Renting Movies Online: In-home movie streamers

Vudu
Price: $299.99 $99.99 (limited time)
Movie price: Rentals from $0.99; Purchases from $4.99
Our take: Though it's the most expensive player of the bunch, Vudu's BX100 is nothing short of amazing. In terms of both style and operation, it's several cuts above the competition and offers the best video quality you can find from an on-demand box.

Weighing in at 4.2 pounds, the BX100 is the biggest and heaviest player we reviewed. Yet despite its noticeable heft, this is one set top box you won't want to hide. It features a glossy black exterior with curves that allow it to blend in with any home theater component. Under its hood you'll find a slightly loud 250GB hard drive whereas Ethernet, component, composite, HDMI, and two USB ports round out the rear (one of the USB ports can be used for expansion.) Generally speaking, we had no setup troubles with any of the three players, but Vudu takes the setup process several steps further by making installation foolproof. Just connect the box to your TV (an HDMI cable is included), plug the Ethernet cable into your router, and connect the Vudu box to a power outlet. After a 2-minute bootup, you're greeted with the Vudu home page. It's that simple. Unfortunately, the BX100 does not include wireless support, so you'll need to hard wire the device to your router. Otherwise, Vudu offers the Vudu Wireless Kit ($99, Best Buy), which comes with two pre-configured wireless adapters.

The Vudu remote is our favorite remote of the bunch, with a mouse-like scroll wheel that lets you quickly navigate through the device's on-screen menu. The remote is oddly shaped, but fits comfortably inside the palm of your hand. You can even adjust the remote's sensitivity via the BX100's control settings.

The Vudu homepage consists of five tabs which include Most Watched, New on Vudu, Explore Catalog, My Vudu, and Info & Settings. Below the tabs you'll find a row of cover art for about 20 movies. Once you select a movie, you're taken to a new page which offers a synopsis and rating of the movie along with a brief preview and a column of actor and director info. Clicking on any of the actors' names takes you to a list of movies they've starred in. The Vudu interface is like a streamlined version of the Internet Movie Database, which is what makes it so much fun to use.

After you select to purchase or rent a movie, playback begins instantaneously. Standard def movies looked crisp, with little to no pixelation. HD movies (1080p) were noticeably sharper, yet loaded just as fast. Vudu's claim to fame, however, is its HDX movie lineup. HDX movies are displayed in 1080p at 24 frames per second, which preserves the native 24-frame-per-second rate of film. This means you'll get the absolute sharpest image available. However, if your TV doesn't support that frame rate (and many new TVs don't), you won't be able to watch HDX movies and will have to choose the 1080i output instead.

Each HDX rental takes about 5 hours to download. Fortunately, you can begin the download process online by signing into your Vudu account and selecting the movie you want to watch at a later time. So if you're at work, you can begin the download process in the morning and have a new HDX movie waiting for you by the time you get home. While not ideal, the HDX movies are worth the wait, and Vudu offers over 11,000 HDX titles including The Dark Knight, Iron Man, The Strangers, Hancock, and Sex and the City. Detail in HDX films is incredibly sharp to the point where it almost reaches Blu-ray quality. Specks of dirt, beads of sweat, and facial imperfections pop out just like you would expect them to on a Blu-ray disc. If your TV supports 1080p/24, the BX100 is the best way to flex its inner muscle. Prurient viewers can also appreciate Vudu's adult AVN channel, which includes titles in 1080p. (Of note, parental controls are available if you want to block certain movies.)

Price-wise, Vudu relies on an a la carte pay scale. After inputting your credit card information, you're charged $50. Each time you buy or rent a movie, that movie's price is deducted from your $50 credit. Once you reach $5, another $50 is automatically charged. Like Apple TV, the BX100 comes with restrictions. Rentals, for instance, are only good for 30 days (or 24 hours after you initiate play). There's also no way of transferring purchased movies from the BX100 to a portable video player, like the iPod.

Bargain hunters will be glad to know that Vudu offers a bargain bin option with 99 titles each priced at $0.99. They're not the newest titles, but the selection includes HDX movies and rivaled Netflix's Watch Instantly catalog.

Currently, Vudu is offering the BX100 for $99, $200 off, when you purchase it directly through Vudu. At that price, the BX100 sounds like the best bargain of the bunch. But even at $99, there's no way around the cost of the content. In addition, the company is still fairly new. Others, such as Moviebeam, have tried this market and failed. The last thing you want is a $99 paper weight. Fortunately, Vudu has upgraded the player's firmware and added free on-demand channels along with support for YouTube and Flickr. The on-demand channels feature lifestyle, travel, cooking, and tech segments, with the average clip ranging just below 10 minutes.

Verdict: Despite being the new kid on the block, the Vudu BX100 is a couch potato's dream set top box, delivering more movies and TV shows than you know what to do with. HD quality is top of the line and the service's HDX format kicks things up further, reaching near Blu-ray quality. However, the BX100 makes it dangerously easy to spend too much money on movies, and with its pay-as-you-go pricing scheme, things could get expensive, which prevents us from recommending the Vudu box to anyone who's looking to save money. As a result, despite its spectacular video quality and superb features, the BX100 remains the movie box of choice for well-minted movie fans who can afford it.