Vudu goes HDX--and adds $200 credit for new buyers

Vudu is adding high-bitrate 1080p downloads and a $200 credit for new customers to its Internet video-on-demand box.

Starting October 2, Vudu owners will be able to download a small but growing roster of movie rentals at high-bitrate 1080p resolution--dubbed "HDX" by the set-top maker. The initial 65 titles available include such movies as The Spiderwick Chronicles, Speed Racer, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Chinatown, Saturday Night Fever, In Bruges, The Chronicles of Riddick, and The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. The 1080p HDX versions will co-exist with the "Instant HD" 1080p ones, and will be available for the same price ($4 to $6). Going forward, Vudu is planning to make any new movie available in Instant 1080p to also be available in 1080p HDX, and the company will backfill update older HD movies in its catalog to HDX as well.

The catch: while the 480p standard-def and 1080p Instant HD movies generally start within seconds, the 1080p HDX movies will require at least a 4-hour download time. Thankfully, Vudu is also updating its Web site, so users can start the streaming to the box remotely (queue up Close Encounters from work at lunch time, and it'll be waiting for you when you get home).

Vudu gave CNET a sneak preview of the HDX technology several days ago, and it was certainly impressive. To the company's credit, it's not claiming that HDX rivals Blu-ray. And, indeed, bit-rate is much more important than "resolution" when it comes to streaming media--not all 1080p is created equal. But it appears that Vudu has found a reasonable compromise between file size and image quality. The opening ice planet scenes of Riddick looked impressive at first glance, with no noticeable solarizing or pixelation; the soundtrack, meanwhile, offered full 5.1 surround. (A simulated example of the difference between HDX and standard-def--provided by Vudu--is available here.) By comparison, the 720p offerings from Apple TV and Microsoft's Xbox 360 Marketplace offer better than standard-res images, but at a bit-rate that's noticeably less than DVD--thus delivering artifacts that annoy eagle-eyed videophiles.

The other big news from Vudu is that--now through December 31--the $300 box includes a $200 credit when purchased at Best Buy (in store or online). There's a usual list of caveats--you'll have to burn through the credit within 4 months, and, tragically, it's not applicable to the box's adult channel--but it effectively lowers the end-user cost of the hardware to just $100. For those who bemoan the lack of "true HD" content on other VOD boxes--or even on their cable system--that may be a pretty compelling deal.

We'll have an updated review of the Vudu by the end of the week. In the meantime: does the combo of higher resolution and a $200 movie credit make you wanna do the Vudu? Or are you sticking with Roku/Netflix, Xbox 360, PS3, Apple TV, Amazon Video-On-Demand on TiVo--or none of the above?

Editors' Note: The original version of this post implied that the pre-HDX high-def downloads on Vudu were encoded at 720p. In fact, they were also 1080p resolution, albeit at a much lower bitrate. The post has been corrected to reflect that change, with the non-HDX low-bitrate versions referred to as "1080p Instant HD."

[DanielDaly]

"The 1080p HDX versions will co-exist with the 720p HD ones, and will be available for the same price ($4 to $6). Going forward, Vudu is planning to make any new movie available in 720p to also be available in 1080p, and the company will backfill update older HD movies in its catalog as well."
Whoa... whoa.. wait... no that's wrong ...You know, Vudu was 1080p for a while now, right? Sure it was compressed, but Vudu has NOT offered 720p content (of course, the box will downconvert 1080p to whatever resolution the TV can handle.) It has always been 1080p since delivery of HD content. That's one of the key points that differentiate it from other products like Apple TV.
Come on CNET, research your products. To make things worse, every other tech blog has jumped on your article and now the same error is being repeated everywhere. Good job.

[tipoo_]

as if it already wasn't better than the Apple Tv.

[Zeeshan47]

"tragically, it's not applicable to the box's adult channel"

now that's a dealbreaker if i've ever heard of one lol

[ev61]

I think devices like ATV, Vudu and Roku's Netflix box are simply early versions of a polished future product. What is standing in the way? A centralized location. One box, one service, full selection. If downloads are going to replace discs, we need the ability to acquire, rent and play back as we do already. The "model' may be changing, but the way we use discs is too perfect to change.

[aaronwt]

This article is wrong about 720P content. The HD content from VUDU has been in 1080P24. The HD 1080p24 content is around 4mbs MPEG4 while the new HDX 1080P24 content is around 9 or 10mbs in MPEG4.

[dave brunner]

Please keep in mind that (1) download is crapy compared to instant streaming over the public internet. (2) That just because video is 1080p does not mean it's Blu-Ray. (3) Vudu is a 1 trick pony (4) Vudu uses names that are similar to other brands (5) I would never do pay per view when I could do subscription. (6) John Falcone does not know the IPTV industry well enough if this is the best quality he's seen in the entire industry. (7) P2P will kill our bandwidth cap's (8) Vudu requires harddrives and the harddrives are to small to hold all the movies I would want. (9) Vudu has no live tv, music, radio, photo, etc... as a service. (10) Does not have the wide range of content that I want, hence it's not on demand instantly either.

David Brunner