Many of you know me for my writing reviews may it be from my old BBS work, Asian Pacific Review, J!-ENT, Neo-Tokyo 2099 and numerous publications and websites.
Part of being a reviewer is getting physical releases for review and in essence, having a lot of physical releases to the point that you can have a room looking like a movie rental store.
But that wasn’t a problem that I had, because LD, VHS, VCD, DVD, Blu-ray, 4K Ultra HD…. So many types of media but what interested me back the more than anything, was to watch a film in the best quality as possible.
I remember back in the day, when I had a job to purchase something cool, I went to two electronic stores “The Good Guys” and “Circuit City”, both which were big back in the day, to purchase an Super VHS and a LaserDisc player with a TV that allowed for S-Video.
It didn’t take long until DVD technology became mainstream and then moving up to DVD, a decade later to Blu-ray and then less than a decade later to 4K Ultra HD.
Part of what I enjoyed for the many years is being among a community of people who were video and audiophiles. The feeling of watching a film with the best picture quality and the best lossless audio, immersive and enjoying the experience.
But one thing I started to notice for myself is that as time went on, I spend less time on my 4K television (actually, my wife uses it more than I do) and most of the time I do have the time, it’s only during the late evening or the weekend. While the things I really do want to see, it became more backlog.
In 2020, I started to go digital.
Actually, I went digital less than a decade ago, but I never really partaken it until companies started issuing films or series on digital for review. It started with that, but then musically, I started to go hardcore to digital.
For one, music that I wanted is no longer available in physical media and second, all those album reviews I have done, it came to the point where I had to ditch the jewel cases and invested in a plethora of huge music binders to house the CDs. So, digital was a way to go.
For films and TV series, while I could watch them on Netflix or Hulu, I want the films and TV series that I want to watch anytime I want but also not to pay a whole lot for it. And I discovered that with Vudu.
Vudu is a video delivery service which I became familiar with as many movies I received or purchased came with an Ultraviolet Code, Disney code, Movies Anywhere Code, etc.
Vudu has been fantastic for me to catch up on series and a lot of these series can become cheaper than the Blu-ray sets. If there is any caveat, you don’t get the special features or extra things that some sets may come with but when there are sales, you can get a film for $4.99-$6.99 and a TV season set for $19.99 while several season sets can be $19.99 to $69.99.
For example, for “Star Trek: The Next Generation”, you could purchase a full season for $29.99 and there are a total of six seasons. I was able to get all six seasons for I believe $39.99. But not just that…also the entire seasons for “Star Trek: The Original Series”, “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine”, “Star Trek: Voyager” and “Star Trek: Enterprise” for less.
At first, I kind of resisted because I was looking at the non-sales prices and they were the price of physical releases. But the more I started following Vudu, I realized that you can get cool deals on film releases. You just have to check weekly.
Also, you can scan the UPC code from a Blu-ray/DVD release (prior to that they allowed you to put a DVD/Blu-ray disc and their service would read the disc and add them to your queue for $2) and most of the time, the films will be added to your queue for $2. In my experience, some UPC codes work and some don’t. I actually went through some Blu-rays and let’s say 20/50 in which the UPC’s worked. For one, it’s hard to gauge which Blu-ray’s or DVD’s work and don’t work. I know 20th Century Fox, Disney, Miramax, Universal, Sony Pictures Classics, Criterion Collection and Lionsgate titles won’t work.
What’s weird is that for some titles like “Midnight in Paris”, the Blu-ray UPC won’t take, but the DVD version will work. Some Blu-ray titles which are “Director’s Cut”, I get the normal version offered after scanning the UPC code, not the Director’s Cut version. For “The Untouchables”, I have the Blu-ray version, but only the SD version was offered at the lower cost, the other HDX was normal pricing.
I’m trying to get many older titles on Vudu from “Double Indemnity”, “Short Circuit”, “Total Recall”, “Rocky”, “The Apartment”, “Annie Hall”, “Manhattan”, “Kick ***”, “Daywatch”, “Nightwatch”, past X-Men and Wolverine films, etc.and so many titles wouldn’t scan. So, it’s not perfect.
And if you purchase a Blu-ray or 4K Ultra HD with a digital copy, you can choose to have it on Movies Anywhere (which will automatically show up on Vudu), Vudu or Fandango.
When you purchase a film on Vudu, you can select SD, HDX or UHD. I purchase the UHD version for the same price as the HDX, and I can enjoy it on my 4K HDTV or my smartphone that plays in 4K.
But for the most part, I enjoy watching films/TV series and not having to wait for my HDTV to be available. Granted, I may not be able to access my audio receiver and listen to immersive audio in 7.2 but I realized that I’m not as picky as I used to be.
But I like the fact that I can just chill and catch up on shows (I’m currently watching “Dr. Who” from past to present), and not worry about shelf space. Purchase a film much cheaper than a Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD copy. Do I still purchase Blu-ray or 4K Ultra HD? Yes, if it’s not on Vudu or if a release has so many special features and those features are not on Vudu (example: The DC Animated Universe titles, which come with very cool special features). But I like that Vudu is starting to include special features with certain releases. Hopefully, they will do that even more!
There’s no monthly fee for Vudu and Vudu gets access to movies even earlier than services such as Netflix and Redbox. Vudu also offers a selection of movies that are free with the inclusion of ads.
But for me, it’s about convenience. And using the Vudu service has been well worth it!
