Walmart Streaming Movie Service VUDU Coming to Apple TV on August 22

Walmart has a streaming service .....wow...

Walmart has a streaming service .....wow...

Yes. For many years now.

I'm really hoping this supports the UP NEXT feature of the TV app.

Considering I can convert many of my Blu-Rays to HD digital for $2 a disc (and old DVDs to HD for $5, or keep them as SD for $2). It's pretty awesome! You scan the barcodes at home with the app. It makes them ultraviolet too.
https://www.vudu.com/in_mobile_disc_to_digital.html

This is great, especially because some movie studios only offer UV copies with their 4K blurays. Now I can at least access all the content right from my Apple TV

It's actually not bad. You can pay $2-$5 for digital copies of your dvds.

It's kinda nice. I went to my parent's place and scanned some of my favorite movies, spent like $20 and got 10 movies that would have cost me $100 or more had I bought them in iTunes.

I too am looking forward to that! Hopefully it will be fully integrated into the  "TV" app so all of my purchases - regardless of source - appear as available to watch! I'm not counting on that one though...

I don't really know about all that. Prices are pretty similar. Both services routinely have new releases at $14.99 or $19.99. Both have sales often. iTunes has several movies to purchase for $4.99 every week, as well as the "build your collection" movies for under $8 consistently. New selections go into those categories pretty often. As for streaming Guardians 2, it's available for purchase and to be watched streaming on ITunes right now. Google play too. Can't be rented on any of the services yet, including Vudu.

One other factor in Vudu's favor: The wider range of available UltraViolet (UV) codes for purchase. Yes, I buy the iTunes codes, but the selection is limited compared to UV. The ability to get movies for $1.95-$5.95 on a regular basis is good.

Note that I would prefer to have all of my purchases available in a single data-store, but unless/until Apple gives me the "Disc to Digital" capabilities... that's not going to happen.

From my perspective the *BEST* of all worlds solution would be for Apple to join UV such that iTunes Movies /  TV / etc. becomes nothing more than another front-end option. No more need for Vudu, or even better... competition drives down prices and improves services!

Again, I richly understand how it can be framed as a "choice" in defense of Apple. What if one of these players doesn't have 30% of the revenues to share with Apple? Is it still a "choice" to NOT be on :apple:TV or shall they just lose money because the lack of sufficient profit margin is no excuse for them?

Their apps work just fine without the ability to purchase in them. There is nothing stopping them from making an AppleTV app.

Amazon Video and Vudu both work excellent on my iPhone and iPad. I spend money on their services on the web and the apps work great. Amazon Prime is a subscription at Amazon's site, Amazon wants the customers (me!) happy or they (me) might stop using Amazon Prime and use some other app.

The only thing Apple is stoping them from is the spontaneous sale. I do wonder how many spontaneous sales they lose and they earn 0% (instead of 70%), but that's up to the marketing department.

Is that me being the bad guy for not enriching Apple at the full deal or is that Apple being the bad guy for playing favorites?

Where are you getting all this BAD GUY stuff?

My only complaint is when people word it that Apple refuses to put their app on the app store because it's competition, it's not like the reasoning is all that complicated.

For Vudu and Amazon, they're already put it in the iPhone/iPad store, it's not like they have to do it from scratch.

The point is that it's quite possible that both Vudu and Amazon just held out because they are villains wanting to stick it to Apple by NOT making all the money they could have made from Apple people via a presence on :apple:TV. Sure, it could be that they are simply villains. Or it could be because they want a comparable deal they can live with. Which seems plausible? (rhetorical: they have to be villains, as Apple cannot possibly have any hand in the delay in pursuit of more money for Apple. It MUST be the other players.).

VILLAINS and BAD GUYS, it's all a little overly-dramatic.

All they have to do is make the app, that's already been coded for iOS on the portable devices, for the AppleTV and they're ready to go, they don't even need to start from scratch. Money is not required, no deal is required. Get the app on the site, when people complain they can't purchase from the app, tell them Apple wanted too big of a cut.


I do wonder about the integration with the TV APP, if Apple has any additional requirements for that integration...

....a VUDU engineer said the company had not been able to develop an app because of Apple's policies preventing third party services from selling movies within their apps.

Apple does not prevent 3rd party services from selling content within their app. There are other streaming apps that sell content within their apps right now. Apple takes a cut, which is NOT the same as PREVENTING.
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Most studios prefer Vudu over iTunes.

I think Universal is the only one right now then let's you redeem for both (and disney).

Fox is either.
WB is only UV

They don’t prefer. It’s because those studios are part of the UV consortium which competes with Disney/Marvel


The only thing that sucks about this is the 3rd party market for UV codes will now see even higher prices. As those within the Apple ecosystem can watch UV movies without airplay.

Vudu is the Itunes counter part and honestly it is kicking ass. The prices are better, they have 4K, they let you turn your physical copies into digital copies for a fee. They even have extras like itunes. The only real advantage Itunes has is some movies are in english and spanish tracks unlike Vudu which is english. Right now the only way to stream Guardians of the Galaxy 2.0 is via Vudu

Walmart has a streaming service .....wow...

It's actually not bad. You can pay $2-$5 for digital copies of your dvds.

It's kinda nice. I went to my parent's place and scanned some of my favorite movies, spent like $20 and got 10 movies that would have cost me $100 or more had I bought them in iTunes.