Netflix Player, AppleTV, and Vudu; the battle of the digital media wars. All three have their strong points, all have weaknesses. But do I care? In fact, I really don’t at all. I bought a Vudu box during their Christmas sale for $100, where the current price is and was $300. If I can give you one word of advice, it is this: Do not buy the Vudu for more than $100, lest you be dissapointed. For $100, I can argue its purchase. For $300, save your money and buy something else that is more fun. It gives me something to do during those “I want to watch a movie but don’t want to go out and buy/rent one” moments, but nothing more. It does indeed have the best HD offerings and quality over the latter Netflix and AppleTV players. With that said though, and I state again, the extra $200 for HD content is still quite ridiculous.  Lets not waste time and get to the pros and cons that I’ve noticed after about a month of owning this device.

Pros:

• By far the best picture I’ve experienced on my 42″ 1080p TV. * But read con below.
• Vudu Labs “On Demand” allows users to watch pre-selected videocasts.
• Titles You Might Like – works pretty well I’d say.
• Users can rate movies.
• HD and HDX rental options cost exactly the same. HDX will take longer to buffer before you can watch though, which is understandable.
• The controller transmits via radio and not IR, so line of sight isn’t an issue. Not only so, but it’s simple and easy to use.
• USB connections for future expansion, such as an external hard drive for extra storage, and hopefully viewing video and listening to music already stored on the drive.

Cons:

• 99 cent rentals are for standard definition only.
• New movie offerings are usually available to buy only for at least a few weeks before you can rent.
• Buying movies is most often the same price, if not more expensive than buying the DVD.
• A lot of movies are only available to buy, especially older movies
• My Insignia NS-LCD42HD will only display up to 1080i when used with this box. I read through the Vudu forums and the whole “my TV will only display up to x” discussions pop up and are dismissed describing that the quality will not increase anyway because of the refresh rate used. Newer, more expensive TVs should go up to 1080p, but appearently my TV isn’t that great. With that said, the picture is still leaps and bounds over DVD.
• On Demand TV freezes and makes the device reset sometimes. This isn’t exactly a valid complaint though since it’s considered in beta testing.
• For those “adult” movie watchers, 95% of AVN titles start off at $7 to rent and $20 to own. Personally I think adult titles are ridiculous to throw money at in the first place, but this gives the word ridiculous new meaning.
• A lot of older, especially “cult flicks” are not available. You can request them or wait for them to be released at a later time, but there may be a lot of wishful thinking involved.
• Movie navigation has a lot to be desired. Fast forwarding and going back is an art that even after a month I have trouble with. You will most likely get frusterated and comprimise by skipping a part of the movie you missed or watching a whole scene over again.

More about the “On Demand TV” Vudu Labs offers; Think Miro, except you’re limited to very few feeds. You can watch episodes of Hak5 and Systm in HD. In addition, you can watch some TED videos, The Digg Reel, G4 videos, Diggnation, Tekzilla, Attack of The Show, and various other feeds from cooking to news to sports. Unfortunately you’re only limited to the last 15 entries from each feed, and there are no screenshots or previews. Honestly if it weren’t for the On Demand TV feature, I probably would have returned the box. I’d like to be able to add RSS feeds manually in the future, or at least have a larger selection selection though. In fact, if this is all the box did, I’d be happy. I like watching interesting stuff for free.

If you’re looking for something where you can save money, Vudu is not for you. As stated, movies aren’t any cheaper to rent or buy than anywhere else. In fact, now that Netflix has its own streaming media box, you should get one of those over a Vudu if you like watching movies more than a few times a month. New 99 cent rentals are thrown into the mix, but only 5 a week, purging the 5 oldest 99 cent rentals. The 99 movies for 99 cents thing is pretty cool, but just think about the amount of movies you can watch with little restriction for only $10 a month with Netflix. Since I’m at work 50 hours a week and on the road about 8 hours a week, I watch about 4 movies a month, which I can afford to do with the 99 cent movies (yes, I’m that cheap). Watching an HD movie will still be a special occasion (once a month deal) as I cannot yet justify in most cases $6 to rent an HD movie. I can buy the darn movie in a few months on DVD anyway for $4 more and watch it unlimited times on any DVD player anywhere without worrying about a company managing my license.

Bottom line? Buy it if you have hope for the Vudu to become cheaper and more innovative in the future. Buy it on sale if you’re smart, buy it at full price if Vudu becomes smart and lowers the price to $150 or $100. Leave comments and questions if you’d like. I know that a lot of people are curious about this box.

Edit #1 (February 26, 2009): I know a couple people with a Roku Netflix box. One doesn’t feel too strongly about it as not enough movies are offered and he has watched “all the movies that interest him” already, and the other claims it to be hands down the best purchase he has ever made (believe me, this guy has everything already). We watched a movie on the Roku box on his far superior 120Hz TV, and I can see a bit less quality in picture. The Vudu box will give you DVD-quality picture with even the SD content, which honestly looks even better than any DVDs I’ve played, while the Roku will give you video with somewhat noticeably blocky artifacts. I’d say the Roku is comparable to Hulu SD content. In all, the Roku currently does not offer as many movies as the Vudu box, but you’ll be paying the price of a movie ticket to watch movies all month. In addition, you’ll be able to watch a lot of the older movies you know and love.

Edit #2 (February 28, 2009): Users are now able to buy HD and HDX movies. Currently it doesn’t seem like you’re going to save a significant amount over Bluray, but it’s a start. Also, the Vudu box appears that it is now going to be set at a price of $150 ($100 for the box, $50 for credits?). People can also buy a refurbished Vudu XL box for $350 (1TB hard drive). The price drop seems to be the Californian thing to do, as I reminisce the infamous price drop with the iPhone. In all, I could be editing this post for a while as it appears that Vudu is now making some big changes and possibly starting to contend with its competitors finally. I think a good start to contend is possibly bringing the accessory prices back to earth. $30 for a controller, $70 for a carrying case, and $40 for a glorified IR sensor with a wire and a plug? When an aftermarket pops up, they will most definitely drop the prices sharply. The technical side of Vudu is pretty good, but the marketing side needs to realize that they’re not going to make millions from millionaires.

Edit #3 (March 5, 2009): As of the 2nd this month, 99 cent movies are no longer an option. This will probably bring my watch count down to 1 movie a month. The way I think of it, for the price I can watch an HD movie, I could spend a few dollars more and have unlimited content with Netflix. In addition, the bottom right corner sometimes shows the following – “Hollywood’s Best Instantly on Your TV”. This got me thinking a bit. Who decides if it’s “Hollywood’s Best”? You can request a movie that is not available in their forums, and it’s up to Vudu employees whether or not they like the idea enough to suggest it to get it added. Most movies are rejected. If your movie is surprisingly a good idea, you’ll never hear about it again anyway until you search for it months down the road. This whole Vudu idea is making me think it was just a bad idea. I may end up unplugging the power so it doesn’t end up costing me more any more than it has to. Good hardware, horribly bad prices.