Asreportedearlier this month, Walmarts streaming service Vudu has now arrived on Apple TV with a few limitations. The new app allows you to watch the movies and shows saved to your Vudu library, including those youve added by way of UltraViolet, the digital video cloud locker technology that lets you watch digital versions of your DVDs and Blu-rays. However, like its iOS counterpart, the Apple TV version of Vudu doesnt allow you to rent or buy videos through the app directly.
Instead, if you want to make a purchase, you have to do so through the browser or another device first. This same limitation is found inVudu.com/startcompetitor, Amazon Video, which is currently only available on iOS, in terms of Apple device support outside the browser.
However, Apple and Amazonrecently announced a dtente of sorts, which will bring Amazons video app to Apple TV this year, increasing the competition for Vudu. Of course, its likely that Amazon will continue to limit purchases to the browser, as well, at that time.
This restriction on rentals and purchases is not because Apple wont allow it its because these companies dont want to split the revenue generated from those purchases with Apple, which takes a cut of all transactions across its platform. Theyd rather make such transactions more difficult and cumbersome for end users, rather than allow Apple a competitor take a share of their sales.
Beyond this limitation, though, the new Vudu app is much what youd expect and simple enough to use. A no-frills interface includes only a few sections: My Vudu (your library), Movies on Us (Vudus collection of free-to-stream fare), Search and Settings.
The Movies on Us collection lets you watch thousands of titles for free, supported by ads. The Vudu app, meanwhile, offers a library of 100,000 titles, including many new releases. Through Vudu, UltraViolet movies can be watched andsharedwith up to five people. The app supports linking to your Disney Movies Anywhere account, too.
Even if youre fully ensconced in the Apple ecosystem which you must be to actually own an Apple TV (itsnot exactly the leading streaming device today) theres a reason to use an app like Vudu or, soon, Amazon Video, instead of iTunes: cross-platform support. While you may have nothing but Apple-made devices at your disposal, there could come a time when thats no longer the case.
Maybe youll decide to throw a Roku stick on the bedroom TV, at some point, or buy the kids a Fire tablet on Prime Day. If that happens, your iTunes-bought video collection would be inaccessible, locked into Apples universe.
In addition to working Apple TV, Vudu works on iOS and Android devices; smart TVs; Blu-ray players; game consoles like the Xbox 360 and Xbox One, PS3 and PS4; and other streaming media players, like Roku, Chromecast, Android TV, and more.
Vudu was acquired by Walmart in 2010, but the retailer hasnt fully leveraged the asset to challenge Amazon on the video front. Though promoted in Walmart stores, itremains a fairly low-profile offering, not a subscription-based alternative to something like Amazon Video, Hulu or Netflix.
Instead, Walmart last yearintroduced the free, ad-supported movies collection onVudu.com start code a way for it to enter the on-demand, streaming video market without having to build out its own, exclusive content library like the other major providers are doing. But that means Vudu is playing in a different field its marketplace may compete with Amazon and iTunes, but its streaming service competes with Sonys Crackle, or Yahoo View, the home to Hulus free content.
Prior to todays launch, Vudu users could watch on Apple TV by way of AirPlay support. But this is the first time theyve had a native interface they can browse with the Siri Remote. At time of writing, however, Vudus content has not been integrated with Apples TV app.
