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

[Sam Posten]

And you still haven't answered my question! =)

 

[Joshua Clinard]

The quote is from the CEO of Miramax, a studio which does not even support Ultra-Violet. It is not the intention of DECE to Kill Rental. They just want to supplement it with additional streaming options.The biggest UV retailer, Vudu, has about 14,000 titles available to rent! How is that trying to kill rentals? And the studio's also offer a lot of their films on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and so forth. And I kind wish they wouldn't because if devalues their product, which drives more people towards Netflix, and away from UV. So It's UV that's threatened by Online Rentals, not the other way around, buddy!

 

[TonyD]

Joshua I would really like to see less of you calling people an ass and "buddy", you are becoming very defensive of something that as far as we know, you have no real stake in.

 

[MattAlbie60]

I still use the Flixter app on my iPad to get local showtimes and watch trailers and stuff, and it is (I guess) still tied to my UV account, even though I'd completely forgotten about that. Every so often, when I load the app, there's just a message for a free movie that has been added to my account. But they all suck. Like today, I just opened the app and MATCHSTICK MEN was added to my account. I hate MATCHSTICK MEN. And now it's just in my "collection," and there is no way to remove it that I can find. It also happened with PAY IT FORWARD. So it feels a little like someone bringing all their garbage over to my house, leaving it there and then refusing to come back and get it. RE: The merging two accounts thing. NOWHERE in there does it say that it's designed for a bunch of friends to pool their movie collections together. I think it's more likely designed to pool all of the various accounts that you had to sign up for in the beginning of UV. And people are just using it in a way that it wasn't exactly intended. I'd be willing to bet that as soon as they figure out how to put a stop to it, they will. If UV is supposed to be a response to things like piracy and file sharing, why would they turn around and allow what is essentially file sharing?

 

[sbuberl]

I still use the Flixter app on my iPad to get local showtimes and watch trailers and stuff, and it is (I guess) still tied to my UV account, even though I'd completely forgotten about that. Every so often, when I load the app, there's just a message for a free movie that has been added to my account. But they all suck. Like today, I just opened the app and MATCHSTICK MEN was added to my account. I hate MATCHSTICK MEN. And now it's just in my "collection," and there is no way to remove it that I can find. It also happened with PAY IT FORWARD. So it feels a little like someone bringing all their garbage over to my house, leaving it there and then refusing to come back and get it. RE: The merging two accounts thing. NOWHERE in there does it say that it's designed for a bunch of friends to pool their movie collections together. I think it's more likely designed to pool all of the various accounts that you had to sign up for in the beginning of UV. And people are just using it in a way that it wasn't exactly intended. I'd be willing to bet that as soon as they figure out how to put a stop to it, they will. If UV is supposed to be a response to things like piracy and file sharing, why would they turn around and allow what is essentially file sharing?

Yeah, the free movies were very hit or miss. Hopefully they add way to delete them soon. And for the merging, who said it can't be for both? Before UV added merging, UV always had concept of sharing. Each master UV account can have up to 5 subaccount users. And all movies added by any of these users are viewable by any of user under this master account. This was mainly designed with families in mind. For example, when the children goes off to college, they still want access to their own and their family's movies. There is a proper use case for merging that's family related and that's combining movie libraries when two people get married/engaged. But even know this was designed for families in mind, doesn't mean it can't also be used among friends.

 

[Sam Posten]

That is definitely my thought too Matt, again there is so many tnings that aren't fully baked with this system, they could have called this a "family account" to make it clear that those sharing things arent really a goal. Or maybe it IS but if it is then it needs to be easier to break those links. But, half baked. Tony, I am able to handle being called an Ass and worse =) But I note that once again Josh has not answered the question asked.

 

[MattAlbie60]

A lot of the documentation I'm seeing online does refer to an account being shared with "up to five family members" (and one place said six, so who knows which is which). It's like the PlayStation Store. You can "share" your account with another console, essentially, making everything you've downloaded available while you're on the go! Or, less ethically, you can give your username and password to a friend and they can play all of your digital games on their console without paying for them. Which is absolutely not how that was intended to work, and Sony really doesn't want people to do that, but it's one of those things that you can just do.

 

[Joshua Clinard]

What question would that be, Sam? And I didn't call you an ass. I said you sounded like one. Perhaps I should have used the word uninformed. Also, I have just noticed that the studio's have greatly improved the redemption process that you have claimed is so difficult. They now allow you to redeem your film via a link to your favorite retailer, without creating a seperate account. Lionsgate has done this since the beginning, but now the other studio's are folling suit. Here are some examples. Lionsgate: http://www.movieredeem.com Fox: https://www.foxuv.com/Prometheus Paramount: http://www.paramountmovies.com/redeem/ Universal: UniversalDigitalCopy.com/TheBourneLegacy And WB has improved it's page as well: https://redeem.flixster.com/ultraviolet/ So now you have no reason to bitch about having to create 5 separate accounts! Just need a UV account and a retailer account!

 

[Sam Posten]

What question would that be, Sam? And I didn't call you an ass. I said you sounded like one.

Fair enough, you aren't gonna insult me either way. =) The Q:

And how are you so sure on your first statement? Where is that stated publicly

Which I followed up with:

And you still didnt answer the second question. You continue to deny being an insider or shill and talk like someone who has inside information that has not been posted.

 

[Joshua Clinard]

No, I'm not an insider. I'm a college student, don't even have a job yet. I just like to read HomeMediaMagazine, Home Theater Forum's partner magazine.

 

[Sam Posten]

OK,fair enough. I'll grant you that you have enthusiasm for the program although I don't think you've exactly been objective about UVs faults when the actual implementation hasn't been all that great, but if it works for your great. So where is your information on the accounts coming from. You seem so sure yet have nothing to pass along?

 

[Joshua Clinard]

It took some digging, but I found one article from CES 2012 quoting the number of "household accounts" announced by a member of DECE, At the time the number was 750,000, but he added that the number of users was actually closer to a million, because many of the accounts had sub-accounts. Unfortunately, this article only has the first part of the quote, but I'll keep looking for the article that has the rest of it. http://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/ultraviolet-touts-750000-subscribers-big-plans-for-2012/

 

[Jason Charlton]

Originally Posted by Joshua Clinard
But no matter, millions of other people are figuring it out, and it will hit 10 million users in the next few months. That's a growth rate 3X the rate of DVD.

Originally Posted by Jason Charlton
Can you offer any insight as to how that membership number is determined? I'm curious since it seems there's a very high likelihood that a single "user" may have multiple UV-related accounts (different movie studios, streaming services, etc.) .

Originally Posted by Joshua Clinard
Only actual UV accounts are counted as users, not streaming sites. This does not include sub accounts, only main accounts, so unless you have more than one actual UV account then you are just counted as one user.

Originally Posted by Sam Posten
So where is your information on the accounts coming from. You seem so sure yet have nothing to pass along?

Originally Posted by Joshua Clinard
It took some digging, but I found one article from CES 2012 quoting the number of "household accounts" announced by a member of DECE, At the time the number was 750,000, but he added that the number of users was actually closer to a million, because many of the accounts had sub-accounts.

So, no - you can't cite any source for the "10 million users" claim (if they were at 1 million in Jan. '12 - that's a helluva growth rate to hit 10 million in just over a year...), and by their own admission, they count "users" by the number of login/password pairs they have, not necessarily by the actual number of UV accounts.

 

[Jason Charlton]

Originally Posted by Joshua Clinard
So now you have no reason to bitch about having to create 5 separate accounts! Just need a UV account and a retailer account!

And just sayin' - having to "create" two accounts to use UV is still 200% more accounts than I need to create to redeem an iTunes copy. I already had my apple account and password.
I just like things to be simple. No new accounts/passwords == simpler than 2 new accounts/passwords. And that's just for people who are signing up now.
For those "legacy" UV users - what are they to do with the multitude of accounts that have already been created? Is there a process they can go through to "reduce" down to the 2 accounts? Or would doing so mean losing access to certain titles?

 

[Joshua Clinard]

Why is it such a bloody big deal to have 2 new accounts? If you have been using the internet for any length of time, you likely already have many accounts setup! Let's think about a few of the most popular services. Go ahead and count the ones that you use. I'll wait here. Amazon, Netflix, Pandora, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Gmail, Yahoo, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, Foursquare, Skype, Fandango, Yelp, iTunes, eBay, Hulu, and PayPal. And then I bet you have an account for your bank, your cell phone provider, and your cable or internet provider. That's about 20 accounts! But nobody complains about having to have multiple accounts for all these services! What's 2 or 3 more? Yes, if you have more than one UV account, they can be merged together. http://uvvu.com/faqs.php#question-17 Can I merge two separate UltraViolet accounts? Account members with full permissions can merge two accounts. To merge two accounts, sign into one account at uvvu.com go to Account Settings (in the Our Account section) and select "Merge Two Accounts". Follow the steps to complete the merge. You'll be asked to sign in to the second account, so be sure a full access member of that account is available to provide the sign-in name and password.

 

[MattAlbie60]

A few things: Number one, your argument seems to be about how easy this is. People have pointed out (without getting as irritated as you seem to be) that it isn't quite as easy as you're making it seem. Nobody is saying two logins is the death knell for Ultraviolet. What they're saying, in the context of this discussion, is that you're not acknowledging certain aspects of the way this service works as being slightly more difficult than the image you're trying to create. Number two, I have one login for my bank. I have one login for iTunes. I have one for PayPal, one for eBay, one for whatever else. When it comes to Ultraviolet, I have at least two to use one service.

 

[Joshua Clinard]

I never tried to argue that the service couldn't be simplified or improved. It certainly could be. It would be nice if you could just redeem every movie from one site. I would love for that to happen, but then you would have no reason to be a hater. My argument is that it is not that difficult. Maybe confusing at first, but once you do a little research, it's not difficult.

 

[MattAlbie60]

It's very bizarre that you seem to have this idea in your head that if someone doesn't like Ultraviolet and think its awesome, they're a "hater." You've said it before, and you just said it again. It's as if it is completely unfathomable that someone could just... not like something. But no, it can't be that. If someone doesn't like Ultraviolet (which appears to be the majority of people in this thread), they're either A) unintelligent, or B) are "haters." It's immature. It's wrong. It stifles discussion. And, in the spirit of honesty, all it does is make me want Ultraviolet to fail so that you'll be sad. In all seriousness, I just don't like it, for reasons that myself and others have said. I've used Ultraviolet. I don't like it. It doesn't do anything to make my life better, so screw it. There are evidently a lot of people like me. I'm really sorry that that idea apparently bums you out so hard.

 

[sclem]

I like the UV but I hate the fact that I have to stream from VUDU which is related to walmart and that service doesn't appeal to me. The Sony Ultraviolet website is sleak. Vudu is kinda trashy. Plus, they add free movies into my account like "Wrong Turn 2" (gross) with no way to delete. Finally vudu streams very sliw Amazon instant video is faster.

 

[MattAlbie60]

What are you using to stream Vudu? It's really fast and good looking on my PS3. I do agree with you about adding free movies that I have no way to delete. Why is that a good idea? The idea isn't quantity. It's quality. If I'm building a digital collection, I don't just want 1000 random movies. I'd rather have 10 minutes that I really like than to have to open the Flixter app cautiously while holding my breath, because today might be the day that JUWANNA MAN gets randomly added to my collection.