Posted: Tue Dec 28, 2010 11:24 pm
Cross posted from the PS3 thread.
Vudu review:
I had a $5.99 credit for signing up, so I tested it tonight. Watched The Expendables. Had 3 choices; watch it at 480P, 720P, or 1080P. 1080P was $5.99, 480 was $3.99. It has a "Test Your Connection" button right there, so I did it 3 times. All 3 tests suggested a different max speed, since it said for 1080P I would want 9MB/Sec download speeds. 3 tests, 3 different results. My LAN is gigabit, and the PS3 is gigabit. Bottleneck will be at the Time Warner cable modem or beyond.
Since I was testing tonight, I went 1080P.
Movie started within 5 seconds, and never skipped/buffered once. The volume seemed very low; I had to crank my receiver up to the highest level to hear it. Could that be a result of stressing my throughput? That would be a new one on me. Anyway, it was Dolby 5.1, so it was fine.
I couldn't figure out a handy pause button, but there was a built-in "Chapter" system like any other DVD/BD.
$5.99 seems a little pricey for what I want to pay for a 1080P movie, but as I dropped my premium channels on Time Warner cable (I wasn't seeing it worth the $720/year I was paying), and don't like being tied down to a Netflix subscription, I now have a "pay per view" system I know how to use for when company is over and they want to watch a movie or something.
I *think* I noticed that before I rented this flick I could have bought it for $16.99, and after I rented it I could buy it for $10.99. I think. I wasn't paying attention to that aspect in a before/after sense, so I could be wrong, but I think I saw that feature and that is nice. I'm not sure if I 'bought' if I would get a permanent DL to my PS3, or just permanent access to the flick to be streamed from vudu. Future experiment.
Playstation Store has a system like this one too, I just never got around to setting it up and trying it.
And of course I may still pull the trigger someday on Netflix, but I heard they screw around with TV series by dropping the streaming of an episode or 2 out of the season, and screw that. Specifically heard that about some seasons of Angel.
Edited By GORDON on 1293597107
Vudu review:
I had a $5.99 credit for signing up, so I tested it tonight. Watched The Expendables. Had 3 choices; watch it at 480P, 720P, or 1080P. 1080P was $5.99, 480 was $3.99. It has a "Test Your Connection" button right there, so I did it 3 times. All 3 tests suggested a different max speed, since it said for 1080P I would want 9MB/Sec download speeds. 3 tests, 3 different results. My LAN is gigabit, and the PS3 is gigabit. Bottleneck will be at the Time Warner cable modem or beyond.
Since I was testing tonight, I went 1080P.
Movie started within 5 seconds, and never skipped/buffered once. The volume seemed very low; I had to crank my receiver up to the highest level to hear it. Could that be a result of stressing my throughput? That would be a new one on me. Anyway, it was Dolby 5.1, so it was fine.
I couldn't figure out a handy pause button, but there was a built-in "Chapter" system like any other DVD/BD.
$5.99 seems a little pricey for what I want to pay for a 1080P movie, but as I dropped my premium channels on Time Warner cable (I wasn't seeing it worth the $720/year I was paying), and don't like being tied down to a Netflix subscription, I now have a "pay per view" system I know how to use for when company is over and they want to watch a movie or something.
I *think* I noticed that before I rented this flick I could have bought it for $16.99, and after I rented it I could buy it for $10.99. I think. I wasn't paying attention to that aspect in a before/after sense, so I could be wrong, but I think I saw that feature and that is nice. I'm not sure if I 'bought' if I would get a permanent DL to my PS3, or just permanent access to the flick to be streamed from vudu. Future experiment.
Playstation Store has a system like this one too, I just never got around to setting it up and trying it.
And of course I may still pull the trigger someday on Netflix, but I heard they screw around with TV series by dropping the streaming of an episode or 2 out of the season, and screw that. Specifically heard that about some seasons of Angel.
Edited By GORDON on 1293597107