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No, not only people with Apple products. If you have a Microsoft Surface you can access itunes content.

True. More accurately, it should say Apple products or at the very least Apple software.

I think he's referring to the fact that you can't access iTunes content on the myriad of other devices out there like Roku, Tivo, Android, ChromeTV, Amazon Fire, etc. Whereas, UV is available everywhere except AppleTV.
 
True. More accurately, it should say Apple products or at the very least Apple software.

I think he's referring to the fact that you can't access iTunes content on the myriad of other devices out there like Roku, Tivo, Android, ChromeTV, Amazon Fire, etc. Whereas, UV is available everywhere except AppleTV.

Yep, I'm thinking more in terms of the devices that connect to your TV...

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That's interesting, and a horrible answer IMO because you've already paid for it. I've not had that happen to anything I own on Vudu, and maybe it's different because it's mainly a streaming service--you really only download to watch online. They might have different agreements with the studios.

But I'm not sure. You're right--that is a difference with digital media. With physical media you KNOW you own it. That's why I do a combination of the two. But mostly I use digital. I guess it's worth the small risk to me to have the convenience.

I have not experienced it with Vudu either, knock on wood. But it's definitely something to consider. For myself it's worth it even knowing that - for new releases I get the UV code from the Blu, which I have boxed up and out of the way, so that's a de facto backup. Other codes are purchased in online forums for about $4, or I'll Disc to Digital a disc, both of which are cheaper than a rental, so if I lost those my world wouldn't end.
 
Yep, I'm thinking more in terms of the devices that connect to your TV...

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I have not experienced it with Vudu either, knock on wood. But it's definitely something to consider. For myself it's worth it even knowing that - for new releases I get the UV code from the Blu, which I have boxed up and out of the way, so that's a de facto backup. Other codes are purchased in online forums for about $4, or I'll Disc to Digital a disc, both of which are cheaper than a rental, so if I lost those my world wouldn't end.

Which is an excellent point. Part of the reason I have hundreds of movies in my UV library is because they were cheap enough to be rentals. I wouldn't have actually bought them, nor do I really care about keeping many of them. But when owning is cheaper than renting, why not?! :p
 
That's fantastic, but I wasn't referring to your post :)

And as the poster above me said, forget about the whole Target Ticket/CinemaNow thing. You are making this harder than it has to be. Sign up for Vudu and link to UV. Your movies will be there.

I agree 100% with actionablemango. Free UV download with *Live Die Repeat* was almost as bad as his nightmare.

First it gave me the error 500 that it couldn't set up an account.

Second try, hey that email address is taken. Of course it's taken I just got an error trying to set it up 2 minutes ago.

Finally after online chat with sales help all sorted out right?

HA!! I wish :(

Okay account all set up and ready to download my UV movie.

...Ummm sorry you can't download ANY UV movies because you don't have the right display.

What!?!?!! Come again!!

I play ALL HD movies fine on that HD display whether Blu-Ray, iTunes HD etc

I've given up on UV. iTunes just works and I'm too old for this pathetic aggravation. It's not like the internet, streaming downloading or HD movies are new, so I don't see any excuse for their extremely poor service and performance :(

Goodbye UV, maybe others have more patience or better luck.
 
iTunes is in dire need of an overhaul as we all know. But I am still curious to know even with how old it is, what are its sales VS those stores that offer UV digital content? I mean with so many stores/devices that play UV content, it should be kicking Apple's rear right?
 
I mean if, for instance, you move your file to a new Mac and it doesn't have your iTunes license transferred with it. Then it won't play.

But I don't think that's what you meant, right? You meant if it disappeared from the iTunes or UV catalog. In that case, as long as you own it, it won't disappear from your personal library.

That first part isn't really true in practice. If I move a downloaded movie file to a new mac, I would have to authorize that mac with my iTunes account by logging in once, and the movie file would play back. However, that doesn't have to do with licensing so much as it has to do with decrypting the DRM in the movie file and getting my key from Apple. That key isn't a key for the individual movie though, its a key to unlock all DRMed files downloaded from my account. Thus, Apple cannot decide one day that my account will no longer unlock only DudeWheresMyCar.m4v; it's an all or nothing lock. Apple lets you authorize an unlimited number of devices, with a maximum of 5 devices authorized at any given time. Thus, as long as you have that file, you will be able to play the movie.

The reason I ask is there seem to be two things that have to happen for someone to permanently lose a digital movie they purchased: (1) the store they bought it from loses the right host it, and (2) the user doesn't have a backup. I know with iTunes, as long of one of those two things isn't true with my movies, I have no fear of losing the movies. The only one of the above two criteria that I can control is the backup, so I make sure I have reliable backups.

I don't have much experience with Vudu, but as far as I have read, they don't really give you as much flexibility with private backups. So if the movie is pulled from their servers, you're plain out of luck. Just like with iTunes, you have no control over this. The only thing you do have control over is your own backup. Thus, having an option to reliably backup is a must.
 
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UV works better, for the simple reason you can "choose" where and how you want to buy the movie in the first place - where as iTunes is pure locked in eco system. This was the real genius of apple, not the hardware, the locked in eco system that deters people from moving their purchases around.

You can also as said share the library with multiple devices or people - ok apple has opened up a little on this with homeshare, but not in the same way.

UV is also backed by the studios.
Apple could end all this by becoming a UV partner - but clearly they won't.
Just need to get amazon on board then.
 
Which is an excellent point. Part of the reason I have hundreds of movies in my UV library is because they were cheap enough to be rentals. I wouldn't have actually bought them, nor do I really care about keeping many of them. But when owning is cheaper than renting, why not?! :p

And I have a feeling that gravy train will soon end, unfortunately. I've read multiple times in the past month that studios want to get rid of the code on the sheet practice. It can't beat WalMart who put the code for the latest season of Downton Abbey on the OUTSIDE OF THE BOX!
 
And I have a feeling that gravy train will soon end, unfortunately. I've read multiple times in the past month that studios want to get rid of the code on the sheet practice. It can't beat WalMart who put the code for the latest season of Downton Abbey on the OUTSIDE OF THE BOX!

That sucks. I made a quick $500 in a little over a week by selling codes I got from a rental store for dirt cheap haha
Where did you read that?
 
As I purchase fewer and fewer Blurays, I'm at a crossroads of whether to continue with iTunes or switch over to what seems to be taking over: Ultraviolet. More movies come packaged with UV. The disc to digital program is a cheap way of upgrading my 150 DVDs to high definition and cloud-based storage. More devices play UV. It seems to be the logical thing to do.
However, drawbacks.

-I'm already in the Apple garden. ATV3 is our main hub of entertainment. We have a Roku 3 but it isn't set up on the main TV.
-I already have 50+ movies purchased from iTunes. Being stored in their cloud and ready to stream at a moment's notice is very nice. Extras are becoming more and more common.
-My kids' Disney flicks have all been redeemed in iTunes and watched on iPad frequently. Would have to figure out a way to get those watchable in Flixster. (We don't have Vudu in Canada)

Thoughts? What is everyone here doing and what do you think the future is?

I'm in float mode too hoping for a store and a UV compatible playback app. VUDU is preferred here due to the HDX capability. Disney you can transfer over to VUDU, but it's a one time deal and all new purchases go to the new service. We sit and wait right now having kids and a big chunk of our Library being Disney. I think you can jump to Google play too. Word is you can link multiple services at the same time, but I get different answers on it. Maybe someone who has both linked can share. I'm terrified of pulling the trigger and getting stuck.

I think the future is a new ATV with a UV player app, much like you can get on the iPad with no way to buy through the app. June is right around the corner and I'm keeping the fingers crossed. I have to take into consideration the entire iTunes library. We don't just use ATV for movies, there the music component as well. If I'm going to have to restart I can stomach it at the level of investment into the apple ecosystem. Can you tell I really want an all in one box...

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When it comes to movies, I buy physical media and will continue to do so as long as that's an option. I see no reason to buy digital when it comes to movies when having the physical media gives me complete control over what I do with it. Yes, I'm in the Apple ecosystem now but I don't expect that to last forever.

Ditto, but it is nice to have that digital copy for the road or when I don't feel like goign downstairs to get the disk. :)
 
I'm in float mode too hoping for a store and a UV compatible playback app. VUDU is preferred here due to the HDX capability. Disney you can transfer over to VUDU, but it's a one time deal and all new purchases go to the new service. We sit and wait right now having kids and a big chunk of our Library being Disney. I think you can jump to Google play too. Word is you can link multiple services at the same time, but I get different answers on it. Maybe someone who has both linked can share. I'm terrified of pulling the trigger and getting stuck.

I think the future is a new ATV with a UV player app, much like you can get on the iPad with no way to buy through the app. June is right around the corner and I'm keeping the fingers crossed. I have to take into consideration the entire iTunes library. We don't just use ATV for movies, there the music component as well. If I'm going to have to restart I can stomach it at the level of investment into the apple ecosystem. Can you tell I really want an all in one box...

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Ditto, but it is nice to have that digital copy for the road or when I don't feel like goign downstairs to get the disk. :)

You can definitely link multiple services to UV. My UV library is currently accessible through my accounts at Vudu, CinemaNow, Flixster and...well was through TargetTicket. There are no problems with that. And I've disconnected from some of those services and reconnected before without an issue.
 
You can definitely link multiple services to UV. My UV library is currently accessible through my accounts at Vudu, CinemaNow, Flixster and...well was through TargetTicket. There are no problems with that.

I'm referring to the Disney link, I'm not sure you can link that to iTunes and VUDU at the same time without losing all the new purchases to the new service or if you still get the copies on both services. UVVU is easy with VUDU, that's what drives me batty. It really is easy. Get a UV account, get a player and go.

What would be nice is if iTunes started playing nice with UV. Fat chance. :D

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Perhaps this is true, but the Target Ticket says absolutely nothing about credits appearing in the UV account for lost movies. In fact, it says otherwise:

you must agree to have your library of purchased titles and existing account credit transferred from Target Ticket to CinemaNow in order to maintain access to your titles purchased through Target Ticket

Which is why I said if you really care about a movie, buy it in a physical format like BD.


I wasn't talking about redeeming codes. If they had simply sent me codes, I could have redeemed them in one place and been much, much happier. I'm talking about a specific promotional offer which absolutely required me to create multiple accounts at multiple retailers in order to get the free movies, something I did not know ahead of time or I wouldn't have bothered.

Oh, and it gets even worse. Because of this thread I decided to take a look at my UV movie collection again to see if I might want to watch something from it. But apparently I have not watched my crappy free movies often enough, so my UV account has expired:

Image

No problem, right? There's a link to restore my account, right? When I click the link to restore my account, I get this:

Image

So now I don't even have access to any of my movies any more. I fully understand that temporary outages happen, but I got the 500 error last night and again when I tried today. Nothing like this has ever happened to me with a BD or iTunes.

Maybe some day these asshats will get their acts together, but today is not that day.

Your UV account should still be there. I'd call them and have them research it. Once that is fixed, get a VUDU account and link them. What a mess.
 
I'm referring to the Disney link, I'm not sure you can link that to iTunes and VUDU at the same time without losing all the new purchases to the new service or if you still get the copies on both services.

I think you have a couple of things mixed up regarding how DMA works. You can DEFINATELY use multiple providers at the same time with DMA. I have my DMA account linked to both iTunes and Vudu, and all new purchases show up on both. Just did it with "Into the Woods" as a matter of fact.

What you might be thinking about is the rule where you can't use the SAME PROVIDER to connect to 2 different accounts more than once in 180 days. For example, if you are signed into your DMA account on your Apple TV, then you sign out to let a friend sign into their DMA account, you wouldn't be able to sign back into yours for 180 days. THAT is where you run into the issue of new purchases going to only one service. Otherwise, all DMA purchases will always show up on all linked providers. No exceptions.

Disney you can transfer over to VUDU, but it's a one time deal and all new purchases go to the new service.

There is no such thing as transferring movies to Vudu. You would link your Vudu account to DMA and those titles would populate to the service just like they do with iTunes. And again, all new purchases would go to both.
 
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I think you have a couple of things mixed up regarding how DMA works. You can DEFINATELY use multiple providers at the same time with DMA. I have my DMA account linked to both iTunes and Vudu, and all new purchases show up on both. Just did it with "Into the Woods" as a matter of fact.

What you might be thinking about is the rule where you can't use the SAME PROVIDER to connect to 2 different accounts more than once in 180 days. For example, if you are signed into your DMA account on your Apple TV, then you sign out to let a friend sign into their DMA account, you wouldn't be able to sign back into yours for 180 days. THAT is where you run into the issue of new purchases going to only one service. Otherwise, all DMA purchases will always show up on all linked providers. No exceptions.



There is no such thing as transferring movies to Vudu. You would link your Vudu account to DMA and those titles would populate to the service just like they do with iTunes. And again, all new purchases would go to both.

This is good news. When it comes to purchases, it was my understanding that all future purchases stay with the service you bought them with. Hence, if you purchase in iTunes with a link to both VUDU and iTunes it doesn't show up in VUDU. Did you purchase the movie through iTunes or load a digital copy code into DMA and it showed up in both? This is what I've been trying to get clarity on. If I can buy in iTunes and have it show up in VUDU that would be great.

The only time I think I'd sign in to a new account is to move the Disney flicks to my kids account and that would be all at once in about 12 years when she can buy her own stuff.

And yes, they do transfer to VUDU. If you link the Disney account to another VUDU account they stay in the original VUDU account even after it is unlinked. Same with iTunes. That's a transfer. It's the future purchase/cross platform availability that concerns me.
 
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This is good news. When it comes to purchases, it was my understanding that all future purchases stay with the service you bought them with. Hence, if you purchase in iTunes with a link to both VUDU and iTunes it doesn't show up in VUDU. Did you purchase the movie through iTunes or load a digital copy code into DMA and it showed up in both? This is what I've been trying to get clarity on. If I can buy in iTunes and have it show up in VUDU that would be great.

The only time I think I'd sign in to a new account is to move the Disney flicks to my kids account and that would be all at once in about 12 years when she can buy her own stuff.

And yes, they do transfer to VUDU. If you link the Disney account to another VUDU account they stay in the original VUDU account even after it is unlinked. Same with iTunes. That's a transfer. It's the future purchase/cross platform availability that concerns me.

As for Disney, when they added Google Play all my previous and new purchases and digital redemptions shows up there as well as iTunes and Vudu.
 
This is good news. When it comes to purchases, it was my understanding that all future purchases stay with the service you bought them with. Hence, if you purchase in iTunes with a link to both VUDU and iTunes it doesn't show up in VUDU. Did you purchase the movie through iTunes or load a digital copy code into DMA and it showed up in both? This is what I've been trying to get clarity on. If I can buy in iTunes and have it show up in VUDU that would be great.

The only time I think I'd sign in to a new account is to move the Disney flicks to my kids account and that would be all at once in about 12 years when she can buy her own stuff.

Correct, buying or redeeming a code from one service will give you the movie in all services. Otherwise, what would be the point of DMA at all?

I'm not sure what you mean though by the 2nd point. If you clarify maybe I can help. With DMA you can't transfer your movies to another person like your daughter...
 
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