Tue
Feb 23 2010
07:21 am
Walmart in your TV
By: R. Neal

Walmart has acquired digital video on demand provider VUDU, Inc. for an undisclosed sum that is "not material to its first quarter earnings for fiscal year 2011."

There's competition in this field from Amazon and Netflix, with Blockbuster trying to catch up, too. I've tried all those on a Tivo, and Amazon is the best. Netflix is basically useless. VUDU set top box users seem to like the service, which claims to have the largest HD movie library. Too bad about the Walmart thing.

Lots of Blu Ray players and TVs are including this capability, and there are other set top boxes like the Roku and Apple TV. Game consoles have it, too. None of them have yet been able to make a deal with Hulu, though. (And curiously, Microsoft has abandoned their Media Center Extender except for XBox.)

It's nice technology for renting movies. Haven't been to a Blockbuster store in ages. The only thing I wonder is if the internet can handle all the traffic if this really catches on.

UPDATE: Heh. Apparently VUDU is also a big time provider of adult video on demand. On the VUDU forums, users are complaining that there haven't been any new titles in the past few weeks, and they are wondering if the Walmart deal means the end of adult video on VUDU. Conversely, is Walmart is getting in the porn business?

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R. Neal's picture

Heh. Apparently VUDU is also

Submitted by R. Neal on Tue, 2010/02/23 - 7:49am.

Heh. Apparently VUDU is also a big time provider of porn on demand.

On the VUDU forums, users are complaining that there haven't been any new titles in the past few weeks, and they are wondering if the Walmart deal means the end of porn on VUDU. Conversely, is Walmart is getting in the porn business?

Also on the forums there are already users saying they will dump VUDU because they are boycotting Walmart.

WhitesCreek's picture

Boycott Walmart

Submitted by WhitesCreek on Tue, 2010/02/23 - 8:11am.

I've been doing this for years. I plan to bring WalMart to its knees just like I've done to Exxon.

R. Neal's picture

Yeah, me too. Obviously we're

Submitted by R. Neal on Tue, 2010/02/23 - 8:19am.

Yeah, me too. Obviously we're killing them:

"Net sales for the full year topped $405 billion... adjusted earnings from continuing operations attributable to Walmart for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2010 were $4.5 billion."

(link...)

R. Neal's picture

We watch mostly new releases

Submitted by R. Neal on Tue, 2010/02/23 - 8:49am.

We watch mostly new releases in HD, and the Netflix on demand pickings are slim. On some older stuff the picture is stretched to fit on HD format screens, and looks like it was recorded off cable or something.

But mostly the playback was iffy at best, with lots of hangups and start overs and dropped frames and pixelation. Several movies wouldn't play at all. That could be a problem with the Tivo, though. Maybe the Roku box or something works better.

The DRM is the main complaint about Tivo/Amazon. For rentals, you can usually keep them for a week but once you start play you have 24 hours to watch. They are starting to make that 3 days. Blockbuster rentals are similar.

You can also "purchase" movies for unlimited viewing, but you can't transfer them off your Tivo device. Not sure I see the point of that. Plus, some popular new releases are "purchase only" for a while before they have rental pricing.

Other than that, the picture quality is fairly decent, they are fast to download and you can usually start watching in 15 or 20 minutes, and they have recently updated soundtracks to Dolby 5.1 on new releases.

R. Neal's picture

P.S. I'm wondering about the

Submitted by R. Neal on Tue, 2010/02/23 - 8:59am.

P.S. I'm wondering about the future of Tivo. They don't seem to be updating their technology to keep up with home networks and media servers and whatnot. And their on demand apparrently requires writing a Tivo specific client, so it took them a long time to even get Netflix and it seems a little buggy.

It's also been reported that they are losing market share to cable/satellite DVRs and streaming enabled TVs and Blu Ray players. They screwed up letting DirecTV get away. Plus, you have to pay monthly for their program guide per each Tivo, which I believe is already included with cable/satellite DVRs.

smalc's picture

Directv DVR has a $7/month

Submitted by smalc on Tue, 2010/02/23 - 10:39am.

Directv DVR has a $7/month charge. Part of that is an extra satellite feed so that you can record and view two different channels live. But, an extra feed with no DVR is only $5.

Thag13's picture

We watch netflix from My sons

Submitted by Thag13 on Tue, 2010/02/23 - 4:54pm.

We watch netflix from My sons xbox 360 and we have had few complaints. I have not done many HD movies, but honestly I am not seeing the big diff between the Standard DVD and the Bluray enough to make me want to buy one yet. The price difference in the DVD is an issue as well.
I should add, that I buy a lot of my DVDs used and not a lot of Blu rays get to the pawn shops and used book stores in my neck of the woods.
I am sure I will get a BluRay at some point. Its a matter of cost and when I think I can get enough Blu ray content to make it worth while.

I do wish I could trade in my old DVR from comcast for one that has a bigger hard drive, the one i have now fills up really quick when I want to get HD content.

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