TV set-top battle: Apple TV vs. Vudu
Fri Mar 7, 2008 3:42PM EST
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Apple breathed new life into its once-floundering Apple TV thanks to a recent software update, but it's got a major competitor to deal with: Vudu, a set-top device with more than eight times as many movies to rent. Which box deserves a place next to your TV?
Setup
A cinch, for both Apple TV and Vudu. Each box comes with more or less the same connections: you get HDMI (with resolutions up to 1080p), component and composite video outputs, analog and Toslink audio outputs, and Ethernet ports (Vudu also has an S-video input). Once they're connected and ready, each device boots up and launches their individual setup wizards, and within minutes, you're up and running. For Apple TV, there's the extra step of syncing up with an iTunes library, although you're also free to run Apple TV as a stand-alone box. Apple TV also has the option of going Wi-Fi for its network connection, while the Vudu is restricted to Ethernet—although one could argue that speedy wired Ethernet is the way to go when it comes to downloading massive HD movies. Winner: Tie
What you get
Movies: With its catalog of 5,000+ films (about 3,600 rentals, the rest for purchase), Vudu clearly beats the pants off of Apple TV in the movie department. And we're not just talking grade-Z movies, either—a quick perusal of Vudu's collection reveals a broad swath of movies, including the latest releases (such as "Into the Wild," "The Darjeeling Limited," "30 Days of Night," and "Gone Baby Gone") and older catalog titles ("Breakfast at Tiffany's," all the old "Star Trek" movies, "Once Upon a Time in the West," and so on). Apple TV, meanwhile, is still struggling to build up its rental library; as of this week, fewer than 500 rentals were available via iTunes (another 200 or so are for purchase only). That said, both Vudu and Apple TV have about 100 HD movies on tap. Winner: Vudu (by a mile)
TV shows: Here's where Apple turns the tables on Vudu. iTunes (and by extension, Apple TV) has literally thousands of TV episodes on hand from all the major networks, save NBC. It's a TV lover's dream. Vudu, on the other hand, has only 14 shows to choose from, including "24," "Arrested Development," "Prison Break," "NYPD Blue" (seasons one and two only), and "Shark". Not bad, but Vudu has a lot of catching up to do. Also worth nothing: neither Apple TV nor Vudu offers TV shows in HD (as does the Xbox Video Marketplace). Winner: Apple TV
Extras: Vudu may reign supreme with its impressive selection of movies, but Apple TV's got it trumped with its extras, including full access to the iTunes Music Store, thousands of podcasts, access to Flickr and .Mac slideshows, and YouTube support. Vudu's got its movies and TV shows, but that's pretty much it. Winner: Apple TV
Interface
As with most Apple products, navigating the Apple TV's various screens is a snap, even for novices, and Apple TV's new interface is a hands-down improvement over the original. I especially like the fact that pressing and holding the "menu" key brings up a main-menu overlay, no matter where you are in the menu structure. But while Vudu's menus aren't quite as slick as Apple's, navigating through Vudu's movie catalog is a breeze thanks to the jog wheel in the remote (which also lets you fast-forward and reverse while watching a movie). I also love that Vudu lets you click on an actor's or director's name to see all their available movies—a browsing feature that's sorely lacking in Apple TV. Finally, Vudu lets you add movies you want to see later to a "wish list"—another feature that's missing from the Apple box. Winner: Vudu
Video quality
SD video: Apple TV's standard-def video quality has been suspect from the beginning, and it remains so now. SD movies and TV shows look way too soft, almost out-of-focus soft, in fact. Very disappointing. Vudu's SD offerings look much better—shy of DVD quality, mind you, but still reasonably sharp, with digital artifacts kept to a relative minimum. Winner: Vudu
HD video: While Vudu scores with its solid SD video quality, it comes up a bit shy with its HD movies. After repeated A-B viewings of scenes from the HD rental of "Transformers," I felt Apple TV's HD video looked a bit sharper, with solid-looking colors and few artifacts even during the most furious of action scenes. Vudu's HD looked a little softer to me, with muddy-looking colors that seemed to float during darker scenes, as well as noticeable edge enhancement (which resulted in "jaggies" along the edges of objects). Winner: Apple TV
Sound quality
When I first reviewed Vudu, I noticed that the sound on many movies (including recent flicks like "Spider-Man 2") seemed to be in mono. Well, Vudu engineers clearly took that criticism to heart and made some changes, because try though I might, I couldn’t find any movies this time with the mono bug. Indeed, the movies on Apple TV and Vudu both sounded excellent, with the DD 5.1 mix for "Transformers" sounding appropriately thunderous and aggressive. Keep in mind, however, that neither Apple TV nor Vudu offer all its movies in full Dolby Digital—understandable for, say, "Casablanca," but less so for newer, HD movies like "X-Men." Winner: Tie
Instant movie viewing
One of Vudu's big selling points is that it lets you start watching movies from the instant your click "Rent now" (thanks to peer-to-peer video sharing—click here for more details) and the box absolutely delivers. Testing it in Brooklyn over Road Runner digital cable, Vudu's movies are indeed ready for instant viewing, including HD titles. But while Apple TV's movies didn't load instantly, they were ready for watching within less than a minute of pressing "Rent"—and that held true to HD videos, as well. So although Vudu can claim a moral victory in the "instant viewing" category, most viewers will hardly notice the difference. Winner: Vudu (but only by a whisker)
Movie portability
Video you can take with you is a huge trend in tech, and for now at least, it’s something that Vudu fails to address—once you rent a movie on Vudu, it stays in the box, no matter what. Apple TV, meanwhile, gets it half right; if you download an iTunes rental on your Mac or PC first, you get the option of transferring it to your iPod, iPhone, or the Apple TV. But if you rent a movie directly over the Apple TV, it's stuck in the box—you won't be allowed to transfer it to a portable player. Winner: Neither really, although Apple TV comes closest.
Price
Hardware: Vudu just dropped the price of its main, 250GB offering by $100, to $299. (There's also a 1TB Vudu available—the Vudu XL—for a whopping $999, but that's more for the home-integration market.) The 40GB version of Apple TV goes for $229, while the 120GB model sells for $329. In other words, both boxes are still hovering around the $300 mark, which may still be too high for most viewers. Winner: Tie
Videos: Both Apple TV and Vudu have the same rental-price structure: $3.99 for new releases, and $2.99 for older, catalog titles. (Both services let you keep rented movies for 30 days; once you hit "play", you then have 24 hours to watch your video). For HD movies, Apple TV charges $4.99 for new releases and $3.99 for older titles, while Vudu charges a bit more: $5.99 for the latest and greatest titles, and $3.99 for catalog. Winner: Apple TV (just barely)
And the winner is...
Sorry folks, but there's no knockout winner here—and even when we go to the cards, both Apple TV and Vudu managed to land an impressive number of points. In the end, you'll need to ask yourself what your priorities are in a video set-top box to make the best decision. Ultimately, I think Apple TV is a better all-around device, especially for Mac-centric users who love TV shows and want to use their Apple TV as a music and/or podcast jukebox. But until Apple builds up the meager movie selection on iTunes, Vudu takes the prize for movie lovers—although I wish Vudu's HD video quality was a bit better. And both boxes could still use another price cut.
Note: What about the Xbox 360 and its Video Marketplace, you ask? Well, with its about 340 movies for rent, 322 TV shows, and plenty of HD content, the Xbox 360 ($400 and up) makes for an attractive choice—for gamers, that is. But for those who aren't interested in Call of Duty 4, the 360 is probably overkill—hence, I've decided to stick with dedicated TV set-top boxes for the purposes of this duel. Also: In my original post, I got the size of the Vudu's hard drive wrong; it's 250GB, not 100GB. Sorry for the goof.
Comments on TV set-top battle: Apple TV vs. Vudu
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2 Posted by hookemhorns5468 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:20PM EDT Report Abuse
Who says "by a whisker?" It's "by a hair."
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3 Posted by c.paster on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:16PM EDT Report Abuse
Vudu's standard box is a 250gigs for $295 vs Apple's 40 gigs for $229. (the only error I found in your excellent report.) Vudu gives you 60 times the storage for an extra $50, and has 10 times the number of movies. Also, with Vudu you can now store all your TV (just coming) on their servers instead of on the box, so that storage is even much more than these numbers. I think Vudus interface is slicker and quicker. Also, in five seconds you can add a filter that selects only 4 and 5+ critic rated movies, so that you only see the very best of the movies. That's suburb considering how many movies are bad to start with. Apple doesn't do that and seems to have lesser movies. If you want to play their more limited selection, you can do it on a handheld with Apple I believe, but who wants to do that for 100 minutes? If you're comparing movie experience versus movie experience, I think you have to give it but a wide margin to Vudu for 10 times the number of movies, better movies, better interface.
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4 Posted by m.lipman4 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:01PM EDT Report Abuse
In my opinion, the navagation through Vudu, with the great remote and scroll wheel is considerably better than my brother's Apple. I also think the quality filter that was mention above is fantastic. It fabulously improves the quality of the movies that you watch, and only Vudu thought of that. The person above is the only other person I've seen to mention it. It is awesome. I'm sure Apple will do well, but Vudu seems to have better designers of both their hardware and software, not to mention the people who got all the movies that Apple hasn't been able to get. Every month or so we get some refinements. It's the first product where I have ever had a company work so hard to give you substantial updates at such a fast pace. I hope they continue as well. For average consumers, I think Vudu gives a better experience. We don't want to transport our movies to an 1 1/2 inch screen. And we don't think the quality and content of U-tube is very worthwhile. Only you techies seem to think that's great. Boring. We just want the largest number of good movies with reasonably high definition. I think Vudu has it. ML.
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5 Posted by magpagbst on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:03PM EDT Report Abuse
ben, thanks for an excellent and informative article . . . i still think that the cost per movie rental is prohibitive . . . it would be more enticing if these companies would offer a service similar to that of netflix . . . that is, a monthly charge for a predetermined number of rentals per month . . . say . . . $30 for 12 to 15 rentals per month . . .
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6 Posted by stan44s on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:39PM EDT Report Abuse
I noted an error, as Vudu's $295 box gives you 250 gigs vs Apple's $319 for 120 gogs. Vudu gives you twice as much and their new Vudu vault results in TV's being off the box on a server, while Apple's storage is quite limited at half the space. So hardward price goes to Vudu, not Apple. Summary: Movies Vudu 5000 to 500. Extras Apple Interface Vudu Video quality Vudu much better on 4900 standard def flics. Video quality Apple slightly better on 100 high def films Instant Viewing Vudu by a whisker Price Vudu - Vudu gives twice the storage for less money. It seems to me that movie viewing is significantly better with Vudu, with 10 times the movies, better movies, all that you noted in your article. Thank you for such a great report. .
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7 Posted by kathryn4cab on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:47PM EDT Report Abuse
I love my Vudu. I live in a condo and have worked with the Apple a little. Apple has lousy movies, and not many. I tried the Vudu critic rating filter just a couple minutes ago when I read it above. It is sensational. When you click that, every one in the list is a winner! I couldn't believe it. I didn't know it was there. And it does just take seconds to do a couple clicks. Someone ought to right an article on that. No bad movies ever again! Sounds catchy. I don't find $1 to $4 for a movie bad at all, even with the box cost. It cost $7 in the movie house, and you have to get there, hire a baby sitter, pay $6 bucks for some popcorn and $4 for a coke. The price is cheap. $2.50 a flic and $295 for a box that you'll use 5 years for $50 a year. Big deal. Get a job.
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8 Posted by bern.lin90 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:05PM EDT Report Abuse
I have an AppleTV and I'm a little disappointed, and maybe I'm the first to say that about Apple. But I live in an apartment house and my friend has a Vudu. It's better than my Apple. Her control is much easier and she has a zillion more movies than I have. That Vudu is better.
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9 Posted by magpagbst on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:03PM EDT Report Abuse
kathryn4cab . . . here's my home theater set-up . . . sharp 20000 dlp projector, dnp 120" supernova screen, two pioneer 50 inch plasmas (5080's) on each side of the dnp, and atlantic technology in-walls to complete the 6.1 surround sound . . . i also have a six foot stack of components to drive it all . . . i can afford vudu and apple tv without cramping my lifestyle . . . but if a company wants my money . . . they've got to earn it . . . the current offerings of these two companies do not meet my standards . . . therefore, they won't get my money . . .
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10 Posted by len.xyz1 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 6:48PM EDT Report Abuse
I don't care about music. I bought this for movies. The best movie selection, ten times more movies, and a better navigating around makes my Vudu a charmer. In ten seconds you can scroll through menus, find a category that you like, also screen for only good movies as they said above, and then hit preview, make sure you like it, and click and it starts. All right. It takes about a minute to do all that. With Apple you get 500 movies or ONE TENTH of the movies with VUDU and Apple has a poor selection,. Apple's quality is only 720p, you get half the storage of Vudu, and its not half the fun as it is to zip around with that super remote. I only hear criticism of Vudu from people who haven't tried it.
1 Posted by dancorc on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:34PM EDT Report Abuse
If I were in the market for a new set-top box, I would choose Apple TV. I like the fact that I can use my iTunes credit to buy movies and TV shows. I also like the fact that I can play my iTunes music on my TV.