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

[Joshua Clinard]

I wanted to give everyone a little update on that status of the UV format.
There are now 6 million people using UV. It took over 3 years for DVD to reach an installed base of 5 million homes.
More than 7200 titles are now available. In the last 4 months, 3 new studios (Lionsgate, Fox, and Dreamworks) began launching UV titles.
The Common File Format is being tested by retailers/streaming providers, and should be starting to deploy in the first quarter of next year.
Vudu is available on more devices than ever.
New retailers are launching services by the end of the year. Other's will launch in the first quarter of next year. Here are a few that I know of.
B&N is launching their Nook video service next week that is UV compatible.
Redbox Instant will be launching a Netflix style service that will be UV compatible by the end of the year. This is the one I am most excited about!
Rovi is planning to launch a home-based disc to digital feature soon with certain streaming providers. M-Go, a service offered by Technicolor and Dreamworks is one rumored service to have this feature, and is planning a launch late this year, or very early next year.
Anchor Bay is now offering titles in the UV format. Also some Dreamworks live action titles have been added, in addition to the hundreds of Fox titles that were added less than 2 months ago.
Flixster is now able to play many more titles, after it's agreement with Paramount.

 

[TonyD]

Hey, that's awsome

 

[Joshua Clinard]

Oh, I forgot to mention, You can now merge two UV accounts into one now, and it will add both movie collections into one.
You are also now able to stream HD and HDX films via your PC or Mac. That is a big step forward for people who have been complaining about that.

 

[Towergrove]

Yes this is great news!

 

[Steve Tannehill]

Stupid UV. I am trying to redeem a Universal title and the server unexpectedly dropped the connection....it says the server is too busy.
What's the point of UV if I can't redeem the code and see the movie?
(The iTunes code downloaded immediately. Looks like Apple knows something about infrastructure.)

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

I don't know about UV -- still haven't tried a UV DC yet -- but just tried downloading the iTunes DCs for Boardwalk Empire S1, and it's a literal download from the iTunes store (or is it HBO/Warner?) that will take forever on my lowly basic DSL service -- even faster cable modem service will likely take a long while to do the entire season -- instead of the usual, reasonably fast disc-to-PC transfer I usually see for iTunes DCs bundled w/ BD purchases. Ugh!

Now I definitely don't look forward to trying UV DCs -- not even sure I can download for local viewing vs streaming from the internet...

_Man_

 

[Steve Tannehill]

From what I've seen, you can download UV from Flixster.
Some iTunes digital copies transfer from the DVD included with the blu-ray. Some download from the iTunes Store. I've never had a problem with download speed, but then I have FiOS.
Good luck!

 

[Joshua Clinard]

Now you can also use the CinemaNow app to stream and download UV movies to your iPad or Android tablet. The Cinama Now app is able to stream and download many more titles than the flixster app is able to. Vudu also just released a new app for selected Android tablets.
Also, Cinema Now just launched the beta version of thier at home disc to digital service. Just pop a DVD into your computer's DVD drive, and you are able to use an app to add it to your UV collection instantly. I haven't tried it yet because I am currently traveling in China and Cinema Now is restricted here.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Turns out part of the problem w/ The Boardwalk Empire DC download is iTunes defaults to the HD version, which even at 720p is almost 3x as big as the SD version, and Apple made it waaaay difficult to figure out how to switch to SD download instead. Maybe I shoulda just ripped the included DVDs instead of downloading -- might be a bit faster to rip in my case (though that would require more attention from me), and could then also go w/ lower quality, smaller file sizes too...
It's nice that HBO/Warner is including HD versions for the DCs though, especially since the BD package also includes DVDs. Probably great for folks streaming HD over the fastest, unlimited internet services. Just wish Apple/iTunes made it easier to choose SD if/when us mortals wants/needs that instead...
_Man_

 

[MattAlbie60]

You can switch your download quality in the "Preferences" menu in iTunes in like, four seconds.

 

[DaveF]

I was talking to someone who will be representing their company on Ultraviolet.  He asked me to send him what I like and don't like about it so I thought I would look for more opinions about what works and doesn't before I send it on. 
Here is my dislike list:
Too many inconsistencies:

• Different user name and password requirements on different sites
• Different ways to download/stream different films
• Linking to a movie in my collection on my UV page, just takes me to the studio page where I have to login again.

Its not clear how long I can stream a title for.  One year? Forever? TBD?
Its too hard to manage my content.  If I want to download a movie to watch on the plane, there is no one point to do it and there is no easy way to manage the title as it doesn't show up in the video folder, its in a separate application.  If I need to move it off to make room for something else, I have to re-download it.  I can't just move the file off to my iTunes library or PC until I want to reload it next time.
I should be able to move a downloaded file between all the devices on my account.
My like list:
While I am squarely in the "give me a disc on my shelf" camp, I like the concept of being able to have a portable copy to take on the go.

I still don't understand what UV does or how I would use it. I set up an account a year ago, in response to one of these threads. I haven't touched it since. I went to login (was stunned a new account was complex like getting a new credit card) , then did a password recovery (recovered the emails from spam...), and got logged in. Empty account. No content. No indication how to play anything on my iPad or iPhone.
I've got some movies and TV shows for Christmas. If it lets me watch the TV shows on my iPad, that would be useful. If it only lets me watch low quality versions on TVs that already have a DVD player connected, ill forget about it until this thread reminds me again in a year.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

You can switch your download quality in the "Preferences" menu in iTunes in like, four seconds.

I tried switching every such setting on the iTunes (for Windoze) program, but none of them did the trick until I googled and found out that I also needed to uncheck this one isolated setting basically "out in leftfield" (for HD preference) under the Purchased --> TV Shows page in the iTunes store itself, which I would never think to find and do since I was downloading DCs that came w/ my shiny discs set purchase. On top of that, it seemed the only way I could do the SD version download properly was to do it from that store page's TV Episodes tab for the set, instead of directly using just the iTunes client program, which makes the process that much more tedious... :f
What a major hassle. I'm just glad I don't buy much of anything from the iTunes store nor have too many such downloads to do...
_Man_

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

I still don't understand what UV does or how I would use it. I set up an account a year ago, in response to one of these threads. I haven't touched it since. I went to login (was stunned a new account was complex like getting a new credit card) , then did a password recovery (recovered the emails from spam...), and got logged in. Empty account. No content. No indication how to play anything on my iPad or iPhone.
I've got some movies and TV shows for Christmas. If it lets me watch the TV shows on my iPad, that would be useful. If it only lets me watch low quality versions on TVs that already have a DVD player connected, ill forget about it until this thread reminds me again in a year.

AFAIK, you need to use an app like Flixster's Movie app on your iPad for this. I haven't tried it myself either since I only have lowly basic DSL at home -- I probably need to reconsider this as our growing family's use of broadband service increases going forward...
_Man_

 

[lizardbreath]

I agree with you with all dislikes. I REALLY like owning a hard copy, BUT I like to store them somewhere so they won't get scratched or stolen. I like that everyone in the house can access our movie collection at the same time.
I would like to add that I would really love to download all the movies to a central site such as a backup home network device AND
not just Disney needs to get on board, but there are so many of my movies that I want to put in the cloud that are still not available such as Short Circuit I or old movies such as Yours, Mine and Ours starring Lucille Ball or A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum that is digital, but not with VUDU. There are copies that I own, but I can only rent from the cloud. I don't understand why if they are "in the cloud" to buy why can't you disc-to-digital them?????
I try to purchase movies that have the UV Sticker on them or with the oldies at Wal-Mart to see if they are included in the disc-to-digital list BEFORE I buy!!!!

 

[Sam Posten]

Checking in: Yep, UV still sucks. http://m.cnet.com/news/keep-your-blu-rays-and-dvds-hollywood----ive-gone-digital/57564914

 

[Joshua Clinard]

Most of the people that have written reviews of UltraViolet on these blogs seem rather confused. Are they really that stupid? I have now redeemed over 50 UltraViolet, and never once did it take more than 30 seconds. And it bears repeating, it took no more than 5 minitues to sign up with vudu, ultraviolet, and flixster, combined. If these people really can't figure out how to make UV work in less than 30 mins, then I don't know how they manage to turn on a computer. And it seems this reviewer bashed Ultra-Violet without even trying it. He attempted to redeem the Amazon and iTunes copy, not the ultra-violet one. All he had to do was click on the vudu link, and it would have taken him straight to the redeem page, no need to sign up with universal at all. 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. And soon, thousands more titles will be eligible for conversion, MGM, Lionsgate and other smaller studio's have joined. Disney will have to join by 2014 I think.

 

[DaveF]

Season 1 of Community did not come with any digital redemption codes. I assume S2 and S3 don't either. So UV and so forth remain not useful to me. I don't need digital dupes of movies I buy on disc, so much as I need it for TV seasons.

 

[David Deeb]

Most of the people that have written reviews of UltraViolet on these blogs seem rather confused. Are they really that stupid? I have now redeemed over 50 UltraViolet, and never once did it take more than 30 seconds. And it bears repeating, it took no more than 5 minitues to sign up with vudu, ultraviolet, and flixster, combined. If these people really can't figure out how to make UV work in less than 30 mins, then I don't know how they manage to turn on a computer. And it seems this reviewer bashed Ultra-Violet without even trying it. He attempted to redeem the Amazon and iTunes copy, not the ultra-violet one. All he had to do was click on the vudu link, and it would have taken him straight to the redeem page, no need to sign up with universal at all. 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. And soon, thousands more titles will be eligible for conversion, MGM, Lionsgate and other smaller studio's have joined. Disney will have to join by 2014 I think.

I'm sure it's doable for the authors, but it's certainly neither as simple or intuitive as getting an app for a tablet or a smartphone. UV is fairly clunky by today's standards for buying other digital product. Whatever iteration of digital movie downloads is next, or the one that may have more success, will need to be backward compatible with Ultraviolet in order to keep all those purchasers happy (and willing to follow along to the next digital platform without feeling betrayed). That may not be an easy task.

 

[Jason Charlton]

Originally Posted by Joshua Clinard
...it will hit 10 million users in the next few months.

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.) .
Also, do you know if there is any recent information online that compares the total number of digital movie downloads from various services (iTunes, Amazon, Hulu, etc.)?

 

[TonyD]

Jason why are you trying to introduce actual facts into this?