Vudu starts streaming movies to the browser, but only in SD
Vudu's movie service is already available on 300-odd set top boxes and HDTVs including the PS3 and Boxee Box, but now it can add your personal computer to the list since it will start streaming its entire catalog right on the company's website.
Context & Ripple Effects
Vudu built its business on living-room hardware: by early 2011 the service had spread across more than 300 set-top boxes and HDTVs, including its January landing on the Boxee Box. The move to stream the full catalog from the company's own website follows the playbook Netflix ran when it brought HD streaming to consoles starting with the Xbox 360 in 2008 — extend distribution wherever a screen already sits.
The catch is quality: browser playback is standard-definition only, which keeps the high-bitrate HD experience exclusive to the devices Vudu is embedded in. That mirrors the segmentation Amazon tried when it launched downloadable video with Unbox back in 2006 — tiering the same catalog by playback surface rather than withholding content.
First-order effects
- PC owners who lack one of Vudu's 300-plus supported devices can now rent or buy from the entire catalog directly on vudu.com, immediately widening Vudu's reachable audience beyond the living room.
Second-order effects
- Rivals competing for TV-connected screens — Netflix, Amazon, Boxee — face pressure to match Vudu's ubiquity, since a service that plays anywhere weakens the case for buying a specific box; meanwhile Vudu itself uses the SD cap to avoid undercutting the HD value proposition that sells its set-top presence.
Third-order effects
- If catalog-anywhere access becomes table stakes, digital movie services shift from competing on which devices they're embedded in to competing on library breadth and pricing — with quality tiers as the lever for protecting hardware partnerships rather than exclusivity windows alone.
The trend: On-demand movie services are decoupling from dedicated hardware and moving toward browser-level ubiquity, with resolution caps standing in for platform exclusivity.