Product Spotlight: Vudu Video

Product Spotlight: Vudu Video Transcript

>> A lot of companies have tried to deliver on-demand video content but no one's been able to get it right. Well now there's a new kid on the block. I'm Brian Tong for CNET.com and the products spotlight keeps blazing. This time it's on one of the hottest set-top boxes you'll find, the Vudu. ^M00:00:16 [ Music ] ^M00:00:20

>> On-Demand Entertainment Solutions have been plagued by one thing or another. They had subscription fees; a week library of content, so-so video quality and lengthy downloads. You name it, they had it, but the Vudu Box is changing the game. Now this is a set-top box that connects to your TV and instantly plays the movie of your choice from thousands of picks; that's right it's instant. And when Tech heads want something we want it now. Now all the major movie studios and other independents are signed on and everything is pay-per-view. There are no subscription fees and video and audio quality isn't quite DVD level but it's far superior to other web-based services. Now recently Vudu has been expanding its offerings; the Borne Trilogy became the first HD movies available on Vudu. Now the high depth picture quality is noticeably better but for the time being there's no instant playback for those. More HD content is on its way. A smiron [assumed spelling] of TV shows are also available and my guess is that library will be expanding as well. Now the Vudu's 250 gigabyte internal drive holds about 100 hours of video; that's a whole bunch and it's a little bigger than the size of an Apple TV. The black finish is going to match with most of your other video equipment so it'll fit right in. So let's take a look at its bootee. It includes every possible AV output that you could want; it's got HDMI in-component video-out; and even S-video and composite video for older TV's; digital audio is here too and you'll see a USB port here and on the other side for add-on storage. There's also a 4-inch antenna here that tops one of the first things I noticed about this product, its super unique remote. Now it's a comfortable, ergonomic teardrop shape that's really easy to hold and you'll see the five buttons on the face and the clickable scroll wheel. And because it's an RF remote, remember that antenna? Well there's no need to aim. So let's check out the interface. Well I primarily use the scroll wheel and the back button to navigate and the names are clean and really easy and just make sense. So you can search for movies here; they have new releases; new on Vudu and also you can check out your own movies--here we have my movies, and these are things that I've purchased already; or you can go to your wish list, which are movies that you've bookmarked for downloading later on. Now movie rentals are around 1 to 4 dollars a pop, and movies to own range from 10 to 25 dollars. Now the Vudu box is a killer product but what are some of the things we like to see? Well Vudu downloads can only be played back on the box that you downloaded them from so you can't offload them to a portable player or even to another PC; even streaming videos, photos or music from your home PC to the Vudu would have been slick. So having a little more flexibility would be nice. Now there's no Wi-Fi support so that means you'll need a nearby Ethernet connection to use it. Hopefully we'll see Wi-Fi support sooner rather than later perhaps with the USB adapter. Also the Vudu's remote is an RF controller so that means Universal remotes can't talk to it either. But a nice thing is that its network connection will continuously allow it to be updated with new features down the road. So the product will definitely continue to evolve. I'm Brian Tong for CNET.com and the Vudu box delivers hot content, convenience and quality at the right price. ^M00:03:27 [ Music ] ^M00:03:31