Ultraviolet video streaming service shutting down on July 31
Digital movie locker service Ultraviolet has warned it will be shutting down on July 31, with the rise of the competing Movies Anywhere and other movie storage options thought to have prompted the shutdown of the service.
In an email to consumers, Ultraviolet advises that users will continue to be able to access movies and TV shows through retailers linked to their library, as well as to buy new content and redeem codes as usual, up until its closure at the end of July.
On the shutdown date, the library will automatically close, preventing any further changes from occurring, but bought content will still be accessible via retailers previously linked to the account. While more purchases could be made or film codes redeemed, they are to be performed solely at that retailer, and will not be added to an Ultraviolet library.
The service advises customers to log into their accounts and to select Retailer Services to verify there are online stores linked to the library. It is advised users should not unlink or close their Ultraviolet library, as the service is working with retailers to maintain access to acquired items beyond the closure date.
A warning on Myuv.com advising of the closure
While the iTunes store isn't a retailer that worked with Ultraviolet, retailers who do offer access to Ultraviolet collections do have their own iOS apps for streaming, meaning that some iOS users will be affected by the closure.
Approximately 30 million users are signed up to Ultravioet, and collectively store more than 300 million movies and TV shows via the service.
Speaking to Variety, Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE) president Wendy Aylsworth advised the decision was caused through the changing market for online services. "The marketplace for collecting entertainment content was very small when Ultraviolet started," advised Aylsworth. "It was siloed into walled gardens at the time."
Ultraviolet formed in 2011 with the support from most major Hollywood studios, bar Disney. Codes included in DVDs and Blu-ray discs offered to provide a digital version that could be watched online, introducing some users to the idea of streaming video for their paid content at a relatively early point in the life of the general paid streaming market.
Its biggest competitor is the Disney-produced Movies Anywhere, which has gained support from the studios that worked with Ultraviolet, with some deciding to cease distributing via Ultraviolet last year. Movies Anywhere crucially also included support for some major digital retailers that didn't work with Ultraviolet, including Apple's iTunes store alongside other major players Amazon and Google Play.
While the success of the Disney competitor may have contributed to its downfall, Aylsworth claims the decision to shutter Ultraviolet "doesn't really have anything to do with Movies Anywhere."
In an email to consumers, Ultraviolet advises that users will continue to be able to access movies and TV shows through retailers linked to their library, as well as to buy new content and redeem codes as usual, up until its closure at the end of July.
On the shutdown date, the library will automatically close, preventing any further changes from occurring, but bought content will still be accessible via retailers previously linked to the account. While more purchases could be made or film codes redeemed, they are to be performed solely at that retailer, and will not be added to an Ultraviolet library.
The service advises customers to log into their accounts and to select Retailer Services to verify there are online stores linked to the library. It is advised users should not unlink or close their Ultraviolet library, as the service is working with retailers to maintain access to acquired items beyond the closure date.
A warning on Myuv.com advising of the closure
While the iTunes store isn't a retailer that worked with Ultraviolet, retailers who do offer access to Ultraviolet collections do have their own iOS apps for streaming, meaning that some iOS users will be affected by the closure.
Approximately 30 million users are signed up to Ultravioet, and collectively store more than 300 million movies and TV shows via the service.
Speaking to Variety, Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE) president Wendy Aylsworth advised the decision was caused through the changing market for online services. "The marketplace for collecting entertainment content was very small when Ultraviolet started," advised Aylsworth. "It was siloed into walled gardens at the time."
Ultraviolet formed in 2011 with the support from most major Hollywood studios, bar Disney. Codes included in DVDs and Blu-ray discs offered to provide a digital version that could be watched online, introducing some users to the idea of streaming video for their paid content at a relatively early point in the life of the general paid streaming market.
Its biggest competitor is the Disney-produced Movies Anywhere, which has gained support from the studios that worked with Ultraviolet, with some deciding to cease distributing via Ultraviolet last year. Movies Anywhere crucially also included support for some major digital retailers that didn't work with Ultraviolet, including Apple's iTunes store alongside other major players Amazon and Google Play.
While the success of the Disney competitor may have contributed to its downfall, Aylsworth claims the decision to shutter Ultraviolet "doesn't really have anything to do with Movies Anywhere."
Comments
What are other’s takes on owning or renting?
No good answer for those who don't have the means to store a large volume of physical media.
There are pitfalls to owning too. Try watching a VCR version of a movie if you still have a working VCR. You may cringe at the quality. And what happens when your VCR breaks? Are they still making them? When I was in my 20s I was looking for an entertainment system so I splurged on a Laserdisk player. The sound and video quality blew away VCR material but the nearest store that rented or sold Laserdisks was about an hour away. Few disks were rented so I ended up buying a few (three or four I think). A few years later DVDs came out which put an end to Laserdisks though arguably Laserdisks had higher video quality. A few years after that, my Laserdisk play broke and there were no replacements. I donated the Laserdisks I had to Goodwill and maybe they found a new home for a while.
If you really want to own, own a copy you can save on your drive. I think iTunes is the only service that lets you save a local copy. That works well for me when I'm traveling. But I don't use it for buying. I'll rent a few movies before hitting the road, download them for the 30 day watch period, and hit the road. As long as I'm within a good wifi or cell service when I'm remote camping in my RV, I can reload movies.
So that is what I think. For me, renting, especially being able to rent with a 30 day download, is the way I watch almost all the movies I see.
In this case, you would have bought the physical media and gotten a Ultraviolet Code which you would enter to get a digital copy to watch. So you should still have that Physical Media and not really losing anything in this case.
So long as I have Internet service, I can watch all my Movies anywhere in the world. It's like my own personal Netflix service. But I can also have PLEX transcode movies to a format for my iPad and dump them to my iPad. Using the Plex app on my iPad, I can grab a bunch of movies from my NAS and have them right on my iPad to watch anywhere without having to have Internet access and stream them. Just watch directly. The last time I was camping, Wifi over at my Campsite was almost worthless. I could about get my e-mails, but streaming, HAHAHA. But if I'm on a plane, or I go to my Moms House for the weekend, and where she lives in the boonies where there is no high speed Internet, I just dump a number of movies on my iPad. I just don't trust any of this digital movie stuff. Anything out there in the CLOUD not under my control can disappear.
I used to browse Google+ code communities and the UV crowd(anti-Apple) would bash Apple so much! I was there to pick up the "crappy iTunes" HD version of movies for Free-$5. Before 4K upgrades came and prices skyrocketed.
They praised the copycat UV as superior. 2 years later both UV and Google+ shut down.
I always get the last laugh but never get the chance to laugh in their faces as I will have a hard time finding them just to say "HaHa" (Nelson voice).
With iTunes I got about $2000 worth of 4K upgrades. So there's a positive to everything if you look. DVDs have to be re-bought for higher quality and HDR/Dolby Vision/Atmos support is a mess.
My iTunes is also like a personal "Netflix" with a much, much higher quality library. Heck 99% of my movies scored 80 or above on Rotten Tomatoes.
Physical sucks. They scratch, get lost, take up massive space. I cringe now when I see bookshelves full of DVDs in peoples homes. I'm thinking "I have more movies in my pocket!".
I stopped buying physical when my entire media collection was stolen. I went iTunes and never looked back. I got convenience, free 4K, Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos and a better interface in return.
Just don't expect 4K/future upgrades from UV-redeemed movies on iTunes.
I signed up to them and scanned a test DVD, visible in Vudu but hasn’t synced across to MA & iTunes yet. (Edit: as described by WS below, this is due to the movie not being offered in Movies Anywhere).
There are a few caveats:
1) Not all movies will "convert". For example, Disney and it's subsidiaries don't allow for conversions.
2) To convert from SD (DVD) to HD (BluRay) it is actually $5. Same to same is just $2.
3) Paramount, Lionsgate and MGM do not participate in Movies Anywhere at this time so if you convert one of their films is will not show up anywhere but Vudu. Hopefully they'll jump on board soon.
4) To get the free 4k upgrade on the Apple TV, you have to buy a HD or 4k movie on iTunes and any HD movies later updated to offer 4k will be upgraded for free. You can also buy 4k elsewhere and iTunes will honor that as well if they have a 4k version. So Disc-to-Digital HD will not get you a free 4k upgrade in iTunes.
That being said, for 2 bucks I'll convert my old DVDs to the service and get rid of the discs (I'm done carrying around boxes of media)
So it sounds like you're saying any Vudu scans that are supported by MA and are added to my iTunes library are added their *permanently*, even if MA goes away? Surprised Apple would offer that.
Little confused about the 4k upgrade. Are you saying that if you buy any old random 4k title on iTunes (unrelated to your Vudu scanning), that Apple will then upgrade all of your eligible purchase history items to 4k?
But for $2, they're as good as the DVD I suppose. (Tho many DVD players up-sample SD discs somehow)
Yeah this isn't that tho, I'm not redeeming codes in iTunes, I'm using the Vudu desktop app to scan old DVDs. So far they only seem to come in as SD, which I suppose is fine since the DVDs themselves are only 720x480.
I only have one BluRay with an Ultraviolet redemption disc & code, I never redeemed it before (didn't realize iTunes redeemed them natively). Tried today but it's outdated or such, iTunes fails to verify the code. Meh.
My understanding of most digital services is that you do not own the movie- you own a license to watch the movie and cannot leave it to someone when you die. If you own physical media you can.
I don’t rent or subscribe to much of anything either. I hate subscription services. Netflix gets a pass because it slipped in under the “I have no TV service” clause, years ago (originally as a DVD rental service), and I’ve enjoyed watching shows on it year after year. I absolutely refuse to add more and more streaming services. No, it’s not good for consumers that every damned studio thinks it needs a piece of the streaming pie.
Vudu let me sign up, but I get only "login error" when I try to sign in. Annoying.