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Studios Developing "Movies Anywhere"

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twobelowpar

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Original poster
Dec 7, 2013
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Rumors are floating that a new service dubbed "Movies Anywhere" is going to be announced in the coming months and will work with multiple retailers in the same vein as Disney Movies Anywhere. You might remember several months ago that Disney was wanting other studios to join its DMA service. It appears the major studios have signed on except Paramount, MGM, and Lionsgate. There is a list of about 6,000 titles that are currently active once this goes live. You can see that list here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...2zyqfZowwB8fLSvswkdixOJxY/view#gid=1408869864
Whether this replaces UV or is an alternative option remains to be seen. I am hoping more info is announced when Vudu and/or Amazon get their Apple TV apps.

I've been following this page for updates: https://plus.google.com/communities/110670343201934414590
 
Interesting. Never understood why studios, who are desperately fighting piracy would lock you into one vault. Disney does it right. Buy one place. Use it in many vaults.
 
Could be good - especially for people like me who have libraries from multiple regions - some films from the UK iTunes and a load from US iTunes via digital codes. What I like about UV is that it mostly appears to be region free.

UV got a bad rap when it launched, but I think there are two main problems - there isn't one central redemption website (a lot of films make you register with the studio) and most UV playback services are shocking (720p and stereo only). In the US, VUDU is great for pushing standards upto 4K, Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos, but in the UK I haven't found a UV partner that comes close.

Not sure if I can see Apple joining up to this - after all it would mean customers can buy there content wherever it is cheapest (i.e. might not be Apple so they don't get any revenue), but then Apple become liable for the bandwidth costs for these people who wish to them stream from Apple.
 
kiranmk2 said:
Not sure if I can see Apple joining up to this - after all it would mean customers can buy their content wherever it is cheapest (i.e. might not be Apple so they don't get any revenue), but then Apple become liable for the bandwidth costs for these people who wish to them stream from Apple.
Click to expand...

I think Apple is in the best position to support this. They only stream to their own hardware, so those costs would be for serving a paying customer. Notice that they work with DMA already.
 
enc0re said:
I think Apple is in the best position to support this. They only stream to their own hardware, so those costs would be for serving a paying customer. Notice that they work with DMA already.
Click to expand...

Agreed! I'm on record several times with the notion that Apple should join the UV world. Nothing substantive would change - Apple could still sell titles and make revenue - but by holding the licenses in a 3rd party vault it would fill in the gaps for the ultimate customer. THEN we would have competition on who sells those licenses for the least cost.
Right now I might by a title on iTunes, another on Amazon, and another on Vudu/UV, because either (a) its the only place they are available, or (b) a price reduction enticed me to use that provider. In addition, Vudu/UV has the incredible capability of DISC-TO-DIGITAL!

By combining all of this the buyer could make purchasing decisions based on vendor, convenience, price, or other features, but would be able to consume all of that media in a single place. In addition, that same library would automatically be usable on devices from multiple manufacturers, leading to companies actually competing for my business based on functionality, usability, quality and price. Still a win!
 
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While I am an iTunes/Apple guy, the premise of UV is great. However, in practice, it's a bag of hurt. Perhaps it's my chosen UV vendor (VUDU), but the playback mechanism is supremely craptastic. Constantly crashes on my Mac. Lots of stuttering. Major buffering problems. I never have any issues with iTunes playback.

If the studios all get their stuff together (like Disney), I can get out of UV hell. I'd link it all to iTunes and be done with it.
 
kiranmk2 said:
Could be good - especially for people like me who have libraries from multiple regions - some films from the UK iTunes and a load from US iTunes via digital codes. What I like about UV is that it mostly appears to be region free.
Click to expand...
UV generally isn't region-free. With few exceptions, you cannot redeem e.g. UV codes from European discs in a US UV account, nor can you link a US account to a European streaming provider or vice versa. Also, all current UV providers in the US use geo-blocking, i.e. when traveling or moving abroad you can no longer stream your movies (unless you can find a VPN that they haven't blocked yet).
 
enc0re said:
I think Apple is in the best position to support this. They only stream to their own hardware, so those costs would be for serving a paying customer. Notice that they work with DMA already.
Click to expand...

While competition is good for the consumer, it's not so good for Apple's bottom line. Consider people buying content cheaply from the likes of VUDU, but then actually using the AppleTV/iTunes store to access it and get a better experience. I'm sure Apple would argue that it's about providing the customer a good/consistent experience, but the I suspect it's really that they want all the profits for themselves.

Rigby said:
UV generally isn't region-free. With few exceptions, you cannot redeem e.g. UV codes from European discs in a US UV account, nor can you link a US account to a European streaming provider or vice versa. Also, all current UV providers in the US use geo-blocking, i.e. when traveling or moving abroad you can no longer stream your movies (unless you can find a VPN that they haven't blocked yet).
Click to expand...

Yes - you need to use a VPN to register the UV codes in theor country of origin, but once registered they become available to play anywhere via a local UV partner. e.g. I redeem the US codes at VUDU via a VPN (TunnelBear gives 500 MB free per month) and then the films become available to stream via Flixster in the UK. As mentioned above, my major beef is that, apart from VUDU, most UV partners (including Flixster) are pretty poor - especially compared to Apple.
 
kiranmk2 said:
As mentioned above, my major beef is that, apart from VUDU, most UV partners (including Flixster) are pretty poor - especially compared to Apple.
Click to expand...
Just responding to a small part of your post ...

If VUDU is the gold standard of UV vendors, then how is UV still a thing. VUDU is complete garbage in terms of actually watching the movie. Doesn't matter if I'm streaming or have the movie downloaded locally. Battery usage is unreasonably high and even with downloaded movies, the stuttering is unbearable.

I've used both Chrome and Safari and the experience is awful. The VUDUtoGo app is equally awful.

I can't wait for the studios to all figure it out and allow the same license purchase to work across all providers.
 
ftaok said:
Just responding to a small part of your post ...

If VUDU is the gold standard of UV vendors, then how is UV still a thing. VUDU is complete garbage in terms of actually watching the movie. Doesn't matter if I'm streaming or have the movie downloaded locally. Battery usage is unreasonably high and even with downloaded movies, the stuttering is unbearable.

I've used both Chrome and Safari and the experience is awful. The VUDUtoGo app is equally awful.

I can't wait for the studios to all figure it out and allow the same license purchase to work across all providers.
Click to expand...

While I haven't had terrible issues with Vudu via Roku, it really is the only big player UV storefront. I too can't wait for more info about "Movies Anywhere". Buy a movie on iTunes, watch it in Amazon. Buy a movie in Vudu, watch it in iTunes.. etc etc
 
twobelowpar said:
Rumors are floating that a new service dubbed "Movies Anywhere" is going to be announced in the coming months and will work with multiple retailers in the same vein as Disney Movies Anywhere. You might remember several months ago that Disney was wanting other studios to join its DMA service. It appears the major studios have signed on except Paramount, MGM, and Lionsgate. There is a list of about 6,000 titles that are currently active once this goes live. You can see that list here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...2zyqfZowwB8fLSvswkdixOJxY/view#gid=1408869864
Whether this replaces UV or is an alternative option remains to be seen. I am hoping more info is announced when Vudu and/or Amazon get their Apple TV apps.

I've been following this page for updates: https://plus.google.com/communities/110670343201934414590
Click to expand...
This would be fantastic! I love Disney's solution and IMO it works a hell of a lot better than UltraViolet.
 
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ftaok said:
Just responding to a small part of your post ...

If VUDU is the gold standard of UV vendors, then how is UV still a thing. VUDU is complete garbage in terms of actually watching the movie. Doesn't matter if I'm streaming or have the movie downloaded locally. Battery usage is unreasonably high and even with downloaded movies, the stuttering is unbearable.

I've used both Chrome and Safari and the experience is awful. The VUDUtoGo app is equally awful.

I can't wait for the studios to all figure it out and allow the same license purchase to work across all providers.
Click to expand...


Not sure what your doing wrong (iv'e never tried watching on a computer) but Vudu works great on everything I have tried, mostly Roku's ans smart tv apps.
 
tanfan said:
Not sure what your doing wrong (iv'e never tried watching on a computer) but Vudu works great on everything I have tried, mostly Roku's ans smart tv apps.
Click to expand...
I'm almost certain it's because I'm viewing on a computer. the VUDU website uses Flash and the experience totally sucks. I have plenty of bandwidth and it still craps out.

When I use the VUDUtoGo app and download the movie to disk, the playback is still pretty bad. No crapping out like when streaming, but it's not the buttery smooth experience you'd expect. You can't scrub to a specific point in the movie without having to deal with the audio and video tracks being out of sync for at least a minute.

Total garbage. Probably due to Flash.
 
ftaok said:
I'm almost certain it's because I'm viewing on a computer. the VUDU website uses Flash and the experience totally sucks. I have plenty of bandwidth and it still craps out.

When I use the VUDUtoGo app and download the movie to disk, the playback is still pretty bad. No crapping out like when streaming, but it's not the buttery smooth experience you'd expect. You can't scrub to a specific point in the movie without having to deal with the audio and video tracks being out of sync for at least a minute.

Total garbage. Probably due to Flash.
Click to expand...

Have never had a problem with Vudu playback outside of an old Note 3 my daughter uses. Image quality has been outstanding and it's played smoothly. My issue with Vudu revolves around downloading movies. It kicks back an error 90% of the time. Pretty frustrating.
 
Just a quick bump as I've been following a Home Theatre Forum thread on this and it looks like hundreds more movies have been flagged as MA so speculation remains that the new system will be launched this year.

https://www.hometheaterforum.com/co...disney-movies-anywhere-platform.350479/page-3

If it works like DMA, then this will be fantastic as everyone can use the same codes, but stick with their provider/eco-system of choice. I'm just hoping that the transition from UV to MA will be smooth - I wonder if Apple's free 4K HDR upgrades will throw a spanner in the works (I still think this is the reason Disney isn't on board the 4K iTunes train yet - they don't want to give people free upgrades).
 
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kiranmk2 said:
Just a quick bump as I've been following a Home Theatre Forum thread on this and it looks like hundreds more movies have been flagged as MA so speculation remains that the new system will be launched this year.

https://www.hometheaterforum.com/co...disney-movies-anywhere-platform.350479/page-3

If it works like DMA, then this will be fantastic as everyone can use the same codes, but stick with their provider/eco-system of choice. I'm just hoping that the transition from UV to MA will be smooth - I wonder if Apple's free 4K HDR upgrades will throw a spanner in the works (I still think this is the reason Disney isn't on board the 4K iTunes train yet - they don't want to give people free upgrades).
Click to expand...

Of course this was suppose to be how UV worked too but providers didn't join, why will they now if we call it MA?
 
I think this thing may be launching sooner rather than later. Look at this hidden beta website on VUDU: https://www-beta2.vudu.com/mobileMa.html (I wouldn't suggest logging into a beta site btw).

The 5 free movies are one each from Disney, Fox, Sony, Universal, and Warner. Sounds like Lionsgate and Paramount won't be on board. Hopefully that's just for the launch.
 
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tanfan said:
Of course this was suppose to be how UV worked too but providers didn't join, why will they now if we call it MA?
Click to expand...

Maybe there is something about the back-end technology that is more attractive for the other providers that have already joined Keychest via Disney Movies Anywhere.
 
The (very) small print suggests that sign-up and connection to one online store (i.e. iTunes) will yield free copies of Ghostbusters and Ice Age and connection to a second online store (i.e. VUDU) will yield free copies of the other 3. Hopefully it won't matter if you're already signed up to DMA...

Also, if this is going to replace UV, will it go worldwide?
 
kiranmk2 said:
The (very) small print suggests that sign-up and connection to one online store (i.e. iTunes) will yield free copies of Ghostbusters and Ice Age and connection to a second online store (i.e. VUDU) will yield free copies of the other 3. Hopefully it won't matter if you're already signed up to DMA...

Also, if this is going to replace UV, will it go worldwide?
Click to expand...

What I wonder is if I will get to backdoor all my titles to 4K through the iTunes free upgrade. I have a couple Appletv’s but don’t like being locked into an ecosystem so I’ve bought almost all UV or DMA.

Conversely, instead of buying more expensive UV codes if I should just switch to the cheaper iTunes codes and wait for MA to be implemented.
 
off_piste said:
What I wonder is if I will get to backdoor all my titles to 4K through the iTunes free upgrade. I have a couple Appletv’s but don’t like being locked into an ecosystem so I’ve bought almost all UV or DMA.

Conversely, instead of buying more expensive UV codes if I should just switch to the cheaper iTunes codes and wait for MA to be implemented.
Click to expand...

I expect others will have that same idea, causing the market for the iTunes codes to drive up prices to be similar to the UV ones.
 
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