Vudu cuts price as Apple TV v.2 looms
The Vudu set-top box has come down to $295 in a probable response to Apple TV’s new price and upgrades.
The Vudu box
Vudu’s “Bourne Identity” special continues, for now: buy a box and get the first two movies in the trilogy on HD, as permanent downloads.
The Vudu box comes with a 250 gigabite hard drive, good for about 100 SD movies. Output via HDMI goes to 1080i/1080p24.
There is no monthly subscription cost but you do have to pay up front, using an automatic credit card charge to keep, say, $20 in an account. Then your rental movies cost $3.99 for new releases (30 days max/24 hours once started, same as iTunes rentals). Purchased movies, when available, run up to $20. Here’s the movie set-top box’s FAQ.
The new-breed Apple TV
Read the Vudu service review from our friends at last100.
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Download update, via speedlinks
A mixed bag of video download-related news this week — let’s cram it in with some speedlinks:
Hulu, the new online video site from NBC Universal and News Corp., is operating at least somewhat in the spirit of the web. Its beta search function produces hits on shows from rival networks such as CBS, ABC and A&E. Advertising Age has the Hulu story. …
“Why are fewer viewers watching the new fall television series?” the New York Times asks. “Perhaps because they are too busy watching video online.”
More Hulu: NBC Universal vows something like 3,600 hours of Olympics coverage on its nbcolympics.com video site, most of it live. That’s the spot to check out the weird Olympic sports like badminton that no one will touch on network TV. Oh yeah, the network said, some clips might will find their way to Hulu, the New York Post reports in a story on online Olympics ads. The B-status doesn’t sound good for Hulu, Silicon Alley Insider reports.
Miro, the new open-source video player, was released midweek. TechCrunch lists the advantages over Joost thusly: “Miro is open-sourced, DRM-free, friendly to all content creators, connected to all the popular video sharing sites like YouTube and blip.tv, high definition, full of content, and BitTorrent-enabled.” Mark Hendrickson calls it a “purer” player worth checking out.
High-definition: YouTube plans to serve up HD videos in the next few months. Reel Pop says streaming HD movies would contribute significantly to the video playground’s overhead costs. Meanwhile, Vudu, the set-top box download system, is conjuring up high-definition titles from Paramount and Lionsgate. The P2P-driven player went on sale last month. Read some of the early reviews on Vudu.
AT&T’s investment in Vobile — maker of “VideoDNA” technology for tracking videos as they cross networks — could lead to the telco blocking subscribers’ dubious downloads, Silicon Alley Insider speculates. Bitstreamers could counter with a shift to VPN services, the site says. Virtual private networks keep the snoops away from your online streams — but anyone who’s wrassled with one of these pain-in-the-ass connections would seek other remedies.
TiVo owners in for faster downloads
TiVo box owners jonesing for more storage space finally are in luck. The DVR pioneer hooked up with Western Digital to enable an external hard drive. The catch: you must own an advanced TiVo box, as in not Series 2.
The eSATA drive — going by the tag of My DVR Expander — bulks up the TiVo’s storage capacity by 500 gigabytes. That’s roughly 600 hours of standard definition or 65 hours of high-def programming, TiVo says. The hard drive has to be bought at Best Buy or on TiVo’s web site, apparently.
All of the four upgrades announced earlier this week are limited to networked-in owners of Series 3 DVRs.
The DVR pioneer also unveiled a multi-room viewing feature, in which the advanced TiVo boxes can stream content to another TiVo box, including Series 2
“TiVo to Go,” another it’s-about-time feature, allows programs to be ported over to PCs. From there, the video files can watched elsewhere or burned to blank DVDs. Yes, that means they can be sent to iPods and other handheld devices. The PC needs TiVo Desktop software for Windows, Roxio Toast 8 or, for Macs, Popcorn 3.
TiVo also has joined Vudu in the progressive-downloading game. Instead of waiting for movies or TV shows from Amazon Unbox
(This capability is one of Vudu’s main sales pitches. The 2-month-old service just lowered the price of the Vudu box from $399 to $250, taking a cue from Steve Jobs.)
Here’s the word on how the TiVo progressive downloading is supposed to work, direct from the company’s antenna-wearing PRists:
When a download begins, the TiVo box checks the speed of the download, and calculates whether you can begin playback. If the download speed is going faster than playback speed, it will let users start playback immediately.
If the download is slower, it will wait until users have enough of the program “buffered” on disk to be able to play it from start to finish without hitting the end of the buffer, and then let you start playback.
None of these are breakthroughs, except in the TiVo universe. While well past due, it’s good to see the upgrades, which signal to company is working hard to justify its existence.
Read the TiVo press release.
Vudu’s video stream entrances reviewers
Silicon Valley’s Vudu made its debut a few weeks back, offering thousands of studio films in a box (sort of). Actually the movies stream over the Internet, summoned by an impressive menu set-up.
Unlike Vudu’s high-profile competitors, no outside PC or game system is required. Just a $400 (ouch!) Vudu box. (UPDATE: The price was cut to $250 in late October.) Here are some of the early reviews, summarized.
Daniel Langendor got his hands on a Vudu set-top box and did a weeklong test drive. His findings were posted in a Vudu review on last100.com
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Plus:
“Setup is as easy as hooking up an AppleTV.
Vudu’s remote is functional art that’s a joy to use.
The quality of the video was as good as any DVD I own.”
- Minus:
“You need an Ethernet connection near your television.
Vudu’s (movie/TV) selection is erratic and hard to figure out.
You pay for your movies in advance rather than pay-as-you-go.”
Gizmodo did a similar piece last month. Here’s what Wilson Rothman had to say in his Vudu walkthrough and review:
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Plus:
“I love browsing and watching movies on this thing—the instant gratification is awesome!
I never once had more than a tiny video hiccup. … And the picture looks stupendous.
Vudu’s remote is incredible, with five buttons and a clickable jog dial that you can intuit in record time.”
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Minus:
“Vudu is selling these things for $400. So you can pay more money to buy or rent movies from them.
You could save the money by connecting your PC to your TV and renting from CinemaNow or Movielink.
there just aren’t enough good hits when you go searching.”
Then there’s CNET’s review of Vudu:
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Plus:
“Closest thing to ‘Netflix in a box’ that we’ve seen to date.
Solid movie selection includes major Hollywood studio titles in the same week they hit DVD.
Very good video and audio quality.”
Minus:
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“Can’t stream media from networked PCs.
No built-in Wi-Fi.
Rentals limited to 24-hour viewing period.”
Download Movies 101 won’t be an early adopter on this system — we still wake up in a cold sweat thinking about MovieBeam — but frequent video renters would do well to consider Vudu as an alternative to long lines and mailbox watching.
The Vudu box looks like the real deal, with HDMI ouputs (1.1) and 1080p/24 capabilities. (Check out the specs). Still, all of the reviewers complained about the price of the box, so give this a try:
If you decide to buy a Vudu box, enter the code VUDUROCKS during checkout. Should be good for $100 off.