Netflix has taken the movie world by storm, offering thousands of movies instantly through it’s streaming service. Netflix catalog had one gaping hole though: New releases. This is where Vudu comes in. Netflix allows you to select from their catalog and watch as many times as you want. With Vudu you can only watch a title once and have 48 hours to complete the movie once you hit the play button. The nice thing is that not only does Vudu offer you $5.99 credit for signing up, you also get $5 on select Blu-ray titles at Walmart (Vudu’s parent company).
The catalog that Vudu offers is decent. Most of the new releases are there such as Sucker Punch, Battle: Los Angeles, True Grit, and much more. They also have a few older movies as well. I was really hoping to watch Mortal Kombat, and was slightly disappointed they didn’t have it, so I decided to rent TRON: Legacy to put the service to the test. When you select a movie to rent, you will be asked if you want to run a test of your internet speed, which will recommend what quality is best for your internet connection. Being that I have a 12Mbps connection, I was suggested HDX. Each movie has 3 quality standards to select from:
- SD – 480p, standard definition.
- HD – 720p, high definition.
- HDX – 1080p, high definition.
The prices on these qualities varies from movie-to-movie. TRON: Legacy was $5.99, using up all of my sign up bonus. I have to say that I was quite impressed with the quality. For being a stream, it was great! Of course, those of you who are videophiles will notice compression artifacts here and there, especially if you stand next to the TV, but that is to be expected when you’re compressing a 1080p movie down to a quality that can be viewed over a typical home-broadband connection. From a comfortable viewing distance (my couch is about 8 feet from the TV), the movie looked almost on par with a Blu-ray.
The only thing that slightly disappointed me was the pricing. Most of the movies are a little steep for a rental. Of course, a lot of the movies have a purchase option, but anyone wanting to buy a 1080p movie for $19.99 is better-off purchasing a physical Blu-ray copy at that price. I can walk down the road to Family Video and rent a Blu-ray for cheaper and watch it as many times as I want within the rental period. What Vudu needs to do it offer people something that will make them want to use the service other than not having to leave the couch because at this point, it’s almost a better option. The prices need to come down to a bit to maybe $2.99 a rental. That would make me want to use the service! Until then, I’ll be walking to my local video store to rent.
