Ultraviolet video streaming service shutting down on July 31

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  • Reply 21 of 32
    So how stable does Vudu seem? $2 to convert my old DVDs to cloud digital copies doesn’t sound bad...but that doesn’t link it to a iTunes library, just the Vudu library, from the sound of it, right?
    Movies that are owned by a company participating in Movies Anywhere will sync to all retailers you have linked to Movies Anywhere.  So, link Vudu and iTunes to Movies Anywhere and anything you buy in either one will appear in the other, including Disc-to-Digital... assuming they are participating in Movies Anywhere.  I have a substantial library of DVDs and a handful of BluRays.  I opted to use Vudu's Disc-to-Digital offering and love it.  It can add up if you have a lot of movies but it is far less expensive than re-purchasing them directly.  The upside is you now have both a physical and digital copy and even if Vudu goes under, you have the iTunes version which is labeled as "purchased" by Apple - and you can download it.

    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.
    Thanks, I signed up and discovered that...Not all the movies you can convert in Vudu are supported by the Movies Anywhere linking service. And not all your movies are supported by Vudu either. 

    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?

    Yeah, it's not very clear and took me awhile to sort it all out.  Obviously, all of this could change one day but I doubt it will.  Regardless, I have a 4TB drive where I save all the movies from iTunes.

    The movies are considered purchased at all retailers you've linked to Movies Anywhere.  It sounds crazy but it's true and a fantastic win for consumers.  You can test this by un-linking a retailer you don't really care for and see that all the movies stay in that library.

    As long as the movie is part of Movies Anywhere, anything you buy from any retailer will be matched to the same quality you purchased it as by any other retailer you have linked to Movies Anywhere.

    - The only way to get 4k on your AppleTV 4k is to buy it directly as 4k or HD from Apple with iTunes or the Apple TV.  Any HD title you've directly purchased from Apple will be upgraded to 4k for free if that title becomes available as 4k.  It will remain HD until a 4k version is added to the store.  This applies to all HD purchases you've ever made directly from Apple.    

    - You can also buy a 4k title elsewhere (including digital code redemptions) and that will also carry over as 4k to the Apple TV as long as a 4k version is available at iTunes.

    - Currently, SD will never be upgraded to anything, anywhere.

    Hopefully these examples will help clear it up.  This example assumes you buy from Vudu (this includes Disc-to-Digital) but it can be any other retailer as well like Google, Amazon, Microsoft or Fandango.  Note that SD is DVD and HD is BluRay but you can upgrade a DVD to HD for $5 with Disc-to-Digital.:

    Buy from Vudu      Movies Anywhere   Sync to iTunes
    SD      Available   SD
    HD      Available   HD
    4k      Available   4k (if avaialble)
    SD/HD/4k      Not Available   Nothing

    There are some weird one-offs where specific versions of a film won't carry over even if they are Movies Anywhere.  For example, if you get an Unrated edition on Vudu and iTunes only has the Theatrical version, that movie will not sync to iTunes, even if it's part of Movies Anywhere.  This is really uncommon though.  I have over 400 movies and only two have done this.
    StrangeDayscgWerks
  • Reply 22 of 32

    davgreg said:
    What are other’s takes on owning or renting?
    Unless I have no other option I buy BluRays and archive them in digital format. Have a ProBox with 4 HDs full of movies that can be watched on any device in the house.

    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.
    Well, that license agreement also applies to your DVD and BluRay discs.  You don't own the media on that disc, just the license to watch it and nothing else.  You are not supposed to make backups that circumvent copy protection since that violates DMCA.  The advnatage from Vudu's Disc-to-Digital is that it is 100% legal and supported by those retailers.

    But you're right, it is harder (but doable) to transfer those digital versions from places like iTunes than it is to just give a disc away.  I suspect this will be adjusted by law eventually.
    christophb
  • Reply 23 of 32
    christophbchristophb Posts: 1,482member
    Hahaha

    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).

    jbdragon said:
    This is why I don't buy Digital Movies from anyone. I will buy the movie on Disc and RIP IT myself and put it up on my NAS to watch anywhere using PLEX. Then it's all under my own control. I have the Physical Disc as backup put away in one of my large Disc binders.

    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.
    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.
    Hahahahahahahaha!  4K iTunes compared to Blu-ray or 4K UHD?  
  • Reply 24 of 32
    StrangeDaysStrangeDays Posts: 12,834member
    Anyone have trouble with the Vudu web-scanne on an iphone? It keeps claiming I’m not geofenced/located at my billing address, even tho I am. So I have to use my Mac’s DVD player, which of course is no good for blu-ray discs. Weird that Vudu doesn’t have scanning as part of their iOS app.
  • Reply 25 of 32
    Anyone have trouble with the Vudu web-scanne on an iphone? It keeps claiming I’m not geofenced/located at my billing address, even tho I am. So I have to use my Mac’s DVD player, which of course is no good for blu-ray discs. Weird that Vudu doesn’t have scanning as part of their iOS app.
    Try disabling your Wi-Fi on the phone.
  • Reply 26 of 32
    stompystompy Posts: 408member
    Anyone have trouble with the Vudu web-scanne on an iphone? It keeps claiming I’m not geofenced/located at my billing address, even tho I am. So I have to use my Mac’s DVD player, which of course is no good for blu-ray discs. Weird that Vudu doesn’t have scanning as part of their iOS app.
    Vudu D2D conversion was previously available on iOS, they removed it for unexplained reasons. It worked first time, every time. Rotten web scan takes 2 minutes per disk. 

    ("Not at billing address", reload page, "Not at billing address" reload page Success! Scan "Not recognized"... Now repeat 10x)
    StrangeDays
  • Reply 27 of 32
    Has anyone found an equivalent to Vudu's disc conversion that works in Canada? I have a bookcase full of DVDs I'd like to upgrade to HD.THe convenience and price of the Vudu method is really attractive, but sadly not available in Canada.
  • Reply 28 of 32
    jccjcc Posts: 326member
    Anyone have trouble with the Vudu web-scanne on an iphone? It keeps claiming I’m not geofenced/located at my billing address, even tho I am. So I have to use my Mac’s DVD player, which of course is no good for blu-ray discs. Weird that Vudu doesn’t have scanning as part of their
    iOS app.
    They removed it because Vudu didn’t want to pay the Apple tax of 30%.

    you have to make sure that your GPS is “always” enabled and not only when running the app in the background.

    just get a cheap Blu-ray player cd rom for your Mac. They sell it on Amazon you know?
  • Reply 29 of 32
    StrangeDaysStrangeDays Posts: 12,834member
    Anyone have trouble with the Vudu web-scanne on an iphone? It keeps claiming I’m not geofenced/located at my billing address, even tho I am. So I have to use my Mac’s DVD player, which of course is no good for blu-ray discs. Weird that Vudu doesn’t have scanning as part of their iOS app.
    Try disabling your Wi-Fi on the phone.
    Ok for me it was having to switch from PayPal to a credit card, then typing in my address as the USPS system spells it out in their address validation tools. No fuzzy matching, exactly as they do it. Lame. 

    Works now tho, got most of my movies in. 
    Worldspinning
  • Reply 30 of 32
    StrangeDaysStrangeDays Posts: 12,834member

    jcc said:
    Anyone have trouble with the Vudu web-scanne on an iphone? It keeps claiming I’m not geofenced/located at my billing address, even tho I am. So I have to use my Mac’s DVD player, which of course is no good for blu-ray discs. Weird that Vudu doesn’t have scanning as part of their
    iOS app.
    They removed it because Vudu didn’t want to pay the Apple tax of 30%.

    you have to make sure that your GPS is “always” enabled and not only when running the app in the background.

    just get a cheap Blu-ray player cd rom for your Mac. They sell it on Amazon you know?
    Not interested in buying a BR player for my Mac. 

     As for GPS, setting Safari’s Location Services to “While Using” only is fine. 
  • Reply 31 of 32
    cgWerkscgWerks Posts: 2,952member
    dysamoria said:
    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. 
    Yeah... when Netflix started with their 'Originals' I knew it was the beginning of the end. 'Cable cutting' has just turned into multiple subscriptions that cost more for the same stuff, plus you still need the 'cable' to get the Internet to use the subscriptions.

    And, as all these services compete more and more, they all carry less and less of an overall collection (like Netflix once did, and was kind of the point).

    lorin schultz said:
    I buy movies through iTunes and download them. In one case, a movie I downloaded was corrupted by a failing hard drive. I went to the iTunes Store to download it again and found the title is no longer available through iTunes. There's now no record that I ever bought it.
    I haven't had that happen with movies yet, but have noticed it more and more for things like music and books (and I don't buy a lot of movies). I'm guessing that as the competition heats up more between the services, this will become more and more common.
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