11 Responses for "Picture of the Day: Battle Royale"

1. Ivan February 20th, 2008 at 4:35 pm 1

   Look forward to your review!

   P.S. Vudu’s remote is better of the three. It’s going to be even better when they release IR dongle (USB).

2. Ben February 20th, 2008 at 4:49 pm 2

   Im very excited about this review!! finally someone can compare all three services in one post.

   My Predictions are:

   1. Xbox 360
   2. Apple TV
   3. Vudu

3. Ben Drawbaugh February 20th, 2008 at 4:50 pm 3

   Awesome, can’t wait.

4. Todd February 20th, 2008 at 4:58 pm 4

   Wow, its like they do the weeks leading up to a big boxing title match, have the fighters sit at the same table and answer inane questions with the hope they’ll start fighting.

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cb8nxSl3UlM

   I predict AppleTV will win ( Isn’t the xbox disqualified now? Its HD DVD drive is obsolete. )

5. Dave Zatz February 20th, 2008 at 5:14 pm 5

   Ivan, I have mixed feelings on the Vudu remote.

   Todd, the 360 rents HD movie downloads through the Xbox Live Marketplace.

6. Glenn February 20th, 2008 at 5:20 pm 6

   Hope you haven’t seen Live Free Or Die Hard yet!

7. Dave Zatz February 20th, 2008 at 5:24 pm 7

   I did… but it beats Transformers if those are my only options!

8. Ivan February 20th, 2008 at 6:05 pm 8

   @ Ben — the order is the opposite: Vudu > AppleTV > Xbox 360 although I wouldn’t expect a big difference between ATV & Vudu (at least, that’s what owners of both said).

   @ Dave — the remote is wonderful for non-techie people although I do wish it volume buttons & IR transmitter to control volume. It’s also very comfortable to hold although it tips easily on a flat surface.

9. Dave Zatz February 20th, 2008 at 6:15 pm 9

   I like the ergonomics. IR TV volume control would be nice, but it’s the fast forward and rewind functionality that’s really killing me. I have a few ideas how to improve it (which I’ve passed on) and the Vudu folks do seem to be rolling out regular updates - perhaps they’ll make it more usable during movie playback. I’ll have more to say when I do my formal write-up.

10. Ivan February 21st, 2008 at 6:42 pm 10

    David Pogue has an interesting article about movie rentals. He evaluates & rates all the usual suspects and confirms what I’ve felt all along — digital downloads aren’t going to replace media for some time.

11. Ivan February 21st, 2008 at 7:17 pm 11

    HDTV Magazine did their own showdown between ATV and Vudu. The author preferred Vudu’s quality:

    “The video quality was excellent, even for SD fare. All of their content is encoded at 24 fps. SD video is 480p/24 and encoded with H.264 Main Profile while all HD content is 1080p/24 encoded with H.264 High Profile. In all honesty, when I first began testing the unit with SD programming back in November, it was not obvious to me that what I was watching wasn’t HD. I’ve looked at all the major players in the movie download market, and the quality they are getting with their SD video is unsurpassed. And the quality of their HD content rivals that of packaged media, although I’m sure it would not hold up to a side-by-side test.”