UltraViolet

[bgowland]

Of course i didn't missed it. You just don't believe by yourself, that this "service" would survive 10 or even 20 years?

We can discuss this topic in 5 or 10 years, if ultraviolet should survive this period of time. =P

Don't get me wrong, I'm pretty cynical about anything technological and, in particular, things that are media-related. I do find the concept interesting though as it seems to be backed by the big players (Disney excepted).

I doubt it's something I'd make much use of - I hardly have time to watch the TV recordings I make with npvr and as for the stack of old VHS and DVD films I have, I'm unlikely to watch some of them ever again. I'll be interested to see how it's accepted by the public in general though.

Cheers,
Brian

[ShiningDragon]

I just don't trust them. In reality all those mediamafia are seeking for money, money and more money ...

[video=youtube;o8maUnLcdCQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8maUnLcdCQ[/video]
[video=youtube;sH5FPmUXxbA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sH5FPmUXxbA[/video]
You're getting vids like this (pirates are criminals) as thank you for buying dvds. I just don't want to know what comes, if you're using services like this. Videos like the above in the beginning, the middle and end of every movie?

[whurlston]

my thoughts on it can be found at http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthrea...ltraviolet (username vladd)

it's another version of the "digital copy" b.s.

[bgowland]

I know this thread is a year old but I came across UltraViolet in real life for the first time today.

It's not something I'd normally go for and had totally forgotten about this thread until I got a DVD as a Christmas present. The DVD case has an UltraViolet sticker on the front and, sure enough, as well as the DVD, there is a card with a redemption code on it.

I went to BBCUltraViolet.com as instructed, created a Flixster account then an UltraViolet account (linking the two) and I now have access to the DVD content online.

The registration processes were straight-forward (and free) but a bit slow - perhaps their servers are heavily loaded due to it being Christmas, who knows.

Trying to watch on my PC is a non-starter but that's basically because streaming video with Flash in a browser on my ageing PC never works well. I did, however, install the Flixster Android app on my phone and streaming is perfect.

It's not something I expect to make much use of but interesting to see it in action. There is the ability to allow up to 5 members of my family access to my "collection" though. As I've recently moved away from the area where my parents and other family live and we often used to loan each other DVDs, it might be useful in that respect.

Cheers,
Brian

[imilne]

Interesting that you bring it (back) up, because I also received my first ultraviolet enabled title at Christmas...The Dark Knight Rises on blu-ray. My experience was nothing like yours though.

After first laughing at the stupidity of having an expiry date on the redemption code, I decided what the hell and headed over to the ultraviolet website to register. Naturally I lied about my date of birth because that's none of their bloody business. Frustration soon kicked in as I realised registering there wasn't enough and I had to then go and register with flixster too. Sigh.

So I head to flixster and grind slowly through their barely responding site to end up with a completely blank page come the time when I should be entering my code. No amount of refreshing or starting again helps, so I reluctantly fire up Internet Explorer (I had been using Firefox) to see if that would help. It did. I got one step further and typed in my code only to have flixster (not IE) pop up a "network error" message and tell me to try again later. So I do - straight away - and then get told my code has passed its maximum usage count. FFS.

One swiftly typed hate mail to flixster later to complain, I happen to notice that the movie does actually appear to be listed. So it's over to my android phone to install the app and have it tell me my movie is "not available" when I attempt to play it. Grrr. A few hours later I try again, and this time it appears to start buffering, rotates to landscape and drops to a black screen as if it's about to start, and then tells me there's a problem. I try again this morning, this time try on an android tablet, but no luck here either as I'm informed that I'm not allow to watch *my* movie on *my* tablet because it happens to be rooted (so was my phone incidentally).

I guess I'll try it on my xbox at some point just to see it through to completion, but I'm sure what I'll be doing in the meantime is adding the blu-ray to my collection by firing up AnyDVD HD and MakeMKV and having a much smoother ride...

Edit: Turns out Flixster isn't an app available on the xbox, so I tried it on my laptop instead. Best guess is it's playing (yes at least it played!) at about 848x480 so very much SD and looks pretty terrible, even by most online streaming standards. All in all a big joke.

Iain

[bgowland]

I got one step further and typed in my code only to have flixster (not IE) pop up a "network error" message and tell me to try again later. So I do - straight away - and then get told my code has passed its maximum usage count.

I didn't mention it but I had the same experience (network error and refused code a second time). When I returned to the flixster main page and refreshed, however, "My Movies" showed it was available. Other than that, going through BBCUltraViolet.com -> Flixster -> UltraViolet was relatively smooth (albeit with very slow server responses but as I said, it could just be high volume of traffic).

I try again this morning, this time try on an android tablet, but no luck here either as I'm informed that I'm not allow to watch *my* movie on *my* tablet because it happens to be rooted (so was my phone incidentally).

Interesting - I wonder why rooted devices would be prohibited, it doesn't make much sense. The primary difference with a rooted device is the (normally secure) internal storage is accessible. :confused:

Edit: Turns out Flixster isn't an app available on the xbox, so I tried it on my laptop instead. Best guess is it's playing (yes at least it played!) at about 848x480 so very much SD and looks pretty terrible, even by most online streaming standards. All in all a big joke.

What download speed do you normally get with your broadband connection? I wonder if it was auto-scaled based on speed - I've seen this before with streaming services.

I have to admit it seems to be a bit of a gimmick - sharing stuff with my family down south seems to be the only thing I can find useful.

Cheers,
Brian

[imilne]

Interesting - I wonder why rooted devices would be prohibited, it doesn't make much sense. The primary difference with a rooted device is the (normally secure) internal storage is accessible. :confused:

I think the reason they gave was for "security and stability". Okaaay...

What download speed do you normally get with your broadband connection? I wonder if it was auto-scaled based on speed - I've seen this before with streaming services.

60 Mbps. In truth I didn't give it too long to see if it got any better (as they sometimes do), as I've not actually seen the film yet and will obviously be watching the blu-ray instead

I have to admit it seems to be a bit of a gimmick - sharing stuff with my family down south seems to be the only thing I can find useful.

I wouldn't be surprised to see it mentioned in the smallprint somewhere that "family members" must all live under the same roof. I did notice the one about providers could start charging you at a later date for access via streaming if they felt like it.

Iain

[bgowland]

I think the reason they gave was for "security and stability". Okaaay...

Yeah, sounds like a weak excuse to me.

60 Mbps. In truth I didn't give it too long to see if it got any better (as they sometimes do), as I've not actually seen the film yet and will obviously be watching the blu-ray instead

Fair enough - why have a blu-ray disk and not bother to view it in the best quality possible? I did watch the first part of my DVD on my phone for a while but it's a John Bishop stand-up show so it doesn't need HD quality. In saying that though, a 3.7in 800x480 gives a pretty sharp picture.

I wouldn't be surprised to see it mentioned in the smallprint somewhere that "family members" must all live under the same roof.

Allegedly it's a "cloud" service accessible "anywhere" but I haven't looked into it yet. I'll give it a try and see what the small-print brings up.

Cheers,
Brian

[whurlston]

Allegedly it's a "cloud" service accessible "anywhere" but I haven't looked into it yet. I'll give it a try and see what the small-print brings up.

From my understanding, each UV account can have up to 6 "family" member logins that can share up to 12 activated devices. Location is unimportant (one of the few good things about the UV service IMO). So your parents could have 2 of those activated devices at their home, 3 devices could be at your summer home and the rest at your main home. Playback authorization is dependent on whether or not the device is authorized. The family member login only determines what parental controls are activated.

[bgowland]

From my understanding, each UV account can have up to 6 "family" member logins that can share up to 12 activated devices. Location is unimportant (one of the few good things about the UV service IMO).

Yes, it looks that way. I had a further look into it but only got as far as the FAQs as the options to add/manage family members was "currently unavailable". I'll try again later tonight.