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VUDU Set Top Box for Movies On Demand
See it at Amazon.com for $199.87Average Customer Rating
(4.0 out of 5)
Amazon Customer Reviews
Most Helpful First | Newest First | + Share1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Great Product but do shop around
(3 out of 5) by J. Brancato on Dec 13, 2009 (Los Angeles, Ca)Love the product - was about to purchase but did decide to shop around. Best Buy has same product for $149 - Saved $50 plus shipping. Used to be buy everything from Amazon - but watch these outside vendors - not always a good buy for online shoppers.
5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
Rip off
(1 out of 5) by Music is my Fav. on Dec 8, 2009The amount you have to pay for movies is OUTRAGEOUS!! Why would I pay $4.99 to rent a movie when I could get a Netflix supscription and get as many movies as I want? Totally not worth it.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
The Hardest Working Box In The Business
(5 out of 5) by LessThanZero on Apr 27, 2009 (Portland, OR)I bought my VUDU Box over Christmas when it was on sale. I had been looking into buying one for some time and decided to strike at this opportunity. I am incredibly frugal when it comes to new technology and I never buy anything without researching it first and pouring over the reviews. Most of the reviews I read for VUDU were polarizing: people either loved the box or they hated it. Very few fell into the middle. I decided I would give the box a try and see how I felt about it, and return it if I didn't like it. That was 4 months ago.
I agree with what most of the reviews here are saying. The quality of the box is top notch. The user interface is great and easy to use. Set up is quick and easy and can be done with 3 cables (In my case power, Ethernet, and HDMI). I think it is important to say that I do not have a huge home theater. The box is simply connected to my television (an older model HD). Not to say that the box isn't easily connected to massive home theater systems, just read some reviews on here or look at the outputs on the back of the box (it has almost every output imaginable). The point being that the box will work in your simple living room or in a big home theater. Anyways, setting it up was simple like I said: plug it in, confirm that the remote is working and that you can hear sound, watch the box download the latest titles, and finally link the box to your account. You have to do this on your computer, but it takes less than 5 minutes. You'll be glad you have the account online later as it makes managing movies simple.
Quality of the movies on the VUDU Box is outstanding. This is one aspect that almost every review agreed on, and I will also agree with. The first movie I watched on the box was The Dark Knight in HD. After selecting the movie and confirming that you want to rent it, the movie will begin to play. There was no delay for the entire movie and it looked great the entire time. I've never considered myself a video junkie, but even I can tell the difference between watching a movie on VUDU and watching a DVD or a movie on HBO or OnDemand. Everything on VUDU is clearer and just looks better. This isn't just new releases either. Take for example the classic film Heavyweights which I have watched on cable countless times. When I found this gem on VUDU I had to rent it. There is no reason a movie such as Heavyweights should look so good, but on VUDU it does. It's the added attention to every movie that makes me really appreciate the box.
This is the difference that I have noticed with VUDU compared to other streaming boxes. Because almost every box is locked into the same pricing structure, you will consistently get the same prices from box to box. However, VUDU gives you more for that price in terms of quality. You could rent a movie on Netflix or Amazon and watch it as if it was on cable, but what is the fun in that? The reason you buy the streaming box is to break away from mediocre looking movies. VUDU hits it out of the park in this category.
Now, why is the VUDU the hardest working box in the business?
First off quality. Standard definition movies are higher quality than normal standard definition. High definition looks way better than normal HD. Finally, HDX looks better than any other streaming medium you can find. No other box is offering movies in 1080p at 24fps. VUDU is offering a ton, and they don't cost any more than HD.
Second, selection. VUDU currently has over 13,000 titles in the library. Over 1,300 of these are in HD. I've consistently been able to find obscure movies that I haven't seen forever, as well as those that are coming out as new releases. New movies are added weekly both as rentals and as purchases. I've been able to find any movie that is available on my friend's Xbox with Netflix streaming on VUDU and oh, that's right, in higher quality.
Third, features. I have never seen a more comprehensive search feature than the one on the VUDU Box. This doesn't mean it is intimidating. You can do a simple search just by title or director/actor. You'll probably be able to find your movie this way. Or you can browse through genre (and add other genre's to the mix in case you are looking for say a Horror-Comedy-Western) or even search by year and critic's rating. VUDU Labs is another nice feature with access to YouTube and Pandora, as well as other online services. Though, I admit I use YouTube and Pandora the most. VUDU makes use of the HD feature of YouTube so the videos look pretty good on a bigger television. Pandora brings your stations to the television and I have found it is great to put on for background music.
Lastly, I don't know what to call this but it is the ability of VUDU to be first at everything and provide the best experience. It feels good knowing that VUDU is consistently delivering on their basic premise of instant high quality movies as well as constantly adding and improving the service. It's been almost two years I believe since VUDU introduced their box, and tons of competition has popped up. Yet nobody is delivering an experience as unique as VUDU, and they all seem to be one step behind what VUDU is doing.
This is why VUDU is the hardest working box in the business. They could have stopped with simply delivering movies but they kept going with quality, new features, selection, and the best experience amongst the competition. Why would they slow down now? I would find it hard to give the VUDU Box anything but a perfect rating because for this kind of technology (streaming movie boxes) they are the best right now.
I agree with what most of the reviews here are saying. The quality of the box is top notch. The user interface is great and easy to use. Set up is quick and easy and can be done with 3 cables (In my case power, Ethernet, and HDMI). I think it is important to say that I do not have a huge home theater. The box is simply connected to my television (an older model HD). Not to say that the box isn't easily connected to massive home theater systems, just read some reviews on here or look at the outputs on the back of the box (it has almost every output imaginable). The point being that the box will work in your simple living room or in a big home theater. Anyways, setting it up was simple like I said: plug it in, confirm that the remote is working and that you can hear sound, watch the box download the latest titles, and finally link the box to your account. You have to do this on your computer, but it takes less than 5 minutes. You'll be glad you have the account online later as it makes managing movies simple.
Quality of the movies on the VUDU Box is outstanding. This is one aspect that almost every review agreed on, and I will also agree with. The first movie I watched on the box was The Dark Knight in HD. After selecting the movie and confirming that you want to rent it, the movie will begin to play. There was no delay for the entire movie and it looked great the entire time. I've never considered myself a video junkie, but even I can tell the difference between watching a movie on VUDU and watching a DVD or a movie on HBO or OnDemand. Everything on VUDU is clearer and just looks better. This isn't just new releases either. Take for example the classic film Heavyweights which I have watched on cable countless times. When I found this gem on VUDU I had to rent it. There is no reason a movie such as Heavyweights should look so good, but on VUDU it does. It's the added attention to every movie that makes me really appreciate the box.
This is the difference that I have noticed with VUDU compared to other streaming boxes. Because almost every box is locked into the same pricing structure, you will consistently get the same prices from box to box. However, VUDU gives you more for that price in terms of quality. You could rent a movie on Netflix or Amazon and watch it as if it was on cable, but what is the fun in that? The reason you buy the streaming box is to break away from mediocre looking movies. VUDU hits it out of the park in this category.
Now, why is the VUDU the hardest working box in the business?
First off quality. Standard definition movies are higher quality than normal standard definition. High definition looks way better than normal HD. Finally, HDX looks better than any other streaming medium you can find. No other box is offering movies in 1080p at 24fps. VUDU is offering a ton, and they don't cost any more than HD.
Second, selection. VUDU currently has over 13,000 titles in the library. Over 1,300 of these are in HD. I've consistently been able to find obscure movies that I haven't seen forever, as well as those that are coming out as new releases. New movies are added weekly both as rentals and as purchases. I've been able to find any movie that is available on my friend's Xbox with Netflix streaming on VUDU and oh, that's right, in higher quality.
Third, features. I have never seen a more comprehensive search feature than the one on the VUDU Box. This doesn't mean it is intimidating. You can do a simple search just by title or director/actor. You'll probably be able to find your movie this way. Or you can browse through genre (and add other genre's to the mix in case you are looking for say a Horror-Comedy-Western) or even search by year and critic's rating. VUDU Labs is another nice feature with access to YouTube and Pandora, as well as other online services. Though, I admit I use YouTube and Pandora the most. VUDU makes use of the HD feature of YouTube so the videos look pretty good on a bigger television. Pandora brings your stations to the television and I have found it is great to put on for background music.
Lastly, I don't know what to call this but it is the ability of VUDU to be first at everything and provide the best experience. It feels good knowing that VUDU is consistently delivering on their basic premise of instant high quality movies as well as constantly adding and improving the service. It's been almost two years I believe since VUDU introduced their box, and tons of competition has popped up. Yet nobody is delivering an experience as unique as VUDU, and they all seem to be one step behind what VUDU is doing.
This is why VUDU is the hardest working box in the business. They could have stopped with simply delivering movies but they kept going with quality, new features, selection, and the best experience amongst the competition. Why would they slow down now? I would find it hard to give the VUDU Box anything but a perfect rating because for this kind of technology (streaming movie boxes) they are the best right now.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Very Satisfied
(5 out of 5) by L. Thomasino on Mar 9, 2009 (St.Louis, MO USA)I've owned my Vudu box for about a month now and love it! Very easy to set up and the video quality is terrific! After seeing the build construction of this box I really understand why they used to sell it for $300, very high quality.
3 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
Forget paying per movie, use Netflix Roku/Amazon Player
(3 out of 5) by Bic on Feb 22, 2009 (CA)The Netflix Roku/Amazon Player is a Vudu killer. For $99 box you get unlimited free viewings of thousands of (mostly older) movies, plus get instant access to new movies via Amazon. Of course, you need to subscribe to Netflix, but millions already do...