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VUDU Cuts Retail Price in Half to $149
by Shane Sturgeon on February 10, 2009 Category: Internet HD Video

VUDU CUTS RETAIL PRICE IN HALF TO $149

New Price Puts World's Largest HD Library and Highest Quality On-Demand Picture in Reach of Wide Consumer Market


Santa Clara, CA, FEBRUARY 10, 2009 - VUDU, Inc., a leading provider of digital technologies and services that deliver entertainment over the Internet to consumers' HDTVs and Home Theaters, today said it has lowered the price of its on-demand Internet movie player to just $149. Available at Best Buy, audio video retailers, and online, VUDU HD is the only solution on the market to deliver weekly new releases from all the major studios, the largest HD library, the highest quality HD picture quality with HDX, local movie storage and the ability to access popular Internet content directly on the TV.

"We are reaping the rewards of success in the retail channel over the holidays, lower component prices and higher movie revenues. The combination of these factors has enabled us to lower the price of VUDU and bring it within reach of more consumers," said Edward Lichty, VUDU's EVP of Strategy. "This is exciting news for the Internet to TV content delivery market. In just a year, we've been able to drive down the price of the product by 50 % while increasing image and sound quality, growing our content library to more than 13,000 movies and TV shows, building the world's largest HD library of more than 1,300 titles, and providing access to free Internet content."

In addition to the VUDU HD, the company said it is reducing the price of VUDU XL, VUDU's home theater product sold through professional custom installers, to $499. The new VUDU XL bundle, which can store five hundred purchased movies, will also include at no extra cost a home theater connectivity software package that previously retailed for over $100. VUDU's no-hassle wireless kit, available at Best Buy, other retailers, and at www.vudu.com, has also been reduced to $79.

In the past year the company has achieved a number of milestones and introduced several groundbreaking features and service enhancements. The company secured a nationwide distribution agreement with Best Buy, announced the largest HD library in the world and introduced the pioneering HDX format, which offers the highest quality picture of any on-demand service.

The company also recently launched the VUDU RIA platform, an open platform that can bring Internet content, from video, music and photos to games to social networking applications, directly to the TV, all easily accessible using your VUDU remote control with no need for a PC.


About VUDU:

VUDU is a leading provider of digital technologies and services that deliver Internet entertainment to consumers' HDTVs and Home Theaters. VUDU's 1080p Internet Movie Players, the VUDU HD, VUDU XL and VUDU XL2 are designed to deliver tens of thousands of on-demand movies and TV shows directly to HDTVs. All versions support native instant start HD as well as movies in highest quality HD format available, HDX, and automatically upscale standard resolution movies. All movies are displayed in 1080p resolution at 24 frames per second, the cinematic gold standard.

Through relationships with every major US movie studio and more than 40 independent studios and distributors, VUDU offers a vast array of on-demand choices at the highest quality. The VUDU collection is constantly updated, and newly released movies from major studios are available on the same day as the DVD is released. Consumers can finally watch great movies without the hassles associated with traditional services:-no driving, no mailing, and no monthly fee. For more information, visit http://www.vudu.com/.

Posted by Shane Sturgeon, February 10, 2009 4:30 AM

Reader Commentary

Reply
craig1 • Feb 18, 7:36am
Sounds like a great system. However, I have two reservations:

I would like to control/save-off any movies purchased on my own external drive vice an internet location. Hopefully the USB port will be used to facilitate that.

Second, I have a relatively slow internet connection (Verizon Rev A Air card), my typical connection speed at home (rural area) is typically 400 to 800 kbps. I would like the ability to download a movie completely then play it at my leisure. It was not clear that this scenario could be accommodated.

If anyone out there does the same thing, please respond....
Reply
Shane • Feb 19, 8:11am
Sounds like a great system. However, I have two reservations:

I would like to control/save-off any movies purchased on my own external drive vice an internet location. Hopefully the USB port will be used to facilitate that.
The movies are actually saved locally on the Vudu box, not on the internet anywhere. And there is talk of allowing storage expansion via USB drive ... but you would only be able to play back the movies through the Vudu hardware ... you wouldn't be able to transfer them or play them back in any other way (PC, etc.)

Second, I have a relatively slow internet connection (Verizon Rev A Air card), my typical connection speed at home (rural area) is typically 400 to 800 kbps. I would like the ability to download a movie completely then play it at my leisure. It was not clear that this scenario could be accommodated.

If anyone out there does the same thing, please respond....
Reply
craig1 • Feb 19, 8:21am
Thanks for the info Shane...

About Shane Sturgeon

Shane Sturgeon is the Co-Publisher and Chief Technologist of HDTV Magazine, an industry publication with HDTV roots going back to 1984, when Dale Cripps founded The HDTV Newsletter. Today, HDTV Magazine is a leading online resource for HDTV news and information and captures the eyes and imaginations of over 3 million visitors annually. Mr. Sturgeon has a background in information technology and has served in various consulting capacities for Fortune 500 companies such as J.P. Morgan Chase, Verizon Communications, Proctor & Gamble and Nationwide Insurance. He has a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Wright State University.