Comments on: Apple TV HD Versus Vudu HD

By: randy Kubick

randy Kubick — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 05:42:39 +0000

Have both VUDU and appleTV. Both are very similar and picture quality is usually a matter of the picture quality of your TV and what you purchase – thus this debate is a wash. VUDU has an awesome remote compared to appleTV but the advantage of appleTV is iTunes. Anything you can put on iTunes you can transfer to appleTV and watch and listen to on your TV which is great if you have a big fat stereo system hooked up to your TV. AppleTV also has the advantage if you have a lot of home movies and pictures and wish to watch them on your TV. Import or download them to iTunes and your set. No need to have a separate device hooked up to your TV to watch or view them or use third party software. The other great advantage of appleTV is the fact that every movie you buy and picture you take is on your computer in iTunes and this allows you to watch/view them on your computer and most importantly it allows you to download them to your iPods and have complete transportability – no other platform allows this (legally). Buy some audio/video cables for your iPod and you can watch your movies or view your pics on any TV in your house from your iPod.

By: BERNIELIP

BERNIELIP — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 06:03:21 +0000

Read a great comparison. Vudu won hands down! http://www.hdtvmagazine.com/columns/2008/02/showdown_apple_tv_vs_vudu.php
That’s fresh from google today. Vudu’s software is where it wins. Its easy, fast, pretty, and your wife can handle it easily with about 20 seconds of use.

By: Joe T.

Joe T. — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 13:11:01 +0000

Steve– thanks for the info– those numbers sound good to me– Vudu, here I come.

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 20:54:19 +0000

Hey Joe -
As of today:

to rent – 3635
to own – 4072

All HD-DVD is rent only (except the Bourne trilogy)

It can be annoying when you find a movie you want to watch and it is “purchase only” – but this doesn’t happen *too* much. Fortunately you can filter on “available to rent” when searching for titles.

By: Joe T.

Joe T. — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 20:42:59 +0000

Bernie, I’m close to pulling the trigger on a Vudu, but I’ve heard that many of the movies, especially older movies are available for purchase only. I’m looking at this box (and Apple TV, but based on specs and reviews, am leaning 80-20 toward the Vudu) as a majority rental machine, and if the majority of films are not available as rentals, that might kill my interest in it. Can you give me an idea of what percentage (of SD & HD) is purchase only?

By: BERNIELIP

BERNIELIP — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 04:02:40 +0000

Excellent comments by Sean. At the same time that i have an eye to a sharper picture, I think the fun and ease of use are going to win the race. Apple will do well because they can copy Vudu, as they did one year later in getting the studios on board, as they are just starting with rentals, and as Microsoft did to them in the past. I love the Vudu and hope they stay in the race because they seem to be driving the technology and especially the software which is I guess what seems so much better than the others.

Beernie.

By: Sean Harding

Sean Harding — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 03:53:00 +0000

Bernie, you have an important point — the vast majority of consumers don’t care a whole lot about video quality, especially after a certain point (which I think most of the current offerings reach). However, obviously there are multiple market segments here, and some of those segments *do* care a lot about video quality. Some, like myself, want great video quality *and* excellent usability — one without the other won’t make me happy. “So what?”, you might say; clearly people like myself are a minuscule fraction of the market. That’s true. However, the people who care about these things are the same people who tend to be early adopters. And early adopters will be very important in making these products successful. My mom isn’t going to go out and buy Vudu right now. She didn’t even get a DVD player until I bought one for her a couple of years ago. Before people like her are going to buy into a technology, people like me have to buy into it, and video quality matters to us…

By: BERNIELIP

BERNIELIP — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 15:09:32 +0000

The most interesting question is not who has the best picture, but who has the best experience for the buyers who will make one a success and others failures. I have Netflix and Vudu. Netflix and Blockbuster were leaders of the last decade. Both are losing money badly and will go out of business. Xbox might be very nice if you are a gamer, but 100 million people are not. People in our age want instant gratification. Dave should test with an eye to which is the better, “most fun” machine. That’s what will make people buy. My Vudu is far more fun than my Netflix, my previous winner. Vudu has the best remote by a factor of 3. It’s instant, even with high def. If it’s a little sharper than apple and a little less than a high def disc is not important to me and millions like me. Those differences are small. But with Vudu you can filter your lists for categories, multiple categories, only best critic-rated movies, etc. in 10 or 20 seconds. You can preview whatever you pick before you buy or rent it. You don’t have that with anything else that I’ve seen or heard about. Netflix is cheap but you can’t preview and their selection process is buried with what we have today. Apple is copying Vudu, interestingly enough and will do well. Vudu seems to be more innovative and moves quicker than Apple, and is good for us since they seem to be driving the improvemnts in what we care about. Dave test as if you were a female buyer or a casual guy who didn’t already have something at home. Most of us did not buy Budu because it had more pixels. Which is more fun to use?