Downloading Movies Via A STB

http://www.videobusiness.com/article/CA6438383.html

Take a look at the studios that are backing this company.

Okay. Now read this article which points-out the downsides. In brief:

- Not likely to be any more successful than webtv.
- Requires a massive hard drive to hold 5000 movies (distributed over the whole population)
- Hackable which means movies could be stolen & burned to DVD by pirates (or shared over the net).

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/05/04/vudu_rawflow_joost/

Okay. Now read this article which points-out the downsides. In brief:

- Not likely to be any more successful than webtv.
- Requires a massive hard drive to hold 5000 movies (distributed over the whole population)
- Hackable which means movies could be stolen & burned to DVD by pirates (or shared over the net).

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/05/04/vudu_rawflow_joost/

Same company - Vudu.

Will downloads be for everyone? I don't think so but some will definitely "buy into" it regardless of any downfalls.

Hollywood seems to have confindence in Vudu as just about all the studios agreed to provide movies for the service. Just as most agreed to back Xbox Live - another download service.

All everyone is looking for is the next "big thing" in CE. You could almost call it seed money. It works - great - doesn't work - only Vudu loses out.

$300 is not bad for 5000 movies.
I could cancel my cable, and just watch the Vudu box for the next two-to-three years.

Don't forget that the "premiums (HBO, SHO, Cinemax) also carry a lot of non-movie content. I actually like a lot of that content (Sopranos, Weeds, boxing, etc.)!

A set top box that holds up to 5000 movies? For 300 smackers? Can you say "Bullshit"? Can you say "VooDoo"? It be some black magic for any stb to hold 50 movies, much less 5000! Me thinks the stb is nothing but a stream machine that will hold links to a server. The concept is there, but the reality is that you will depend upon your ISP and it's speed in order to watch one movie. In HD, bullshit again. Today, just not possible.

Interesting, but I'll stick with Microsoft + 360 (and IPTV when it becomes availabile). I've been impressed with the level of partnerships that Microsoft has been making here with the people that matter. (Studios).

When you have 12, 14, 16 billion dollar Fiscal earings per quarter you have more money to throw at the studios.

Here is an update on how Vudu intends to accomplidh the feat they talked about in the article that i posted as the original.

http://www.videobusiness.com/article/CA6441378.html

Don't forget that the "premiums (HBO, SHO, Cinemax) also carry a lot of non-movie content. I actually like a lot of that content (Sopranos, Weeds, boxing, etc.)!
I'm too cheap to subscribe to HBO. So I've never seen the Sopranos. Or Weeds.

Me thinks the stb is nothing but a stream machine that will hold links to a server. The concept is there, but the reality is that you will depend upon your ISP and it's speed in order to watch one movie. In HD, bullshit again. Today, just not possible. Well, since its a "peer-to-peer" setup, you're not reliant upon just one central server. You can also download the movie from your neighbors' box (similar to how Bittorrent works).

I use Bittorrent now, and it works quite well. You just have to be patient enough to wait for the 12-hour download of the latest movie or tv show. I download my "stuff" during the day and watch it at night.

In HD, bullshit again. Today, just not possible.


Watched Bourne HD the other day if it's not MPEG4( which they use) HD then it's very close. Compare it through HD-DVD and was just as good. It does depend on your provider though, those with the 1/768 are out of luck, 3/768 maybe but only if the connection is clean

Movie upscaling is about the same as HD players, the nice part is sit on the sofa(I use my recliner)and scroll through the selections and pick--no mail box--no driving --no returns--no bad disk. Yes we do have Netflix also, went we first go Netflix we watched a ton of movies, now we order and have something going on so they wind up sitting on the table and get mailed back unviewed. With Vudu I order when the time is right( sounds like a Viagra commerical) Sunday morning, woke up a 4:00am and watched the Transformers(not HD but better than a DVD player)was nice

There is not any reason why with advanced codecs and using the 1280x720p/30 format, which would be just fine for films, on a localized network there should be a problem. Uverse sends HD over phone wires at about 8 mbps.