VUDU offers alternative for buying movies

New movies usually follow a path of availability. Movies primarily make their debut in movie theaters. After they’ve had their run at the movie houses and depending on the movie’s popularity, they usually next appear on DVD for purchase and rental. After a varying period of time, you’ll next see them appearing on Pay-Per-View on your cable or satellite TV service. It used to be that you had to watch PPV at the times it was offered, but with a digital video recorder like TiVO, you can easily record them for viewing at a later time. Some services are now offering Programming on Demand so that you can order and watch a movie at any time. Satellite and cable offer their own boxes with a built-in DVR as well.

As more time passes, the movie will be shown on premium channels such as HBO and Showtime. And finally, after a long time has passed, sometimes literally years later, the movie will have it’s network debut and appear on network television.

So given the above schedule on how a movie is generally released to the general public, let’s see how many ways there are nowadays to get a movie. You can do it the old-fashioned way and take a trip to your local video rental store when it comes out on DVD. But that’s so pedestrian. It’s looking like more and more of us are electing to stay at home and have the movies delivered directly to us. But even that decision offers us a variety of choices on how we get to do that.

If a title is out on DVD, services like Netflix offer a large library of DVD titles that arrive to your home via the mail. Depending on the plan you choose, you can elect to keep the titles you want and return what you don’t want to see over again. But now there’s yet another alternative to all of the above methods of delivering a movie into your home, and it’s coming to you via the Internet. If it’s available on a DVD, now you can have movies from the Internet. VUDU is a new consumer gadget that delivers movies directly to the TV, and you can do it without a personal computer.

How it works

VUDU is a set-top box you connect to your television set much the same way as you would connect a DVR, satellite or cable box. The major difference here is that you connect the VUDU to your broadband Internet connection, be it DSL or even cable. Using the VUDU remote control, you are presented with an on-screen menu that lets you select movies from a growing library of titles. For example, you might select “The Borne Ultimatum,” which was recently released on DVD. But with VUDU, the movie is delivered over your Internet connection and stored on VUDU’s internal hard drive. You can search for movies via title, actor or director. Additional categories let you browse available titles via genres, new releases or special collections such as director’s cuts and first features.

The download is immediate, and you can literally begin watching the movie when you select it. Depending on the video quality of the movies you select, you can store up to 100 hours of owned movies. The VUDU is also ready for future external storage options via its two USB ports. The VUDU is capable of resolutions from 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i up to 1080p.

In addition to some of the latest blockbuster and independent film titles, VUDU’s library offers a nice variety of TV shows, including recent and nostalgic titles. Prices vary depending on whether you are renting or buying. Rentals range from 99 cents to $3.99 and are not stored on the VUDU hard drive. Purchased movies range from $4.99 to $19.99 and remain on the VUDU hard drive indefinitely so that you can watch them as often as you like with no additional charges. TV episodes are $1.99. The VUDU unit sells for $399, and it’s pay as you go with no subscription fees. The VUDU service offers more than 5,000 movies from all the major studios and several independents, and that library is growing rapidly.

If you’re looking for something different for the movie lover in your life this holiday, check out the VUDU. Now all you’ll need is the popcorn.

www.vudu.com

XCraig Crossman is a national newspaper columnist writing about computers and technology. For more information, visit his Web site at www.computeramerica.com.

© 2007 McClatchy Tribune