Andre Yoskowitz
10 Sep 2008 23:41
According to an Engadget report, the popular Internet-based movie and TV show rental store VUDU may begin offering HD downloads "equal in quality to Blu-ray movies" soon and is already currently in private beta testing for the new content format, which is dubbed HDX.
If the report is true, the downloads will be over 6GB large and the company would need to address the added lead-in time that is necessary for such a long download. The downloads would take over 2 hours in most cable cases, and over 4 for most DSL users.
The company currently offers SD as well as HD downloads but it appears it is aiming for the high-end home theater owner with this new HDX codec. The custom Vudu XL product offers one terabyte of capacity so this new move does not seem so far fetched.
There was no word from VUDU about the report so there is no details on when HDX will be publicly available, if it becomes available at all. There was no word on pricing however it will certainly be more expensive than the current $5.99 USD VUDU charges for HD rentals.