AfterDawn: News

Guide: Legally converting your DVD/Blu-ray discs to digital copies in the cloud with VUDU

Last year, VUDU launched its "disc-to-digital" initiative, giving disc owners a chance to have access to a digital copy of their movie in the cloud, for a nominal price.

Originally, the program was only available at Wal-Mart stores (Wal-Mart owns VUDU) and users had to bring their discs to a store to have the "conversion" done. The price is $2 for an SD digital copy of a DVD or $5 to get an HD copy. If you bring in Blu-rays, you can get an HD digital copy for $2.



The program was certainly interesting, but it was not very successful as there were not many people willing to drag their movies to a Wal-Mart and pay again to have their movies in the cloud.

Earlier this week, VUDU announced that the program had been expanded to online, with the launch of their "In-Home Disc-to-Digital" efforts. Users can now convert their movies right from the comfort at home. Additionally, VUDU has added a new promotion, if you convert more than 10 discs at a time, the price is cut in half. Also, everyone gets $2 credit just for trying it.

Here is a quick guide on how to get started with getting your movies in the cloud using the new program.

Getting your movies in the cloud with VUDU Disc-to-Digital

The first step is the quick installation of VUDU To Go, the only piece of software you will need moving forward. Get it here: VUDU To Go

Open the software for the first time and you will be greeted with a very bland page with three tabs. Click on the third tab, "Disc To Digital" to get started.



Insert the disc of your choice, whether DVD or Blu-ray into your PC's optical drive, and give the app a few seconds to recognize it. NOTE: This process will not work if you have AnyDVD or other DRM-stripping applications running. Shut them off for the time being. Once it reads the disc, an IMDB-esque page will pop up, showing off the movie and giving you options of how you want it, SD or HDX, which is the company's almost-Blu-ray-quality version of HD. Remember the pricing we mentioned earlier.





It is also important to note that not all movies are eligible to be copied to the cloud. I tried 14 movies for this guide, and 3 were rejected. The studios supporting the initiative right now are Paramount Home Media Distribution, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Lionsgate Entertainment and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. After you select the quality, you will led to a checkout screen where you can choose to add more discs or buy what you have already chosen. If you want to add more, hit "Add Disc" and remove the movie from your optical drive and insert the next movie. If you are done, hit "Proceed To Checkout" and add a credit card to your VUDU account.



Once you have paid for the movie, the conversion is instant as you are given access to the digital copy of the movie stored in the VUDU cloud. You can access the movie from PCs, Macs, gaming consoles, Web-enabled Blu-ray players and Roku boxes making it very accessible. You can also choose to download the copy if you do not want to stream it, making it portable.



Overall, VUDU has made this process as easy as possible, and a lot easier and quicker than converting your discs to video files manually or downloading them illegally. While the price can be a bit steep, especially for an upgrade to HD, I was very happy with the option to convert some older movies to the cloud and stream via my PlayStation 3.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 8 Jun 2013 19:18

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• 21 comments

• DK1979

  Yea if i wanted anything like this i wouldn't have bought the original discs and just used something like Netflix.
  

  8.6.2013 19:29 #1

• flyingpen

  If I wanted to convert the disc's I PAID for. Then I would convert them. I refuse to pay for something that should be an inherent right. I would be more ok with this, if I could download the movies DRM free. I offline must be a possibility for me...
  

  Carpe Noctem

  8.6.2013 20:14 #2

• KillerBug

  What a scam...pay for what you already own so they can shut it down in a year and you are left with nothing.

  8.6.2013 21:38 #3

• Bozobub

  Bleh. I'll just rip any BDs myself, thenkyew. Way to NOT offer a viable alternative to piracy, sorry, thanks for playing.

  8.6.2013 21:49 #4

• scorpNZ

  No mention of what happens if vudu goes belly up,i suspect you loose what you paid for,not that most of us here would care ain't that right boy's we got it sussed rip 'em & store 'em ourselves,either that or sign up multiple mega.com accounts to get heaps of online storage
  

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  8.6.2013 23:32 #5

• DVDBack23

  VUDU is owned by Wal-Mart and backed by all the major studios. Not going anywhere.
  

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  8.6.2013 23:48 #6

• ddp

  all great companies eventually go bye bye.
  

  9.6.2013 00:29 #7

• cart0181

  cool concept... if it was free...
  
  also, I second what DK1979 said. Netflix picture quality is crap depending on what you are watching.
  

  9.6.2013 01:39 #8

• dali

  Originally posted by flyingpen: If I wanted to convert the disc's I PAID for. Then I would convert them. I refuse to pay for something that should be an inherent right. I would be more ok with this, if I could download the movies DRM free. I offline must be a possibility for me... I agree, totally. This is an absolute nonsense. FREE digital copies for what you already own are always legal. However, scamming people is NOT!
  
  But they'll make some money out of this, that's for sure. Many people just don't know how to perform these kind of tasks and, sadly, some of them will pay. Maybe they'll even think this service is "cheap". Definitely, ignorance is no bliss.
  

  "You know, it seems that quotes on the internet are becoming less and less reliable." -Abraham Lincoln.

  9.6.2013 07:52 #9

• supersaiyaman

  i respectfully disagree.i think this is a reasonable alternative for converting to a digital formate.its not free but of coarse they have to make a profit somehow.nothing in this world is free. however in contrast if they offer mandatory managed copy on the disc i kinda don't see the point.at lest they are starting to get the idea that we want more options.

  9.6.2013 10:45 #10

• Red_Forman

  Originally posted by supersaiyaman: i respectfully disagree.i think this is a reasonable alternative for converting to a digital formate.its not free but of coarse they have to make a profit somehow.nothing in this world is free. however in contrast if they offer mandatory managed copy on the disc i kinda don't see the point.at lest they are starting to get the idea that we want more options. If you already own it and payed for it, its not a reasonable alternative to charge you for something that is a consumer right. individuals like you that support this crap and think you need to give them what little you have to add to their over-inflated paychecks is how we got to this point in the first place.
  

  I'll stick my foot up your ass.

  9.6.2013 18:21 #11

• scorpNZ

  Originally posted by DVDBack23: VUDU is owned by Wal-Mart and backed by all the major studios. Not going anywhere. that explains how they managed to get the movie industry onside on the idea & perhaps a %
  

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  9.6.2013 20:50 #12

• KillerBug

  At least here in the USA, it is actually illegal to make backups for your own use...no one dares go after anyone for doing it...but it is still technically illegal. Ever wonder why netflix pays for licensing when they could simply buy a bunch of copies of the disk and only allow that many streams of that movie at once, while it is perfectly legal to rent out dvd players with disks in them over the internet? That's probably why these companies figure they can get away with charging people for crap like this...because they figure people are afraid of the laws they have paid for.
  
  It would be one thing if they were charging a fee for the bandwidth...even making a profit on it...but the fact that they charge more for a HD copy of a DVD than they do for a HD copy of a bluray (when the user owns the license to view the film in both cases)...that proves it is just a scam.
  
  Oh, and just because it is backed by WalMart and the studios, that does not mean it will be around forever. If you want proof, go ahead and read the agreement you are presented with when you sign up...I have not read it, but I can guarantee that it either states that they can shut down the service at any time, or that they can change the terms of service at any time...and there is probably also a clause to stop class action.

  10.6.2013 00:58 #13

• Jemborg

  Originally posted by supersaiyaman: i respectfully disagree.i think this is a reasonable alternative for converting to a digital formate.its not free but of coarse they have to make a profit somehow.nothing in this world is free. however in contrast if they offer mandatory managed copy on the disc i kinda don't see the point.at lest they are starting to get the idea that we want more options. It's not for me but I can see the point as an option. Andre' suggesting that it's not that unreasonable a price and I tend to agree with him when I add up the costs and time and convenience.
  
  But my problem is that I hardly ever watch a movie twice. There's just not enough time. And I only try to keep copies of movies/TV shows nowadays that are rare or hard to get. Apart from kids stuff which you know gets a thrashing. VUDU is unlikely to keep rare stuff so I can forget those old DVDs of The Thunderbirds for instance.
  
  Originally posted by scorpNZ: Originally posted by DVDBack23: VUDU is owned by Wal-Mart and backed by all the major studios. Not going anywhere. that explains how they managed to get the movie industry onside on the idea & perhaps a % The service will be dumped if it doesn't contribute to the company profits in the long run no matter how big Wal-Mart is. Read the EULA... I'm willing to bet you have to supply your own lube too.
  
  EDIT: I'm quite aware that EULA's are NOT binding legally.
  

  Its a lot easier being righteous than right.
  
  
  

  10.6.2013 22:59 #14

• SProdigy

  Originally posted by supersaiyaman: i respectfully disagree.i think this is a reasonable alternative for converting to a digital formate.its not free but of coarse they have to make a profit somehow.nothing in this world is free. however in contrast if they offer mandatory managed copy on the disc i kinda don't see the point.at lest they are starting to get the idea that we want more options. Thank you. I am certainly capable of ripping and converting myself, but the time and hassle involved, not to mention if it bombs out halfway through... this is worth it.
  
  Everyone needs to dump the entitlement mentality. I own movies on VHS but that doesn't mean I should expect a DVD, Blu-Ray or digital copy because I own one format over the other. That would be like saying I own the Xbox 360 version so I should get the PS3 version of the game free.

  11.6.2013 13:28 #15

• dali

  Originally posted by SProdigy: That would be like saying I own the Xbox 360 version so I should get the PS3 version of the game free. You should. If it does not involve the cost of physical media.
  
  
  

  "You know, it seems that quotes on the internet are becoming less and less reliable." -Abraham Lincoln.

  11.6.2013 15:33 #16

• six60six

  Originally posted by KillerBug: it is still technically illegal. only if it is protected by encryption, granted is nearly all of them, but i'll occasionally see one that has no css. ;)

  20.6.2013 16:24 #17

• mightyzog

  I tend to agree with little pieces of what everyone is saying. I have an iPhone that I watch digital copies on while at work. I have converted over 250 movies from HD sources and now when I buy a blu-ray I usually buy the ones with digital copies included, unless it is a digital copy from VUDU. I tried to use this service in the past when I bought a BR that had this as the digital copy choice. First of all, the service is a pain in the ass to use. I dont like anything that I have to stream in the first place as bandwidth is precious. I wish some of these companies would understand this. Most digital copies are for people to use while away from home and away from wifi.
  
  That being said I can understand why someone would use a service like this. This service is geared more towards the tech novices and grandma and grandpa who dont even know what a digital copy is. I would never expect an after dawn community member to use a service like this. I would expect this community to use whatever personal video converter that they use to convert their own sources ( BR, DVD, or video files) to whatever format they want without having restrictive DRM.
  
  The one thing I hate about digital copies included with physical media is the fact that they have an expiration date. I recently bought an old BR at Walmart in the 7.99 bin and it came with a digital copy, or so I thought. Apparently video files are like food and they expire after a certain amount of time, so be sure to read the back of the case and look for expiration date if it matters to you. Why a digital file has an expiration date is beyond stupid.

  21.6.2013 07:52 #18

• jerryf01

  NSA is monitoring this thread, you people are conspiring to do something wrong, don't know what yet, but Big Brother is watching.

  21.6.2013 08:04 #19

• six60six

  Originally posted by mightyzog: recently bought an old BR at Walmart in the 7.99 bin and it came with a digital copy, or so I thought. Apparently video files are like food and they expire after a certain amount of time, so be sure to read the back of the case and look for expiration date if it matters to you. Why a digital file has an expiration date is beyond stupid.
  one day i went and added a bunch of digital copies at once, and noticed some had expired. after contacting support with my complaint, they emailed me new codes. still pretty lame that anything like can expire (or go out of print, for that matter).

  21.6.2013 15:48 #20

• mightyzog

  Some companies will do that for your. I know for a fact that Sony will not. Tried emailing their customer service and they sent me back am email saying, that you should read the back of the case before you buy. Cheap A-Holes. However universal was a little more generous and did email a new code.

  21.6.2013 16:03 #21