Monday, October 1, 2007

Vudu set-top box review round-up

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We got to spend a bit of time with Vudu's eponymously named set-top box earlier this month at CEDIA, but those still trying to justify that $399 price tag now have a bit more info to help inform their decision, with a number of reviews of the device now cropping up online. Among the first to churn out a full review were the folks at Laptop Magazine, who seem to have found quite a bit to like in the device, despite some fairly serious limitations. They were especially impressed by the Vudu's "surprisingly good" video quality, which they say "makes you forget you're watching a movie downloaded over the Web." Leading those aforementioned limitations is the fact that those all those movies are "trapped on the Vudu box," meaning you can't offload them onto a portable media or stream them over a network connection. That also proved to be one CNET's big gripes with the device, who also lamented the lack of built-in WiFi, and the somewhat limited 24-hour viewing period for downloaded movies. Those also looking for an unboxing of the device can find that and more in Paul Stamatiou's review, which even goes so far as to rip the device apart for a peek inside. As for how the Vudu works, he too seems to have been fairly impressed by the general user experience, although the movie pricing structure proved to be a major stumbling block for him, as was the device's inability to export movies to a PC.

[via] Engadget

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