The Inconvenience of UltraViolet

Since the dawn of the Internet, more and more items have been turned into digital files for viewing on devices. This has been very beneficial to us in many ways for entertainment and productivity reasons. However, with digital files comes piracy, or the illegal obtainment of copyrighted material. Major companies have suffered greatly from online piracy struggled to find a good way to combat it.

Then iTunes broke out and became instantly popular and extremely convenient. With instant online access to music, movies, TV shows, podcasts, and books, it was an easy and accessible way to listen, watch, and read on mobile devices and computers. With iCloud integrated into all iTunes and Apple devices, it became the most popular cloud service, or the ability to store files and info online. Companies saw how successful iTunes had become and started offering their content on the iTunes Store. Eventually they decided to offer digital versions free with purchases of physical DVD or Bluray copies, and it did wonders for their sales. 

Enter UltraViolet. Though iTunes was and is clearly the leader in digital stores, or even Amazon for that matter, companies felt that they still needed to offer their own cloud based digital service. Some include Vudu, Flixster, Nook, and CinemaNow. So now those separate companies are offering the delighted concept of digital versions with purchases of physical copies, but many don't understand the details of this concept, like I didn't. Here's my story:

We went to Walmart to look for one of the Harry Potter movies that we wanted to watch. Walmart generally has some pretty good deals and I had bought DVD's with iTunes digital downloads before and thought that was what it meant when the label on the front says "Includes Digital Download". So clearly that catches my attention when I see movies I want. We found all of the Harry Potter movies on DVD that included "UltraViolet: Instantly Stream and Download" and then the smaller logo said "with Vudu". I didn't know what Vudu was or what UltraViolet exactly was compatible with. It was on the last movie I bought with the iTunes version so I figured it would work with iTunes as well as with this "Vudu" service.

So we bought them. Even though we were going to buy them with the digital downloads or not, it was a definite bonus in my book. To my dismay, when I got home, I realized that it was only compatible with Vudu and Flixster. No iTunes. This means that I have to sign into Vudu.com or use a Vudu app on my devices every time I want to watch my digital movies. I learned the hard way. 

The broad moral of my story, and so many others', is to make sure you read labels and look up services online before buying. The more specific moral is, UltraViolet isn't as good as the labels make it look. Yeah, it's digital, but it's the inconvenient kind of digital. Stay away if you want iTunes versions. Make sure the label says it comes with an iTunes digital download, or whatever cloud service you use (Amazon, Google Play, etc).

UltraViolet = bad

The customer is always right, right?