Vudu's Mobile App Rips Digital Copies of Your Blu-Rays

Megalith

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If you are too stupid to rip your own movies, Walmart has the perfect solution for you. Their Vudu movie app now lets you digitize many DVDs or Blu-rays just by scanning the disc and paying a small fee. The article claims that this service “makes sense” because most people don’t have disc drives anymore.

Walmart's Vudu streaming arm has unveiled the "first mobile offering" to convert nearly 8,000 movies on DVD and Blu-ray to digital HD files, it says. It's an expansion of the company's existing desktop conversion service, but lets you convert your physical library using the mobile Vudu app instead. As before, the price to convert files you already own is $2 for either a Blu-ray disc to HDX or a DVD to SD, or $5 to up-res a DVD to HDX (hint: your TV might do the latter already). To use it, you just scan your disc using the Vudu app, then download the digital file to your TV, console, set-top box, phone, tablet or, (ironically) Blu-ray player.
 
I use to rip movies years ago... but it just seems pointless now... I just buy it on digital format. I remember when cleaning out my fathers house after he died.. he had a huge VHS collection, just funny how things have changed. I havent watched a Bluray/DVD in...well i cannot remember.
 
If you are too stupid to rip your own movies, Walmart has the perfect solution for you. Their Vudu movie app now lets you digitize many DVDs or Blu-rays just by scanning the disc and paying a small fee. The article claims that this service “makes sense” because most people don’t have disc drives anymore.

Walmart's Vudu streaming arm has unveiled the "first mobile offering" to convert nearly 8,000 movies on DVD and Blu-ray to digital HD files, it says. It's an expansion of the company's existing desktop conversion service, but lets you convert your physical library using the mobile Vudu app instead. As before, the price to convert files you already own is $2 for either a Blu-ray disc to HDX or a DVD to SD, or $5 to up-res a DVD to HDX (hint: your TV might do the latter already). To use it, you just scan your disc using the Vudu app, then download the digital file to your TV, console, set-top box, phone, tablet or, (ironically) Blu-ray player.

I am too stupid. Could you enlighten me?

I have hundreds of DVDs and Blu-rays and am running out of space!

What do I need exactly to do this myself?
 
What I want to know is if I "rip" a DVD into a digital format, can I have it in my Vudu library instead of downloading it to wherever? Already have a vudu library.
 
That's not ripping. That's a digital copy they already have on file and your paying them to get a copy for yourself with a little "we need you to scan the disk to prove you own it" thrown in as a way to try and hide behind what they are doing.
 
This is a video-matching service more than anything else: if you own a retail DVD or Blu-ray, they're going to sell you an already existing digital version for a given price ($2 it seems) - the upconvert thing is just stupid, period, and a complete waste of money IMO. They'll probably be adding more content as time passes, of course.

The issue is saving yourself $2 means you can probably encode it better yourself but that does require some learning and time on the part of the end user.

Basically it means they're going to make a fortune from this because the vast majority of end users aka consumers are idiots. :D
 
what a bunch of kill joys... i want to see someone actually use their phone and try to scan the DVD thinking that its encoding it right there

*snickers*
 
Ah, it's just an extension of their older desktop version of this.

But, what is stopping me from hitting Wal-mart or other place with my phone and scanning UPC's from movies on the shelf? Or scan discs from a used movie store? (one thing says scan discs, the other shows it scanning the UPC, so I don't know how that works).

A bit expensive. $5 for a HD copy of a movie I already own? I like Vudu and I have a decent library there of movies that I bought and it came with a Vudu copy. But, I wouldn't pay to have my other movies there.

I can see a use for the service, for those that don't want to rip their own movies for traveling or whatever. But, it still seems very limited. Maybe it's not and the desktop version was very popular....
 
This is a video-matching service more than anything else: if you own a retail DVD or Blu-ray, they're going to sell you an already existing digital version for a given price ($2 it seems) - the upconvert thing is just stupid, period, and a complete waste of money IMO. They'll probably be adding more content as time passes, of course.

The issue is saving yourself $2 means you can probably encode it better yourself but that does require some learning and time on the part of the end user.

Basically it means they're going to make a fortune from this because the vast majority of end users aka consumers are idiots. :D


I wouldn't call people idiots for this one, because its a weak argument. Its a convenience feature - $2 a pop for convenience and saving time. Case in point, you could apply the same argument you just made to growing food - farmers could think you are an idiot if you don't "do the work" to grow the food yourself and go to a "lazy" supermarket instead, where they charge more than the food is worth. Convenience always comes with a premium.
 
Well I could have taken my usual track and just called 'em stupid but Megalith took care of that in the OP. :D

The problem with this process is that to watch the digital copies you have to use the Vudu app, they're not independent files without DRM on them so, if you find yourself in a situation where you can't get online for some reason for it to check the digital certificates vs your Vudu account info you're not going to be able to watch the damned videos. And yes I can think of a bunch of situations where that becomes an irritation: out of cellular connectivity range, no Wi-Fi, a local power outage, etc, and various others.

Still rather rip 'em myself. ;)
 
the vudu ipad app sucks. it will only download purchased movies in SD even if you bought the HDX version. Until they fix this, I will minimize my purchases from them. I do have to say they have better pricing and they they do offer digital bundles (Itunes also offer some bundles). This is Amazon video biggest weakness, they don't sell bundles at discounted prices. I think they sell the Star Wars bundle but that's its.
 
What I want to know is if I "rip" a DVD into a digital format, can I have it in my Vudu library instead of downloading it to wherever? Already have a vudu library.

It depends how far down the rabbit hole you want to go. You can build yourself your own netflix for like $200 plus whatever you decide your server will be. Get AnyDVD or redfox or whatever it is nowadays (free trial but then I'd suggest get a lifetime), learn how to use handbrake (takes like 10 min, free), and get Plex (I suggest lifetime but you can start at free to get your whistle wet) and go from there. I've now got about 7 TB of movies on a 12 TB dedicated server and I'm about to the point where I have to start swapping in 6 TB drives. But, I can watch all my movies on any device I own at any quality I want, I can share this with my friends and they can share with me, it does all the meta data for you, I can make offline versions from my phone and wirelessly download them overnight before any big trip, and many many more things. I've also put some music in there and started moving over my photo collections so I always have those in my own "cloud" as well. You can trial or free everything for a short period of time, get all that going and see how far you want to take it. Hell I even have a backup server with a full copy of my library on it for backup purposes as well as pseudo load balancing and fall back point if the main goes down for any reason.

AnyDVD (RedFox) + Handbrake + Plex. Go forth and be happy. And be prepared to get sucked into making one awesome collection lol
 
Get one free Disc to Digital in the app right now.

1. Scan barcode on Bluray / Dvd case
2. Pay $2 for bluray HDX 1080p file, or $5 for HDX DVD upgrade
3. watch movie

Just did it on a movie that wasn't working through the desktop app. If you use the desktop app the recognizing is only $1 per bluray once you get to 10 on a single order.
 
Vudu has had a similar service for a while with a desktop app that would read a DVD/BluRay and then you could buy the digital format. They just updated it so now you just read a UPC of the disc box from the app while you are at home. Nice update!

I love Vudu. I started out with a NAS burning my own images but Vudu is so much easier (and cheaper). I no longer have to rent/buy discs, rip them, store them, manage them. Now I just open the Vudu app on my phone and play them right away. You can download them on your devices as well. Another feature people don't realize is the sharing feature. I have one account that I shared to 5 people. We all add movies into my single account and share access. It's pretty sweet!

You can get Ultraviolet codes for dirt cheap online too.
 
It depends how far down the rabbit hole you want to go. You can build yourself your own netflix for like $200 plus whatever you decide your server will be. Get AnyDVD or redfox or whatever it is nowadays (free trial but then I'd suggest get a lifetime), learn how to use handbrake (takes like 10 min, free), and get Plex (I suggest lifetime but you can start at free to get your whistle wet) and go from there. I've now got about 7 TB of movies on a 12 TB dedicated server and I'm about to the point where I have to start swapping in 6 TB drives. But, I can watch all my movies on any device I own at any quality I want, I can share this with my friends and they can share with me, it does all the meta data for you, I can make offline versions from my phone and wirelessly download them overnight before any big trip, and many many more things. I've also put some music in there and started moving over my photo collections so I always have those in my own "cloud" as well. You can trial or free everything for a short period of time, get all that going and see how far you want to take it. Hell I even have a backup server with a full copy of my library on it for backup purposes as well as pseudo load balancing and fall back point if the main goes down for any reason.

AnyDVD (RedFox) + Handbrake + Plex. Go forth and be happy. And be prepared to get sucked into making one awesome collection lol


Thank you for the information - I may end up doing that. Still doesn't answer my question though if I pay the $2 if Vudu will then list what I got in my digital movies :p

Still, I had looked for something like this a bit ago - I am going to save it because at some point, this is something I want to do.
 
I would be far happier with a service that let me use a physical disk to pay $2 to download a digital copy of the movie on the service of my choice; Apple or Google, or whom ever.... Just not fucking Flixter that is just bullshit.
 
So doe this put the movie in your Vudu library? And the big question....I wonder if this works for used blu-ray/dvd's?
 
So doe this put the movie in your Vudu library? And the big question....I wonder if this works for used blu-ray/dvd's?
That is what I am wondering too! If it puts it in your Vudu library, and you can STREAM it to any device at any time, I would pay. If it's a one time download, they can kick rocks!
 
That is what I am wondering too! If it puts it in your Vudu library, and you can STREAM it to any device at any time, I would pay. If it's a one time download, they can kick rocks!

Pay the $2 and it goes into your Vudu library to watch "forever" and as many times as you want. It is just like if you bought the movie right on the service. Most movies it is the UV copy, so you can watch that on any of the services that tie to the UV library.
 
While this is a good service. (One I wish some game companies would echo when they release a new platform but with only digital backwards compatibility.)
I rip my DVDs sometimes to my PC, only for playback and upscaling through MPC-HC however. I usually leave the files untouched with MakeMKV

Get back to me when internet is fast enough, without congestion to stream video at bit rates between 30-50Mbs and no glitches (From any service provider you pay money for). Otherwise I'll stick to discs thank you.
 
I just closed my Vudu account. Their login was completely insecure. I emailed them explaining this and told them to delete my payment information and delete my account.

They replied with, "Can we ask why you want to close your account?" :rolleyes:

So, any hackers out there that want an easy target, you know where to go.
 
Get back to me when internet is fast enough, without congestion to stream video at bit rates between 30-50Mbs and no glitches

There's no purpose for such insane bitrates just to stream video considering it's always compressed - even the content on Blu-rays (even 4K Blu-rays and soon enough 8K as well) is compressed, video will always be a compressed bitstrem since raw video source is only good for editing purposes to create the compressed end result that people end up paying for to watch.

If you're of the mind we're going to have lossless video streams anytime soon on a network infrastructure that has no glitches at all well, you're gonna be waiting a really really really really long time. :D
 
There's no reason on a decent 50-100 mb internet connection that asking for 30-40 mbps is crazy. It's totally doable. Locally i stream between 15 and 30 on my encodes. Once you start going below 8 you can see the difference, sometimes higher depending on the scene. I can't stream this out of the house but my brother can on his 50 Mb up plan, he uses the same settings for encodes. Now my 60+ mbps 4k I can see that being a short ways off but there is no reason that even just 15 is too much to ask for. That's why I go plex, I make my own rules.
 
I just gave this a try, only doing the free one they offer. I had trouble getting it to recognize most discs, it largely just gave me an error that the UPC could not be recognized. I did find one that would work, an old movie on DVD, Stephen Kings It. They sent me an email to confirm the "purchase" and then it appeared right in my Vudu library.

Not sure why I had so many problems with other discs (4K blu-rays, regular blu-rays and TV seasons were a no-go for the 4-5 each I tried). It did work on It and then a couple other DVD's, though not all, and that was it. Seems the selection is pretty sparse at this point, at least based on my, admittedly small, trial.
 
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