VoD Movie Hobby

[Walter-S_North_Carolina]

Re: VoD Movie Hobby

Mylanta, you have 1300 titles on Vudu? I have 70 and it's already getting hard to scroll through all of them when trying to find one with 70. I can't imagine how long it takes to scroll through all of them with 1300. I'm talking about scrolling through them on the blu-ray player where I watch them. I don't like to watch movies on a laptop or tablet as the video is too small.

@ home on the two plasmas, I use a PS3 and a Roku-XD. Both fly through the scroll. Perhaps your Bluray player has a lower end CPU in it.

@ 99 titles, I see no lag.

FYI, there is a new Roku-3 which just came out yesterday. It has a beefie CPU in it.

http://www.roku.com/why-its-cool

Also, I understand with the Roku, you can do a title search, and it will query all your installed apps for a match (Vudu, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu+). That makes searching a large library like those easy. Trick is keyboard typing from a small remote. Anyway...

[Fofer]

Re: VoD Movie Hobby

Trick is keyboard typing from a small remote. Anyway...

The iOS and Android apps for Roku have keyboard entry. Also, http://remoku.tv is a web app you can use on a computer to control your Roku, and that has keyboard entry too.

[Fofer]

Re: VoD Movie Hobby

Yeah it is fun and a little expensive, for me anyways ... lol I now have over 1300 titles in my UV locker.

I have over 1,000 movies now

Wow. You guys rock. I'm enjoying this hobby too and building up my library but 1000+ is just amazing.

I also read this interesting comment on Engadget, you might be intrigued as well:

"I think one of the best things about UV and Vudu is the fact that you can link accounts. I have uploaded about 100 movies between using those little inserts that you get with your blurays and going to walmart. I have 5 other friends that also are linked to the same account and all have put up their own movies. We now have about 350 movies on one big account that we can all access, so now when ever one of us buys a movies the others get it automatically put onto threre account to watch as well. So now we take turns buying the new movies and registering them for everyone instead of purchaseing every new movie individualy.

(emphasis mine)

Relevant details here: http://www.uvvu.com/faqs.php#question-14

"You may share your UltraViolet account with up to 5 other people, and each member can have their own sign-in name/password, parental control settings, and other personalized details."

There is nothing mentioned in these terms about needing to be family members, or even under the same roof.

The possibilities are endless!

I did start checking this out, the only catch is that in order to link/share UV accounts, you have to feel comfortable sharing UV login details (ie: name/password.) Not that any damage can be done to accounts, you can't even remove titles as best I can tell! But if you're cool with that, you can link up with 5 other people, each who have libraries of their own, for one mega library that the whole team can share.

So who wants to team up with me?

[Ruinit]

Re: VoD Movie Hobby

Wow. You guys rock. I'm enjoying this hobby too and building up my library but 1000+ is just amazing.

I also read this interesting comment on Engadget, you might be intrigued as well:


(emphasis mine)

Relevant details here: http://www.uvvu.com/faqs.php#question-14

"You may share your UltraViolet account with up to 5 other people, and each member can have their own sign-in name/password, parental control settings, and other personalized details."

There is nothing mentioned in these terms about needing to be family members, or even under the same roof.

The possibilities are endless!

I did start checking this out, the only catch is that in order to link/share UV accounts, you have to feel comfortable sharing UV login details (ie: name/password.) Not that any damage can be done to accounts, you can't even remove titles as best I can tell! But if you're cool with that, you can link up with 5 other people, each who have libraries of their own, for one mega library that the whole team can share.

So who wants to team up with me?

Careful only two of those links can be VUDU and all the other services suckkkkk, jmo

[Fofer]

Re: VoD Movie Hobby

Careful only two of those links can be VUDU and all the other services suckkkkk, jmo

The linking (ie: sharing) is handled on the UltraViolet page: https://my.uvvu.com
(and links UltraViolet accounts)

So what do you mean, "only two of those links can be VUDU?"

[Smackos]

Re: VoD Movie Hobby

Right to clarify on the above and also to input in this great thread..

I'm relatively new to all this, November last year I picked up a copy of Men in Black 3 on BD. Up until then all I had ever done was use VUDU for renting films. I stuck my UV code up and that set the ball rolling I guess. Soon I realised that I too could have a joint UV account, with family members all contributing whatever they purchased into one central collection. There are five family members involved in our UV group and we all set out from the start with just one rule.. As a minimum barrier of entry, we each agree to purchase at least one new UV release a month each. Basically for the price of a single film, each of us get five new films to watch each month, sometimes more. As far as disc to digital is concerned we each just put up whatever we want, usually 4 or 5 films a week go up on average. So last month I personally purchased "Argo" and "Flight", in return the rest of the family added "The Man with The Iron Fists", "SkyFall", "Chasing Mavericks" and "Life of Pi". Thats not withstanding the 36 titles we D2D'd in February too.

The one word of caution I would suggest though when putting together any family group is that, although you can have up to six members within a group, you are limited to being able to only STREAM 3 UV titles at any given moment between you. All of us use our own individual VUDU accounts to watch films by, why wouldn't we since Vudu is the best Video service on the market. To combat the limit of 3 simultaneous streams at any given time, if we want to watch a title we haven't seen before on the service then we DOWNLOAD it first via our Ps3's ready to watch. You are allowed to DOWNLOAD a UV title five times so that fits us well. The way we figure it is, with so many new titles added between us each month, the chances of four or more of us all wanting to actually STREAM any old title on any given night is minimal at best. Personally I always keep just one odd title downloaded just in case but I haven't had to resort to the fallback title yet. I hope some of this gives people ideas on how they too can approach setting up a family UV account etc. Also, don't forget that any family group works through UV sub accounts under one main account. Sure I'd love to have been able to invite the likes of Walter into our group, but since we both have our own main UV accounts then it becomes an issue with merging UV accounts etc, which right now UV is nowhere near enough ready to handle confidently. The easiest option if starting up is just to limit yourselves to three members, with fresh UV accounts between you.

Also, for keeping tabs on what films we want to watch etc I use a fantastic little app that is available for most platforms (ios, android and pc for starters) called "My Movies". When you add a title to your collection you can set a "location" for it too. We all have films scattered on different formats, Vudu, itunes, Blu-ray, DVD, Media centres etc so thats pretty useful. The interface is pretty nice, with good sorting and filter options too.

I hope some of this helps a few of you with your own collections. My regards,

Mat

[wildside]

Re: VoD Movie Hobby

Mat --

Thanks for the suggestion about the My Movies app. I'll definitely check it out.

I own about 10,000 movies (about 3,800 on Vudu), and the physical media hasn't been sorted since our last move 8 years ago. With Vudu I can at least find anything I want to watch.

For anyone rushing to put a large collection online -- Vudu is the only service that actually works as promised. The more films you have in UV, the more problems you run into. Both Flixster and Cinenow fail to load your complete library. And the uvvu.com web site shows no movies at the moment (the February update was supposed to fix it, but didn't. Next update, hopefully.)

-- John

Also, for keeping tabs on what films we want to watch etc I use a fantastic little app that is available for most platforms (ios, android and pc for starters) called "My Movies". When you add a title to your collection you can set a "location" for it too. We all have films scattered on different formats, Vudu, itunes, Blu-ray, DVD, Media centres etc so thats pretty useful. The interface is pretty nice, with good sorting and filter options too.

I hope some of this helps a few of you with your own collections. My regards,

Mat

[Walter-S_North_Carolina]

Re: VoD Movie Hobby

Mat --

Thanks for the suggestion about the My Movies app. I'll definitely check it out.

I own about 10,000 movies (about 3,800 on Vudu), and the physical media hasn't been sorted since our last move 8 years ago. With Vudu I can at least find anything I want to watch.

For anyone rushing to put a large collection online -- Vudu is the only service that actually works as promised. The more films you have in UV, the more problems you run into. Both Flixster and Cinenow fail to load your complete library. And the uvvu.com web site shows no movies at the moment (the February update was supposed to fix it, but didn't. Next update, hopefully.)

-- John

John,

I work in technology. My colleagues and I were having a discussion over lunch last week about the most reliable storage.

Mylar in VHS tapes will stretch. DVD's will scratch and even if they don't the National Archives say compact disk reflectivity ages after seven years. Digitizing onto a redundant storage array is considered the gold standard, but maintaining such a system for personal use is prohibitively expensive.

This leaves cloud based services as the best for personal use. The longevity is then dependant on the financial security of the company offering the service.

I do think your entertainment collection will be around a very long time, maintaining pristine condition.

When I take a title into be converted from DVD media to VoD, I am mindful it will be around a very long time and always take the extra effort to upgrade from SD to HD. I am wondering if you have the same thought.

Sincerely,

-Walter

[wildside]

Re: VoD Movie Hobby

Hi Walt --

I have largely gotten rid of videotapes, with the exception of a few things that aren't replaceable (yet). I keep being surprised when things I have archived on Beta tapes because I thought they would never get released on DVD, like Tales of the Gold Monkey and Quark, do in fact show up on DVD. Still holding on to the David Soul version of Casablanca and Bruce Boxleitner's Bring 'Em Back Alive. Maybe someday...

I am also a compulsive upgrader. VHS to Laserdisc, then to DVD, then to Blu-Ray. It gets to be an expensive hobby.

I always elect for HDX upgrades whenever possible. My only concern is whether they will eventually offer HDX to...whatever they're going to call it, Super-HDX?...when the new higher-definition 4K sets become standard. (Network TV is starting to record programs in 4K resolution, and I've seen one of the demo sets. So it's definitely coming. 5 years? 8?)

-- John

[Speedaddict81]

Re: VoD Movie Hobby

I always elect for HDX upgrades whenever possible. My only concern is whether they will eventually offer HDX to...whatever they're going to call it, Super-HDX?...when the new higher-definition 4K sets become standard. (Network TV is starting to record programs in 4K resolution, and I've seen one of the demo sets. So it's definitely coming. 5 years? 8?)

-- John

I'd give it 2 years, at most, for 4k to be the new 'standard' in movies. As for that resolution on a streaming service, I think we'd need either an order of magnitude increase in internet speeds (50+ MB/sec) or some sort of loss-less compression, otherwise a download service would be the only outlet.

[Blurayfan]

Re: VoD Movie Hobby

I'd give it 2 years, at most, for 4k to be the new 'standard' in movies. As for that resolution on a streaming service, I think we'd need either an order of magnitude increase in internet speeds (50+ MB/sec) or some sort of loss-less compression, otherwise a download service would be the only outlet.

Comcast is already offering speeds up to 300Mb (Highest speed is being tested in limited areas). They recently just doubled the speed of two of their tiers. My package changed from 50Mb down and 10Mb up to 105Mb down and 20Mb up with no cost increase.

Also the FCC wants Gigabit by 2015.

FCC Wants Gigabit Internet Communities Nationwide by 2015

[jeremymc7]

Re: VoD Movie Hobby

This leaves cloud based services as the best for personal use. The longevity is then dependent on the financial security of the company offering the service.

I strategically placed EMF and the whole "cloud" is toast. You'll be happy to have a celluloid and a candle. No sound, sorry.

[Walter-S_North_Carolina]

Re: VoD Movie Hobby

I strategically placed EMF and the whole "cloud" is toast. You'll be happy to have a celluloid and a candle. No sound, sorry.

Barring an apocalypse, a redundant storage array remains the gold standard for long term storage of entertainment media. Being individuals, we can not afford such technology (at least most of us can't).

When the entertainment media is cloud based, it is secure and the longevity is the best from the media options currently available.

The question of new higher definition formats I think is missing the point. The underling storage of the media is what matters.

VHS Mylar and optical disks are both inferior mediums to redundant storage arrays when the question is longevity. If a consumer is wishing to safeguard their entertainment media, a cloud service backed by a financially sound organization is by far the best option.

Subsequent upgrades of display formats just lends to the "future proof" feature of retaining entertainment media with a cloud service, as they would be in a position to provide subsequent upgrades with little effort from the consumer, should the consumer choose to. At least the option would be available in that type of relationship.

Plus, the original media remains in pristine condition for perpetuity.

[Speedaddict81]

Re: VoD Movie Hobby

Walter,

I agree that cloud storage is here for the long term. It is the safest way to store our media, especially with the redundency provided by multiple services, all with the same or similar content...now if something happened to the UV license servers, that'd be something else (and why I have paper copies of most of my D2D reciepts).

[goneviral]

Re: VoD Movie Hobby

Mat --


For anyone rushing to put a large collection online -- Vudu is the only service that actually works as promised. The more films you have in UV, the more problems you run into. Both Flixster and Cinenow fail to load your complete library. And the uvvu.com web site shows no movies at the moment (the February update was supposed to fix it, but didn't. Next update, hopefully.)

-- John

I had this issue with Amazon Video. We apparently possess one of the largest TV libraries in their system. Their software lost the ability to load all of our titles for an extended period. I got the vibe from several phone conversations that they eventually had to update their software specifically for us. Amazon handled the entire situation wonderfully, though. They gave us a free TV for our trouble, and it was selling on their site for $1,100 at the time.

We own about 500 titles on Vudu right now, and I have noticed that loading the entire library takes a long time. I am not surprised to hear that 10k breaks the UVVU system as that site runs at a glacial pace. What I will note that is that Vudu is the gold standard in terms of providing the user with library flexibility. Even at 500 titles, I already have difficulty finding the right movie if I have to scroll by purchase order. Since your library is a factor of seven larger, the process must be aggravating for you. Do you usually just direct dial a film via the search bar? That's what we do on Amazon.