Subsidiary | |
Industry | P2P/TV |
Genre | Net TV |
Founders |
Alain Rossmann Tony Miranz |
Headquarters | Sunnyvale, California, United States |
Area served
|
United States, Mexico |
Services | Video content delivery |
Parent | Walmart (2010–present) |
Website | www |
Vudu, Inc. is an American content delivery and media technology company responsible for Vudu-branded interactive media services and devices. Vudu distributes full-length movies over the Internet to television in the United States of America. It does this with a content delivery network that uses a hybrid peer-to-peer TV technology. Vudu was acquired by Walmart in March 2010.
Vudu began by only making its own set-top boxes (the Vudu Box and the Vudu XL), but Vudu now primarily markets its software as a Smart TV / Connected TV platform and VoD (Video on Demand) distribution service to third-party consumer electronics devices. Vudu is also available within PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, iPad, TiVo Roamio, Roku devices (such as Roku 2, Roku 3, Roku 4 and Roku Stick) and most smartphones via the Vudu app (Android and iOS) which also supports Chromecast use. As of December 2011, the Vudu app within the downloadable version of the Boxee media player is no longer supported, due to DRM and certification requirements.
Vudu Box requires a home broadband Internet connection to deliver movies. Users are given the option of watching a selected movie now or watching it later. The first couple of seconds of every movie within the catalog are loaded onto the Vudu Box's hard drive, ensuring instant playback when the user chooses to watch a given film. The remainder of the movie is delivered to the box via an exclusive peer-to-peer network. This process begins instantaneously while the user views the loaded portion of the movie, allowing for seamless viewing. The movie then finishes downloading to the box’s hard drive. Users are able to set the amount of bandwidth the box uses, with settings at 1 Mbit/s (Delayed movies), 2 Mbit/s (Instant standard-definition movies), and 4 Mbit/s (Instant high-definition movies).