Apple TV vs VUDU

Can you explain your dissatisfaction? I own a Vudu and I just can't see how the AppleTV is going to compare overall. AFAIK you will never see instant-on HD from the ATV, whereas Vudu has it now. The Vudu just dropped it's price so AFAIK the Vudu has more storage for the same price. Vudu has TV, they don't support podcasts, but it's been hinted at, so I'm not that concerned. Interface wise I think it's a toss-up between the two.

I think Apple certainly has the marketing muscle in it's favor. But overall, Vudu has HD movies NOW, they play instantly, they're the same price, and the Vudu has tons more movies than the ATV.

Now if you just wanted an ATV because you love Apple, then that's a different story. Some people just prefer particular brands. Nothing wrong with that at all. But overall I think the Vudu experience still tops the ATV at the moment.

paulrus wrote:
AFAIK you will never see instant-on HD from the ATV, whereas Vudu has it now. The Vudu just >dropped it's price so AFAIK the Vudu has more storage for the same price.

How does it get instant-on? It must have to download the movie, right?

It downloads the first 30 seconds of every title available so every one can be viewed instantly, then it just streams it while you are viewing. You need a 4mbs connection for instant HD and a 2mbs connecttion for instant SD.
It works extremely well.

Wow, I'm impressed..

vudu non-starters for me:
- can't play my ripped DVDs on it
- photos.. didn't think i would use this but when the relative came over on the holidays this got used big time better then all going to the office to look at pics or individually looking at photo albums
- appleTV has unlimited storage since you can stream content. vudu is limited to 250GB.. they are coming out with a 1TB i think for $1000... i have 1.5TB for my appleTV and the HDDs only cost me $100 a piece for 500GB so that's a 1.54GB AppleTV for $600.. the equivalent 1TB appleTV set up would be half the cost of the 1T vudu box at $500
- it doesn't even play your music library... pathetic! this means i need still need to buy an appleTV...
- it's not iTunes compatible...

but what i think Apple need to do is to make an Apple - TV.. i.e. and apple branded flat screen TV with an the AppleTV guts inside that would be awesome.. just tac on $200 to the price of the TV people would go for that... or even allow other manufactures to put appleTVs inside their TVs.

Well if they are ripped from copy protected DVDs(ie titles you buy) then they are illegal.

according to RIAA it is... this has never been tested in a court and they have had opportunities to test this and they haven't.. they are scared they won't win. they want everyone to have to buy their content twice one DVD and another electronic copy... i don't think it makes any kind of sense.. i bought the DVD i just want to play it off of my hard drive rather than off of the DVD so what's the problem... i don't even bother with my DVDs after i rip them... they go into albums that i store in a closet... DVDs get scrated and take up too much room to store and are a pain to use i.e. i have to get off my sofa to use them.. looking through hundreds of DVD cases to find something to watch??? no thanks! it's a crappy format.

One exception Fox is the only one that's going to start including an electronic copy of the DVD with the retail DVD... smart... try playing that electronic copy on the Vudu machine.. you can't.

look i feel it's fair use... i bought the DVD, i don't want to bother with DVDs anymore i just want to play the content that i paid for from a different source.. and i'm not even using the DVD at all.. i.e. i still only utilizing one copy of the thing