Vudu Service

I haven’t tried the new Vudu service but I was wondering if I buy Videos on Vudu will i need to store them on a local drive or can I store them on my NAS?

TIA

You can’t store them at all.   They’re kept “in the cloud.”

TonyPh12345 wrote:

You can’t store them at all.   They’re kept “in the cloud.”

 

 

So the download and store feature doesn’t apply to the WD device then?

vudu Donwload and Store

Movie Download

This feature is available on select devices featuring VUDU. In order to use this feature, your VUDU device

must be connected to the Internet.

Summary

The Movie Download feature allows you to download a movie to the hard disk drive built into your

VUDU device. Once downloaded, you can then watch the movie directly from the hard disk, without

having to stream it over the Internet.

Downloading a Movie

You may download a movie immediately after purchasing it or at any time after you have purchased it.

Purchasing and Downloading

In order to purchase a movie and begin downloading it immediately, please follow these steps:

  1. Select “Buy Movie” from the Movie Details page

  2. Select the movie video quality (SD, HD and HDX) that you would like to own. The download feature

is only available for movies that you select to “own” on VUDU.

  1. Once you purchase the movie, you will be presented with several options, select “Download and

Watch Later”. Your movie will begin downloading.

Acch!  Never noticed that before.

Now I’ll retract my statement…  I’m not sure.  :)

Maybe I can shed some light on this…I have been a VUDU customer for 3.5 years,  service was great…I talked to a tech regarding downloading to the Live Hub, at the time he said downloading to the device was part of the certification…I purchased the Hub based on this information…After the latest firmware update, I did not see the Download tab in the UI…I promptly sent the tech a PM, he told me that the certification team decided not to support downloading to the Hub…He couldn’t say why support was pulled…

I wish a ton of VUDU download supporters would contact their site to voice concern about this(if it is an importtant feature for you)…For me, it’s a deal breaker…I don’t know how many people on this forum are interested in downloading content from these services, but I loved it and I will miss that part of VUDU(I had the original VUDU box)…CinemaNow and Blockbuster allow downloads to the Hub, but they do not have the quality of VUDU…I was going to use the internal drive of the Hub to store my VUDU films, with other content on my media server…

That said, I own a lot of movies on the service and will stream what I have, but will curtail new purchases…The service provides the best quality movie streaming out there,  offers 3D content, 7.1 Dolby Digital sound)on some films, otherwise DD+ 5.1…I am not posting this to bash the service, just to express disappointment about the decision they made…

This is all true, if you own a device that allows downloads…Keep in mind not all devices can download HD content, just SD…

So the download and store feature doesn’t apply to the WD device then?

vudu Donwload and Store

Movie Download

This feature is available on select devices featuring VUDU. In order to use this feature, your VUDU device

must be connected to the Internet.

Summary

The Movie Download feature allows you to download a movie to the hard disk drive built into your

VUDU device. Once downloaded, you can then watch the movie directly from the hard disk, without

having to stream it over the Internet.

Downloading a Movie

You may download a movie immediately after purchasing it or at any time after you have purchased it.

Purchasing and Downloading

In order to purchase a movie and begin downloading it immediately, please follow these steps:

  1. Select “Buy Movie” from the Movie Details page

  2. Select the movie video quality (SD, HD and HDX) that you would like to own. The download feature

is only available for movies that you select to “own” on VUDU.

  1. Once you purchase the movie, you will be presented with several options, select “Download and

Watch Later”. Your movie will begin downloading.

This is all true for a device that allows downloading, keep in mind not all devices can download HD or HDX content, just SD…

I’m not sure what the benefit of downloads would be.   

The benefit depends on individual needs…I my case I loved to be able to download my HDX purchases to my old VUDU box…Sometimes streaming is not stable, i.e. buffering, outages, etc…As HDX was close to Blu-ray quality, I did not need to buy Blu disks, rip them, etc…My goal is to go diskeless…Another reason  is ISP caps…And the threat of Cinavia in future Blu-rays and devices…I figure if there is a  legal download service  that I can get  high quality HD downloads from at a reasonable price, that I can play the files offline, and allow for fair use, I’m all for it…The Hub is a replacement for my VUDU box…

Good points all.   Hadn’t considered bandwidth caps…  

Thanks, Tony…I know everyone has different uses for the Hub, I am currently backing up my HD-DVD’s and Blu-rays that I do have  to my NAS, as I said before, use the Hub’s drive for the HDX downloads…I have not purchased many Blu-rays( just The Dark Knight) in all the time I’ve been with VUDU…Bottom line, they made a business decision, if they don’t like the amount of money I’ve spent with them to continue, tough…I know CinemaNow and Blockbuster both offer downloads…The quality may not be as good, but that may change as competition between VOD and electronic sell-thru companies heats up…

Yeah… and speaking of C/N… I’ve used them for a while.  I’ve downloaded close to 30 movies…  

The quality is really poor, given the file sizes that come in…   My kids and I watched Gnomeo and Juliet last night, and the opening scene (with the gnome on a stage with red curtains behind him) was SO pixelated and Macro-blocked, it was startling… and the file was something like 1.4 gigabytes.   When I rip DVDs to MKV, the files are smaller than that, and the quality is much better.

They definitely need to do a better job coding some movies…

Oh.  And it bears mentioning again… Vudu supports 3D TVs.  :)  My kids have watched a number of 3D trailers just for the heck of it.   I think they just like wearing the glasses.

I appreciate your comments about C/N…I have never used that service, I hope they will get serious about the quality of their encodes…Only Microsoft’s Zune and VUDU’s HDX offer what I consider near Blu-ray quality…I asked the question of the tech I spoke with, VUDU certified both the new WDTV Live and the Live Hub for their service. Why certify a device that has onboard storage and not allow people to  use it , turning it into a just a streamer for accessing VUDU content? I did not  get an answer…

Are all the films you downloaded from C/N of poor quality? By the way, I activated my Hub for C/N, but can’t browse movies, there is a circular busy icon that  just goes arorund and around, movie thumbnails never appear, I can navigate other parts of the UI, though…Same thing with the Blocbuster app…I can access my VUDU films fine, however…

I called C/N  support and they ran me through the basics, did not solve problem…I have a FIOS 35/35 connection, so speed is not the issue and I can stream my VUDU films without a glitch…Any ideas?  Thanks…

No, not all films, and not ALL of any film… Just specific scenes… I’ve had the same issues with CN hanging… Usually a full reboot fixes it for me.

donthetech wrote:

Maybe I can shed some light on this…I have been a VUDU customer for 3.5 years,  service was great…I talked to a tech regarding downloading to the Live Hub, at the time he said downloading to the device was part of the certification…I purchased the Hub based on this information…After the latest firmware update, I did not see the Download tab in the UI…I promptly sent the tech a PM, he told me that the certification team decided not to support downloading to the Hub…He couldn’t say why support was pulled…

 

I wish a ton of VUDU download supporters would contact their site to voice concern about this(if it is an importtant feature for you)…For me, it’s a deal breaker…I don’t know how many people on this forum are interested in downloading content from these services, but I loved it and I will miss that part of VUDU(I had the original VUDU box)…CinemaNow and Blockbuster allow downloads to the Hub, but they do not have the quality of VUDU…I was going to use the internal drive of the Hub to store my VUDU films, with other content on my media server…

 

That said, I own a lot of movies on the service and will stream what I have, but will curtail new purchases…The service provides the best quality movie streaming out there,  offers 3D content, 7.1 Dolby Digital sound)on some films, otherwise DD+ 5.1…I am not posting this to bash the service, just to express disappointment about the decision they made…

I browsed around the site this morning but I don’t have a VUDU account, it looked like download was an option but  from what you are saying its not active? Besides buying movies I like I was also interested in Adult but I see they no longer have any adult material.

I also want to go diskless, I have a Roku and Revue for streaming and a couple old retired FAT+. I was hoping that I could store on the NAS and then view  from a Hub that I would add to another room.

Download is an option for certain devices, but not for the Live Hub…You can download to your original VUDU box,(which can be bought on Ebay, however, the technology with them has gotten long in the tooth…)PC/laptop(SD only), PS3, and as far as I know, some Blu-ray players with a built-in HDD and VUDU app…There are not many devices that you can use to download VUDU content…They just also certified the Xbox360, but I’m not sure of it’s download ability with VUDU…

You may want to call their Customer Care for more Info, but I was told in no uncertain terms the Hub is not supported for downloads…I feel so strongly about this that I am considering writing an email to their top brass(hopefully someone will actually read it)…I think customer satisfaction is important to them and I have been satisfied when they promptly resolved my issues. All I can say again is, if the ability to download to the Live Hub movies you purchased through VUDU is important to you, let them know abou it…

Walmart got rid of the mature content on the service when they bought it…Boy, I remember those days!!:wink: