Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler PS3 Vudu

Installed the Vudu player on my PS3 (USA only). Haven't watched a feature film yet, but checked out a few trailers. The video quality is pretty amazing (that's Vudu's selling point), and the selection of movies is incredible (Vudu's second selling point). The drawback is it's isn't a buffet-style all you can eat offering; it is pay per view.

The pricing is staggered by video quality SD being less than HD, and HD being less than HDX (1080p/5.1 DD+). The normal pricing is $3.99/$4.99/$5.99 respectively for new releases, older titles can be less. There's also a section called "$2 for 2 days" (to compete with Redbox) that's priced as: $2/$2.99/$3.99. Also every day there's one title selected to be $0.99 across the board (today's is The Miracle Worker, but HP: The Order of the Phoenix was just the other day, so the selection seems to be pretty eclectic.

The player is in the Playstion Store on the New Release page for now, and will always be found in the Media section. Installing it gets an automatic $5.99 credit applied to your account (expires on Christmas). You have to go to vudu.com to add a credit card, as there's no way to do it from the player interface.

hmmm.. thanks I'll check it out. Is it a streaming service so that movies play immediately when selected?

Thanks for the update Chris. I am in Canada so doesn't apply to me I guess, but am always looking for a better way to get movie content.

I have tried on demand from my cable company but the pricing is steep although the quality is good. I tried Netflix but found new arrival selection almost non-existent and quality was really bad (both video and audio). PlayStation store movie rental is good - cheaper than my cable company with excellent video and audio quality but need to start downloading in advance of watching - the PSN servers could not serve it out fast enough to buffer while I was watching - I did check the rate at which it was coming was far lower than my service allows, so I can only assume the bottleneck was on the PSN side.

Any other sources/suggestions out there? Is Vudu planned for eventual Canadian release?

Cheers,

Yes, Vudu streams, so the video starts right away. (They even have a little speed tester built into the app that tells you what your optimum video quality is. Mine pegged the 9 Mbit/sec meter for the full minute, so they easily recommended HDX.

Vudu is now owned by Walmart America. Can't say whether that means they're seeking to provide the service outside of the US or not.

The Vudu player is free right? I've used the Netflix player and the PS3 interface is better than the Tivo.

I've also tried the Hulu Plus on PS3. I really like it. Because of it, I may finally let Comcast go. I've got 2 HD Tivos that have OTA inputs and a chimney antenna. Most of my season passes are for broadcast so I can supplement the handful of shows from Hulu Plus. Yeah, I'll miss sports but I'm hoping ESPN gets smarter and releases the ESPN3 app beyond XBOX 360.

Yes, the player is a free download. Better than that, they give you a $5.99 credit for downloading it.

The Media section of the PS Store now also has players for MLB and NHL (subscriptions required to watch the games).