Tip: Convert physical Blu-ray and DVD discs to iTunes with Vudu and Movies Anywhere

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Comments

  • Reply 21 of 90
    Hmmmm... What's to stop someone from going to Best Buy and scanning every movie in the store???
    The TOC does mention a limit of 100 conversions per calendar year. So you could go crazy, but not that crazy.
  • Reply 22 of 90
    boltsfan17boltsfan17 Posts: 2,294member
    Hmmmm... What's to stop someone from going to Best Buy and scanning every movie in the store???
    The TOC does mention a limit of 100 conversions per calendar year. So you could go crazy, but not that crazy.
    Then again, most those movies at Best Buy wouldn't work anyway since it works on older movies that don't have digital copies. 
  • Reply 23 of 90
    netroxnetrox Posts: 1,415member
    I guess that even with illegal conversion done at the retail store or getting barcodes from the internet, the studios still make money regardless with that "small fee" for conversion. 
    jahblade
  • Reply 24 of 90
    boltsfan17boltsfan17 Posts: 2,294member
    linkman said:
    polymnia said:
    Hmmmm... What's to stop someone from going to Best Buy and scanning every movie in the store???
    I’d assume that’s why they collect location information. If you are scanning in retail environments, that probably flags you for investigation.
    Vudu states:
    "Why do you I need to allow the app GPS access to my device? Why do I need to add billing information?

    We take fraudulent activity seriously, so we've implemented a number of security measures to ensure none takes place. Asking that users enable GPS helps ensure Mobile Disc to Digital is used from a customers' billing address on their own collections. We have also set a cap of 100 discs that can be converted per account per year via mobile."

    https://support.vudu.com/?supportPage=home

    I was wondering how well the upscaling works on an older movie, such as Aliens which was filmed in 1979. Did they remaster HD content from film cellulose or was it simply upscaled digitally? Can anyone attest to a much better picture/sound quality?


    Aliens was remastered in 2010 so I assume the digital movie is the remastered version. Older movies that haven't been remastered are hit and miss when they are upscaled for HD. 
  • Reply 25 of 90
    sirlance99sirlance99 Posts: 1,293member
    cali said:
    scott r said:
    Despite being an Apple household, I've been collecting my movies via VUDU for a while now.  A few reasons why: 1) I own a TiVo which has a VUDU app and can play movies at 24fps 2) I liked the fact that VUDU was a cross-platform app, just in case I ever decided to change from an Apple household to Android or whatever. 3) The Disc-To-Digital program allowed me to convert a large number of my DVDs to digital for an affordable price.

    When the new Apple TV 4K came out and Apple announced free 4K upgrades I was starting to second-guess not going with iTunes, but with this new Movies Anywhere service it looks like I may be able to have my cake and eat it, too.  I'm still not happy, though, with Apple lack of support for 24fps.  Hopefully that's something they can (and will) fix/add via a software update.

    The D2D program only works on movies that came out before the digital codes started getting added to discs. And even then, a lot of movies don't work with D2D, either because a particular studio doesn't support it, or for other unknown reasons. I had a large chunk of my disc collection that I couldn't convert to digital using D2D. But I'm still happy about the ones that I *was* able to convert.
    have no idea why Apple doesn’t support 24fps. I wish they had an automatic native feature where movies play in 24fps if the user chooses. Are you thinking of switching from Apple?



    nhughes said:
    cali said:
    polymnia said:
    Hmmmm... What's to stop someone from going to Best Buy and scanning every movie in the store???
    I’d assume that’s why they collect location information. If you are scanning in retail environments, that probably flags you for investigation.
    Nothing stops them. This isn’t new.

    scammers have been selling movies this way for years. Look up posts for “D2D sales” ok GooglePlus. Movies Anywhere is gonna fuc* Apple so hard in so many ways. 
    I don't agree with that line of thinking entirely. If anything, this makes me even more committed to iTunes, ensuring I can have my entire collection in one place. But it's also consumer friendly — if Amazon has a good deal on a digital copy, I can buy there and transfer to iTunes. Best of both worlds (for me, at least).
    Doesn’t matter it’s already happening. I’m part of various Digital movie communities and many of them are talking about getting cheap devices this holiday to play iTunes content on like the 4k Fire TV.

    The Disc to Digital thing might be new to iTunes users but everyone else abuses the system to get cheap or free movies. People with large collections sell their movies for cheap it reminded me of the burnt CD market. 

    Edit:

    If anyone is interested go to googleplus and search “ultraviolet” and you’ll see all kinds of dirty things going down but most of the community are nice people. You’ll also see talk about ditching the “evil” Apple because of Movies Anywhere.

    Unless Apple takes gaming seriously or begins releasing a large catalog of iTunes exclusives these people have no reason to stick to Apple devices.
    What a drama queen you are. I’m in those same groups as I buy digital movie codes on the secondary market all the time. You are pretty much the ONLY person that doesn’t like this Movies Anywhere. Everyone else is happy that you can buy a movie from the cheapest source and, for the most part, play it however you like. 

    Also, iTunes codes were always way cheaper than UV/Vudu codes because no one really bought them. They’ve gone up a little now that Movies Anywhere is here but they are still somewhat cheaper. 

    I also have not see anyone say anything about the “evil” Apple. Pretty much the opposite actually. Some people were going to get the 4K Apple TV because the thinking was, you’d get free 4K movies on iTunes when buying from the other sources when they transferred to iTunes. Unfortunately that’s not the case and, even though your movie shows up as 4K on iTunes, it really only played in HD like the original source. 

    Stop your crying as you’re the only one doing it. Unless you like to provide evidence that there are a ton of people also crying that they now can play their iTunes movies through Movies Anywhere and other sources and have all their movies in one digital locker. 
  • Reply 26 of 90
    auxioauxio Posts: 2,717member
    If anyone is interested go to googleplus and search “ultraviolet” and you’ll see all kinds of dirty things going down but most of the community are nice people. You’ll also see talk about ditching the “evil” Apple because of Movies Anywhere.

    Unless Apple takes gaming seriously or begins releasing a large catalog of iTunes exclusives these people have no reason to stick to Apple devices.
    People who are in the mindset that everything in the world should be as cheap as possible or free (typically via illicit means) will likely never be Apple customers for very long. There will always be a cheaper knockoff device that will allow them to play their stolen content.  Even if Apple does get iTunes exclusives, how long do you think it'll take these people to find a way to make a copy of it and make it available to fellow scammers for free?
    edited October 2017
  • Reply 27 of 90
    it's about time that once you bought a movie, you can watch it with whatever service you want. My library was split between Vudu and iTunes. It would be nice if they also had a way to upgrade a digital SD movie to HD/4K without having to buy it again.
  • Reply 28 of 90
    It’s pretty obvious whoever wrote this piece is unfamiliar with the D2D program, UltraViolet, Disney or anything else 1- Box sets are ineligible for bar code D2D. You need to scan individual discs using the computer apps 2- Disney and MGM do not participate at this time in D2D. That includes any film they control like Star Wars or Indiana Jones 3-if thr Film is not UltraViolet, it’s not eligible. Akira is never working. If it’s not from Fox, Paramount, Lionsgate,Wb, or Sony it’s not happening as a rule. 4-ITunes will only stream movies you purchased there in 4k with random exceptions for digital copies. Anything coming in from elsewhere won’t do it. 5- Fox digital copy codes do not redeem 4k. Sony must be redeemed on their site for 4k rights, and only play back on Sony televisions in 4k 6- UltraViolet has had the features, as well as the ability to share your movies with your friends for 5 years. MA is basically the result of Amazon. Disney and Apple refusing to play nicely with thr rest of the industry. 7- you must scan in a location that matches the billing address of the account.
  • Reply 29 of 90
    StrangeDaysStrangeDays Posts: 12,834member
    nhughes said:
    cali said:
    polymnia said:
    Hmmmm... What's to stop someone from going to Best Buy and scanning every movie in the store???
    I’d assume that’s why they collect location information. If you are scanning in retail environments, that probably flags you for investigation.
    Nothing stops them. This isn’t new.

    scammers have been selling movies this way for years. Look up posts for “D2D sales” ok GooglePlus. Movies Anywhere is gonna fuc* Apple so hard in so many ways. 
    I don't agree with that line of thinking entirely. If anything, this makes me even more committed to iTunes, ensuring I can have my entire collection in one place. But it's also consumer friendly — if Amazon has a good deal on a digital copy, I can buy there and transfer to iTunes. Best of both worlds (for me, at least).
    But to evaluate that you must ask how long the license lasts. If this program goes the way of the DIVX flop, what happens to your purchases? Once attributed to you in iTunes will they remain with you forever? 
  • Reply 30 of 90
    nhughesnhughes Posts: 770editor
    bickle2 said:
    5- Fox digital copy codes do not redeem 4k.
    Incorrect. As I noted in the article, Logan streams in 4K and it was a redeemed digital copy. That's a Fox release.
  • Reply 31 of 90
    nhughesnhughes Posts: 770editor

    nhughes said:
    cali said:
    polymnia said:
    Hmmmm... What's to stop someone from going to Best Buy and scanning every movie in the store???
    I’d assume that’s why they collect location information. If you are scanning in retail environments, that probably flags you for investigation.
    Nothing stops them. This isn’t new.

    scammers have been selling movies this way for years. Look up posts for “D2D sales” ok GooglePlus. Movies Anywhere is gonna fuc* Apple so hard in so many ways. 
    I don't agree with that line of thinking entirely. If anything, this makes me even more committed to iTunes, ensuring I can have my entire collection in one place. But it's also consumer friendly — if Amazon has a good deal on a digital copy, I can buy there and transfer to iTunes. Best of both worlds (for me, at least).
    But to evaluate that you must ask how long the license lasts. If this program goes the way of the DIVX flop, what happens to your purchases? Once attributed to you in iTunes will they remain with you forever? 
    I would hope that once a purchase is "verified" in iTunes it sticks with the account, yes. Perhaps a brave soul would be willing to un-link or discontinue their Movies Anywhere account and see if the films remain in their iTunes library. That would be telling.
  • Reply 32 of 90
    boltsfan17boltsfan17 Posts: 2,294member
    nhughes said:

    nhughes said:
    cali said:
    polymnia said:
    Hmmmm... What's to stop someone from going to Best Buy and scanning every movie in the store???
    I’d assume that’s why they collect location information. If you are scanning in retail environments, that probably flags you for investigation.
    Nothing stops them. This isn’t new.

    scammers have been selling movies this way for years. Look up posts for “D2D sales” ok GooglePlus. Movies Anywhere is gonna fuc* Apple so hard in so many ways. 
    I don't agree with that line of thinking entirely. If anything, this makes me even more committed to iTunes, ensuring I can have my entire collection in one place. But it's also consumer friendly — if Amazon has a good deal on a digital copy, I can buy there and transfer to iTunes. Best of both worlds (for me, at least).
    But to evaluate that you must ask how long the license lasts. If this program goes the way of the DIVX flop, what happens to your purchases? Once attributed to you in iTunes will they remain with you forever? 
    I would hope that once a purchase is "verified" in iTunes it sticks with the account, yes. Perhaps a brave soul would be willing to un-link or discontinue their Movies Anywhere account and see if the films remain in their iTunes library. That would be telling.
    I actually un-linked my Movies Anywhere account with iTunes since I was having an issue with some movies from Vudu not showing up in my library. The movies I got free from moving over from Disney Anywhere to Movie Anywhere were still in my iTunes library. 
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 33 of 90
    boltsfan17boltsfan17 Posts: 2,294member
    nhughes said:
    cali said:
    polymnia said:
    Hmmmm... What's to stop someone from going to Best Buy and scanning every movie in the store???
    I’d assume that’s why they collect location information. If you are scanning in retail environments, that probably flags you for investigation.
    Nothing stops them. This isn’t new.

    scammers have been selling movies this way for years. Look up posts for “D2D sales” ok GooglePlus. Movies Anywhere is gonna fuc* Apple so hard in so many ways. 
    I don't agree with that line of thinking entirely. If anything, this makes me even more committed to iTunes, ensuring I can have my entire collection in one place. But it's also consumer friendly — if Amazon has a good deal on a digital copy, I can buy there and transfer to iTunes. Best of both worlds (for me, at least).
    But to evaluate that you must ask how long the license lasts. If this program goes the way of the DIVX flop, what happens to your purchases? Once attributed to you in iTunes will they remain with you forever? 
    I imagine they will stay in your library. This may not be the best example, but I bought the digital version of True Lies on Vudu a few years ago. For some reason, the movie studio pulled it and you can't buy the digital version anymore from anywhere. My copy is still in Vudu. 
  • Reply 34 of 90
    For the writer of this article, Notes on 4K, (you should already know this): Apple’s policy on free 4K streaming for HD content is only for iTunes owned HD content, and not all studios are on board. This means:

    1) First you must have bought or redeemed your HD title through iTunes.
    2) 4K streaming is available for ATV 4K, but you cannot download.
    3) iTunes shows you the highest quality available, not necessarily what you own.
    4) If you own an SD title, you don’t get free 4K streaming. (Star Trek 2009 came with SD digital copy, that is all I can play).

    Movies Anywhere does not support 4K at this time. So, you’ll be able to stream in SD/HD via Movies Anywhere, but, 4K will only work when streaming from the account where 4K was purchased. (See Movies Anywhere FAQ).



    Speculation: I seriously think Disney has teamed up with these other studios to fight apple’s free 4K upgrades, plans to implement a cost for 4K upgrades in future, when Disney has more 4K titles available.
  • Reply 35 of 90
    boltsfan17boltsfan17 Posts: 2,294member
    benji888 said:
    For the writer of this article, Notes on 4K, (you should already know this): Apple’s policy on free 4K streaming for HD content is only for iTunes owned HD content, and not all studios are on board. This means:

    1) First you must have bought or redeemed your HD title through iTunes.
    2) 4K streaming is available for ATV 4K, but you cannot download.
    3) iTunes shows you the highest quality available, not necessarily what you own.
    4) If you own an SD title, you don’t get free 4K streaming. (Star Trek 2009 came with SD digital copy, that is all I can play).

    Movies Anywhere does not support 4K at this time. So, you’ll be able to stream in SD/HD via Movies Anywhere, but, 4K will only work when streaming from the account where 4K was purchased. (See Movies Anywhere FAQ).



    Speculation: I seriously think Disney has teamed up with these other studios to fight apple’s free 4K upgrades, plans to implement a cost for 4K upgrades in future, when Disney has more 4K titles available.
    That's not true. 4K titles I bought on Vudu that transferred over to iTunes via Movies Anywhere stream in 4K. You can't download 4K on any other of the services such as Vudu either.  
    edited October 2017
  • Reply 36 of 90
    nhughesnhughes Posts: 770editor
    benji888 said:
    For the writer of this article, Notes on 4K, (you should already know this): Apple’s policy on free 4K streaming for HD content is only for iTunes owned HD content, and not all studios are on board. This means:

    1) First you must have bought or redeemed your HD title through iTunes.
    2) 4K streaming is available for ATV 4K, but you cannot download.
    3) iTunes shows you the highest quality available, not necessarily what you own.
    4) If you own an SD title, you don’t get free 4K streaming. (Star Trek 2009 came with SD digital copy, that is all I can play).

    Movies Anywhere does not support 4K at this time. So, you’ll be able to stream in SD/HD via Movies Anywhere, but, 4K will only work when streaming from the account where 4K was purchased. (See Movies Anywhere FAQ).



    Speculation: I seriously think Disney has teamed up with these other studios to fight apple’s free 4K upgrades, plans to implement a cost for 4K upgrades in future, when Disney has more 4K titles available.
    "you should already know this" - OK.

    "iTunes shows you the highest quality available, not necessarily what you own" - This is incorrect. As I noted in the article, I have a standard-def version of the Back to the Future trilogy. The films show in my iTunes library on tvOS as SD, not HD, even though the highest quality available on the iTunes Store is actually HD.

    "Movies Anywhere does not support 4K at this time" - This is correct, but misses a crucial point. The service doesn't offer 4K streaming itself, but it does allow syncing cross-platform of 4K movies in some cases. From the Movies Anwhere FAQ:

    Movies Anywhere does not currently support 3D, 4K or HDR formats. However, eligible UHD Digital Copy codes will flow to your connected Digital Retailers, some of which support UHD.

    Seems like 4K support is spotty. Fox is more lax, Warner is more stingy, based on my own digital copy sample size.
    edited October 2017
  • Reply 37 of 90
    nhughesnhughes Posts: 770editor
    nhughes said:

    nhughes said:
    cali said:
    polymnia said:
    Hmmmm... What's to stop someone from going to Best Buy and scanning every movie in the store???
    I’d assume that’s why they collect location information. If you are scanning in retail environments, that probably flags you for investigation.
    Nothing stops them. This isn’t new.

    scammers have been selling movies this way for years. Look up posts for “D2D sales” ok GooglePlus. Movies Anywhere is gonna fuc* Apple so hard in so many ways. 
    I don't agree with that line of thinking entirely. If anything, this makes me even more committed to iTunes, ensuring I can have my entire collection in one place. But it's also consumer friendly — if Amazon has a good deal on a digital copy, I can buy there and transfer to iTunes. Best of both worlds (for me, at least).
    But to evaluate that you must ask how long the license lasts. If this program goes the way of the DIVX flop, what happens to your purchases? Once attributed to you in iTunes will they remain with you forever? 
    I would hope that once a purchase is "verified" in iTunes it sticks with the account, yes. Perhaps a brave soul would be willing to un-link or discontinue their Movies Anywhere account and see if the films remain in their iTunes library. That would be telling.
    I actually un-linked my Movies Anywhere account with iTunes since I was having an issue with some movies from Vudu not showing up in my library. The movies I got free from moving over from Disney Anywhere to Movie Anywhere were still in my iTunes library. 
    This is great to hear. Sounds like we'll continue to have these movies in our iTunes accounts even if the Movies Anywhere partnership falls apart.

    Assuming Apple itself isn't going out of business or shuttering iTunes anytime soon, that is.
  • Reply 38 of 90
    nhughesnhughes Posts: 770editor

    nhughes said:
    cali said:
    polymnia said:
    Hmmmm... What's to stop someone from going to Best Buy and scanning every movie in the store???
    I’d assume that’s why they collect location information. If you are scanning in retail environments, that probably flags you for investigation.
    Nothing stops them. This isn’t new.

    scammers have been selling movies this way for years. Look up posts for “D2D sales” ok GooglePlus. Movies Anywhere is gonna fuc* Apple so hard in so many ways. 
    I don't agree with that line of thinking entirely. If anything, this makes me even more committed to iTunes, ensuring I can have my entire collection in one place. But it's also consumer friendly — if Amazon has a good deal on a digital copy, I can buy there and transfer to iTunes. Best of both worlds (for me, at least).
    But to evaluate that you must ask how long the license lasts. If this program goes the way of the DIVX flop, what happens to your purchases? Once attributed to you in iTunes will they remain with you forever? 
    I imagine they will stay in your library. This may not be the best example, but I bought the digital version of True Lies on Vudu a few years ago. For some reason, the movie studio pulled it and you can't buy the digital version anymore from anywhere. My copy is still in Vudu. 
    Somewhat related: I did some more digging on the Ex Machina situation, because I just saw an ad for the Apple TV 4K featuring a pic from that movie on twitter like yesterday, and I wanted to make sure I wasn't losing my mind. Some folks on Reddit said the 4K/HDR copy of Ex Machina on iTunes actually looked terrible (like not HDR at all) and the copy was pulled. So there are still some 4K growing pains, I guess.

    https://www.reddit.com/r/appletv/comments/7546nl/ex_machina_hdr_movie_on_itunes_does_not_look/

    (Update) - Since the complaint - iTunes has pulled this title from their list of HDR movies.
    I just rented this title (99c sale) and decided to watch it in its HDR glory. I tried both HDR modes - DV @ 24Hz and HDR10 @ 24Hz. Check stream info (down arrow key) indicates 4K HDR. But it definitely does not look anything close to other HDR stuff I have watched.
    edited October 2017
  • Reply 39 of 90
    Respectfully, I think your perception of how this process works is flawed.  I followed the VUDU scan to digital process for 18 bluray titles in my library.  All 18 titles successfully imported into my VUDU library.  After creating a Movies Anywhere account and linking it to my VUDU account, my VUDU library now appears within Movies Anywhere.

    I then linked my iTunes account to my Movies Anywhere account, providing visibility of my iTunes library within Movies Anywhere.  However, NONE of the 18 VUDU "scan to digital" titles imported into my iTunes movie library.  My iTunes movie library only contains titles directly purchased from iTunes store and Digital Copy downloads redeemed though iTunes store.

    The only centralized library of all titles from all linked accounts remains within the Movies Anywhere application.
  • Reply 40 of 90
    Sounds like a big loophole would be photographing barcodes in stores and then printing them at home to scan. 

    Surprised Apple gets so much flak when they think through everything but VUDU gets a pass for such s crappy implementation. 
    edited October 2017
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