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  1. July 14, 2013 at 10:03 pm

    what does that even mean?!

  2. July 14, 2013 at 10:10 pm

    so, you know how some blurays movies come with a free download from Apple of the movie? Well, there’s this other company called UVVU, which is owned jointly by a few of the movie studios. They’re trying to be a competitor to apple, so some of the studios have switched to doing their digital downloads through them. Because they figure “hey, once everyone is using our service instead of apple’s We’ll make all the money!!!”

    only, it’s not compatible with the default player on the iPad, iphone or droid phone, you know, where all your movies are. You have to get the special player they provide, which 1) sucks and 2) why do I want to have a special player to watch different kinds of movies? It doesn’t work with appletv or playstation or xbox or roku. Basically, it just allows you to watch the movie on your computer, which I could have done anyway. So now I STILL have to rip the movie, and basically I wasted $2.

  3. July 14, 2013 at 10:18 pm

    ah. okay.

  4. July 14, 2013 at 10:18 pm

    I’m sometimes amused at the list of high-tech equipment you need to watch some of these movies, such as for a 3D blu-ray.

  5. July 14, 2013 at 10:19 pm

    :(!

  6. July 14, 2013 at 10:37 pm

    Calm yourself, Mav. Uvvu has a partnership with vudu, which is on the roku player and most smart tvs as well as blu ray players. Before you go back to get the DVD, register it and see of it won’t play through vudu. Yeah, I agree that it’s a little bit of a hassle to get one more video player, but it will work on your ipad and iPhone with the vudu app.

  7. July 14, 2013 at 10:38 pm

    The only thing I’ve found is that you can’t play it on your ipad and stream it to Apple TV. Just the audio carries over. Weird.

  8. July 14, 2013 at 10:40 pm

    yeah, there are a million and one problems with it. Plus they have a big history of people having problems redeeming the code. It used to be if you bitched on twitter, they’d immediately write you and try to help. I’ve just given up and I rip stuff myself.

  9. July 14, 2013 at 10:43 pm

    What is your main intention? To watch it on your iPad? To watch it on your TV? You can do both if you have one of the things I’d mentioned earlier.

  10. July 14, 2013 at 10:54 pm

    I know about vudu. They also have flixster. But that’s not what I want. You’re assuming I have 1 main intention. I don’t. I have a PS3 (soon a PS4), 2 appleTVs, a macbook, a pc laptop, an imac, 3 ipads and 2 iPhones between my wife and I. If I get a movie from apple (or google, i think, though I never do) or if I rip it myself, I can put it in itunes and it magically appears everywhere through streaming or I can sync it directly to any of the mobile devices and take it on the road. I don’t have to *do* anything. It just works. that’s the entire point of the digital download. For it just to work. If I have to do any work, like booting a separate app to watch uvvu movies than the one I use to watch movies I ripped myself, then that is the definition of poor usability. If I am a slave to having an internet connection, meaning I can’t watch on a plane, or while driving across butt-fuck PA like I was last weekend, then that is a lose as well. If I can’t play it on my Apple TV, that’s a lose. The only “advantage” to uvvu is that they own it rather than apple, and that is of no concern to me whasoever. The reason it hasn’t caught on, is because they are more work and less convenient than just ripping the movie myself, which is what I’ve done already.

    It’s a hard lesson for Hollywood to learn, but they’re getting there. The music industry is getting there. The only way to stop illegal downloads is to stop trying to force the old business plan on people who don’t benefit from it. You have to make the “cost” of the film cheaper than the inconvenience of stealing it.

  11. July 14, 2013 at 10:57 pm

    Ahh, I see. Then yeah, I’d agree with you just getting the DVD.

  12. July 15, 2013 at 12:13 am

    If you want it to work on the Apple TV or in the stock video player on the iPad/iPhone then you’re basically limited to buying the movie from Apple. They have effectively made it impossible for anyone else to sell content that works well in their ecosystem. (Coincidence? I bet not.)

    The Google Play movies are not much better. I think the only devices you can watch them on are Android tablet/phone, computer (in the browser), and Google TV. You can only watch in HD on an Android device, and can only watch offline on an Android device. It’s hard for me to recommend them with the current limitations. VUDU may really be the best option for cross-platform movies.

  13. July 15, 2013 at 12:28 am

    Pirated movies take one minute to find (compared to the average 15-minutes I spend every time I try to redeem a goddamn UVVU code), and they work in any stock movie player on iPad/droid/whatever. I don’t advocate piracy, and I buy movies, but I *DO* download a pirated version of a film I bought if the only digital copy it comes with is UVVU. That’s how shitty their service is.

  14. July 15, 2013 at 12:29 am

    Personally I’m over physical discs period. If I could have all of my movies in the cloud, I’d opt for that, I never go to my cluttered cabinet of discs to find something to watch. I’d rather browse amazon prime and find something. If its a rental, they are almost always at least a dollar cheaper than iTunes rentals. If I was stuck with the daunting task of going across country and/or being without Internet, I’d do what I’ve been doing and that’s rent some movies ahead of time and download them to view along the way. You gotta be a little flexible with technology. Yes, I agree it should just work, but that’s not reality. Gotta make it work.

  15. July 15, 2013 at 12:31 am

    I still like physical discs. Blu-rays look and sound better than any streaming service, and they work when the internet dies. I still mostly use the disc option on Netflix for movies I care about, and streaming is just for tv/documentaries/B-films.

  16. July 15, 2013 at 1:03 am

    the thing with google and apple vs. uvvu is, I DO have an apple phone. And other people DO have a google phone. Some people at least have amazon tablets, and for those who don’t, amazon has given me a client that plays their movies on my iphone/pad (and the droid equivs). My appleTV doesn’t currently do amazon instant video, but there are set top boxes that do. Noone has an uvvu phone. I don’t work for any of these companies. I don’t have their stock. So a business boom for them is irrelevant to me. All I care about is the ease of watching the content. And like Adam I’m totally willing to pay for it. In fact, I’m more willing to pay for movies than the majority of the people on the planet. I literally have THOUSANDS of films in my library.

    If you’re like me or Adam, and you care about the AV quality of the content (which isn’t most people, to be fair) then you’re going to want the physical discs for stuff you care about. But even a lot of people who don’t care that much still want the physical discs. I believe my mother (paging Lynn Thomas Holly) still buys physical discs even though she has appleTV and Roku in her home. I don’t think she cares about number of scanlines or frames per second. I think it’s just nice to own something physical sometimes. She can explain further.

    That said, there is a point to digital content. When I want to sit down and thoroughly enjoy Blade Runner, for instance, I’m going to pop the BD in my player, darken the room, turn on the subwoofer, make some popcorn and grab a beer and marvel at it. BUT sometimes I want to toss a couple movies on my ipad to watch in the hotel room on a biz trip, or I’m going to be on a plane or an 8 hour car roadtrip or something and need some stuff to amuse me. I’m watching on a 10 inch screen. I really don’t care about 1080p. Or, sometimes it’s a lazy Sunday morning and Steph and I don’t feel like getting out of bed and I say “let’s watch Hot Tub Time Machine” and those are the times that I want to just have the digital content quickly available. I mean, I could go get my laptop, fire up the uvvu website, mirror the screen to the bedroom TV and make it happen, but at this point I’m spending so much effort that I might as well have grabbed the DVD off the shelf. I mean, the whole point of AppleTV in my bedroom in the first place is that I’m too damn lazy to walk down the 14 stairs from my bedroom to my TV room to get the DVD and go back up. Obviously I need a really simple solution here.

    As it stands, the solution of “go to itunes and type this number when I get a DVD” is fine. As is the solution of “get this DVD and fire uo Handbrake and make my own digital copy.” Both of those take 60 seconds or less of effort to do. UVVU on the other hand takes 15 min of effort when I get the DVD, like Adam said (if it even works, like I said, half the time the codes fail), plus like 5 min of prep every time I want to watch the movie, and in the car or on a plane, I’m still fucked.

  17. July 15, 2013 at 1:36 am

    Oh I care about AV quality, unless like you say, it’s something like Hot Tub Time Machine, then I’m rather indifferent. But it’s still gotta be higher than standard definition. If you’re buying regular DVDs you aren’t exactly a stickler for AV quality, especially if you’re then taking your disc and ripping them, even if there’s no compression involved in your ripped DVDs. I’d put that quality akin to a YouTube stream. The quality of the movies on iTunes, Amazon and Vudu are all pretty much the same and all comparable to my blu rays when you get them in the hd format. I agree though that the less hassle it is to watch said movies, the better. Which pretty much applies to all facets of my lazy life. Haha.

  18. July 15, 2013 at 2:03 am

    I’m buying regular DVDs and blurays. That’s my point. It depends on the movie. Blade Runner is a BD. HTTM is a DVD. In today’s case I got “the Call” which I haven’t watched yet but I’m gonna go out on a limb and say it’s no cinematic masterpiece. But both the DVD and the BD were on sale. The BD (plus digital copy) was $2 more so I got it purely to save the 5 min effort of ripping it myself. But since it was UVVU I ended up having to do that anyway. Thus, a waste of $2.

  19. July 15, 2013 at 2:15 am

    Yeah I rented that at redbox. You’re right, not a masterpiece. In fact not even a keeper. But it’s worth watching once. Even in low def.

  20. July 15, 2013 at 2:38 am

    Also I forgot to mention vudu is the only streaming service I’ve found that streams 3D movies. And the quality is tremendous.

  21. July 15, 2013 at 2:41 am

    I actually don’t have a 3D tv yet. I dunno when I’ll ever get one. But whenever I do, I imagine that anything I care enough to want 3D I’d want to own.

  22. July 15, 2013 at 2:50 am

    Agreed. I own it. Only streamed it a couple of times but its mine all mine… In the cloud.

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