Review: UltraViolet digital collection

For ages now, I’ve been moaning about DVDs degrading (possibly sped up by our rather old DVD player) and how we own a whole bunch of films and TV shows and gradually some of them are becoming unwatchable (e.g. Grosse Pointe Blank won’t play even on the computers, which tend to cope better with scratched and mucky disks and a whole bunch of the children’s films and TV shows jump and stop and pause so much they refuse to try watching them). And, as streaming music and video improved, I (obviously not just me) thought it would be really useful to be able to own the right to watch a movie or TV show, rather than just a physical copy.

And, lo and behold, someone (or a bunch of people) went an invented something that does just that. UltraViolet is a service that movie and TV companies sign up and it gives you a digital copy when you buy a DVD/BluRay disk of a movie or TV show. You can then use the disk, stream from various devices (computers, smartphones, games consoles, set-top boxes…) or download versions to watch. You can do this anywhere and you can allow other members of your family to have their own account so, for example, you can only show the children suitable films and keep your 18+ films just for you!

We got sent a Bugs Bunny disk by Warner Bros. to try out UltraViolet and I can say that it is definitely very simple and straightforward. We set up a Flixster account and gave them our code and within minutes we were able to access it anywhere (though not from my phone yet, as it doesn’t support viewing movies on Windows Phones yet, though does on iOS and Android, it seems). Brilliant. We will definitely be looking out for UltraViolet copies whenever we buy new videos from now on.

Here are a few screenshots to show how simple it is:

Bugs Bunny and Friends in the UltraViolet Flixster interface

Selecting an episode to stream

Loading the episode

Watching the episode

Watching full screen

Download the Flixster software so you can download and watch offline

Viewing in Flixster desktop software

Selecting an episode to download

Downloaded episode in Flixster desktop software

Watching the episode in Flixster desktop software

 

Everything went very smoothly and I really love the idea of building a digital collection, like you can do with UltraViolet, so I hope that soon all DVDs are available with this option. Find out more about UltraViolet on their website. (I have seen that Warner Bros. had some issues with getting UltraViolet to work in the early days of its implementation. All I can say is that we had no problems whatsoever, so hopefully everything has been ironed out for newer releases.)

 

Disclaimer: We were sent a copy of Bugs Bunny and Friends by Warner Bros., for the purposes of trying out the UltraViolet service. However, the opinions are all our own.

 

[Technorati claim (ignore): RWU8VWSPBWNQ]