We’ve talked about Vudu before – the upstart, P2P video rental (or purchase) box that’s been getting decent press. My main concern has always been: How are they going to price it? Originally, I heard we’d see Apple TV prices. Then in June, when Vudu visited the Digital Experience event in NYC, a couple of people whispered to me it’d be closer to $500. As it turns out, Vudu will be shipping later this month at $400 – plus per movie fees.
No matter how good Vudu is, for $400 wouldn’t you rather have an Xbox 360? Movie rentals and much more. Maybe the interface isn’t as slick or maybe the library isn’t as large (for now), but wouldn’t you rather have true HD flicks on a multi-function device rather than upscaled 480p on a dedicated box? For about $400 you could also pick up a HD DVD or Blu-ray player and let Netflix continue to send you discs at higher resolutions. Not to mention, we all suspect Sony will be bringing movie downloads to the PS3 and perhaps Unbox (via TiVo) will go HD next year. Of course the biggest gotcha is that the cable and satellite providers all offer video on demand. Again the libraries aren’t as large, but you don’t have to pay $400 just to browse the aisles.
On the technical end, the most interesting Vudu feature isn’t the P2P connection (why should I share my bandwidth?), but the unique remote control. It’s small, simple, and sexy. It also has a scroll wheel, which strikes me as very efficient. However, even the remote has a gotcha – RF only. Meaning, while you can hide Vudu in a cabinet, you’re not going to control it with most universal remotes. But with that scroll wheel, maybe you wouldn’t want to anyway.
The embargo has passed and several sites chime in…
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NBC has announced that they are introducing a program that will let you automatically download some of their shows to your PC. With the announcement came the latest round of TiVo doom and gloom articles, that assert that this technology will some how be able to replace a DVR. While I like that NBC is being innovative and are offering more choices to consumers, I am also skeptical about the long term prospects for this one.