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Great Deal on UltraViolet Movies

Haywood

Haywood

Well-Known Member
Famous
Vudu is currently running a deal where you get 50% off disc to digital when you convert 10 or more movies. That means you can convert 10 DVD movies and upgrade them to HDX (1080p 7.1 sound) for $25. You can convert 10 Blu-Rays for $10.

It is pretty hard to argue against the value proposition of upgrading a DVD to damned-near Blu-Ray quality HDX for $2.50, especially when you have a large library. The only bummer is that not all movies are eligible (Disney is a big hold-out).
 
No love for UltraViolet? I think this is a rather good deal for those of us with hundreds of standard definition DVDs.
 
Yes, I realize I could Google the answer but, if you don't mind, I'll just ask you: what exactly is an UltraViolet movie and what are their benefits?
 
UltraViolet is a widely adopted platform (Disney is the only major studio hold-out) for cloud-based movie ownership. Instead of a physical disc, you get the rights to stream the movie to a wide variety of devices (including pretty much anything with a web browser). You can even download up to a certain number of copies of each movie for off-line viewing. There are several resellers where you can buy, rent and watch movies. The biggest are Vudu and Cinema Now. UV copies are slowly replacing the awful and useless Digital Copy crap Hollywood tried to stick us with for years.

The highest picture quality available through UV is damned near indistinguishable from Blu-Ray. It is, hands down, the best streamed video quality I have ever seen. Resolution is 1080p and the sound is Dolby Digital Plus 7.1 (not lossless, but still very good). It is VASTLY better in every respect than DVD and only marginally inferior to BD.

The Disc-to-Digital program lets people who already own a movie obtain a UV copy at a very low cost. Converting a DVD to a standard definition UV copy or converting a BD to a high-definition UV copy costs $2. Converting a DVD to a high definition UV copy costs $5. That's not a terrible deal as it is, but to encourage people with large collections, they just sweetened the pot by giving you 50% off the entire order if you do more than 10 movies at a time. That means you can get a cloud copy of a BD for a buck, which is nice. Far more compelling, however, is the ability to get an HD copy of a movie that you only have on DVD for $2.50. Is it BD? No, but it is really, really close and much, much less expensive.
 
I knew I could count on you. Excellent answer. I couldn't have gotten that kind of info on Google. Thank you.
 
Zing a lot of current Blurays and some DVD come with an UV copy. It's a index size card with a 10 digit password code. You log onto the website provided on the card and enter the password and within a few seconds literally just a few seconds) the movie is added to your collection. You have to set up your UV account on sites like Flixster or Vudu but once the app is on your tablet or laptop then you can either stream the movie or download it to your tablet for watching offline. When downloaded most DVD quality movies are about 1.5 - 2 GB. I prefer standard DVD quality on my iPad 2 since I don't have the Ultra display and the 10" screen is not large enough to really see that much of a difference between standard and Bluray. But feel those with a iPad 3 or 4 might benefit would the higher resolution screens.
 
Yeah, this does seem like a good deal. I've got 15 or 20 dvd's that I would love to have on Bluray, which some of them are not available, and I need to check it out to see if they are on there. Thanks for heads up Scott!
 
I've got a few questions but I'll start with just one: who underwrites the risk to the purchaser of the provider going out of business in future - which is an almost near-certainty for these kinds of latest and greatest things?

Not too long ago Blockbuster could do no wrong.

Now it's cloud-based rights to use something in future.

Don't get me wrong; it sounds neat and all that. But when I die (say in thirty years), my youngest daughter gets my entire movie collection, which, so long as she still has a player that still works, she can continue to watch for decades and decades after that.

I'm obviously providing an extreme example. But let's work back from there. My example takes us out say 60 years. Will Vudu be around that long (assuming I've "bought" from them this cloud-based right)? If not will my rights likely survive that long? Answer to both: doubt it very much. 50 years? 40? 30? 20? 10? I'm still very doubtful given how much the landscape has changed in the last 10. 5 years? I think we're getting close to a 50% chance.

Which gets back to my original question. Who is underwriting that risk / likelihood? The studios? If Vudu (again in the case of this example) goes under, have they guaranteed that they'll make their copyright material available, through another provider, for free, to those who paid that licensing fee?

Or am I missing something?

This is all new to me.

Jeff (who loves running his fingers over shiny discs)
 
Vudu is just a reseller. The content is actually licensed from the studios. If I buy an UltraViolet movie on Vudu, I can watch it on Flixter or Cinema Now. If Vudu dies a horrible death, I am still covered as long as UV is around and one of the ways that I am covered is that I can download a copy of the movie to keep on my local hard drive.

Having said that, I only have two movies that I only own on UV. Everything else is something that I at least own on DVD, if not Blu-Ray. I'm not ready to give up on discs entirely. The cardinal virtue of this deal is that it gives you a really great upgrade on a movie you already own for a whole lot less than it would cost to get that movie on Blu-Ray. The cheapest Blu-Rays I've seen are $7, which is almost triple the cost of a disc-to-digital upgrade. I'm spending very little and I still have the DVD.

The other great thing about UV is the ability to watch your movies on demand anywhere. In my case, that also includes different rooms in my house. I love the idea of having the best of my movie library available on demand from any Roku in the house. I could accomplish the same thing by ripping my movies, but that is very time consuming, takes a ton of disc space, requires a lot of maintenance and is generally a pain. I've spent a lot of time playing with disc ripping, converting and streaming and I am pretty sure at this point that it is not cheaper to do it myself than it is to just pay a buck or two for a UV license.
 
Ok. Now I'm understanding things a little better.

So if I currently own a DVD that I bought when DVD first came out, how do I then buy a UV copy? What do I do to prove that I actually bought that original copy years and years ago, in order to purchase "upgraded" rights to it?

And, is there any chance that purchased laserdiscs or even VHS will suffice? :)

Update: I'm now reading info posted on Vudu site. Apparently you scan the DVD at one of the steps in the process. (Presumably it only reads enough to identify it - I'm guessing.) I've just done a search for a bunch of classic titles (60's and earlier) that I'd be really interested in, and only a couple popped up. Mind you the two that did pop up (Laura - 1944; The Big Sleep - 1946) are relatively popular titles, whereas the others have always been hard to find.

Additional query: If the verification consists of inserting an original disc into your disc drive, is there any reason why I can't just borrow a stack of discs (which I first verify to be available for upgrade) from my local library for free and pay for UV copies?
 
Pissed at this whole process. Okay so the past few days converted ten standard dvd's movies to take advantage of the 50% discount which went fine. But since none of my computers have a Bluray drive I tried to use my PS3 which is Vudu supported but guess what? The disc to digital feature is not supported by PS3, so the Vudu website says take your Blurays to Wal Mart to have the Blurays converted. So I go Wal Mart today and the clerk has never even heard of the promotion and nothing is showing on her system. So I show her the Vudu promotion on my tablet so she loads all 30 Blurays on my system but the discount won't take. So she says the movies are pending on my account and to go home log on to complete the transaction to get the discount.

I then get home and none of my movies show up. So I contact Vudu customer support who tell me the discount only applies if you do everything from home. I then say why does the website say to go to Wal Mart if your having problems converting. He tells me the discount will only work if done at home.

I love how the left hand doesn't know what the right is doing and all the misinformation I guess I'll bring my movies to the gtg and hopefully one of you guys has a laptop with Bluray drive and I'll just convert there to get the discount.

Pisses me off.
 
Btw here was my response from Vudu.

Hi Matthew,

Thank you for contacting VUDU customer care:

I apologize for the inconvenience and the frustration that this may have caused you. You will have to have a computer with a Blu-ray disc drive to convert your Blu-ray movies at home. If you do not have a Blu-ray disc drive, you will have to convert your movies at a Walmart store but you will not receive the discount.

If I could be of further assistance, please feel free to contact VUDU customer care. Thank you and have a great day!

Henry G.
VUDU Customer Care
1-888-554-VUDU (8838)
Support at VUDU.com
 
MatthewB said:
Btw here was my response from Vudu.

Hi Matthew,

Thank you for contacting VUDU customer care:

I apologize for the inconvenience and the frustration that this may have caused you. You will have to have a computer with a Blu-ray disc drive to convert your Blu-ray movies at home. If you do not have a Blu-ray disc drive, you will have to convert your movies at a Walmart store but you will not receive the discount.

If I could be of further assistance, please feel free to contact VUDU customer care. Thank you and have a great day!

Henry G.
VUDU Customer Care
1-888-554-VUDU (8838)
Support at VUDU.com
Click to expand...

Drop by Utard. We'll convert those suns-a-bitches

Rope
 
Well UV is trying to make it right.

Hello Matthew;

Thank you for contacting VUDU Customer Care,

I certainly apologize for the inconvenience and I understand your frustration. I have looked into your account and I do see that you have converted 10 movies into your account yesterday. I would be more than happy to apply a $7.25 credit to your account if you would like. Please keep in mind that the promotion is for the At Home BETA, but we do understand the issues that our customers are having with this new program. We are aware that there are still bugs that we are working with. Please let me know how you would like to proceed. Once again, I am truly sorry for the issues you are experiencing. I hope to hear from you soon.

Best regards,

Lisa


I let them know a simple disclaimer saying the discount isn't available at Wa Mart would've saved me the aggrevation and allowing the number one player PS3 to run the beta disc to digital when other players are indicated they can convert. Oh well Chris is gonna help me out at the gtg.
 
JeffMackwood said:
Ok. Now I'm understanding things a little better.

So if I currently own a DVD that I bought when DVD first came out, how do I then buy a UV copy? What do I do to prove that I actually bought that original copy years and years ago, in order to purchase "upgraded" rights to it?

And, is there any chance that purchased laserdiscs or even VHS will suffice? :)

Update: I'm now reading info posted on Vudu site. Apparently you scan the DVD at one of the steps in the process. (Presumably it only reads enough to identify it - I'm guessing.) I've just done a search for a bunch of classic titles (60's and earlier) that I'd be really interested in, and only a couple popped up. Mind you the two that did pop up (Laura - 1944; The Big Sleep - 1946) are relatively popular titles, whereas the others have always been hard to find.

Additional query: If the verification consists of inserting an original disc into your disc drive, is there any reason why I can't just borrow a stack of discs (which I first verify to be available for upgrade) from my local library for free and pay for UV copies?
Click to expand...

Newer rental discs are encoded so that the UV disc-to-digital will recognize them as rentals and ineligible for conversion. There is nothing, however, to keep you from borrowing discs or scanning older rentals that pre-date the system. That is the risk the studios accept for getting people to buy into the system.

It is mainly newer or more popular movies. Also, there are many movies that are not eligible for conversion. Still others that are eligible do not work properly with the somewhat crappy beta software and must be physically taken to Walmart for verification. This is mildly annoying and I have a growing stack that I'm going to take down all at once.
 
Good to know that the discount is non-applicable at Walmart. I'll have to just keep reporting the trouble discs and trying them from home.
 
Like everything new, there will be bugs to sort out.

By the by, I think that they could also change their terminology a bit to avoid confusion. Correct me if I'm wrong, but there is no real "conversion" taking place between the owner's original disc that he or she inserts in his or her computer (or takes to Mall Wart) and the eventually in-the-cloud copy that he or she will then access. Presumably the studios have gone through the process of converting the rather limited number of titles that are available, and have placed a few copies here and there on a number of service providers' servers. What you then purchase is a right to access that copy. I can't imagine that each time a purchaser loads a disc in that there is some marvelous conversion process / number crunching that takes place - other than some form of verification. Why not simply say that one is purchasing a license to use a cloud-based copy (and download a copy, play it on multiple devices, etc.) But "conversion"? - especially when people are loading discs into computer drives? Misleading at best. IMO
 
Conversion is definitely an inaccurate description. More like "verification of prior ownership of a title to qualify you to buy a cloud-based copy of the movie at a deeply discounted price."
 
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