Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

While rumors have been flowing hot and heavy about VUDU’s possible demise, it seems the company has other plans in mind. We’ve received word that select beta team members are now being asked to try out new downloads that are intended to rival Blu-ray quality. Dubbed HDX movies, these ultra-high-def flicks are currently being watched by folks willing to wait a number of hours (two to three) for a film to start, but there’s no guarantee that we’ll ever see this hit the masses. Sure, we totally dig the idea of BD-quality content on-demand, but we could almost scoot down to Blockbuster, rent a bona fide Blu-ray Disc, watch, and return it before a so-called HDX title even begins.

[Thanks, anonymous]

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Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

With apologies to Shakespeare, something is brewing at VUDU. With CEDIA just around the corner, the company has laid off some of its staff, most notably some of its marketing higher-ups. Additionally, rumors are swirling regarding just about every aspect of the upstart company’s future. CEPro got some talk-time with the VUDU’s national dealer channel manager, and a theme of decreased emphasis on the retail channel seems to run throughout the conversation, punctuated by a end-of-life status on the VUDU X100. Meanwhile, the company is making some CEDIA promises for its custom-install-targeted VUDU XL: more HD content (1,000 titles), more connectivity (HD over component) and lifetime warranties on purchased titles. It’s all rumor, but we wouldn’t be surprised to see VUDU move exclusively into the custom-install market where it seems to have a toe-hold. So what say ye — is something rotten in VUDU, or should we hang up the codpiece and get back to work?

[Image courtesy Blog of Wishes]

Read - CEPro’s VUDU interview
Read - VUDU CEDIA plans

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Filed under: Home Entertainment

Shortly after picking up its very own adult channel, VUDU is announcing a more, shall we say, family friendly bit today. Effective immediately, VUDU users will be able to renew any SD rental for $0.99 within seven days of first viewing the film, while renewals of HD rentals will cost $1.99. Additionally, VUDU has launched a new “99 for 99″ movie channel which contains a rotating list of 99 films that can be rented for — you guessed it — just south of a Washington. Interestingly, VUDU calls the deals “summer blockbuster specials,” though there’s no sign of an end date for either. Can’t say this totally changes the way we see the movie set-top-box, but it’s certainly a step in the right direction. Full release after the jump.

Continue reading VUDU announces $0.99 extended rentals, “99 for 99″ movie channel

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Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

Lots of news on the VUDU front today, starting with the announcement that the grossly overpriced VUDU XL is finally shipping to all three people who forked out for one. Moving on to more important matters, the forthcoming v1.3 software — which is hitting barely a month after v1.2 was loosed — will open up the VUDU Vault. Put simply, this feature will “enable consumer to move owned titles from the VUDU hard drive to a secure area on VUDU servers to free up space for additional purchases.” As expected, the feature will only be available on “select titles,” but hey, we suppose we’ll take what we can get. Moving on, VUDU is also announcing the $39 IR receiver kit for both the original STB and the XL, which will “allow for the operation of the service using approved programmable remotes.” Lastly, v1.3 will bring about a numerically listed Most Watched overlay as well as improved searching for TV episodes. No word on when the update will start being pushed out, but we’d guess it’ll be sooner rather than later.

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Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

Yeah, the critics have already had their shot at the VUDU, but now that the latest software update has towed in support for HD streaming, Engadget HD figured it prudent to dedicate a review specifically to the high-definition capabilities of the movie set-top-box. Eager to see if it’s worthy of being connected to your HDTV? Come on over, the water’s fine.

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Filed under: CES, HDTV, Home Entertainment

Granted, we did just ask you how you’d tweak the VUDU, but we’re fairly certain none of you would recommend over doubling the price. Nevertheless, VUDU is apparently hoping that folks not quite ready to pull the trigger on its original set-top-box will be totally enthused about dropping a cool grand on the XL. Apparently, this one sports a fair bit more internal space (1TB to be exact) — enough to hold 500 SD movies. If you’re wondering if any films other than the Bourne trilogy will be available to take advantage of all this new space, VUDU is apparently aiming to unleash 70 of ‘em later this month. Oh, and those high-definition films will run you $5.99 (new titles) / $3.99 (”HD classics) to rent, but hey, what’s that after you’ve laid down $999 for the box itself?

[Image courtesy of VUDU]
Read - VUDU XL has 1TB of storage
Read - 70 new HD films coming to VUDU

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Filed under: Features, HDTV, Home Entertainment

Regardless of your feelings regarding the VUDU set-top-box, it’s hard to knock its intrigue. From inception, we’ve been hooked on the concept, and while we’ve had our reservations about it, our hopes were bolstered after checking it out at CEDIA. After release, a number of reviewers found the device to be interesting, relatively useful and unfortunately hamstrung, but we still see quite a bit of promise in the box.

In its current form, there’s no denying that the limitations are stifling. Right out of the box, you’re stuck with a smallish internal hard drive that fills up quickly if you prefer your material in high-definition, and even if you look to external HDDs to catch the overflow, you’re still left with content that’s hardly portable. Sure, the port selection is up to snuff, the interface is beyond acceptable and the design is at least moderately sexy, but the inability to transfer content to discs along with the relatively high prices of downloadable media really put a damper on things. Couple that with the expansion of HD VOD and it’s easy to slip your $399 right back where it came from. Still, we’re curious to see how you all would tweak the VUDU to make it a more formidable competitor. Granted, we’ve all ideas that the majority of the changes will involve a massive overhaul of DRM in general, but don’t be scared to think outside of the proverbial box on this one.

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Filed under: Features, Home Entertainment

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment.

Imagine a history in which broadcast television programming was not sent directly to television sets. Rather, it was sent to another, more expensive device in the home with a smaller screen. If you paid $40 per month, you could access at best only about 10 percent of the shows you really wanted. These shows were available on demand, but under ideal conditions needed a few minutes before you can start watching them. Furthermore, to watch them in the comfort of your living room, you had to rely on a slow, unreliable connection between the box and the TV set.

This bleak situation characterized the state of much broadband video at the debut of Vudu earlier this year. Vudu’s $400 glossy black box sports a curvy perimeter that is a bit taller than an Apple TV. It delivers instant access to about 10,000 movies using a slick and sophisticated combination of local caching and distributed computing. Rent or buy the movie and it starts playing. Vudu just introduced its first high-definition movies — the Bourne movie trilogy, offering the high-definition media-free version of The Bourne Ultimatum for sale for the first time.

The physical version of that movie is available exclusively on HD-DVD, but with Vudu you don’t have to worry about the alliances of studios or video rental chains. The company has struck deals with all major studios and the Vudu device is hundreds of dollars less than dual-format high-definition disc players from Samsung and LG Electronics. On the other hand, nearly all of its content is more of a quality match for the dirt-cheap and universally-supported standard DVD player today.

Continue reading Switched On: Vudu starts on its to-dos

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Home Entertainment

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!