the movies is very low. Like... 2005-flip-phone-camera low. It'd be nice to have HD tiles, or at least more than 200 pixels in height. Also, and this may be asking too much, but I think it'd be pretty cool if we were able to upload our own cover art for the movies, like with the gaming platform, Steam. There are some movies that have cover art that should be changed (like Zathura), and giving us the option to do so ourselves would be pretty neat.
Number 6 - The UI: I don't have much to say about the UI, but it's definitely a bit outdated and could use a refresh. It's a bit of a double-edged sword to be asking for something like this, because, as the old saying goes, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it". But if there were a way to update the UI without fundamentally changing the main controls and such, that would be ideal.
Number 5 - User Profiles: It'd be nice to have user profiles like Amazon and Movies Anywhere have. It's not a huge deal, but it'd be a nice QoL feature.
Number 4 - Missing Episodes and TV Bundles: So, during a recent sale of Nickelodeon TV shows, I noticed something peculiar. There were entire seasons of specific shows that had multiple missing episodes. It actually stopped me from buying Drake & Josh and iCarly. Weirdly enough, it seemed like it occurred in a pattern at times (every other episode in Drake & Josh?). On the topic of TV bundles, some TV series don't even have the "Bundle & Save" options. Two examples spring to mind. The first being Ash vs Evil Dead, which has a Season 1&2 Bundle, and the 1-3 Bundle is available via D2D, but it's not available to buy otherwise. The other is Psych. They have all of the seasons, the musical special, and the movie, but they don't have a bundle for all of those (or even just all of the seasons). This is my favorite TV show, so I'm biased, but I'd love to own this digitally.
Number 3 - Movie Bundles Appearing Separate: This a common gripe with Vudu. If you aren't aware, in your library, you can purchase a movie bundle (for example, the Saw 7-film Collection in HD), and if you make an additional purchase of a movie within that bundle (like Saw in 4K), it will appear as a separate movie from the bundle, despite being a movie included in the bundle. Additionally, if you buy a collection such as John Wick 1-3, and they release John Wick 4, it will not update the bundle as John Wick 1-4, but you will have the 1-3 bundle, and then the fourth movie (this also happens with TV shows). On top of that, there are no discounts provided if you already own a movie within a bundle, and you can buy bundles of movies that you already own individually!! The simple solution to this? Keep the bundles in the store so the discounts are still there, and then, when purchased, make it add the individual movies to your library, instead of the bundle.
Number 2 - Inconsistent Quality with Streams: This one is particularly annoying to come across. Occasionally (not very often), you will find a movie that may be labeled as HD, but the stream that Vudu has for it is definitely not HD. Thankfully, I haven't come across this in a non-MA movie, meaning I was able to just switch to a different platform and continue watching, but this is pretty unacceptable. The two movies I've noticed doing this are Paul (2011) and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. It was never my Internet being weird, as the second I switched to a different platform, the quality was fine.
Number 1 - Two-Factor Authentication: Easily the most important feature on this list. Two-factor authentication is just a must on the Internet today, and it's a damn shame that Vudu doesn't have it. I love that they let you see active devices and allow you to choose to deactivate specific ones (MA weirdly doesn't have this), but two-factor authentication takes priority over this.
That's my list. If anyone thinks I missed anything, or they would like to add additional missing TV episodes, missing series bundles, or bad HD streams, please do!
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