# Vudu and Disney are now connected!



## lgnad (Feb 14, 2013)

Go through the steps to connect em and your Disney movies now appear in your collection on Vudu!

There's even a Disney store on the first page of the Tivo Vudu app already...


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## bradleys (Oct 31, 2007)

Yeah, I am very excited about this - Vudu just became my one stop shop for all digital content.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

I just tried to do a Disc to Digital on Wreck It Ralph a couple weeks ago and it didn't take, now I get it for free just for linking my accounts. :up: (I own the BD)


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

VUDU was great for a while, and then I saw some really crappy HDX encodes, and had a bad buffering issue with it. Maybe I'll have to give it another shot at some point, but for now, I'm pretty happy with Amazon. It seems to be reliable, and they're really improved their video quality a lot.


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## morac (Mar 14, 2003)

Cool. I linked it without any problems. I had already linked iTunes so I got my Marvel BluRay movies that came with iTunes codes now on my VUDU account. Disney is pretty cool in that they literally let you own it everywhere.

I use VUDU primarily for the UltraViolet library. I don't "buy" movies as they are too expensive. I used to rent on occasion and was actually going to do so this past weekend, but apparently rentals are now $6 (everywhere, not just on VUDU), which is insane considering buying it around $14.


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## bradleys (Oct 31, 2007)

Now that most BD disks come with a digital copy - and most others can be added for a couple of bucks - it makes a perfect personal library.

My wife will buy new BD movies, take the digital code and sell the disk @ half price books. She claims she is saving money. Is she? Meh...

The rental costs are out of control in my mind. If redbox would have tried to extend their service digitally instead of trying to mimic Netflix's subscription model, they might have found more success.

Offer the identical titles at the kiosk for the same price - others in their library at the higher industry price.


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

bradleys said:


> Now that most BD disks come with a digital copy - and most others can be added for a couple of bucks - it makes a perfect personal library.


I've redeemed a few just for fun, but if I have the BD, I'm going to use the BD, not the streaming version.



> Offer the identical titles at the kiosk for the same price - others in their library at the higher industry price.


There's no way they can do that- the studios keep the costs for rentals too high.


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## morac (Mar 14, 2003)

Bigg said:


> I've redeemed a few just for fun, but if I have the BD, I'm going to use the BD, not the streaming version..


Sometimes I don't want to go fetch the disc and insert it. Other times I don't have the disk (not home) or want to watch on a tablet or something.



Bigg said:


> There's no way they can do that- the studios keep the costs for rentals too high.


It was only a few years ago that HD digital movie rentals were $3. Now that's the per-episode cost of TV programs.


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## Johncv (Jun 11, 2002)

bradleys said:


> Now that most BD disks come with a digital copy - and most others can be added for a couple of bucks - it makes a perfect personal library.
> 
> My wife will buy new BD movies, take the digital code and sell the disk @ half price books. She claims she is saving money. Is she? Meh...
> 
> ...


She wrong, the problem with that is the BR disk have 7.1 sound (or 6.1) were the UV only provides 5.1.Also I think the BR disk have a better picture. Now if you have DVD (not BR) disk I can see converting them unless you can get the movie on BR for less then you can from UV, but even then I think BR disk are better.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Doesn't Vudu HDX have 7.1 sound? 

Picture quality is fine by me, and it's much more convenient. I'll sacrafice a little quality for convenience.


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## Chris Gerhard (Apr 27, 2002)

Dan203 said:


> Doesn't Vudu HDX have 7.1 sound?
> 
> Picture quality is fine by me, and it's much more convenient. I'll sacrafice a little quality for convenience.


Yes, Vudu does have 7.1 audio. The Vudu version will be lossy Dolby Digital Plus 7.1, while the Blu-ray version will be Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD MA, or lossless PCM. I also can't say all Blu-ray versions with 7.1 audio will convert to Vudu HDX with 7.1. I converted a bunch of Blu-ray discs to Vudu HDX but haven't even bothered to check to see if any included 7.1 and if those that did converted to 7.1. I do recall having seen a couple of movies in my UV collection that do include 7.1 but not how I acquired them.

In house I have two 5.1 systems and one 7.1 system and maybe a dozen Blu-ray discs with 7.1 audio out of about 1,000 discs total but that is just a guess. Every now and then we will play a 7.1 disc and I will point that out but nobody cares. I always walk around to the rear surround speakers and place my ear close to make sure it is working correctly, then sit back down.


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## bradleys (Oct 31, 2007)

Chris Gerhard said:


> I will point that out but nobody cares. I always walk around to the rear surround speakers and place my ear close to make sure it is working correctly, then sit back down.


 Definitely first world issues!


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

I have a 7.1 system but never bothered to even hook up the two rear speakers. My couch is all the way up against the opposing wall, so the difference between the side speakers and the rear speakers would have been maybe a foot if I hung the rears directly on the wall. Didn't seem worth the effort.


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

morac said:


> Sometimes I don't want to go fetch the disc and insert it. Other times I don't have the disk (not home) or want to watch on a tablet or something.


OMG, you have to get off the couch, get the disc and walk over to the player! First world problems!



> It was only a few years ago that HD digital movie rentals were $3. Now that's the per-episode cost of TV programs.


Since when? They were $5-$7 as long as I can remember.



Dan203 said:


> Doesn't Vudu HDX have 7.1 sound?
> 
> Picture quality is fine by me, and it's much more convenient. I'll sacrafice a little quality for convenience.


It can, but I don't think very many actually have 7.1 sound. When they first brought out 7.1, there were literally 2-3 screens worth of thumbnails that actually have 7.1.


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## morac (Mar 14, 2003)

Bigg said:


> Since when? They were $5-$7 as long as I can remember.


I think VUDU was always expensive, which is why I never used them, but other digital rental streaming services (Amazon, iTunes, etc) were around $4 for HD, even for new releases. That was only a year or two ago. Now they are all $6 or more. The prices are literally the same on every service. Seems like collusion if you ask me.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

morac said:


> The prices are literally the same on every service. Seems like collusion if you ask me.


Or something the content providers are pushing on them.


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

morac said:


> I think VUDU was always expensive, which is why I never used them, but other digital rental streaming services (Amazon, iTunes, etc) were around $4 for HD, even for new releases. That was only a year or two ago. Now they are all $6 or more. The prices are literally the same on every service. Seems like collusion if you ask me.


I guess $6 for a rental might make sense if you had several people who wanted to watch the movie together but for me I can go see the movie in the theaters for less than that, the rental price does drop over time so I guess if I wasn't in a hurry to see a movie in the theater no need to rent it when they want top $ either.


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## Chris Gerhard (Apr 27, 2002)

Dan203 said:


> Or something the content providers are pushing on them.


Pushing on them isn't what I would call it. The prices the content owners charge the streaming services means making a profit requires charging a certain minimum price, and profit margins for the streaming services are slim thus the normal prices are going to be about the same across all services.

Vudu usually has a daily 99 cent movie rental and recently had over 100 available for 99 cents each for a few week period. I don't know how Vudu does that, probably a loss leader combined with a special promotion from the content owners. I usually check each day and rent it a couple of times each month.


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

morac said:


> I think VUDU was always expensive, which is why I never used them, but other digital rental streaming services (Amazon, iTunes, etc) were around $4 for HD, even for new releases. That was only a year or two ago. Now they are all $6 or more. The prices are literally the same on every service. Seems like collusion if you ask me.


Hmmmm. I always remember streaming at $5 and cable co VOD at $6, but maybe it was $4 and $5, and I'm remembering wrong.



atmuscarella said:


> I guess $6 for a rental might make sense if you had several people who wanted to watch the movie together but for me I can go see the movie in the theaters for less than that, the rental price does drop over time so I guess if I wasn't in a hurry to see a movie in the theater no need to rent it when they want top $ either.


Since when can you go to a theater for $6? The tickets are usually upwards of $10, and then popcorn, and you have to drive there, etc, etc.


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

Bigg said:


> ....Since when can you go to a theater for $6? The tickets are usually upwards of $10, and then popcorn, and you have to drive there, etc, etc.


Just paid $5 for Interstellar last week. My theater of choice is a Cinemark Tinseltown all shows on Tuesday are $5 first showing of each movie on all other days is $5.50. Nice theater all stadium good comfortable seating. I don't buy popcorn anymore it (and other things) seem to grow to well on my waist line so I have altered most of my eating habits. Of course if I want to go to their Imax or watch a movie in 3D it does cost more. We also have a Cinemark Movies 10 that plays movies that have left the normal theaters. Movies 10 is $1 on Tuesdays and $2 most of the rest of the time. It isn't stadium seating but still acceptable.


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

atmuscarella said:


> Just paid $5 for Interstellar last week. My theater of choice is a Cinemark Tinseltown all shows on Tuesday are $5 first showing of each movie on all other days is $5.50. Nice theater all stadium good comfortable seating. I don't buy popcorn anymore it (and other things) seem to grow to well on my waist line so I have altered most of my eating habits. Of course if I want to go to their Imax or watch a movie in 3D it does cost more. We also have a Cinemark Movies 10 that plays movies that have left the normal theaters. Movies 10 is $1 on Tuesdays and $2 most of the rest of the time. It isn't stadium seating but still acceptable.


Wow, that's cheap. Most are $9 these days.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Chris Gerhard said:


> I don't know how Vudu does that


Vudu = Wal-Mart and Wal-Mart has an unbelievable amount of power over content owners. While digital sales are picking up slowly, the majority of movies are still sold on disc. And the vast majority of those are sold by Wal-Mart. So they can use that position to strong arm the content providers into giving them better deals.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Bigg said:


> Wow, that's cheap. Most are $9 these days.


Ours is only $6 on Tuesdays, and $7.50 Sun-Thurs and matinees. On Fri/Sat nights it's $10 though. The theater is relatively nice. All digital projection, big screens, but the seats are starting to break down, especially the ones near the middle. At the very least you'd think they could swap those out with the ones down in the front row that no one ever sits in.


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

Dan203 said:


> Vudu = Wal-Mart and Wal-Mart has an unbelievable amount of power over content owners. While digital sales are picking up slowly, the majority of movies are still sold on disc. And the vast majority of those are sold by Wal-Mart. So they can use that position to strong arm the content providers into giving them better deals.


That's an interesting point, although I would argue that Amazon has huge volume in the Blu-ray business as well, and Apple, while not a seller of physical movies, has an audience using iTunes for digital content that is highly desirable to anyone selling anything that can be sold through iTunes (like movies).


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Bigg said:


> That's an interesting point, although I would argue that Amazon has huge volume in the Blu-ray business as well, and Apple, while not a seller of physical movies, has an audience using iTunes for digital content that is highly desirable to anyone selling anything that can be sold through iTunes (like movies).


There are stories about Wal-Mart using it's power in retail to strong arm studios and record labels into digital deals. While Amazon does have a large volume of sales too, Wal-Mart is still the king of physical media sales.

As for iTunes... digital sales of movies, from all sources, is still a small percentage of overall revenue. Revenue from DVDs/BDs is about 8x that of digital sales and iTunes only accounts for a fraction of those. So while iTunes still has a huge hold on the music industry, their influence over the movie industry is still minimal. One of the main reasons the industry created UV is because they didn't want to fall into the same trap as the music industry and relinquish too much to Apple. Little did they know that the only thing that would save UV was a service started by another giant (WalMart/Vudu) that would put them in basically the same boat.


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## morac (Mar 14, 2003)

I'm still wondering how Apple could have to pay $400 million because it colluded with 5 book publishers to raise eBook prices, but streaming movie rentals go up 50% in price universally and it's just the market.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/22/t...ion-settlement-in-apple-e-book-case.html?_r=0


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## moedaman (Aug 21, 2012)

morac said:


> I'm still wondering how Apple could have to pay $400 million because it colluded with 5 book publishers to raise eBook prices, but streaming movie rentals go up 50% in price universally and it's just the market.
> 
> http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/22/t...ion-settlement-in-apple-e-book-case.html?_r=0


Plain and simple, it's price fixing being forced upon them (iTunes, Google Play, Amazon Instant, Vudu, etc.) by the movie industry. This kind of thing has been banned in B&M stores, but it seems the norm for digital purchases. Walmart (Vudu) and Amazon have always been willing to sell at lower margins, but they both have the same prices as every other digital provider for movies.

This is why people who want discs to go away aren't being logical. Without the pressure of physical media pricing, god knows what a 1080p streaming movie would be priced at.


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

Dan203 said:


> There are stories about Wal-Mart using it's power in retail to strong arm studios and record labels into digital deals. While Amazon does have a large volume of sales too, Wal-Mart is still the king of physical media sales.
> 
> As for iTunes... digital sales of movies, from all sources, is still a small percentage of overall revenue. Revenue from DVDs/BDs is about 8x that of digital sales and iTunes only accounts for a fraction of those. So while iTunes still has a huge hold on the music industry, their influence over the movie industry is still minimal. One of the main reasons the industry created UV is because they didn't want to fall into the same trap as the music industry and relinquish too much to Apple. Little did they know that the only thing that would save UV was a service started by another giant (WalMart/Vudu) that would put them in basically the same boat.


True. Wal-Mart is extremely aggressive. I still think Apple still has some power just due to the relatively desirable profile of their customers.


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## randy1649 (Apr 18, 2011)

VuDu! Fantastic upgrade. I usually wait and buy VuDu movies on sale. I have a lot. It will be nice not having to leave the Tivo to watch my collection. It would be nice if Tivo could somehow support VUDU's 3D content as well but i guess you can't have it all..


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## sangs (Jan 1, 2003)

I'm new to this VUDU thing and would have probably never used it if not for its inclusion with Tivo. And with Guardians of the Galaxy available to purchase in HDX for only $9.69? I'm in.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

sangs said:


> I'm new to this VUDU thing and would have probably never used it if not for its inclusion with Tivo. And with Guardians of the Galaxy available to purchase in HDX for only $9.69? I'm in.


Where do yo see that deal? GoG shows $20 for me.


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## sangs (Jan 1, 2003)

Logged into VUDU on my computer this morning. The HDX version was $9.96 and the regular HD version was the normal priced. Jumped on it right away. (And yes, it was for purchase, not for rent.)


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## morac (Mar 14, 2003)

Dan203 said:


> Where do yo see that deal? GoG shows $20 for me.


At that price, you might as well buy the Bluray at Amazon as it's the same price and includes a digital code which gives you the VUDU HDX, iTunes and Google Play versions.

Edit: I see GoG HDX for $9.96 as well at VUDU, but I already pre-ordered the Bluray.


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## sangs (Jan 1, 2003)

You buy it your way, I'll buy it mine. I've no desire for physical discs. Got enough of them collecting dust as it is. (Sorry, that came off snottier than I intended.) Some good sales going on at VUDU right now btw. HDX version of Pulp Fiction for $4.99? Sold.


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## generaltso (Nov 4, 2003)

It's great that I can now access all of my Disney iTunes movies through Vudu. It would be even better if we could cut out the Disney middle man so that I could access all of my iTunes movies through Vudu (not just Disney).


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Still showing as $20 for me. 

Would buy for sure at $10, not sure about $20.


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## sangs (Jan 1, 2003)

Dan203 said:


> Still showing as $20 for me.
> 
> Would buy for sure at $10, not sure about $20.


Yeah, I just went back and checked and nowhere to be found for $9.69 now. Maybe I happened to have logged on during some limited time sale? Whatever the case, glad I got it when the getting was good.  Has all the Bonus Features too.


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## Chris Gerhard (Apr 27, 2002)

Guardians is only available at $20 for me as well, not $10. I am curious as to how some are getting it at $10.

Edit, I see the post above, it was a short time special or mistake.


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## sangs (Jan 1, 2003)

Chris Gerhard said:


> Guardians is only available at $20 for me as well, not $10. I am curious as to how some are getting it at $10.
> 
> Edit, I see the post above, it was a short time special or mistake.


My AMEX receipts reads 8:31 am today. Funny thing is, I only visited the VUDU site after reading through this thread at that time. Otherwise, would have probably never found it.


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## morac (Mar 14, 2003)

Chris Gerhard said:


> Edit, I see the post above, it was a short time special or mistake.


It's still showing as $10 for me when I'm logged in so it's doesn't appear to be a short time something. If I log out it changes to $20. Though like I said I already pre-ordered the BR combo which includes a digital code so there's no point in me buying the VUDU version at $10 when it's already included in the version I bought.

Apparently it will be back on Thursday. It's not a UV title though, so it can't be shared.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Sounds like it was a mistake. A black Friday deal that got posted early. Some of the people in that tread say it still shows as $9.96 for them, but if they actually try to check out it jumps to $19.99. So that could be what you're seeing morac.


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

I won't buy from any online service... too much lock-in. If I buy, I buy Blu-rays. But they are nice for rentals.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Price is back down. Went ahead and bought it.


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## Fofer (Oct 29, 2000)

Yep, just came to post the same. The deal's live now, and it includes the bonus material too. Just now I purchased _Guardians of the Galaxy_ for $9.96 on VUDU.com:
http://www.vudu.com/movies/#!content/558569/Guardians-of-the-Galaxy-plus-bonus-features

I then checked to see that it immediately appeared on my DMA-linked account of iTunes (which also shows the bonus material) and YouTube and Google Play Movies too (which does _not_ seem to include the bonus material.)

I also got an email telling me that this purchase added 150 points to my Disney Movie Rewards account.

I bought _Dawn of the Planet of the Apes_ for the same price.
http://www.vudu.com/movies/#!content/542002/Dawn-of-the-Planet-of-the-Apes

That's not a Disney title, it's UltraViolet though, so it shows up on the other UV providers, like Flixster, CinemaNow, Target Ticket, MGO, etc.

But VUDU's the best


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## sangs (Jan 1, 2003)

Dan203 said:


> Price is back down. Went ahead and bought it.


I'm glad you finally got it. I actually felt bad to tease you like that. Happy Thanksgiving.


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