Walmarts Vudu/Ultraviolet disc to digital trade-in live today. Anyone doing it?

[lokiju]

I have a cabinet filled with DVD's and some Blu-rays that is just taking up space in my living room.

I've downsized my DVD collection a number of times selling off my 500 or so movies down to maybe 150 I currently have if I had to guess.

I hate to just get rid of the movies without having a legal means of viewing at a later time if I desire to do so.

I've played with iTunes recent ability to register a movies digital copy in iTunes that then automatically gets added to your iCloud/purchase history and accessible on any Apple device that you share the iTunes account with.

So far, it is just terrible.

Most of my digital codes have either been stolen by key gen apps or expired, which just really pisses me off that they even have an expiration.

Out of the dozen or so blu-rays with digital copies I tried importing into iTunes over the past weekend to get into my iCloud account literally only 2 have worked.

So I'm left annoyed and without a way to keep my movies easily accessible in a digital form and LEGAL (before everyone says torrents/newgroups/etc).

Then I see Walmarts Vudu service which links to Ultraviolet trade in disc to digital program goes live today and I started poking around with it.

I don't know how I feel about paying another $2 for a movie I already paid for but it doesn't seem unreasonable I guess to pay $2 to basically have a digital copy that's legal and pretty easily accessible from a lot of solutions like my computer, PS3, iPad, etc.

Whats' the mindhive (aka ATOT) have to say on the whole concept?

Rip off or reasonable and worth it?

http://www.vudu.com/disc_to_digital.html?povid=cat14503-env172199-module041512-lLinkZ2VUDU

 

[Joseph F]

If you sell the disc, I'm pretty sure you sell the right to watch the digital copy, as well.

 

[Puddle Jumper]

Storage is cheap enough that I would just rip all of the discs and store them on a NAS/WHS. That way you aren't locked into their service and retain full control of your media.

You could either store them all as .iso's if you don't care about the space used or you can encode them in the format of your choice.

 

[lxskllr]

Make your own "cloud". Letting a company control your data is a losing proposition. Fuck legal. If you have the disc, you have the right to view it. Rip disc to server, and pack it away. If a company has restricted your rights with DigitalRestrictionsManagement, torrent a clean copy and put it on your server. The point is YOU should be controlling your data, not Walmart.

 

[vi edit]

If you already own the disks, then MakeMKV the things and control your own content. Why tie yourself to an internet connection to watch a movie? Why go backwards in convenience?

 

[vi edit]

Make your own "cloud". Letting a company control your data is a losing proposition. Fuck legal. If you have the disc, you have the right to view it. Rip disc to server, and pack it away. If a company has restricted your rights with DigitalRestrictionsManagement, torrent a clean copy and put it on your server. The point is YOU should be controlling your data, not Walmart.

Amen
/thread

 

[Joseph F]

I would tell you what I'd do in this situation, but the staff here get an itchy trigger finger on the ban button when it comes to illegal activity.

In other words, what ^ they said.

 

[vi edit]

I would tell you what I'd do in this situation, but the staff here get an itchy trigger finger on the ban button when it comes to illegal activity.

In other words, what ^ they said.

I would *never* ban someone for ripping disks that they already own. I'm not going to tell you to go and torrent it (even if you legally own the disk), but I am all for fair use with content you legally purchased.

 

[Joseph F]

I would *never* ban someone for ripping disks that they already own. I'm not going to tell you to go and torrent it (even if you legally own the disk), but I am all for fair use with content you legally purchased.

Good to know. I guess you draw the line at "Illegal, but not immoral"?

 

[vi edit]

Good to know. I guess you draw the line at "Illegal, but not immoral"?

To me it's not even immoral. If I can rip a CD that I own to a media player to listen in the car then I can rip a movie to an iPad to watch in the car.

 

[Joseph F]

To me it's not even immoral. If I can rip a CD that I own to a media player to listen in the car then I can rip a movie to an iPad to watch in the car.

That's what I was trying to say. :thumbsup:
It's technically illegal because of the DMCA restricting you from breaking copy-protection systems, but not immoral, as you own the material you're trying to copy, IMO.

 

[Puddle Jumper]

I just wish the price of hard drives would go back down to pre flood levels. I've been wanting to store my library of dvds and Blu-rays digitally but I'm not big on buying 4+ drives at the current prices. Not to metion the fact that you have to pay even more to get drives with a decent warranty.

 

[gorcorps]

Good to know. I guess you draw the line at "Illegal, but not immoral"?

I think it's more a matter of staying away from the slippery slope of piracy. The gov themselves have an itchy "shut down" finger on sites that get too far into such subjects. Better to be safe than risk legal action from big brother.

 

[lokiju]

I think the appeal to me might be a little lost based on some of the responses thus far.

I know how to rip and convert my blu-rays and dvds.

I don't want to waste what little free time I have doing it especially when you consider not just how much time it takes but also hard drive capacity.

I have enough money sunk it physical everything from nearly 8TB of raw HDD capacity to the DVD's and Blu-rays.

I'm tired of the never ending chore of backing up, dealing with dead drives, processing time for encoding, random issues with streaming to a device via DLNA, Cinavia bullshit, and on and on and on.

I can pay $2 to get a digital LEGAL copy that cost me nothing more than a trip to Walmart to show them what I physically own and then I get a digital copy that I can access whenever and where ever without worry of my capacity running out or a drive dying or a codec issue or a whatever.

I'm a technology enthusiast and have always been but at a certain point in life between my son, wife, job and everything else it becomes more enticing to pay a small amount to save myself for sinking a bunch of time (can be worth more than money at times) into doing something that might or might not have a long term advantage.

Granted, I don't know that Vudu/Ultraviolet is the way to go either, which is why I pose the question.

In the meantime I have a cabinet full of movies that's taking up space and I honestly never touch as it's just so much more convenient to turn on the PS3 and open Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Prime Instant, stream what I have already ripped and converted, etc..

 

[lxskllr]

Proprietary device support that uses proprietary software. There's no guarantee the service will be around next year if they don't make money from it, and your only recourse will be to come here and complain.

I'd either use a server in my house, or buy hosting that can be used for other useful services. Freedom isn't always cheap or convenient, but it's also hard to put a price on.