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Movie Rental Smackdown! Vudu, Apple TV, and Amazon Unbox compared
Let's say you're ready to chuck your DVD player and make the jump to renting digital content from a box near your television. Congratulations! You've discovered Pay Per View. But PPV has few choices and even less flexibility: What if you want to store content, own it, or move it to your computer? In that case, you may be ready for one of the newish digital boxes that people have been talking about lately. There are several companies out there, including Vudu, Apple, and TiVo that are trying to bring downloadable content to your television, though none has had tremendous success so far.
At Macworld 2008 Apple announced new software for its Apple TV (the device that links iTunes with your TV but now can serve as a standalone movie-renal box) as well as a new model with more storage space. In January Vudu lowered the price of its box by $100. Meanwhile, TiVo has had a relationship with Amazon Unbox for direct downloading for quite some time. Each system has different rules and content, and the differences are hardly intuitive. To help you tell them apart we've created a handy chart comparing the specs on the three systems — Click Continue below to see it.
Conclusions? Vudu has many more movies than iTunes and is the least expensive overall in terms of how much memory you get. And while on paper Vudu is the winner when it comes to image quality, in practice consumer download speeds aren't fast enough for users to download movies
that look like HD DVD or Blu-ray images in a timely manner. These companies' versions of "HD" may not live up to your expectations for the medium.
Other systems have clear advantages as well: They let you remove content from the box. Apple has Wi-Fi and computability with YouTube and Flickr. And TiVo is a DVR — the best DVR out there, really. Significant perks.
Our advice? Wait this one out. We predict that to stay competitive Vudu is going to have to go wireless and to offer more than its own content. Apple will have to improve its library until it has the same breadth and depth that iTunes does for music. Amazon's going to have to go HD, and we hope that Unbox will add Apple support. Plus there's that Netflix/LG box way down on the horizon.
The game's still open to anyone: choosing now is akin to having purchased an HD DVD player in January 2007: You'll get some use out of your system without any guarantee that prices will remain high or that the system will have staying power.
CORRECTION: There was a miswording in the original piece that implied that bandwidth influences download quality. What we meant to say was that at current download speeds have influenced the quality of downloads: even supposedly HD downloads are not at the quality of high-def disc formats like HD-DVD and Blu-ray because the amount of data required can't be downloaded in a timely manner. Additionally, we would like to clarify that the Wi-Fi category in the table refers to what comes in the box. Consumers can purchase wireless network adapters for both Tivo and Vudu.
By Skywraith at 8:15 PM ON 02/06/08
I use Wi-Fi on my Tivo to download Amazon Unbox content all the time. You list it as having "No" Wi-Fi.
// Sky //
By JonO at 11:50 AM ON 02/07/08
There is a glaring mistake here in your conclusions about Vudu. You state: "And on paper Vudu is the winner when it comes to image quality, though in practice your bandwidth may actually determine how downloads look." This is plain in correct. All movies on Vudu look the same regardless of bandwidth. So your statement is plain incorrect. The difference that bandwidth makes determines HOW QUICKLY you can watch a movie. If you have at least a 2 Mb/sec connection you can view all SD content instantly. If you have at least a 4 Mb/sec connection you can view all HD content instantly. If you have a 1.5 Mb/sec connection you can still rent/buy SD and HD content. IT WILL LOOK JUST THE SAME AS WITH A FASTER CONNECTION! What the difference will be is you'll have to wait a while before you can watch it.
Additionally, Vudu's HD quality is considered to be "broadcast quality." It is not, nor is it claimed, that Vudu's HD content is as good as HD-DVD or Blu-Ray. This wasn't mentioned in your write-up but it's an important point.
Please correct your facts regarding quality of image vs. download speed.
By Jono at 4:54 PM ON 02/07/08
You may also want to correct your grammar. Under rental conditions you state: "much watch in 24 hour period." Uh, it's "MUST watch in 24 hour period."
You really should get your facts correct and have an editor check your grammar before posting for the world to see - especially on a site as high profile as Sci-Fi.
Also, wireless is not the end all and be all of connectivity options and many times it's the worst - particularly for streaming. It's just a buzzword that all the techie wanna-be journalists insist on so they can sound important. WiFi in the Vudu would be nice, but it's not a reason the product will fail nor a reason not to purchase it. My 4 ReplayTVs don't have WiFi. My 2 Roku Photobridges don't have WiFi. My 4 Slingboxes don't have WiFi. The only Video capable device I have that has built in WiFi is my AppleTV and it pretty much is a doorstop unless something really cool comes out in 2.0...
By SEKramer at 7:04 PM ON 02/07/08
@Jono: I spoke to a Vudu representative as I was researching this piece. He told me that the new Vudu HD downloads would be in 1080p. The implication there is that the downloads would be better than broadcast quality, since broadcast HD is 720p or 1080i. I have not seen the Vudu HD downloads yet, but the conclusion of the article I referenced is that Vudu HD downloads are little better than upconverted SD downloads. Though that may not surprise you, I'm certain that other Vudu users might have higher expectations.
Thanks for reading.
By carolsky9 at 7:47 PM ON 02/07/08
You don't directly mention that Vudu's 1080p provides sharper pictures than Apple's 720p, even with basic content. With hi def films the difference is obviously even more noticeable. I think you should also emphasize that Vudu has 5 times more content than Apple.
By nam at 9:53 AM ON 02/08/08
I agree that Vudu is appreciably sharper and has vastly more movies. But the main difference, I think, is that the software is so much better that you can find movies 3 times faster and easier. Also the remote is unbelievably better, and you can for screen for one of 20 different categoies (comedy, drama, etc. You can also filter so your list is only 4* or 5+ rated movies, which as I think about it may be the best thing. I guess its the viewing experience that is so mych better than the others, in my opinion.
By kenfox at 5:04 PM ON 02/08/08
I agree with nam that the graphic interface is so much better with Vudu than the others. More than the 5 times the number of movies and better picture, using the remote and zooming through is so much nicer than netflix or any of the other downloads. Also the screening for only good movies saves you an immense amount of time and makes it much more of a pleasure.
By BERNIELIP at 7:59 PM ON 02/09/08
By the numbers above, Vudu has 5 times more films. That's good. But the real thing is that Vudu is so much easier to use than even the newer AppleTv. You can move around much easier and the graphics are better and clearer. I agree with someone else that the filter so you can pick only the very good movies is fabulous. Really good! All of that is stuff you don't see in the numbers. It's very, very user friendly.
By Afkhu at 11:05 PM ON 02/14/08
"and we hope that Unbox will add Apple support" I did not understand what you meant by Apple support. Is that in terms of ease of use?
By captvikki at 2:52 AM ON 03/01/08
I have TiVo and Amazon Unbox. Best thing ever invented. Anything beats having to remember to return or mail something. When I want to watch, I download and watch. Life is soooooooo goooood! I just wish it had a better selection, but I know that comes with time.
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captvikki:
I have TiVo and Amazon Unbox. Best thing ever invented. Anything beats having to remember to return or mail somethi...More »