Vudu Releases IR Receiver & Software Update

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As efficient as the Vudu RF remote with scroll wheel is, many folks would prefer to control their home theater via a single remote. So, Vudu’s introduced an IR Receiver Kit today at $39. In addition to the pricey IR dongle, the pricey Vudu XL ($999) with additional storage and IP-based home control hooks is now shipping. On the software side, they’re pushing out v1.3 which includes the ability to archive purchased video in the cloud (their servers) and delete content from the local drive. There’s a few other modifications, but this clever one caught my eye:

VUDU users may now move from one episode of a TV series to the previous or following episode without navigating back to the season heading. For example, once on the episode details page for “24â€? season 2/episode 3, users will be presented with the buttons “nextâ€? or “previousâ€? to go directly to neighboring episodes.

I frequently question the need for (yet another) dedicated set-top box, but I’ve got to give the Vudu folks credit for these rapid and useful updates. I’m on the road this week, but will explore this one when I get home.

Bonus coverage: Gizmodo’s put together an interesting AppleTV/Vudu/Xbox360 chart.

9 thoughts on “Vudu Releases IR Receiver & Software Update”

  2. I have a VUDU box, got it during the $99 evangelist program, and have to say being able to delete purchased contend and download later, like I can with Amazon Unbox, is super great!
    However, $39 for the IR kit is a bit high, then again so is $999 for one with a bit more storage

  3. The IR receiver is not a standard IR receiver like you can buy elsewhere (you can’t use those and if you do, it will likely hurt the Vudu’s I/O port). So this dongle has some extra circuitry which likely explains the price.

  4. I so can’t wait to review PopcornHour for this site.

    Any tv-connected media box that runs it’s own BT client has to be good.

  5. Jon, let’s keep it real here… my Philips DivX-licensed DVD player cost $40. ;) (I do expect some of the $39 IR kit fee to virtually offset the software dev and support expenses which are harder to quantify.)

    Big John, do you already have one? I heard they were shipping in waves.

  6. So if everything is priced according to your DVD player, then my Starbuck’s Latte should cost 25 cents and my Harmony remote which can’t play anything is way overpriced! :)

    And gee, I think I paid $250 or something like that for my Slingbox Pro and then had to pay another $50 for my HD Connect cable. So my HD Connect costs more than your DVD player too! ;)

  7. Dude, Starbucks is killing me. That’s why I have to run ads on the site. HD Connect is sold through the retail channel and those guys need a cut, whereas I get the sense this IR Receiver will only be available via Vudu.com. Obviously, Philips will sell more DVD players than Vudu will sell IR Receiver Kits so there’s no economies of scale here. However, if the customer didn’t flinch at the $300 – $400 hardware cost and really wants to use their Pronto, Harmony, etc with the Vudu – they’ll pay up. Personally, I’d rather have them introduce a new Vudu remote that is both RF and IR. RF to control Vudu, and IR to control television or receiver power and volume.

  8. Hey Dave, where’s your XBox/Vudu/Apple TV comparison, huh?

    Regarding the Gizmodo comparison, its a little difficult since they didn’t even capture the same image, but its pretty clear regardless that the order is HD DVD > XBox 360 > Apple TV > Vudu HD for that Transformers scene at least.

    I’m still a little hesitant to say this is definitive though since I question the whole premise — that you can compare results via compressed jpg results of one freeze-frame. The movie in motion will hide many sins you might see during a freeze frame, and that’s really what you should be comparing, as hard as that might be to do…

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