Going all Digital - Apple or Vudu advice? (1 Viewer)

[Jeffery_H]

I have decided to go mostly all Digital for my movies due to the fact I am going to be moving to an apartment where space is limited. Therefore, I simply must organize and keep things more modern without the bulk of storing all my physical media.

Having said that, I find it hard to get good feedback from those that have used these types of services and compared them. Mainly, I am interested in Apple and Vudu since I believe those are the two best options and well established. I do like the "Disc To Digital" option for Vudu and don't know if Apple or Amazon will ever offer that. Also, I would love to get into 4K UHD streaming as I will have a 30Mbps connection to handle it. Vudu is starting to have a select few movies in 4K, but I haven't heard anything about Apple yet or a new Apple TV with 4K support.

Can anyone help offer some advice on what they like best, why and how you like the service? I just need to get some good feedback to see what's best now and for 4K soon.

Thanks.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

At the moment, Apple doesn't do 4K on their store, so if you're interested in 4K, Vudu is your choice. Apple doesn't do Disc to Digital and likely never will, so if you're interested in Disc to Digital, Vudu is your choice. (It's worth noting that not every title is available for disc to digital - a lot of Warner, Fox, Universal and Paramount titles are. Most MGM titles are not. Disney ones never are.)

iTunes has been around longer than Vudu, so if going with the one that has the most experience means anything to you, that's iTunes.

Each offers perks the other doesn't.

I ultimately use both. I have an older model of Apple TV (that I bought in 2013) that I use for streaming rentals, and my Blu-ray player has a built-in Vudu app, which I use for streaming rentals as well. I generally do not buy movies on either storefront. As far as streaming quality goes, when both are offering the same master, the quality is about the same. (Sometimes one store will offer a movie only in SD from an older master, while the other store will have it in HD from a newer master.) Vudu offers support for Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby Atmos; Apple doesn't. iTunes does a better job of providing bonus features than Vudu does, and the interface for watching those bonus features is a little easier to navigate on iTunes. Vudu offers titles in 3D; Apple does not.

As a general warning to going all digital, which applies to whichever service you pick: though it hasn't happened very often, Disney as a studio has been known to tamper with already bought and paid for purchases. There are two examples that I know of. The first one concerns the movie "Bedknobs & Broomsticks" - at one point, Disney had an extended version available for sale on iTunes and Vudu. However, when they later decided to put the movie out on Blu-ray, they only put the shorter theatrical version on the disc (it's about 20 minutes shorter). However, they also removed the longer version from everyone's account had previously purchased that longer version, and replaced it without warning with the shorter version. That, to my mind, is unacceptable. It is not okay to take away something that someone has purchased and fully paid for and swap it out with something different without their permission, but that's exactly what Disney did. In another case, Vudu offered a digital copy of Maleficent in 3D for about $20. Days or weeks after it went onsale, Disney decided that was too low, and had the services forcibly remove the copies from people's digital library and refund their money. Again, I find this unacceptable. If I buy a disc legitimately from a studio supported retailer, the studio does not get to break into my house and take the disc back if they get into an argument with the store that sold it to me, but that's exactly what Disney did there. That they gave back the money is irrelevant; you don't get to break into my space and take my stuff. I realize that that's only two examples out of the thousands of titles released digitally, but that it's happened twice from the same studio, once on a new title and once on an older one, makes me worried about how permanent my purchases are. I'm sure the vast majority of the purchases people make will be fine, but even if this only happens to one or two titles that you own... what if the one they take away happens to be your favorite movie? At the very least, I would recommend staying with physical media for Disney purchases.

As for everything else... iTunes/AppleTV might be slightly easier to use and a little bit prettier in terms of menu designs, but Vudu has a few more technical options (like UHD/4K, Dolby Atmos, and 3D support) that Apple doesn't.

 

[Sam Posten]

Going all digital today is a terrible idea IMO. If you ARE gonna do it I'd get a cable box, an Apple TV and a Roku or similar. AND not OR. YMMV, I don't get the concept but that's just me.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

 

[Cranston37+]

A couple of thoughts

1) With Disney titles, you don't have to choose, and they will show up on both.

2) I have built my 1,200 UV collection using Disc to Digital and buying codes online. If I had to pay full price for titles, like you have to do with iTunes, I wouldn't have a single one.

3) Most, but not all, discs these days come with UV codes, but not iTunes.

4) iTunes movies can only be watched on Apple devices, but UV movies can be watched on all devices.

5) Unlike iTunes, UV titles can be shared with friends. 4 of my friends have access to every movie I own on their TV's.

Having said all that, the world of digital if not a perfect one no matter which service you choose. If your main reason for it is to save room, what about storing your physical media in something smaller, like binders?

 

[Jeffery_H]

Going all digital today is a terrible idea IMO. If you ARE gonna do it I'd get a cable box, an Apple TV and a Roku or similar. AND not OR. YMMV, I don't get the concept but that's just me.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

You must have not read my OP above, I have NO ROOM for physical media of that size. While I could use binders and sleeve inserts for the discs, I would also need to add a bookshelf for it somewhere. All my space is modern and optimized for a very sleek look. It's 1000/sq ft. and not 3,000 like my home. Relocating for health reasons, so it's not an option or preference in choice.

 

[Sam Posten]

Your choices are yours alone, only you can decide what matters to you. If you wanted to you could rent physical media or stick 500 disks on a spindle kept in a small drawer, you just have to be creative if it matters to you. If it doesn't, that's fine, but there are extreme downsides to going digital only and it will be that way for some time.

 

[Cranston37+]

I like Sam's idea of a spindle

And having recently downsized I can tell you how surprised you'd be at how much you can fit under a bed. I have a gym's worth of weights under mine and you'd never know it. If you put your discs in sleeves you could probably fit 5,000 discs under yours. Seriously...

 

[Neil Middlemiss]

I prefer VUDU over Apple. Redeeming codes at VUDU allows me to use other UV services, the disc-to-digital service has been great as I have been able to upgrade to (good, sometimes great) HD for movies that will likely never see a blu-Ray release (LA Story for example). MGM disc aren't on the D2D program, and there are challenges with some discs still not being recognized by the D2D software you install to do the upgrades, but those quibbles aside, being able to create digital versions of the movies I own is enormously helpful (especially as I have a 4-yr old and having those children's movies is great).

VUDU is available on more devices, like blu-Ray players with apps, and Roku devices (which I love) and the interface is excellent. I have movies in iTunes and have an apple player, but my preference is overwhelmingly the Roku and VUDU. Hope that helps, and best of luck.

 

[Bob Cashill]

I also use both iTunes and Vudu, though I make greater use of the latter. May as well cover the waterfront. Six years after iTunes put out THE DEVILS, then withdrew it after I purchased it, I still have it.

 

[Joseph Bolus]

I'm in agreement that you really need both services *and* you need a good, reliable, high speed internet provider.

Just be aware that neither service can totally replace a good Blu-ray of your favorite movie. But if you really have no other option, I guess streaming is better than nothing. (I hope I'm never forced to make that decision!). I occasionally rent movies for streaming and nothing’s worse than seeing the dreaded "buffering" message and/or dropping down from HD resolution to SD in the middle of the movie.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

To add to my earlier post, I agree with everyone who suggests having both a Vudu device and an iTunes device if you're going to abandon physical completely. In the end, since accounts on both are free, it's just the cost of getting a Roku and an AppleTV, which isn't necessarily the most outrageous expense ever. There's a lot of overlap between the services but every now and then there will be a title you can get on one but not the other.

Without wanting to pile on with a suggestion that might be contrary to what you want, I'd also raise my hand in favor of keeping your discs - at least your favorite ones - in a space saving spindle of binder. When I went away to college 100 years ago, I have a huge library of CDs and DVDs, and I put the discs into binders that I then hid under my bed. 1000 discs fit into either two or four binders, and stayed out of sight until I wanted to watch something.

It's also worth noting that there are still a number of titles on disc that haven't been released digitally at all. At the very least, I would strongly reccomend a title you're interested in is available digitally before getting rid of the disc for good.

 

[jayhawkai]

2) I have built my 1,200 UV collection using Disc to Digital and buying codes online. If I had to pay full price for titles, like you have to do with iTunes, I wouldn't have a single one.

iTunes codes are plentiful. Maybe not as plentiful as UV codes, but they're usually significantly cheaper.

 

[Race Bannon]

Why don't you rip all your blu-rays and DVD's on to hard drives (even a NAS), and use Plex? I love Plex. It's like your own hosted streaming service.

 

[trajan007]

So if any movie you own is not on Vudu's list, you can't convert it?

 

[Josh Steinberg]

So if any movie you own is not on Vudu's list, you can't convert it?

That's correct. And it's not enough for Vudu to simply carry the title - it has to be a title that is approved for Disc to Digital. This includes many (but not all) titles by Warner, Fox, Universal and Paramount. Only a very tiny fraction of MGM/UA releases are available for Disc To Digital. No Disney titles are available for Disc To Digital.

 

[trajan007]

That's correct. And it's not enough for Vudu to simply carry the title - it has to be a title that is approved for Disc to Digital. This includes many (but not all) titles by Warner, Fox, Universal and Paramount. Only a very tiny fraction of MGM/UA releases are available for Disc To Digital. No Disney titles are available for Disc To Digital.

Plus-- you have to have their box correct?

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Plus-- you have to have their box correct?

Vudu doesn't make a specific device. Their app works on multiple devices, including the Roku, and is also an included app with many "Smart" TVs and wi-fi connected Blu-ray players.

 

[jayhawkai]

Vudu doesn't make a specific device. Their app works on multiple devices, including the Roku, and is also an included app with many "Smart" TVs and wi-fi connected Blu-ray players.

They actually do make a device called the Spark, but no, you can use Vudu with Chromecast, Playstation, Roku and many more devices.

 

[trajan007]

Thank all.

 

[Joshua Clinard]

There are over 8,000 movies available for disc to digital from every major studio except for Disney and MGM.