So you've probably read that Apple is getting into the movie rental business, and with high definition even. With the recent upgrades to their Apple TV unit and addition of movie rentals, Apple is now positioned toward the top of the heap when it comes to online high definition movie rentals. Another company that is at the top of that heap is VUDU, who also has a hardware-based player that connects directly to the TV just like the Apple TV unit. I thought it would be appropriate to pit these two against each other and see which comes out on top.
I happen to be an early adopter of Apple TV, but being a Canadian I have yet to see the full potential that this Apple product can bring to my Home Theatre. As if that wasn't bad enough, now I learn that a competitor's product, though being somewhat more expensive but only a fraction more expensive than what I originally paid for my Apple TV, has more to offer and more importantly has 1080p/24 HD to boot than the Cupertino effort. I'm rather perturbed when Apple still lags behind others when it comes to Home Video and only seems able to progress in halting stages when it does venture into this area. I shall anxiously wait for the Apple TV HD Movie rentals to come to Canada ( and the iPhone too,) and to see whether Apple will close the gap with regard to the HD resolution in the meantime.
I have another article that I will probably publish next week that is an overview of video download services. Not just Apple TV and VUDU, but also services from Microsoft, Amazon, Netflix, et. al. One common thread I noticed among them was that there was not a single service that was available outside the US. I will try to do some research on this prior to publishing that next piece and get more information.
There are more reason to buy Apple TV than just movie rentals. I was an early adopter to use it for display of my photos wirelessly from my desktop Mac. I also use it to watch Podcasts, listen to music and look at Youtube videos. Does the VUDU have similar features?
There are more reason to buy Apple TV than just movie rentals.
From the article:
Please note that this Showdown is comparing these two services for the purposes of movie viewing alone. I realize that there are other features available with the Apple TV like synchronizing music, photos, etc., but we will not cover those. If those additional features are important to you then you may not find as much value in this comparison as those just looking for a movie player.
Don't get me wrong. I'm a huge Apple fan; I've been using a Mac since they first came out, but I don't get this product. I just watched the entire Terminator series in HD on Blu-ray discs. Each disc took about 2 days to arrive from Netflix and I can keep them for an unlimited time without charge. I watched them on a PS3 that, according to Sony, will soon provide downloads of HD movies. I have already downloaded and played HD games. I plug my iPod into the PS3 and it copies and or plays content stored on it. Why would anyone buy a device that only downloads movies that you can only play for a limited time ... and that's all it does. There's not that much price difference between the two products.
Like I said, I'm a huge Apple fan, but this product I just don't get. Am I missing something?
You make some very valid points. But please recognize that this is a comparison of these two players. At no point am I comparing it to Blu-ray or PS3 capabilities. There are many other arguments that come in to play if you begin comparing to packaged media (ie. Blu-ray).
To answer your question though, suppose for arguments sake that someone just wanted a way to rent movies where they didn't have to wait on Netflix queues or drive to the video store ... either one of these products would be perfect. And if that person had no interest in gaming, they could get a VUDU for $100 less, or an Apple TV for $170 less.
This rental model is nice, but Netflix beats everyone on price.
Apple and VUDU need to get on the all-you-can-eat bandwagon for SD TV shows and HD/SD movies.
The very second Netflix puts out their internet download set-top box, these two units will be hurting bad; Assuming Netflix continues down the fixed-monthly price concept, which it should.
I want to drop my cable TV and use one of these choices, but I'm not going to be nickel and dimed to do it.
Believe me, Apple and VUDU would LOVE to offer a subscription model. They are limited by the studios (I am told). Netflix's "Watch Instantly" service is not affected because they are streaming the video, and you don't actually download a file for playback.
I think Netflix will have trouble including it as a subscription if they try to offer a similar service to Apple And VUDU. My guess is that the Netflix box will simply be an interface to their "Watch Instantly" service and continue to stream vs. download, which of course will limit your video quality to SD resolutions.
We'll know more once LG and Netflix release specs and features.
Vudu is obviously best in its hardware - the resolution of 1080p on Vudu vs only 720p for apple, and Vudu has 6 times more storage (40 gigs versus Vudu's 250 gigs at only $50 more, and 5000 movies for Vudu and only 1000 for Apple (5 times more for Vudu.) You concentrated on the hardware, but this article didn't discuss the software, where Vudu is even much better.
You can zip around the Vudu menus much easier and faster. In thirty seconds your movie is picked. (That's a hell of a lot quicker than Netflix, Blockbuster, Apple, etc. Then, click and it starts in a fraction of a second, whether standard or high-def. Their remote was on two top ten of the year lists for hardware (Pogue at NYTimes tech was one). The remote is RF so you don't have to point it at the box which is surprisingly nice, and you can hide the box in a closet to make your wife happier. You can filter your choices from twenty categories and its better than Apples and you can't do that with xbox. Here are two things that make it KING. First, you can choose a filter in 5 seconds that reduces your lists to the 4+ and 5+ movies only. Since 80% of movies are not worth watching, you do not waste your time with a bad movie! For me, that is great. Secondly, you can preview every movie before ou either rent or buy. I also have had Netflix and like it second best,but you can't filter or preview with them and certainly with no one else. The combination of spontaneously picking a movie when you sit down, picking the type you want to see and filtering for only the best, and then being able to preview it are the best items by far. I hope you mention these in future articles, since everyone seems to focus on hardware. With Vudu, the graphics are fabulous and the software makes it much more fun than anything else. Give me fun over bandwidth every time. Carol.
Thank you for taking the time to post Carol, and welcome to the forum!
I believe I hit on all the points you mention, although I did not go into the detail you did. Stay tuned ... in the next few weeks I have a full review of VUDU coming out.
Shane, I for one await your full review of Vudu with full enthusiasm just so I can show it to my wife. She loves our cable subscription with HD because of the DVRs, and I hate it because we have so few HD channels that when Cox adds 3 as it doing 3/16/08, it is a big deal to/for it.
I could not care less because it still only has about 20 HD channels, if that. Bring on Vudu, Dish, D*TV, anything else, please! I miss Voom with all of its HD channels (30+) and HBO, Starz, Sho, Max, and others as well. It was much easier than Dish or D*TV say they could do at my home, since they believe those 2-tuner/2TV boxes are the answer. While Voom boxes had no DVRs yet, at least you got one for each TV. I could see two or three Vudu boxes around the house.
Now if only AppleTV was 1080p and still saved off to or played from PC! That would be sweet, as I could then play YouTube video, and soon that material will be HD, as well.
Excellent job on comparing Vudu and AppleTV. A lot of people are interested in viewing Internet content on their televisions so maybe you could compare AppleTV and the video game consoles including the Xbox 360 in this area. Does Vudu allow you to do this also?
Excellent job on comparing Vudu and AppleTV. A lot of people are interested in viewing Internet content on their televisions so maybe you could compare AppleTV and the video game consoles including the Xbox 360 in this area. Does Vudu allow you to do this also?
Thanks Jeff,
I actually have another article in the wings here that should be published this week that will not only include information on Apple TV and VUDU, but other internet players as well: Microsoft Xbox Live, Netflix, Amazon Unbox, Dish ON DEMAND, etc.
If the purpose of of this article is, "comparing these two services for the purposes of movie viewing alone.", then you left out a major component. What about movies you already own? Can they stream TV's and movies to the Vudu from your computer? I have 3 Apple TV's spread around my house and have the ability to watch any of my 300+ movie collection as well as hundreds of TV shows that I currently own. I guess if you simply are comparing movie RENTAL services then this doesn't come into play, however for watching movies that you rent or already own then the Apple TV would win hands down. As far as 1080p content... How many people have 1080p TV's or sit within the 3-4 feet that you would need to in order to tell the difference between 720p and 1080p? When it comes to storage space then with an Apple TV, which can connect wired or wireless unlike the Vudu, is virtually unlimited in storage capacity just as the Vudu is. You can add USB external HDD's to the Vudu I think) This is important because you can buy the cheap $229 Apple TV 50GB and stream all your media and use external drives with iTunes. Also an added benefit for the Apple TV is that you can rent a movie on your Apple TV and then transfer it to iTunes to watch on your iPod if something comes up. Also if you rent movies with the intent to watch them on your iPod you can sync those to your Apple TV. As far as buying movies you can do that in iTunes now in SD, but I know you'll be able to buy them in HD on the Apple TV before long. How do I know this? Well they actually screwed up the other day and had some HD movies listed for purchase on the Apple TV.
I realize that the Vudu may have better video quality, but from other reviews I've read the difference is not noticeable at normal viewing distance. Sure you can probably sit 2' from the TV and pick out some minor differences, but I don't think this makes up the difference between the units. I also don't like that HD movies cost more on the Vudu player. I think eventually the libraries will even out, but it does look Vudu has the edge there for now, but I know that Apple TV has added a ton of movies recently. I'm sure Vudu has as well, but I don't have exact counts. I think the scariest thing about the Vudu is that when/if it goes out of service your movies will no longer be downloadable if you don't have a backup locally. How easy is it to backup your movies on the Vudu? I know on the Apple TV they will sync to you iTunes and is easily backed up. (Especially if you use Time Machine!) I would surprised to see Vudu last if it doesn't partner up with someone like Netflix, Blockbuster, or Amazon. This particular industry is so hard and expensive for a startup company to get into. Making in this investment in Vudu right now is riskier then HD-DVD was IMO and look at the horsepower behind that one.
I think if you add up everything included with the Apple TV then this comparison isn't even close. Things like:
YouTube
Podcasts
Music purchases and music from your own library
Photo slideshows
Viewing other people's video and photos from Flickr and .mac
Playing iTunes music from any stereo in your house connected via Airtunes or an Apple TV
All this being said if you have a Vudu and you like it then no one should try to make you feel bad about it and the same goes for any other device. People get so defensive about their gadgets these days! Hehe. I just thought there were some other benefits of the Apple TV that should be pointed out. After all if it's just about rental services then Netflix wins hands down.
I think you're making a bad assumption about viewing distances and screen sizes. I'm sure those with 65-73" RPTVs or 86-100" Front projectors can tell the difference between 720p and 1080p at "normal" viewing distances. Not everyone owns 42" flat panels.
You are absolutely correct. If you have something like a 65" TV or larger you could benefit from 1080p. I wonder if there are enough people in that market to carry a product like this? Who knows... It will probably work because there are legions of people that think their 37" Vizio, they watch from 15' away, HAS to be a 1080p model.
Thank you for the detailed reply ... I have commented below:
If the purpose of of this article is, "comparing these two services for the purposes of movie viewing alone.", then you left out a major component. What about movies you already own? Can they stream TV's and movies to the Vudu from your computer? I have 3 Apple TV's spread around my house and have the ability to watch any of my 300+ movie collection as well as hundreds of TV shows that I currently own. I guess if you simply are comparing movie RENTAL services then this doesn't come into play, however for watching movies that you rent or already own then the Apple TV would win hands down.
That is correct, this was a comparison of rental/purchase and not for playing back recorded material.
As far as 1080p content... How many people have 1080p TV's or sit within the 3-4 feet that you would need to in order to tell the difference between 720p and 1080p?
"Number of people" is not the point. The point is that the higher quality is available with Vudu, for those who seek it.
When it comes to storage space then with an Apple TV, which can connect wired or wireless unlike the Vudu, is virtually unlimited in storage capacity just as the Vudu is. You can add USB external HDD's to the Vudu I think) This is important because you can buy the cheap $229 Apple TV 50GB and stream all your media and use external drives with iTunes.
I agree, it would have been useful to point out that Apple TV does support wireless while the Vudu does not.
Also an added benefit for the Apple TV is that you can rent a movie on your Apple TV and then transfer it to iTunes to watch on your iPod if something comes up. Also if you rent movies with the intent to watch them on your iPod you can sync those to your Apple TV.
True, but the focus of the article was for watching high quality content on large-screen sets ... not portability.
As far as buying movies you can do that in iTunes now in SD, but I know you'll be able to buy them in HD on the Apple TV before long. How do I know this? Well they actually screwed up the other day and had some HD movies listed for purchase on the Apple TV.
Not sure what you mean here. Apple announced at the beginning of the year that HD was available, and in 720p ... and their library has about 100 HD movies currently. Note that these are only available via Apple TV, not iTunes.
I realize that the Vudu may have better video quality, but from other reviews I've read the difference is not noticeable at normal viewing distance. Sure you can probably sit 2' from the TV and pick out some minor differences, but I don't think this makes up the difference between the units. I also don't like that HD movies cost more on the Vudu player. I think eventually the libraries will even out, but it does look Vudu has the edge there for now, but I know that Apple TV has added a ton of movies recently. I'm sure Vudu has as well, but I don't have exact counts.
This is highly subjective, and has to be left to the viewer to judge whether or not there is a perceived difference in their environment. In mine, there was a noticeable difference. Was the difference worth the $70 price difference? To me, it was.
As far as title counts, Apple TV has about 1000 titles and Vudu has over 6,000 titles. Both services have about 100 titles available in HD.
I think the scariest thing about the Vudu is that when/if it goes out of service your movies will no longer be downloadable if you don't have a backup locally. How easy is it to backup your movies on the Vudu? I know on the Apple TV they will sync to you iTunes and is easily backed up. (Especially if you use Time Machine!) I would surprised to see Vudu last if it doesn't partner up with someone like Netflix, Blockbuster, or Amazon. This particular industry is so hard and expensive for a startup company to get into. Making in this investment in Vudu right now is riskier then HD-DVD was IMO and look at the horsepower behind that one.
When you purchase a movie on Vudu, it is downloaded to your unit for viewing. I have verified with them that even in the worst case scenario of them going out of business, your Vudu unit will continue to work and your movie will continue to be viewable.
I think if you add up everything included with the Apple TV then this comparison isn't even close. Things like:
YouTube
Podcasts
Music purchases and music from your own library
Photo slideshows
Viewing other people's video and photos from Flickr and .mac
Playing iTunes music from any stereo in your house connected via Airtunes or an Apple TV
As clearly stated at the beginning of the article ... I intentionally left those comparisons out. If that is important to you, this comparison is not of much use.
All this being said if you have a Vudu and you like it then no one should try to make you feel bad about it and the same goes for any other device. People get so defensive about their gadgets these days! Hehe. I just thought there were some other benefits of the Apple TV that should be pointed out. After all if it's just about rental services then Netflix wins hands down.
Very well said. I too like Netflix, and am a subscriber, but I must say that I LOVE being able to sit down in front of the TV and pick something to watch without managing a queue or taking a trip to my local rental store. Convenience is king.
Please keep in mind that the result of the showdown was not a "hands down" winner ... as you can tell they are both very close in feature, function and cost. Going either way won't be a bad decision.
I have both still hooked up to my TV, and when I sit down to watch a move, I'm always turning on the Vudu ... not the Apple TV. But reviews, by nature, are opinion ... your mileage may vary.
Thanks again for taking the time to point out these additional aspects.
Thanks for responding Shane! I see that the Apple TV now has 200 movies in HD. I'm guessing Vudo has expanded to the same number, but on their webpage I only see 72. How have they been about adding HD content daily/weekly? The Apple TV seems a bit slow from DVD release to publishing it on iTunes, but they do seem to add something new just about every day. Some have been under 30 days even though that was what the stated delay was supposed to be. I wonder how Vudu has gotten around this or are you seeing close to a 30 day lag on most releases now too?
For all those people out there that want to point out that I'm probably just some Apple fanboy I wanted to add that the reason I know a LITTLE bit about the Vudu is that I was doing a little research about it because I was just thinking about buying one. While I do love the Apple TV I am always looking for something else to play around with. I was thinking about moving the Apple TV to another room and buying another device to replace it with some added functionality/quality for my 50" Kuro. I have tried an XBOX360 and found it to be lacking in every area except their movie rentals. I also did some research on the PS3 and being it lacks a movie rental service and has a dreadful interface for this type of use it doesn't fit the need.
I really wish that Vudu would add the ability to stream my own media! I could live without some of the niceties that the Apple TV has, but I need the ability to play my own stuff as well as rent movies. Do you think that this is something that Vudu could/would consider offering in the future to stay competitive with the current and future set top boxes?
I see that the Apple TV now has 200 movies in HD.
I was looking for numbers from Apple over the weekend for another article I'm about to publish. Can you please let me know where you found the "200" number? The last official number I have from Apple is from a February press release where they indicated they'd have over 100 by the end of February. I did a physical count about that time and there were only about 70.
I'm guessing Vudo has expanded to the same number, but on their webpage I only see 72. How have they been about adding HD content daily/weekly? The Apple TV seems a bit slow from DVD release to publishing it on iTunes, but they do seem to add something new just about every day. Some have been under 30 days even though that was what the stated delay was supposed to be. I wonder how Vudu has gotten around this or are you seeing close to a 30 day lag on most releases now too?
I'm not sure how in-sync their web page is to their content. I know they had 72 at the end of January and seem to be adding another 2-3 each week since. Both services suffer from the "release window". Hollywood still sees digital distribution "poaching" their DVD rentals/sales ... so there have only been a few "day-and-date" releases digitally with DVD. I've not seen any from Apple, but Vudu had one or two.
For all those people out there that want to point out that I'm probably just some Apple fanboy I wanted to add that the reason I know a LITTLE bit about the Vudu is that I was doing a little research about it because I was just thinking about buying one. While I do love the Apple TV I am always looking for something else to play around with. I was thinking about moving the Apple TV to another room and buying another device to replace it with some added functionality/quality for my 50" Kuro. I have tried an XBOX360 and found it to be lacking in every area except their movie rentals. I also did some research on the PS3 and being it lacks a movie rental service and has a dreadful interface for this type of use it doesn't fit the need.
You will get a lot from the article coming out later this week/next. It is a comparison of video download services ... more later ;-)
I really wish that Vudu would add the ability to stream my own media! I could live without some of the niceties that the Apple TV has, but I need the ability to play my own stuff as well as rent movies. Do you think that this is something that Vudu could/would consider offering in the future to stay competitive with the current and future set top boxes?
Definitely! There has been no official announcement from Vudu, of course ... but they do "listen intently to customer requests."
That's another thing I like about Vudu: They've committed to (and so far lived up to) software releases on a regular (every 6 weeks) basis. They're always bringing new features and functions to the box. I would not be surprised to see support for media streaming and possibly even DVD burning added by the end of the year.
I was looking for numbers from Apple over the weekend for another article I'm about to publish. Can you please let me know where you found the "200" number? The last official number I have from Apple is from a February press release where they indicated they'd have over 100 by the end of February. I did a physical count about that time and there were only about 70.
There is a site called, "Apple TV Junkie", that does a fantastic job of keeping track of the library both SD and HD. You can check it out at http://www.appletvjunkie.com/
They have created a database that enables searching by name, genre, rating, CC, Dolby Digital, and of course HD/SD.
I also wanted to add... When I rent either HD or SD from Apple TV mine is ready to play in under 1 minute and never re-buffers during the movie. Did yours really take 15 minutes to play? My internet connection speed is about 2 Mbs.
There is a site called, "Apple TV Junkie", that does a fantastic job of keeping track of the library both SD and HD. You can check it out at http://www.appletvjunkie.com/
I contacted Edward at Apple TV Junkie and he was kind enough to let me reference his site in an upcoming article. Thank you for the link!
I also wanted to add... When I rent either HD or SD from Apple TV mine is ready to play in under 1 minute and never re-buffers during the movie. Did yours really take 15 minutes to play? My internet connection speed is about 2 Mbs.
SD content I was able to watch within 1 minute of downloading ... I think it was Shooter. But yes, the HD flim I tried to watch (Transformers I think) took 15 minutes before I could start playing it. My internet connection speed is 6Mbps advertised (5 actual).
There are a lot of factors that could play into this: popularity of movie, time of day downloading, network congestion, etc. I must admit that I did not try to purchase a lot of movies, so it is possible that your results may vary. But this does prove my point that a distributed (Peer to Peer) network is better at handling the anomalies I listed above.
Let's assume this (internet rentals) really takes off. Can the client/server infrastructure utilized by Apple (and others) support millions of downloads of new releases every Tuesday? Under that scenario, a P2P infrastructure sure seems more appealing.
