Who's got the biggest VUDU (D2D, UV) library here?

[LuzRinggold]

Re: Who's got the biggest VUDU (D2D, UV) library here?

When do you people that have 1000 or more titles and tv shows have the time to watch them all? I'm only at 346 and it takes around 2 years to watch them all including the rentals I get from Netflix.

We are trying to get most of our DVD collection in the cloud so we don't ever have to touch the physical disc again and we can take our collection with us wherever we go. Our movies are not there for one person to watch over a two year period, they are there for our entire family to watch forever.

[Walter-S_North_Carolina]

Re: Who's got the biggest VUDU (D2D, UV) library here?

We are trying to get most of our DVD collection in the cloud so we don't ever have to touch the physical disc again and we can take our collection with us wherever we go. Our movies are not there for one person to watch over a two year period, they are there for our entire family to watch forever.

Welcome to the club. There is something about using this technology which is needed for that kind of understanding to really hit home and be appreciated.

With an entertainment collection stored in a cloud service, not only does the family have mobility features which are fully baked, but a child smearing peanut butter onto a disc and then putting it into the x-box/ps3 is a thing of the past.

Also, having remote access while sitting in the barker lounge to the entirety of the collection is a major benefit. I watch/enjoy my family's entertainment collection much more since it is available from a few clicks of a remote.

Add onto this, I can start watching a movie downstairs and when I get sleepy, I can go upstairs and continue to watch from my pause point Al-La whole home DVR'esk and not have to worry about dragging a disc with me to put into a player on my bedroom TV.

With modern lifestyles being what they are, having this watch a little on one device --> pause --> wait some period of time --> pick back up on a different device is a real convenience without having to fish out the disc and mount it to the last saved point.

...but again, this is something that I have found is difficult to communicate the value of. It need be experienced to appreciate.

I am completly locked and loaded with my family's titles in Vudu, absent my D2D stragglers and my Walt Disney Studios titles.

[LuzRinggold]

Re: Who's got the biggest VUDU (D2D, UV) library here?

That's true, you almost have to experience it to understand it. I would say that it's mostly about convenience and mobility, but also about security in that there is no disc to be lost, damaged, or even stolen.

But as with everything, there are disadvantages. Things like internet service being out, buffering issues, UV rights accidently being deleted, incompatibilities across some devices, and all the other technical issues and media management issues we may have to deal with. These issues, as well as other concerns about the stability of companies holding my "investment", are serious enough that I do not plan on buying very many digital copies of movies. I think it's safer to purchase the DVD or Blu-ray and take advantage of either Disc-to-digital or UV redemption. This way I REALLY own the movie to watch whenever I want.

I love having many of our movies in the cloud, but I still think UV is too young to put 100% faith into it offering what they say it offers...access to our movies anytime and FOREVER. When I have gone 5 to 10 years without losing access to any of my movies, then maybe I will change my mind...and when we have a couple more big players in the game like Amazon.com or maybe Netflix.

[Walter-S_North_Carolina]

Re: Who's got the biggest VUDU (D2D, UV) library here?

Nah, 1 mil+ new users per month for the next 5 yrs.

Uv ain't going anywhere.

On the contrary...

I agree remote folk have buffering issues.

That is why there are download options.

Obviously not on a Roku, but game consoles have that built in.

Download & watch fixes the buffering thing.

[tsken02]

Re: Who's got the biggest VUDU (D2D, UV) library here?

The other shortcoming today is the audio. If you are watching in your media center, you will not get DTS HD Master Audio. Some movies are not even 5.1. Obviously if you are in bed or on a mobile device, it doesn't matter as much.

We know CFF can provide good audio, but it's not yet clear what the studios will offer in the package.

[echopulse]

Re: Who's got the biggest VUDU (D2D, UV) library here?

The one million new accounts per month was just a prediction by an analyast. And I don't trust analysts any further than I can throw a baseball, which isn't very far. It's possible, but so far from the numbers I've seen, it's closer to 600k new accounts per month.

[LuzRinggold]

Re: Who's got the biggest VUDU (D2D, UV) library here?

UV may not go anywhere, but what if Vudu did? Many of the movies I have are not available on Flixster or CinemaNow, so I would lose them. And, I can only watch CinemaNow in one room...Flixster is not available for us to watch on any of our TVs. We need more service providers before I would feel comfortable buying digital copies only. We need Flixster to expand to other devices and we need a major company like Amazon or Netflix to join UV.

And I don't see that downloading offers the same convenience as streaming direct from the cloud. Plus, don't you have a limit on the number of times you can download a movie? Anyway, that is a feature we'll probably never use.

[tsken02]

Re: Who's got the biggest VUDU (D2D, UV) library here?

And I don't see that downloading offers the same convenience as streaming direct from the cloud. Plus, don't you have a limit on the number of times you can download a movie?

Streaming doesn't work for me, as I travel. Airport and hotel Internet is spotty at best.

Download limits are minimums for CFF, not maximums. Since you can move the files around and share them with your devices and family, I'm not clear why you'll need to download them again. Consider how many times you download software from the Internet. Once is usually enough.

[LuzRinggold]

Re: Who's got the biggest VUDU (D2D, UV) library here?

Streaming doesn't work for me, as I travel. Airport and hotel Internet is spotty at best.

Download limits are minimums for CFF, not maximums. Since you can move the files around and share them with your devices and family, I'm not clear why you'll need to download them again. Consider how many times you download software from the Internet. Once is usually enough.

Well I guess I am showing my ignorance since I have never used the download feature and do not fully understand CFF. I am just saying that if I were to download a movie to watch in one room and I decided to finish the movie in my bedroom on my Roku device that I would have to download the movie again. But I don't even think downloading to my Roku devices, Vizio televisions, and Blu-ray devices is even an option.

Regarding downloading to mobile devices, well that makes a bit more sense to me. But the bad thing about downloading is that you have to know in advance what movie(s) or television shows you are going to want to watch before you head out. With streaming, you don't have to decide.

I will be taking my Roku with me when we go on vacation in a couple of weeks, so I will be putting that to the test. You may be right. The hotel internet service may be so bad that all we get to watch is that buffering message, but our vacation last year we were able to watch Netflix on my laptop. So I think it will be fine.

[tsken02]

Re: Who's got the biggest VUDU (D2D, UV) library here?

The hotel internet service may be so bad that all we get to watch is that buffering message, but our vacation last year we were able to watch Netflix on my laptop. So I think it will be fine.

You can download from VUDU to your laptop just fine. If you have HDMI/HDCP on your laptop, you can connect it to a TV, and watch them on the big screen in HDX. The only hassle is they are stored on your C: drive unless you trick the OS to store them elsewhere. I have a 2 TB USB drive with most of the movies I may care to watch, downloaded in HDX.

I've also installed a WD HD Live Hub with 1 TB in my hotel, so I can watch HDX there too. It's a little glitchy yet, but the resolution is good.

[lujan]

Re: Who's got the biggest VUDU (D2D, UV) library here?

...

I will be taking my Roku with me when we go on vacation in a couple of weeks, so I will be putting that to the test. You may be right. The hotel internet service may be so bad that all we get to watch is that buffering message, but our vacation last year we were able to watch Netflix on my laptop. So I think it will be fine.

You also have to keep in mind that if you have the Roku 3 (don't know about the earlier models), the TV has to have an HDMI input in order to watch your Roku. I know in my experience most hotel TVs don't have the HDMI input.

[quackman]

Re: Who's got the biggest VUDU (D2D, UV) library here?

You can download from VUDU to your laptop just fine. If you have HDMI/HDCP on your laptop, you can connect it to a TV, and watch them on the big screen in HDX. The only hassle is they are stored on your C: drive unless you trick the OS to store them elsewhere. I have a 2 TB USB drive with most of the movies I may care to watch, downloaded in HDX.

I've also installed a WD HD Live Hub with 1 TB in my hotel, so I can watch HDX there too. It's a little glitchy yet, but the resolution is good.

Do you mind giving me instructions on how you "tricked the OS to store them elsewhere"? I would like to download to an external hard drive. I have an iMac. Thanks.

[echopulse]

Re: Who's got the biggest VUDU (D2D, UV) library here?

Most streaming boxes, blu-ray players and even HDTV's have USB ports on them. So you can download your movies to a large external hard drive, and access your movies directly on your devices. That of course is the beauty of the CFF. No need to depend on a strong/fast wifi connection. But that won't be available until the CFF launches. And there better be a UV app for the Roku. I don't think the blu-ray players will have to have a special app though, because blu-ray players can already play divx files, and divx is one of the DRM methods that UV uses.

Oh, and I was a bit off on my UV accounts estimate. They announced 9 million accounts in early January, and then 12 million in early July. So that's about 500k per month. I really hope it increases a lot, because if not, by CES 2013 UV would only reach 15 million accounts, and that would be a big slowdown, because in 2012, it went from 750 thousand to 9 million in just one year.

[tsken02]

Re: Who's got the biggest VUDU (D2D, UV) library here?

Do you mind giving me instructions on how you "tricked the OS to store them elsewhere"? I would like to download to an external hard drive. I have an iMac. Thanks.

There's a thread:
https://forum.vudu.com/showthread.ph...nload-loaction

[Walter-S_North_Carolina]

Re: Who's got the biggest VUDU (D2D, UV) library here?

Most streaming boxes, blu-ray players and even HDTV's have USB ports on them. So you can download your movies to a large external hard drive, and access your movies directly on your devices. That of course is the beauty of the CFF. No need to depend on a strong/fast wifi connection. But that won't be available until the CFF launches. And there better be a UV app for the Roku. I don't think the blu-ray players will have to have a special app though, because blu-ray players can already play divx files, and divx is one of the DRM methods that UV uses.

Oh, and I was a bit off on my UV accounts estimate. They announced 9 million accounts in early January, and then 12 million in early July. So that's about 500k per month. I really hope it increases a lot, because if not, by CES 2013 UV would only reach 15 million accounts, and that would be a big slowdown, because in 2012, it went from 750 thousand to 9 million in just one year.

Roku has a usb port too that you can connect external storage to.

For me it is not used since my metro internet is fine and I prefer streaming to get the whole home dvr experience, but for folks in rural areas with spotty internet, it may make sense to do it that way.

This will need to wait for CFF first though.

P.S.- the 12 mil 'announcement' in July was just a recap of the Q1 numbers. It did not include the additions during Q2. Nice try. By my estimation, UV is in the 15-16 million range now. We will have to wait for official numbers to be sure though.