Comments on: Vudu Releases IR Receiver & Software Update

By: Dave Zatz

Dave Zatz — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 15:14:14 +0000

I’m in the midst of a move… Hopefully, soon though.

By: Glenn

Glenn — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 23:53:44 +0000

Hey Dave, where’s your XBox/Vudu/Apple TV comparison, huh?

Regarding the Gizmodo comparison, its a little difficult since they didn’t even capture the same image, but its pretty clear regardless that the order is HD DVD > XBox 360 > Apple TV > Vudu HD for that Transformers scene at least.

I’m still a little hesitant to say this is definitive though since I question the whole premise — that you can compare results via compressed jpg results of one freeze-frame. The movie in motion will hide many sins you might see during a freeze frame, and that’s really what you should be comparing, as hard as that might be to do…

By: Dave Zatz

Dave Zatz — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 16:41:03 +0000

Dude, Starbucks is killing me. That’s why I have to run ads on the site. HD Connect is sold through the retail channel and those guys need a cut, whereas I get the sense this IR Receiver will only be available via Vudu.com. Obviously, Philips will sell more DVD players than Vudu will sell IR Receiver Kits so there’s no economies of scale here. However, if the customer didn’t flinch at the $300 – $400 hardware cost and really wants to use their Pronto, Harmony, etc with the Vudu – they’ll pay up. Personally, I’d rather have them introduce a new Vudu remote that is both RF and IR. RF to control Vudu, and IR to control television or receiver power and volume.

By: JonO

JonO — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 16:23:02 +0000

So if everything is priced according to your DVD player, then my Starbuck’s Latte should cost 25 cents and my Harmony remote which can’t play anything is way overpriced!

And gee, I think I paid $250 or something like that for my Slingbox Pro and then had to pay another $50 for my HD Connect cable. So my HD Connect costs more than your DVD player too!

By: Dave Zatz

Dave Zatz — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 16:12:15 +0000

Jon, let’s keep it real here… my Philips DivX-licensed DVD player cost $40. (I do expect some of the $39 IR kit fee to virtually offset the software dev and support expenses which are harder to quantify.)

Big John, do you already have one? I heard they were shipping in waves.

By: Big John

Big John — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 08:28:32 +0000

I so can’t wait to review PopcornHour for this site.

Any tv-connected media box that runs it’s own BT client has to be good.

By: JonO

JonO — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 00:26:21 +0000

The IR receiver is not a standard IR receiver like you can buy elsewhere (you can’t use those and if you do, it will likely hurt the Vudu’s I/O port). So this dongle has some extra circuitry which likely explains the price.

By: xdreamwalker

xdreamwalker — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 00:08:33 +0000

I have a VUDU box, got it during the $99 evangelist program, and have to say being able to delete purchased contend and download later, like I can with Amazon Unbox, is super great!
However, $39 for the IR kit is a bit high, then again so is $999 for one with a bit more storage