As you may or may not know, I like to tout and keep tabs on a product I am proud to own and use. It was maybe a little over a year ago when I swung by the Vudu office and got my first glimpse at their great product.
They’ve done a lot of added a lot of new content and features to their On Demand Media box since then (TV shows, HD content, lower price, adult content), but seem to have been tabbed as long shot in the digital world to outpace AppleTV and LG’s Netflix similar On Demand Box.
While these boxes have some compelling features, Vudu made a splash last week in announcing the availability of true 1080P Blu Ray quality high definition content. Up until now HD content (large files) has been available but not in true 1080P.
Below are some screenshots of the improved quality, in content Vudu is tabbing “HDX”.
So after hearing so much of the improvement, I decided to give it a try..
My thoughts: Yes it was awesome. Yes it was Blu Ray quality and yes it felt like I was shrooming at some points because the colors were so vivid. Unfortunately though I picked a horrible movie which I couldn’t even finish. Let’s just say it involved Michael Douglas and it was probably worse than The Sentinal although I never saw that.
So I’ll have to revisit this at a latter time. But for now HDX gets its first Jewish Chinese endorsement to my knowledge. Below is their trailer for HDX although it probably defeats the purpose of watching it via youtube.
As you may already know, I own Vudu and absolutely love it. However I have kept a close eye on the competition with products like Roku, Apple Tv, and now LG entering the market.
The LG Netflix box looks to be front runner going forward with the large Netflix install base and its dual purpose as digital media streamer and Blu Ray player.
In the back of my mind, I have been wondering which hardware provider would go this route first. It was only a matter of time. With adult entertainment (PC way to say porn), being able to be purchased in hotel rooms, DirectTV, and digital cable boxes, there was a very set precedent to go this route.
Let’s be honest, porn is BIG business and its 2008. The few people who are still offended by something like this weren’t going to buy a Vudu anyways. You can’t say that on demand digital downloading and streaming of telelvision and movies is a great technology, but one that cannot be utilized to deliver adult entertainment. If consumers want it (trust me they do), and the partental controls are in place its a smart move to be a first mover into this space.
With Vudu getting distribution at Best Buys in addition to this new development, I think Vudu has caught a second wind going into their second holiday season. I’ll even bet that 25% of sales going forward in 2008 will be tied to this development as Vudu now is enabled to be a jukebox of porn.
I keep my eye on a handful of Silicon Valley startups and have even been lucky enough to have interviewed or worked with some of these interesting companies. Last week I noticed a pretty interesting trend among three of these emerging companies.
In the past couple of weeks all of the below developments took place.
- Innovative VOIP startup Oooma rolled out a small pilot retail and training program at Best Buy.
- On Demand movie hardware producer, Vudu, announced a more substantial pilot distribution program with Best Buy
- Electric sports car maker Tesla Motors opened the doors to their first retail dealership.
What’s interesting about these developments is that all three SV startups chose to launch these initiatives in Los Angeles.
I was initially told by an Oooma employee that Best Buy’s HQ was in LA, thus warranting a rollout in their local market. However a quick check shows that their HQ is actually in Minnesotta. Maybe he was referring to a particular office or program being headquartered in Los Angeles that is critical for establishing new retail agreements.
Regardless it seems that Silicon Valley is more than content to roll out innovative and highly anticipated yet virtually unknown products to the backdrop of Hollywood’s rich and famous. Time will tell if this a solid strategy for all three but for now it doesn’t raise any flags with Southern California being known for their embracing of luxury products in addition to their ability to start a viral buzz via celebrity ownership and endorsements.
In particular look for Tesla Motors to leverage adoption of their Roadster vehicle by Hollywood’s A list with multiple celebrities already on the waiting list.
With reports that only 10 or so Roadsters being manufactured and sold, I found it pretty interesting that a friend in Columbus Ohio is 100% confident he saw a Roadster all the way out in Ohio. He isn’t an idiot and saw it blow by Porsche in a impromptu street race. If true, one wonders who bought got one of the first Roadsters and subsequently got all the way out to Ohio.
2 interesting moves. I am sure the blogosphere will chime in with opinions a plenty. MYSQL was seen as the next logical candidate out of the handful of open source companies to go public. Sun Mircosystems has been one of the most open source friendly larger entities so it seems like a good fit. Its great to see Sun investing heavily in open source and embracing the idea that the LAMP stack is enterprise ready.
MacWorld
Steve Jobs made a slew of announcements yesterday at his keynote at Macworld. A ultra thin laptop, some new ipod and iphone features, and a variety of other less sexy product announcements.
To me the biggest announcement was Apple’s addition of movie rentals to their Itunes store and the revamping of Apple TV. Earlier I discussed Netflix’s forray into the digital living room with their partnership to LG and how it will affect Vudu. In that blog I predicted that Apple would make a move into this growing market.
“While their are a handful of other companies making waves in this space, something tells me Apple will dive head first into this space and steal a lot of their thunder. AppleTV has been a disappointment thus far, but you can
Today Netflix announced a partnership with electronics maker LG to stream movies over the internet directly to your television. The set top box will be available sometime in the second half of 2008. This article gives a great rundown of how a handful of companies are partnering and maneuvering to deliver more On Demand media options directly to your television. CinemaNow also recently announced a similar deal with Macrovision to compete in this space.
Some thing to ponder….
- Can Netflix and LG deliver this box by Holiday season 2008. Generally speaking Vudu has made a lot of progress in a short period of time and have been praised for their products UI and ease of use. If Vudu runs unopposed for 2 straight Holiday seasons, it might be too much of a head start for anyone to catchup. If Netflix can get their product out the door by this time their marketing machine should be able make inroads with their large customer base.
- While their are a handful of other companies making waves in this space, something tells me Apple will dive head first into this space and steal a lot of their thunder. AppleTV has been a disappointment thus far, but you can’t help but think that Apple has all the ingredients to cook up a winning device that can compete with Vudu and Netflix. Apple already has a digital store with more content available then anyone else, experience in making hardware for televisions, and are renowned for their hardware design and user interface.
Twice I have blogged about my enthusiasm for a product I own and have followed since its inception, (vudu demo blog, vudu initial reaction). To recap, Vudu is a small box that you plug into the internet (or wireless bridge) that allows you to play thousands of movies instantly. I am a strong believer in this Bay Area startup as the technology, usability, and concept behind Vudu all point to a successful IPO and subsequent adoption by the mainstream market. My only qualm about the company was its ability to execute and cultivate a solid business plan where market education and product differentiation would be a constant challenge. Business Week actually tackled this issue a month ago with its cover story, I want My itv
Although Vudu has only been on the market for less than 60 days, I have been pleasantly surprised with their fast start out of the gate. A couple weeks back Vudu rolled out the first series of HD releases, with promises of more to come. With HD titles now available, Vudu is now being mentioned along with Blu Ray and HD Dvd in press releases and articles announcing upcoming releases of new movies. With so much uncertainty surrounding the HD format war , consumers may now opt to go with Vudu rather than rolling the dice on a potential next gen loser (HD DVD).
While I have raved about the convenience, user interface, and ease of use of Vudu, I quickly grew skeptical of the offerings Vudu had initially thinking Vudu would live up to the hype of a Blockbuster in a box. I thought that if the Itunes store was able to resell television shows, then why not Vudu? Surely this was on Vudu’s road map but these types of distribution deals take time and the networks would need to wined, dined, and most importantly convinced that Vudu was a long term viable product and platform.
Surprisingly Vudu has already signed a distribution deal with 20th Century Fox, a mere 2 months after product launch. Vudu already had a deal with Fox for movies, but it was my belief that the network television would take a wait and see approach before adding television episodes to the mix. Sometime early in 2008 shows with cult audiences like 24, Prison Break, and Family Guy will now be available to be purchased at $1.99 per episode. One would surmise other networks will join the party seeing a new revenue stream, but more importantly a increasingly popular media platform of the future.
Other news to report on the Vudu front, is more traction with distributors as initially Vudu was only sold on their website. However a quick look at Vudu’s reseller page boasts a very modest reseller network for such a young company with the likes of Magnolia, Tweeter, Sound Advice, Hifi Buys, and Myer Emco. Although the electronic giants such as Best Buy and Circuit City have yet to reach an agreement, its pretty clear that retailers like what they are seeing from the young company and believe their is a viable market to sell to.
Another encouraging sign can be found in the coming soon area of the Vudu box interface. Initially Vudu was batting around .600 or so when new releases would come out. It seems now that the studios are seeing positive signs of Vudu’s adoption and are releasing a larger percentage of movies onto the young platform. The Simpsons, Once, Superbad, Die Hard, and Spiderman 3 are some of the many popular movies that are simultaneously being released on Vudu concurrently with their DVD release.
With a good collection of new releases and old classics, Vudu only sore spot is box set collections and a good chunk of the nineties classics I grew up with (Jerry Mcguire, Forrest Gump, Shawshank, Goodwill Hunting, Tarentino, Coen Brothers, etc). Vudu made a huge marketing splash with the Bourne Series being available in HD ( the first two were free!) so its very plausible that studious are pushing for similar marketing efforts around releasing series like Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Batman, Rocky, etc, and will release those titles once an agreed upon marketing push is finalized.
Another hiccup with Vudu, lies with movies availability for purchase only or for rent only. New releases are typically only available for purchase for the first couple of weeks before becoming available for rent. Many Vudu owners are hesitant to purchase a movie instead of renting knowing if the box breaks or Vudu goes out of business, its possible their purchase will have been in vain. Luckily Vudu keeps a purchase history for each owner and will preload all purchased movies onto a new box should your box break. Still its an unnecessary drawback to a system I absolutely adore. Only time will tell if they will address this.
So with all this general analysis, how is Vudu fairing in my household? I use the box about 3x a month with my roommates using it about once a month. I have watched or rented Knocked up, Tootsie, Muholland Drive (wtf?), A player to be Named Later (great sports documentary), Who Killed the Electric Car, and Oceans 13. If I didn’t have Vudu I would likely have not watched the majority of these flicks which really validates the need and demand for such a product.
While I love the system, I am still opposed to purchasing a new release at $20, rather than purchasing the DVD or Blu Ray as its a hard copy that I will be able to hold onto and transport more easily in addition to the added extras. I have purchased movies on Vudu but strictly for convenience purposes thus far
In closing, Vudu is on the right track and are growing faster than I anticipated. More movies, more shows, and more retailers are on the horizon which will bode well for the young company. Things are shaping up nicely for Vudu who I believe will likely make a big marketing push for the product for the 2008 holiday season when their brand, product, and title selection is more mature.
Vudu is not perfect with some obvious favorites missing and others only available for purchase only. Regardless the progress Vudu has made since shipping its product is remarkable as the proliferation of new releases, HD movies, and television shows has quickly raised the value and future outlook of this industry changing product.
A couple of weeks back I sang the praises of a company and product called Vudu. Last week my Vudu box arrived. A week later here are my initial thoughts.
Setup and unpacking: A-
Vudu is packaged neatly and will be up and running in less than 20 minutes for the majority of the population. I had to purchase a Wireless bridge adaptor which took an extra 20 minutes of configuration for me as I am a rookie in dealing with Wireless gaming bridges. The wireless bridge purchase also will allow me to play PS3 online, something that I have not found the time to do in the almost full year of ownership of the device. All in all I found setup to be fairly simple and manageable.
User Interface: A+
It’s almost fun just to play Vudu in search of the perfect movie that has eluded you all these years. Easy to navigate with multiple ways of searching and sorting through movies. Interface is clean, sharp, and bursting with movie posters. Being able to watch a lot of the trailers is a huge plus too.
Remote: A
The remote is awesome. The remote to the fan in my room is actually bigger and has more buttons than the Vudu remote. I have actually freaked out twice thinking I lost the remote because its so small.
Movie Selection: C-
I will revisit this as the months go on as I know the movie studios are doing a lot of experimenting around Vudu. General rule of thumb is that VUDU has about 1/2 the movies you can think of. However of the ones they do have some are only able to be purchased or only rented but not both. It was disappointing to see that they didn’t have a lot of Coen brothers movies and only had Knocked Up out of Judd Appatow’s impressive recent string of hits. I am under the impression that Vudu will be introducing more and more titles and would go bonkers if television shows became available on Vudu. For now this is the biggest issue.
Technology: A-
Everything works. You pick movies, they play. Its pretty sweet. What have I watched on Vudu?
Thus far I have purchased Knocked up and Who Killed the Electric car, which has the trailer below. Although I do not consider myself an environmentalist by any stretch of the imagination, I found the documentary about the demise of electric cars to be very compelling. Definitely recommended. The documentary’s title is pretty self explanatory and featured lot of different perspective and insight on how and why the electric car went from a very promising technology to a thing of the past.
I found it very troubling that electric cars (which were somewhat prevalent in California in the nineties) were essentially wiped off the market in order to make way for the introduction of Hydrogen fueled cars. While this may sound reasonable, most experts believe that Hydrogen cars are more than a full decade away from being a viable consumer option.
Electric cars were enjoyed and adored by Californian owners for years only to be repossessed by various automakers in an effort to focus all alternative energy car efforts to mainly Hydrogen. With multiple hurdles in front of hydrogen fueled cars, the question of Who Killed the Electric Car is one that should rightfully be asked and investigated.
10/25 Update… Price dropped from $400-250 for only 1 day I am told.
It was a about 6 months ago I read David Pogue’s New York Times article about the soon to be released Vudu Box. For months I eagerly awaited the release of the Vudu, a small box that allows you to watch over 5000 movies with just a click of a button.
This past month Vudu officially started shipping their small box (about the size of a dictionary) with the first wave of pre-orders reaching their destinations over the past couple weeks. It’s my belief that this great product could revolutionize the movie rental industry as consumers will now have the option to watch “the right movie, right now”, only requiring a fast internet connection. Convenience doesn’t come cheap though as a box will set you back $400, with movies running $1-5 with an option to buy movies for what seemed like lesser than DVD prices.
$400 seemed a little steep, especially for never have seen one of the Vudu Boxes. Luckily for me, Vudu is a Silicon Valley company who is happy enough to give you a demo if you stop by. With HD content right around the corner (currently their titles are better than DVD quality because Vudu scales up the resolution ) and the ability to use a wireless bridge, I took up the Vudu demo offer that was extended my way.
After speaking with some members from the Customer Care team, I was in the official Vudu demo room which consists of a flat screen a couple of comfy chairs and the smallish box that I had read so much about. The demo mainly consisted of me playing with the remote while trying not to drool on it as I basked in all the glory that was Vudu. Below are some of my initial impressions.
- Remote A+
Its a freaking 4 button remote that includes a Blackberry like wheel that also can be clicked. In a nutshell this thing is so easy to use that I am confident that both of my parents could easily utilize Vudu without needing to consult me for tech support. Took me less than a minute to be confident and proficient with the remote. Simple is better and they nailed it.
- User Interface A
There is a button similar to the Iphone home button, that allows you to go to the Vudu home screen if you wander too far. Movies can be searched by title, genre, actor, director and be sorted by alphabetical order, imdb ranking (huge plus), as well as release date.
The UI is sharp, simple, elegant, and clean. Movie posters and images are on almost every screen with information on each movie within Vudu’s library. When you select a certain title the screen consists of a short description, some movie artwork, pricing information on the title, as well as pictures of the director and main actors. You are then able to browse the directors and actors other titles in addition to selecting movies that are deemed very close to your selected title.
The bottom line is that its easy to find titles that you want to watch. Its just as easy to browse through the library to select a title that fits your taste and mood.
Picture quality and download B+
Vudu movies use a hybrid system of ensuring your movie can play from start to finish without any interruption or buffering. Depending on your connection speed, movies play within 5 seconds of being selected and usually are fully downloaded in 10-20 minutes. Of course this will change once Vudu releases HD titles which is believed to be right around the corner but I am confident the Vudu guys have the speed and technology to overcome the fat media file size that comes from HD Content.
Although there is no HD content at this point, all movies are DVD quality and in fact better. Vudu upscales movies if you utilize the HDMI output to your HD TV. With HD content right around the corner in addition to the likely addition of External storage to build your Vudu collection, I signed on the dotted line and ordered Vudu shortly after seeing this great product.
My take on Vudu
The product is awesome but how are Vudu’s prospects as a company? I did a case study on Tivo’s initial launch and see some of the same hurdles Tivo had to overcome in Vudu’s way. Vudu is an unknown entity at this point and has limited distribution (only Magnolia is signed on as a retail distributor) and will have to earn the business of consumer electronic early adopters before making deep inroads in the massive market of movie watchers who have high speed internet connections.
However I think Vudu is on the right track to overcome these hurdles. First off if anyone benefits from the Blu-Ray vs DVD-HD format war, its got to be Vudu. This Christmas consumers can choose between
a) a HD Blu Ray player that costs $400 and up that has a 60% chance of becoming the HD format of the future
b) a HD DVD player that costs $300 and up that has a 40% chacnce of becoming the HD format of the future.
C) a Vudu box that costs $400 that can deliever 5000 movies with just one click (deals with all major studios with more movies being added every week)
Of course I opted for option C as I am confident the Vudu team will get the word out to the masses. They are confident they got a winner and let the product win me over rather than giving me a sales pitch during the demo.
From a marketing perspective I think it would be interesting to see Vudu in high end hotels like the W or Hotel Nikko as this is light years ahead of anything that one would find as a hotel pay per view system. More mainstream distribution is also a must but I am sure its in the works as the concept of Slingbox was sold to retailers, and I think Vudu has a superior product that will be in higher demand. I would also stress product marketing similar to the Iphone where product functionality and ease of use is articulated as people need to know exactly what Vudu does and how easy it is to use. It would also be funny to see marketing campaigns aimed to show the social situations where Vudu can be a life saver. For instance ads showing
a) the age old ploy to get a girl to come over to watch a movie after a night of partying. “What movie?” “I got Vudu”…. and they lived happily ever after at least for that night.
b) A boyfriend on the verge of getting killed for renting Robocop for their anniversary.”Got Vudu”
C) a sudden urge to watch a movie, but wait….. the rental store is closed because it’s too late.
You could even show off these type of videos in the advertisements in theaters right before the previews.
So with all that I am anxiously waiting my own Vudu box and will be back to report my initial reaction to the small box that will likely transition my bar tab to my Vudu tab, so in that regard this might even be considered a healthy purchase.
