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Vudu first began showing up in Best Buy locations back in late-March and at the time it was just 24 locations, all of which were located in California. The limited availability was thought to be a testing period to make sure the devices would be able to sell as expected.

Well, jump forward a little over a month and it looks like it must have been successful because Vudu and Best Buy have just announced a little more widespread availability, however it is still not nationwide.

They have remained in California, but also expanded to Arizona and Illinois, all in all it looks like they are now available in almost 70 Best Buy locations. In addition to the move into Best Buy locations in other states, Vudu has also recently added 35 new movies to own and 30 new movies to rent.

Via [CrunchGear]

http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/07/02/vudu-continues-to-infiltrate-best-buy/

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Vudu has just released a wireless accessory kit for their set-top box. The new kit will allow current Vudu box owners to easily add a wireless connection for $79. While it would have been nice to see the new Vudu boxes begin to offer wireless connectivity built-in, they are also offering a bundle for anyone who is still planning a purchase, the bundle includes the set-top box along with the wireless kit and retails for $349, which offers you about a $30 savings if you purchased each on their own.

While a wireless connection for streaming movies is not always ideal, it is preferred by many simply for the convenience of not having to run a new Internet line out to the TV area. The wireless kit, according to Vudu is plug-and-play and should just take a few minutes to get set up. The kit comes with an adapter that you plug into your home network and also your current Vudu box. After those are plugged in, you should be all set to enjoy your movies.

Product [Vudu]

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A recent interview with Tim Twerdahl, the VP of Consumer Products for Roku shed some more, and slightly interesting details on the recently released, and still hard to get Netflix Player.

The player is powered by an NXP processor, and is running a customized (although unstated) version of Linux. The Roku development team also choose to use flash memory as opposed to a hard drive for a few reasons. The flash memory will have less failure issues, it was more cost effective and they also wanted to avoid putting in a fan, quite simply because feedback from home theater enthusiasts stated “they don’t want to hear fan noise.“

The fan noise is very understandable, however the interesting (at least to me) part is that the device is running Linux. I am sure there is a logical reason, but how come I cannot stream the movies at my house on a Linux or Mac computer because of compatibility issues, but they can with this device. While I imagine it has something to do with that previously mentioned customized version of Linux, but this also tells me that there should be a work around for home Linux users.

In the meantime, my Roku Netflix Player has been collecting dust, mostly due to the lack of available content. There are an estimated 10,000 movies currently available, which is low considering the total Netflix has to offer, but high compared to the less than 3,000 they were offering a year ago. I am still holding out hope for more to come soon, because the player is actually a nice box that does work well. Sadly, for those who are still looking to make a purchase there is still about a two week wait for any new Roku Netflix Player orders.

Via [Hot Hardware]

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Vudu has just given their set-top-box a nice update, now at software version 1.5 it brings one update that some will consider very important. The new feature is movie rental extensions. Now, with the new software if, or for some, when you fail to finish watching your rented movie in the 24-48 hour time frame you can now have the option to get an extension for a discounted price.

Now if you let that time window pass you by, then for a discount of $2 for HD movies, $1 for standard movies and $50 off the $.99 cent movies you can re-rent it. Of course there are a few catches, the discounted rental extension period will only be available for 7 days after the movie expires and the movie can only be extended once.

With a feature that seems so obvious, it almost makes you wonder why it has not been done before. It will be interesting to see if or more than likely when similar movie download services will have a similar offering.

Via [CrunchGear]

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Vudu, while maybe not attracting quite as much attention as originally hoped, are proving they are still alive in the small but welcomed movie set-top-box market. The Vudu box was originally launched back in the Fall of 2007, but sales may have been slow because of the limited availability, up till now it could only be found directly with Vudu or with Amazon.com.

However customers can now purchase the Vudu box in one of 24 Best Buy outlets in California, which should help overall sales and awareness of the product. While the management from Vudu would not comment on the strategy behind the limited availability of Best Buy locations, its safe to assume that they are most likely looking to see just how well they will sell.

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Spring has arrived in the Eastern United States, and rumors are in the air. One of which is that Blockbuster is working on a Vudu like set top box to get movies out to consumers, without having them leave their homes.  As the story goes, Blockbuster will be working with Movielink, a company that Blockbuster purchased a while back, to provide the service. Movielink already has a similar service in place.

A spokesperson, for the brick and mortar grandpa of the movie game, stated that the company wants to push out movies through, “mail, through kiosks, through downloading, and through portable content-enabled devices.”  With the last bit in mind, it seems Blockbuster is attempting to compete with the Apple TV and Vudu. My fanboy status aside, I find it hard to believe that a company which focuses on entertainment, can put out a quality hardware rivaling that of a

computer

consumer electronics company like Apple. Stay tuned to Gadgetell for more as it develops.

Read [SlashGear]

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