Ultraviolet: What do you like and not like about it? (1 Viewer)

[Joshua Clinard]

Sorry about that Matt. Sometimes I have dislexia. I knew who I was talking to, just typed the wrong name.

And Sam, thanks for the thread, I got them back now.

Now, since we have talked so much about UV, I would like to know what movie are you most looking forward to this summer. For me it's Monster's University and Despicable Me 2. Yes, I am an animation fan. It's too bad I will only be able to own one of them after they leave the theaters.

 

[MattAlbie60]

I see what you did there.

I'm cautiously optimistic about MAN OF STEEL. There's absolutely nothing I want more than a good SUPERMAN movie. I like SUPERMAN RETURNS quite a bit, but I understand why people wouldn't as its essentially a $200 million dollar art house drama that kind of suddenly remembers its supposed to be an action movie at one point.

I think David Goyer, when working by himself, is a pretty awful writer. I think that Zack Snyder is a pretty awful director. I'd love for these two to fluke out on me and turn in something good, as again: SUPERMAN. But I just don't know. I don't think a movie like this should be an alien invasion movie, as they've all been saying it apparently is. And breakdowns I've read from certain action sequences sound really bizarre and insane, and not necessarily in a good way.

As I get older, action for action's sake just doesn't do it for me anymore. I'm all about a sweet looking action setpiece, but give me something to hang it on. That's what I thought SUPERMAN RETURNS did really well, for the most part. What little action there is was very grand in scope, and almost all of it came from character as opposed to "It's page 30! Quick, plane crash!"

But again - I don't want to make it sound like Singer's movie is perfect or anything. It has massive problems - some bizarre editing choices (seriously, you need to read that published script and see all of the amazing stuff that was cut), along with a strict adherence to the Donner movies to the point where Evil Real Estate Agent Lex is back, really makes it suffer.

 

[Sam Posten]

And Sam, thanks for the thread, I got them back now.

It's too bad I will only be able to own one of them after they leave the theaters.

Good to hear! Glad you got em back.

I'm not following what you are saying here tho, why won't you be able to own them once they leave the theaters? Both will be on disk and you use both iTunes and UV so should be able to get one on one service and the other on another.

I'm looking forward to Man of Steel and Pacific Rim.

 

[Joshua Clinard]

I don't really use iTunes to watch movies. The ones that I do have, which is about 6 were bought before UV launched. Two of them I have replaced with UV copies, Another two aren't available. And the rest, I don't care about. Eventually I plan to delete those iTunes copiess. And I refuse to buy anything Disney until they agree to release their movies in the UV format. The only exception is that I will watch a Disney movie in the theater, or download it from P2P.

 

[Sam Posten]

Gotcha. I don't see that happening any time soon, we'll see.

 

[Steve Tannehill]

I don't really use iTunes to watch movies. The ones that I do have, which is about 6 were bought before UV launched. Two of them I have replaced with UV copies, Another two aren't available. And the rest, I don't care about. Eventually I plan to delete those iTunes copiess. And I refuse to buy anything Disney until they agree to release their movies in the UV format. The only exception is that I will watch a Disney movie in the theater, or download it from P2P.

So you support piracy, Joshua? You know that's frowned upon here at HTF....

 

[MattAlbie60]

Reading that post and then looking at that avatar is super funny.

 

[Joshua Clinard]

If a studio refuses to join the digital age and sell me their content in the industry standard for digital copies, then yes, but only for personal use. I would never rip a copy and upload it for others to download. On the other hand, I wish piracy would stop for the most part, and I wish the ISP's would restrict access to the torrent and filesharing sites like they do in foreign countries.

By the way, before UV was available I had over 200 downloaded films on my hard drive. Now I have less than 10.They are all Disney.

 

[Steve Tannehill]

Rationalization does not make it legal...

 

[Joshua Clinard]

Flixster has added the ability to delete films, so if you want to get rid of any of the freebies, you can. I just purged 6 titles from my collection!

 

[MattAlbie60]

I keep getting "Unable to Delete..." messages.

So close, and yet so far

EDIT: It appears that you can only delete freebies that you got through Flixter, which makes sense. But now I have to keep track of what freebies came from where so I know how to delete them, which is mildly irritating. But c'est la vie, I suppose.

 

[JeremyR]

What is the deal with no HD content on Ultraviolet. I have used Flixster & Best Buy Cinema Now d neither will let me download in HD. These are movies that say they are in HD and I own on Blu-Ray. My device is anew Windows 8 tablet and I watch movies in HD on itunes just fine.

 

[Joshua Clinard]

It's a liscence issue. Some retailers, such as flixster, or Cinema now, don't have the rights to play all films in HD. Flixster can't play HD yet. CinemaNow can, for many films, but not all. Vudu can play HD for almost all films, but there are still some where the studio hasn't provided an HD copy.

 

[Sam Posten]

And that's the fundamental issue we have with Ultraviolet. 3 years into the format and it's clearly not the "one format to rule them all" but the "30 sub formats which you need a masters degree to figure out all the incompatibilities, multiple logins and memberships, and other gotchas and foibles".

 

[Joshua Clinard]

First of all, it's only been 20 months since the format officially launched, and only 13 months since a major retailer came on board. When the Common File Format is launched this fall, it will be a much more unified system. The format is still very much a beta service, with new providers and movies being added all the time. But I see improvements on a weekly basis.

 

[Sam Posten]

Sarcasm alert:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_syndrome
=)

 

[TonyD]

It's only been 20 months........it's only been two years........it's only been 3 years.Improvements on a weekly basis? Lets see, 20 months is 82 weeks........

 

[[email protected]]

I don't really use iTunes to watch movies. The ones that I do have, which is about 6 were bought before UV launched. Two of them I have replaced with UV copies, Another two aren't available. And the rest, I don't care about. Eventually I plan to delete those iTunes copiess. And I refuse to buy anything Disney until they agree to release their movies in the UV format. The only exception is that I will watch a Disney movie in the theater, or download it from P2P.

Hello Joshua, I'm curious to know if you are going to purchase from Disney now that they are have at least put a foot in Ultraviolets door with Vudu support?

I just started with UV in the last couple months, sure works great for me!

 

[Sam Posten]

Huh?

Hello Joshua, I'm curious to know if you are going to purchase from Disney now that they are have at least put a foot in Ultraviolets door with Vudu support?

I thought maybe I missed an announcement here, so I did some digging. Sounds like nothing has changed here WRT Disney and UV:
https://forum.vudu.com/showthread.php?937851-REQUEST-All-Disney-Movies-Available-on-Disc-to-Digital

Lol... Disney + Ultraviolet...Right now if you buy a Disney movie on Vudu, it does NOT transfer to your Ultraviolet locker. So in essence, spending ANY MONEY on Vudu's Disney Movies right now does not get them on Ultraviolet. Which in return, if you want to put them on ultraviolet, the company has to allow their movies to be ultraviolet, which MIGHT TAKE a HUGE amount of money.Long story short, D2D is company only, it's not up to VUDU.

Like I said, I'll never say never on Disney going to UV, that would be stupid, but so far I don't see any compelling evidence that they will or that there is anything more than a vocal screaming minority of people calling for them to do so. Vudu's own forums aren't getting more than 50 pageviews for these title requests....

On the other hand, their one sub-forum that's getting the most workout is the thread for bugs, with 84 pages of comments and 51,000 pageviews:
https://forum.vudu.com/forumdisplay.php?161-Disc-to-Digital-and-UltraViolet

And the 46,000 pageview thread on why you can't get the movies you want on UV:
https://forum.vudu.com/forumdisplay.php?43-General-Discussion

 

[Joshua Clinard]

Sam,

He is referring to Disney's new Digital Copy + which includes a iTunes or vudu digital copy. I did indeed get a vudu copy of OZ: The Great and Powerful, because having a vudu copy is almost as good as having a UV copy. The only real downside is I can't share it with my other members, and I won't be able to download the movie in the Common File Format. Still, it's a step in the right direction, and I look forward to what's to come.

Bob Iger has said that Keychest was always intended to be compatible with UltraViolet, and I think Digital Copy + is taking the place of Keychest, so eventually I am sure they will add UV capability to Digital Copy +, I'm just not sure how long it will take. I would guess by the end of 2014 or earlier.