I wonder when they'll offer the ability to go from SD or HD(X) to UHD? And how much it'll be per title. And, whether Apple will offer this or force us to pay 100% retail for UHD versions.
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VUDU iOS App Updated With $2-$5 Disc-to-Digital Movie Conversions Using Barcodes
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Nice fail...however with the exception of the original 6 Star Wars films all Disney films being released on bluray include a digital file for free.
[doublepost=1490294338][/doublepost]So set your billing address to Best Buy's address and just scan in every single movie you want for just $5 each.
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You may want to take a look at their market share compared to iTunes or Amazon.
I would like to. Link please? I have been unable to find VUDU market share numbers for 2016 or 2017.
What I do notice is that they are available on most smart TVs, most boxes (they have confirmed they are developing one for Apple TV even), they accept UltraViolet (iTunes doesn't) and are the recommended UV solution because they are not fragmented, they accept from-disc conversions, now they accept from-barcode conversions, they have the most consistently high quality file format (HDX) for 1080p, and HDR and Atmos support for UHD titles. That on top of their massive retail presence because of Walmart.
I really want Apple to get its behind in gear and start outcompeting. We are an Apple household. We subscribe to iCloud, Apple Music, all that jazz. But I won't buy any IMHO 'obsolete' 1080p content on my Apple TV because I know they'll make me rebuy from scratch in 4K once they can be bothered to implement it.
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No Problem
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It will remove the DRM out of iTunes movies. It will retain 5.1 audio if you so choose and 1080p. A little side note, it does work with rentals but i didn't tell you that. All of the movies i buy on iTunes i run this program and then put into my Plex library. I just keep everything on an external drive. My nephew has a copy of my drive just in case mine dies so i always have a backup. I don't trust Apple to always have a copy of the movies i buy. I was skeptical at first but it works great.
I'm talking about Disney and D2D, not Disney providing codes, I realize they do that on all new releases.
-Kevin
Thanks, that's exactly what I wanted to know. I love the cross-platform aspect of Plex, but my wife prefers to buy from iTunes. As a result, half of our movies are missing depending on what playback device we're using. My only concern with programs like that one has been quality degradation.
Kind of. Disney has a version of every movie that has a digital code with it. Typically called the 'Platinum Edition' that has a Blu-Ray, DVD, and Digital Code all in one box, and for about $35. Compared to just the Blu-Ray or Blu-Ray/DVD Combo for closer to $20.
For $2 a Blu-Ray, I'd convert everything over in a heatbeat if Apple/iTunes offered this ($3 even!). I'd probably even do a bunch of the DVDs I still have lying around...
Along "kinda" the same lines, check out this thread I started a couple days ago, I think it could be helpful to some of you if you weren't already familiar with it for movies/tv shows.
Walmart today announced that a new update to the mobile app for its streaming movie service, VUDU, will allow customers to scan and digitize any physical DVD or Blu-Ray into digital form for a price between $2 and $5, right from their smartphone. The update is an expansion of Walmart's "Disc-to-Digital" in-house service, which encouraged customers to bring their physical movies to a local Walmart to transfer them into cloud storage, and in recent years also added digital conversion on home computers.
Now, Mobile Disc-to-Digital will work on both iOS and Android devices and will support nearly 8,000 films from Lionsgate, Paramount Home Media Distribution, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. VUDU said it intends to keep adding support from more distributors over the coming months.
To convert a movie into a digital copy, customers must navigate to the new disc-to-digital section of the VUDU app and scan the physical barcode of the film they want to digitize. Here they will be presented with digital options and prices: converting a DVD to SD or a Blu-ray disc to HDX costs $2, while converting a DVD to the higher-definition HDX costs $5. Users can keep scanning and adding movies in bulk, and once the digitalization is finished, all of the movies can be viewed on any VUDU-enabled device.
To ensure that users are scanning in copies of films that they have already purchased, the VUDU app will enable disc-to-digital conversions only when it can determine that the user is at their designated home/billing address.
VUDU is available on the iPhone and iPad [Direct Link], and today's Mobile Disc-to-Digital update will go live at 12:00 p.m. EDT. An engineer working for the streaming company recently confirmed that an Apple TV app is in development, with no clear timetable as to when it might debut.
Article Link: VUDU iOS App Updated With $2-$5 Disc-to-Digital Movie Conversions Using Barcodes
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/itunes-digital-download-codes-check-it-out.2038078/
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Check my thread out if you'd like something similar for your collection. Might not be quite as cheap but a good way to "digitalize" your collection. https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/itunes-digital-download-codes-check-it-out.2038078/
Amen to that!
I have previously made this comment, along with the idea that Apple finally join the UltraViolet consortium. That way iTunes would be the primary front-end and we wouldn't need Vudu.
I guess they don't actually care that much. After all, they're really just selling the right to stream an existing video, so it's not like they're really losing any money if someone double-dips.
Just tried it out at home and I don't think the scanner is working right. It wouldn't recognize the 4 Disney movies I had that didnt have a digital copy code.
Tried a bunch of newer movies too and it didn't work.
Might try a reinstall of the app.
I believe almost all of the fees for D2D is sent directly to the studios. Don't believe Vudu actually makes much of anything from it. More of a gateway drug to get people into the Vudu/UV ecosystem.
The new mobile D2D is allowing some newer titles as well which is surprising. Will be interesting to see how long this lasts, as it's proven to be very easy to "scan" whatever you want. Although Vudu/Studios I don't think have ever really cared that much about people using D2D if they don't really own the disc. Most of the D2D titles have been older movies (in home was always 2013 and earlier). Have to imagine sales of those titles are pretty small, and most people aren't going to spend $13.99 to buy them. Might as well get a few bucks from consumers via D2D than nothing.
Disney is not D2D, so those won't work.
Here's a Google doc with what is working:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1acHTDnlQmqeo5SzWOrfLHqbae19nCJ6SFz66XjNG3k0/edit#gid=0
-Kevin
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All of the movies i've used with it have the exact same quality as iTunes has.
I already own many bluray copies of Disney movies that did not come with a digital download. Of the 37 disney movies I own on bluray, 17 of them did not come with a digital copy. I would pay $34 right now (or half that if I used the desktop app) to have each of those made into digital copies, but Disney is too greedy to let VUDU do that.
I'd love to find an equivalent for Vudu/Ultraviolet. All those DVDs I D-to-D'ed require me to fire up an older box or AirPlay, and while a native app on ATV4 is what I really want, I'm already running an extra machine with a shared library, so a no-DRM copy would be just as seamless as native.
I don't know of any program that will rip DRM from Vudu/Ultraviolet. I have a few in that format also.
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Get the DRM Media Converter.
I just made my first foray into the world of Vudu conversions last week. The hardest part was finding 10 DVDs in my collection that I was confident I would want to watch again, and that weren't easily available for streaming on Netflix or Amazon. Then I had to find 3 replacements for those DVDs I tried that weren't available in Vudu's collection.
Ultimately, $25 to upgrade 10 DVDs to Hi-Def digital seems like a pretty good deal to me. The only downsides I can see are that you can only watch them via the Vudu app, making it that much harder to maintain an integrated video library, and that there's no app for Apple TV. Considering how crappy some of my older DVDs look on a 4k TV, I can accept the trade-off.
Ultimately, $25 to upgrade 10 DVDs to Hi-Def digital seems like a pretty good deal to me. The only downsides I can see are that you can only watch them via the Vudu app, making it that much harder to maintain an integrated video library, and that there's no app for Apple TV. Considering how crappy some of my older DVDs look on a 4k TV, I can accept the trade-off.