HT Junky

I picked up a VUDU box last week, and spent much of the weekend playing around with it and watching movies. This is a truely impressive setup. They have Standard, HD and HDX (highest quaility) movies. I rented several movies (both HD and HDX). The VUDU performance is impressive.

I took inventory of the 300+ DVDs, and I bet that I have not watched over 95% of them more than 2 times. Now that I have a way of renting high def movies from my home, I bet my Bluray purchases will drop by over 70%. I only plan on buying the movies I want to see on a regular basis. Previously, I would just buy the DVD without worrying about whether or not I would like the movie, because they were priced $10 to $13. At $25-$40 per movie, however, I would rather rent, given the fact that it is so convenient.

They have 2 boxes. If you get the 250g version ($299), you currently get a non-expiring $200 credit towards movie rentals/purchases. If you buy the 1 terrabyte version ($1000), my local dealer told me that you get a $1000 movie credit. If you purchase movies and run out of hard drive space, you can archive it, which is logged online in your VUDU account, and is available download for free at a later date. They are also working on a firware update that will allow you to attach an external drive through the USB port. I purchased the 250g version just to try it out.

They have been adding about 100 HD/HDX movies a week, for the past couple months.

Check it out at www.vudu.com

What sucks is that the VUDU pushed me over the 4 HDMI inputs on my Denon receiver. I now have AppleTV, VUDU, Bluray, OPPO DVD player and my DirectTV. I purchased OPPO's HDMI switch (in transit) to give me more input capability. It automatically senses which inputs are "live" (source component is powered "on") and you can prioritize the order if more than 1 input is active. It also has IR and RS remote input capabilites.

wes

Do you get DD Tru HD or DTS Master Audio with that or still DD?

HT Junky

The HD is regular Dolby. The sound for HDX is recorded and played back at 40% higher bit rate than regular DVDs. Not any of the lossless formats are supported. For me, the convience far outweighs what I miss wth no lossless audio. For others, it may not.

Bob Walters

Any rumors re: support of the lossless codecs????????????????????????

wes

Unlikely any time soon it's a question of band width

rex

Has anyone else tried VUDU? With the $200 movie credit, the cost is only $99; so I may give it a try. I doubt the video is as good as BD, but you can't beat the convenience. I would be interested in hearing other opinions. I'll post mine, once I get a chance to try it.