Battle Royale On Hold

Two recent events have put the video download Battle Royale on hold… 1) Ben wants his Apple TV back – and who can blame him, I’ve been sitting on it for months. 2) Sony finally entered the fray with a Playstation video store, and I don’t own a PS3. Maybe I’ll get to it, maybe not.

But here’s what I will tell you: Today, the most enjoyable set-top box movie download experience is provided by Vudu ($300). The interface has a few quirks, but it’s quite efficient at navigating their large selection of nice-looking content and playback is often instantaneous. And for awhile, the software updates were fast and furious – which I appreciate. I believe Apple TV offers more HD content and makes it available perhaps sooner than Vudu. Apple TV is also cheaper ($230) and provides a variety of functionality (photos, music, video podcasts) plus iTunes beats everyone in the amount of television content available (for purchase). But for whatever reasons (probably starting with the remote), I just don’t like it. Meanwhile my Netflix box ($100) sits in the closet, waiting for a day when more current releases and/or high(er) def movies are available – via Netflix, or someone else.

My ideal solution would see TiVo and Amazon (or CinemaNow) pull the trigger on HD video rentals. I’d rather use my primary television accessory for the majority of my television viewing functions. Which is why these guys largely compete with the cable companies (PPV/VOD), rather than each other for mindshare (and revenue). And for a large percentage of the population, price is a factor – an existing cable box is much more economical than a Vudu.

I’m only bummed I couldn’t deliver on providing the much-requested head-to-head HD video quality comparison. In many cases the differences are subtle and difficult to definitively identify by swapping cables on the same television. (Not to mention, it’d be different cables – my Xbox 360 predates HDMI support.) I was hopeful of doing some side-by-side comparisons at my old office where they’ve got some Westinghouse flat panels lined up. But the timing hasn’t worked out. The downside of a day job (mostly on the other coast). Perhaps CNET‘s John Falcone can round up a few folks on his team to pull together a professional and comprehensive comparison for us?

5 thoughts on “Battle Royale On Hold”

  1. I have a PS3 and a Netflix account. The PS3 is a very good DVD player. I think their store prices are kind of high for rentals and I hate that 24 hour rule about rentals disappearing. It should be 28 hours so you can watch over two evenings if your viewing is interrupted.

    I think there are some excellent programs on Netflix instant. Some of their Showtime stuff is very good (eg Dexter) and some of the older movies and foreign films are also good. There is a great deal of dross but how much TV can you watch? If they get into HD that will be great but I don’t think most home internet connections are fast enough without a more substantial buffer leading to almost a full download.

  2. Suggestion: Adopt what the overclockers do and have a standardize set of performance metrics and everyone buys/builds their own boxes and publishes their results – a “distributed shoot out” if you will.

    We could all submit what we think are “must haves” and suggest the optimal performance window for each, then have Dave compile, edit and bless the list. Then all the ZNF readers combined can put up our findings for whatever box we are hacking on and the shoot out forms, in a sense, but Dave doesn’t have to do all the work, just play the part of referee.

    There are tons of overclocker sites that do this. What do you think?

  3. Having just bought the Apple TV device yesterday, I’m veyr happy with it so far. It’s the best all-round Internet-based movie delivery service available in Canada. I’m with you Dave, the only thing I don’t like about it so far is the unresponsive and awkward remote. But no remote stacks up well against a TiVo Peanut. And there is very little in classical movies – as a classic movie fan that is disappointing. But there is a big HD selection which is great. Expect my made-in-Canada review of the device to be posted soon.

  4. Todd: It is relatively difficult to judge video quality. Did you notice that bit of macro-blocking, that flattening of black, the way the water seemed blocky, how it jerked when the video was panning, or didn’t you? Did you consider it a significant problem or not? Etc. I can’t imagine you could do this multi-party the way I think you are suggesting.

    One way that might work–lots of individuals who have at least TWO systems, doing a head-head comparison of those two systems in their opinion. Then you could compile those individual opinions into some overall score, i.e. Vudu is better than Xbox is better than Apple TV is better than Tivo etc.

    I don’t suppose I really care anymore Dave. I’ve got my Apple TV, and my Tivo/Amazon service. I’ve been using the Apple TV when possible because it has HD and the Tivo doesn’t. So I’ve only been renting HD movies on the Apple TV and not renting any SD movies on either. If both had HD content and roughly the same content, then such comparisons might matter. But all that really matters to me right now is that the Apple TV has SOME content that I’d like to watch, has it in HD, and that the HD looks pretty decent. I’d rather it was better, but I’m not terriby upset about it. When all the content deals look the same, this sort of thing will matter more.

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