Vudu Takes High-Def Movies Higher
Startup to Offer 65 Titles in 1080p HDTV Format via Broadband-Connected Set-Top
By Todd Spangler -- Multichannel News, 10/1/2008 8:01:00 PM
Startup Vudu this week will begin offering 65 feature movie titles in 1080p high-definition video format via its Internet-connected set-top, in a bid to peel home-theater aficionados from cable and satellite video-on-demand services.
The movies, priced for a la carte rental, include Chronicles of Riddick, The Spiderwick Chronicles, In Bruges, Speed Racer and classics such as Close Encounters of theThird Kind, Chinatown, and Saturday Night Fever.
Vudu calls the service “HDX,” with video encoded at variable bit-rate in MPEG-4 H.264 in 1080p at 24 frames per second—the highest HD format currently defined.
The average bit-rate for an HDX-encoded title is 9 to 10 Mbps, compared with about 4 Mbps for Vudu’s regular 1080i HD titles, said chief technology officer Prasanna Ganesan.
Vudu offers HDX movies for the same price as regular HD—$5.99 for a 24-hour rental of new releases—and said it will provide every newly released HD title in the new format.
“Our customers are the on-demand consumers,” Ganesan said. “They don’t want to order DVDs two days in advance and wait for them to come in the mail.”
There’s a downside with the HDX service, however: The 1080p movies won’t be able to play immediately, which has been one of Vudu’s supposed selling points. Ganesan said HDX titles will take about 3 to 4 hours to download to the Vudu set-top box over a standard broadband connection.
At least initially, Vudu’s HDX service will spar with the on-demand offerings of the two major satellite operators, as well as Blu-ray Disc DVDs, which use the 1080p format. Both Dish Network and DirecTV have announced plans to offer 1080p movies via their VOD services.
Vudu, founded in 2004, has secured distribution deals with each of the major movie studios, including Walt Disney Studios, Lions Gate Entertainment, Paramount Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Universal Studios and Warner Bros. Entertainment. Its full slate of VOD titles is about 9,800.
Vudu’s set-top boxes carry a list price of $299. The product is available from the company directly and retailers including Amazon.com and Best Buy, which is offering a $200 movie credit to all new Vudu customers until Dec. 31.
Santa Clara, Calif.-based Vudu has not disclosed how many of its boxes it has sold to date but said the number is less than 100,000.
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