Vudu set-top box review round-up
We got to spend a bit of time with Vudu's eponymously named set-top box earlier this month at CEDIA, but those still trying to justify that $399 price tag now have a bit more info to help inform their decision, with a number of reviews of the device now cropping up online. Among the first to churn out a full review were the folks at Laptop Magazine, who seem to have found quite a bit to like in the device, despite some fairly serious limitations. They were especially impressed by the Vudu's "surprisingly good" video quality, which they say "makes you forget you're watching a movie downloaded over the Web." Leading those aforementioned limitations is the fact that those all those movies are "trapped on the Vudu box," meaning you can't offload them onto a portable media or stream them over a network connection. That also proved to be one CNET's big gripes with the device, who also lamented the lack of built-in WiFi, and the somewhat limited 24-hour viewing period for downloaded movies. Those also looking for an unboxing of the device can find that and more in Paul Stamatiou's review, which even goes so far as to rip the device apart for a peek inside. As for how the Vudu works, he too seems to have been fairly impressed by the general user experience, although the movie pricing structure proved to be a major stumbling block for him, as was the device's inability to export movies to a PC.
Read - Laptop Magazine (3.5 out of 5)
Read - CNET (7.7 out of 10)
Read - PaulStamatiou.com (7 out of 10)
[Photo courtesy of PaulStamatiou.com]
Read - Laptop Magazine (3.5 out of 5)
Read - CNET (7.7 out of 10)
Read - PaulStamatiou.com (7 out of 10)
[Photo courtesy of PaulStamatiou.com]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
cjohn17 @ Dec 2nd 2007 5:59PM
VUDU is Pointless & Disappointing
VUDU has some really serious content issues - of the 5,000 advertised titles there's little to rent. Their movie library if filled with titles one would find on a Hong Kong street corner or flea market. Laughable, amateurish, appalling movies that look like they're been shot in someone's basement. Much of the catalog is purchase only. New releases are not available to rent for 3-4 weeks, if ever. Quite a few older titles that have been staples at Blockbuster, or gathering dust at a the local supermarket, are purchase only.
VUDU moderators are blocking forum posts critical of the product.
"Vudu relies on a peer-to-peer network system for faster downloading. So, essentially, this company is using your bandwidth to help it save money it would have otherwise spent on its own servers and bandwidth." - Walt Mossberg, WSJ
"Plenty of the movies are pure filler. They range from no-name horror cheapies (San Franpsycho or Night Fangs, anyone?) to superniche flicks like The History of Texas Longhorns Football and Yoga for Depression and Gastro-Intestinal Disorders.
Another reason: Vudus catalog is a victim of what Hollywood calls distribution windows. After a movie leaves theaters, it becomes available through other channels in a strict order: (1) hotels and airlines; (2) DVD; (3) pay-per-view television; (4) movie channels like HBO and Starz; (5) TV and everywhere else." - David Pogue, NYTimes
"The average consumer, as long as he or she doesn't have true control over downloads thanks to technology such as digital rights management, is going to have a hard time justifying an expensive set-top box when it has neither the channel-surfing capabilities of a TiVo digital video recorder nor the low to nonexistent price of a DVR provided by a cable television company." - ZDNet
"That doesn't count for much when you can't get "the right movie, right now". The studios don't want to rent new releases, because they make more off sales... VUDU sucks and there is no reason to believe they will get better." - Keith Ohlfs, User Experience Architect, VUDU Inc. 11/24/07
My extended review: http://theillustratedconservative.blogspot.com/2007/11/vudu-pointless-disappointing.html