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Amazon Prime Vudu Where to Buy? (1 Viewer)

Johnny Angell

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Say I’m interested in buying a movie. It’s on Amazon Prime, Vudu, and iTunes. Maybe more? Assuming price is identical or close, who should I buy from and why? I’ve been looking at Love and Monsters and The Wolf of Ghost Hollow.
 

Scott Merryfield

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The advantage that iTunes has over the others is that they will upgrade for free any HD versions you purchase to 4K if a 4K transfer becomes available on their site. This is for films only -- not for TV shows.

Personally, I purchase from iTunes almost exclusively. I still buy from Vudu occasionally if they have a really good sale. I never buy from Amazon, but I will rent from them using digital credits accumulated from using the "no rush" shipping option on things I buy on Amazon (I'm a Prime member). That basically gives me some free rentals, although recently I have been using the digital credits more for buying Kindle books.
 

Robert Crawford

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Say I’m interested in buying a movie. It’s on Amazon Prime, Vudu, and iTunes. Maybe more? Assuming price is identical or close, who should I buy from and why? I’ve been looking at Love and Monsters and The Wolf of Ghost Hollow.
Johnny,

As Scott stated I usually buy from iTunes mostly then some from Vudu. I rarely buy anything from Amazon. As to those two titles, I would show some patience as I can see those two titles being $9.99 each sometime in January.
 

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iTunes for the reason Scott stated. I also find that their technical quality is often slightly higher than their competitors.
 

ManW_TheUncool

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Also, iTunes tend to have more/better sales than the others w/ most movie titles eventually dropping down to the <=$5 mark every now and then (generally probably faster than BDs dropping to bargain bin levels... maybe w/in 2 years or so of initial release to iTunes in most cases). Typically, the ones that don't eventually drop that low are also the ones that wouldn't drop to bargain bin levels on BD (and 4K disc) format, eg. Criterion, Disney/Pixar animation, Marvel, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings Trilogy Extended Edition, etc.

I also find iTunes tend to have a bit more quality, foreign language films if that interests you, but maybe that's just me -- just going by what I've bought in the last half year that don't exist on Vudu (as I keep a list on Vudu of titles I buy/own exclusively on iTunes).

_Man_
 

Johnny Angell

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So to buy a movie, start with iTunes because they often upgrade to HD or UHD. How about redeeming a digital code? ITunes for the same reason?
 

Josh Steinberg

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The caveat for digital codes is sometimes they don’t give you a choice and it has to be redeemed directly at Movies Anywhere or another store. But if iTunes is an option, definitely go with that.
 

ManW_TheUncool

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Another plus for iTunes is they seem to be much more likely to include significant bonus features, if you care about that.

OTOH, there does seem to be more playback issues on other non-Apple devices so far -- well, at least on Rokus anyway, which uses their AppleTV app... that actually hasn't added support for iTunes bonus features (just yet?)...

_Man_
 

Tino

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iTunes by a large margin. For all the reasons listed above.

Then comes VUDU.

I never buy from the other services.
 

ManW_TheUncool

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There's also fanflix.com that seems to offer small monthly sales from the few main digital storefronts. Not sure if some offers sometimes require sign-up to their email list -- haven't gotten SPAMed from signing up so far, but mainly just a couple offer emails a month.

They run monthly deals like 3-for-$5 or 3-for-$10 on small selection of titles sometimes in 4K (usually from iTunes and/or Vudu/Fandango). Sometimes, just $4/title from a somewhat wider selection in 4K.

_Man_
 

Maxman43

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Say I’m interested in buying a movie. It’s on Amazon Prime, Vudu, and iTunes. Maybe more? Assuming price is identical or close, who should I buy from and why? I’ve been looking at Love and Monsters and The Wolf of Ghost Hollow.
Vudu has the best quality.
 

tns49

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Don't forget (especially for digital coupons) that Movies anywhere allows you to view on pretty much all of these platforms. Normally when forced to choice I use VUDU, since the app works well on my LG TV. Not sure where the Fandango/VUDU future is going though.

ITunes, for me, is a bad choice, as it is not available on my Android devices or TV.
 

JimJasper

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Great thread and contributions..... I never knew this, as I'm not streaming at this time, but plan to. Looks like it w/be iTunes....
 

Aaron Silverman

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iTunes (actually Apple TV now, I think) has some advantages, as others have mentioned. However, unless it's changed recently, it only plays Atmos audio tracks through a $180 Apple TV box. I usually watch through Vudu since it has the best overall quality on my Samsung smart TV.

Movies Anywhere makes it easy for most movies, though. I can just buy from whichever site has the best price or the one where I have a gift card.
 

Todd Erwin

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iTunes (actually Apple TV now, I think) has some advantages, as others have mentioned. However, unless it's changed recently, it only plays Atmos audio tracks through a $180 Apple TV box. I usually watch through Vudu since it has the best overall quality on my Samsung smart TV.

Movies Anywhere makes it easy for most movies, though. I can just buy from whichever site has the best price or the one where I have a gift card.
I get Atmos on most movies on the Apple TV app (even non-4k titles) on my 4k Roku devices, but not on my 4k Fire Sticks.
 

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