Vongo: Starz and Microsoft $9.95 per Month Unlimited Movies

[ArizonaKid]

I Am Impressed

Let me first say that I am currently using the service. Rather than write a comment about something I never tried, I decided to get on my PC Notebook and subscribed to the service.

So far...I am impressed by the interface. It has a very simple interface that is easy to navigate. The movie selections are good, and initially at 9.95 the price seems fair to good. I am finding most of the great movies I want to watch. Additionally, I am a big fan of STARS. They allow you to have streaming access to their network which constantly shows big movies. The quality is very good.

I have not yet connected up a PC to my home entertainment system; however, I expect that I won't be overly impressed by the quality. I expect it to be just shy of DVD quality based on the settings it provides.

Overall, for my PC Notebook this seems to be a solid service. VERY HAPPY and IMPRESSED. This shows to have great promise.

It's good that Apple is getting competition. Typically, limited choices aren't good for the customer...typically. There are situations, like the iPod, where a product is so good it just doesn't have much competition.

Of course there should be Apple fans that will hate anything MS, but such fans are always predictable with there bias opinions.

 

[chicagdan]

Rather than write a comment about something I never tried, I decided to get on my PC Notebook and subscribed to the service.

Yeah, I've used that rationale with dozens of porn sites through the years. They all seemed like a good buy for the first 30 seconds.

 

[ArizonaKid]

Yeah, I've used that rationale with dozens of porn sites through the years. They all seemed like a good buy for the first 30 seconds.

Well...these are movies I can actually sit through and watch.

Typically I don't last very long on porn sites...as 30 seconds of visual is all that is often required.

 

[narco]

I'm already paying $20 a month for NetFlix, another $12 for Sirius, $100 for cable ... I'm sick of companies charging me for a basket of services I don't use.

I have Netflix also, and I couldn't see switching to a service like Vongo. Not sure how this new service handles all the DVD extras and such, but I definitely get that with Netflix -- plus I can just pop it into my DVD player instead of downloading it, transferring it to a portable player, hooking it up to my TV and then play it at a (slightly) lower resolution and without surround sound? Pshhyeah.

Fishes,
narco.

 

[starwxrwx]

vongo, vingle... whats next? sounds terrible

that said, I think movie subscription sites will be (relatively) more popular than music subscription sites versus their download-to-own versions because you generally only watch a movie once

 

[chicagdan]

I have Netflix also, and I couldn't see switching to a service like Vongo. Not sure how this new service handles all the DVD extras and such, but I definitely get that with Netflix -- plus I can just pop it into my DVD player instead of downloading it, transferring it to a portable player, hooking it up to my TV and then play it at a (slightly) lower resolution and without surround sound? Pshhyeah.

Fishes,
narco.

And Neflix lets me order the movies I want, not what Hollywood studios try to shove down my throat 12 months a year. The minute a movie download service offers a Wong Kar-Wai movie, I'll pay attention.

 

[tacomaboy]

Video Quality is important!

Personally I want at least DVD quality downloads wether it is from Vongo or Apple (preferably from Apple). The quality and compatibility isn't even there with Vongo and even the video quality on iTunes isn't good enough. But for 1.99 I might download a missed TV show and watch it on the computer, but not on a big screen. I like to watch movies and TV shows on a big screen, especially in HD. So, for now I'm happy with my DVD rental service where I get 5.1 surround and extras; and my Cable service with HDTV. However, I hope Apple comes out with something cool to kick ass!

 

[Music_Producer]

Relax!

Funny how everyone just bashes this service rightaway..

For the :

"I'm sick of companies charging me extra for services I don't need"..

Uh, who's asking you to sign up for their services? If you want movies-on-the-go.. you can either buy DVDs, rent them.. or download them from Vongo. I don't see why everyone here is getting irritated.. its weird.

For an executive on the go, this is awesome. Its better than carrying a portable dvd player and a bundle of DVDs.. its just a matter of convenience and choice for the consumer.

For the "****tastic quality" of the movies:

You do remember when the first mp3s came out right? Sound quality wasn't that great.. now, its awesome. Same with the movie thing.. right now it may not be that great, 3 years down.. it might be better than DVD quality, with surround sound.. all the extras, etc. And remember, that broadband speeds aren't that great.. yet.. maybe when we have 1 GB/s downloads.. they'll update the movies to full resolution.

Imagine taking an ipod or a video/mp3 player to your friend's house, and watching any movie.. with the full movie effect.

So take this as an interesting development.. they have to be lauded for atleast starting such a service. This will no doubt entice Apple to bite the movie bug and come out with their own .. improved (as Apple always does) version of Vongo.

 

[narco]

And Neflix lets me order the movies I want, not what Hollywood studios try to shove down my throat 12 months a year. The minute a movie download service offers a Wong Kar-Wai movie, I'll pay attention.

Plus 55,000+ movie titles is a lot more than 800. Back when I got Starz for free with my digital cable package, it was one of the least watched channels.

Still waiting for the day when Apple makes a deal with HBO. I think Apple is on the right track by going with TV shows first instead of movies -- most people don't really care about HD quality on their TV shows (unless they're paying for HD service, of course) and 30 minute to an hour TV shows are short enough to watch at your desk.

Fishes,
narco.

 

[narco]

For an executive on the go, this is awesome. Its better than carrying a portable dvd player and a bundle of DVDs.. its just a matter of convenience and choice for the consumer.

Imagine taking an ipod or a video/mp3 player to your friend's house, and watching any movie.. with the full movie effect.

You can do both of these things with an iPod. You can compress your DVDs for the iPod and take them with you. You can even do the same with rental flicks so long as you delete them when you're done.

 

[miradu]

In regards to my previous ****tastic quality comment: I think the comment was more in regards towards "was this all they could do".. Hence the comparison to apple's frontrow's streaming trailers to show what technology could do. If they finally got the much needed content licensees, why can't they offer a range of quality? one med at 600 MB, one high at 1 GB? Why should bittorrent rips have higher quality versions of the same movie that I just paid a subscription for online? It is that point of view that I am frustrated with this service.. I KNOW that technology is there to offer what I want, but sadly this service doesn't utilize that technology.

As far as I know, WM9 is an extremely advanced codec, I'm not trying to "diss" on windows here or anything -from what I understand there will be a very very impressive push to get this service moving on both the desktop and mobile fronts. From what I can tell in the help files, and the quality of the files, this service is targeted for personal media players.. players that won't be released until CES, so in some ways I am pre judging this. The quality that I notice fullscreen on my XGA laptop won't be an issue on a device that only has half VGA quality.

I don't want movies on a separate harddrive device or my ipod.. I want movies on my big screened laptop, and I wish the tech and content companies would let me do that well and with flexibility. I have the same comments towards quality for the iTunes videos - they're absolutely awful, if you want to view them on your laptop. (at least with TV I don't expect the same quality as on movies)

 

[Bonte]

Several years ago, when Starz renewed its long-term contracts with studios, including those owned by Sony and the Walt Disney Company, to put movies on its cable channels, it bought the rights to use them on the Internet as well. This means that other digital services cannot offer these movies in rental or subscription services during the period covered by the Starz contract.

I'm not a US residence but if this contract expires the service is dead?

 

[liketom]

overall, specs and pricing are impressive.

arn

agree with you on that , looks very good

if apple had the same - then in a heartbeat i would subscribe

i thought jobsy had the say on the rights to The Increds ?

 

[balamw]

Overall this looks like a good deal as it's priced at about the same level of pricing as a typical cable/sat premium channel. Basically Starz on demand. Too bad the quality isn't quite equal to that of digital cable/dbs (yet).

If HBO was part of something similar I'd be very tempted. My DirecTiVo pretty much offers HBO on demand already, and it would be nice to have a better search engine that would mean I'd miss fewer great shows on HBO.

This ironically seems to include Pixar's movies done with Disney it seems.

I'm sure any deals Disney has with Starz do not go on in perpetuity. Otherwise they would never be able to air the films they control, but air on Starz on their own properties, Disney Channel, ABC, ... I suspect we'll see The Incredibles on Disney Channel in early 2007 at the latest.

B

 

[Poff]

I really hope Apple will be able to nail movies aswell as TV somehow.

Maybe at least for other countries? I don't care much if the US gets movies, as long as Norway does.. !


And btw, this is cool. Approx. 8,5% of the total norwegian population got an iPod for Christmass! Is that sick or what? I mean, in the US that would have translated into 25 million iPods in the weeks before Christmass. Would have been cool, huh? Should have translated into quite a few vid-downloads aswell..?

 

[strange days]

well, i do expect good quality from TV and movies; now it just might be the Apple foresight that put TV shows first, but the market will decide...

...also, it's not important to be the first on the market, but to be the one who delivers ( easy interface, services package, infrastructure, possibility to evolve ).

Now as far as WMV files are concerned, lots of smartphones are coming out with WM5, and they have beautiful screens up to 640x480, and in a couple years ( depending on your geographic location ) this will be the REAL tough competition Apple will have to face, if they don't come up with an iPhone of their own sooner rather than later.

Now for the home market, i guess we'll have to see how / if the rumored Frontrow system with upgraded .mac cache will work.

And most of all, it's a content war, once the hardware is available; who knows what deals they can make / break...

 

[After G]

Apple has the right idea going into this with the TV shows.

1) Download show to computer, convert to iPod format, load onto iPod.
2) Pay $2 for show, load on iPod.

A lot of people would go for #2 - convenience, and one less (long) step.

The iPod might cause this thing with Starz to lose traction. WM9 doesn't play with the iPod.

If anyone trusts MS formats with their money I feel sorry for them. How many companies work with Word documents that need to be converted with the release of a new version of Word? At least Apple gives you cross-platform software that can convert QuickTime formats to something else of your choosing.

 

[icykismet]

bad news for Apple... at least with these movies



This ironically seems to include Pixar's movies done with Disney it seems.

Ah yes, but Apple has the hidden ace up it's sleeve -- the podcast... And in case you haven't heard, that now includes 1930s and 40s cartoons like Bugs Bunny and Aladdin in Vintage ToonCast. Hard to believe, but apparently there are plenty of public domain cartoons from long ago that just about anyone can download from archive.org and try to make a buck off of... nice to see someone who isn't going for profit.

 

[Marx55]

A shame. A lost opportunity for QuickTime to become the standard on downloadable movies...

Apple: a quick response is required ASAP!

 

[jywv8]

My holy grail is an on-demand service that I can access through my TV that will let me watch an unlimited number of movies every month from a selection consisting of every movie ever made (or close to it). I love the convenience factor of Comcast's current on-demand service, but their movie selection stinks. And I want to watch movies in full HD glory on my honking plasma, not my computer.

I don't need something tangible to hold in my hands. As someone previously mentioned, unlike, say, a music CD, which I will listen to repeatedly, once I watch a movie I rarely want to watch it again. Heck, I would _rather_ rent a movie than buy it, even for the same price, because I don't want the clutter.

If someone were to ever offer such a service, I'd pay lots of money for it.

(On a related note, I wish Apple would offer music compressed at a higher bit rate through the iTunes music store. I'd pay more money for that, too.)

 

[Bad Beaver]

And I want to watch movies in full HD glory on my honking plasma, not my computer.

Thanks. As somebody pointed out already, the res of Vongo is not that much less than DVD, so why is it not full DVD? Why 64Kbps audio? For Stereo? They must be kidding. Full DVD resolution and Full digital sound is what is needed for such a service.

 

[Jesus]

Does anyone remember Vingle, the names seem to similar for my liking.

 

[Bonte]

Let me first say that I am currently using the service. Rather than write a comment about something I never tried, I decided to get on my PC Notebook and subscribed to the service.

Of course there should be Apple fans that will hate anything MS, but such fans are always predictable with there bias opinions.

Let me try it ... DARN its not working.
Damned, now i have a bias opinion.

 

[somairotevoli]

First post

Well this is BS. I use opera on both pc and mac and have been for years. Well look what I get

 

[BornAgainMac]

Just before Mac World.... Interesting.