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Movies Anywhere - New Digital Movie Locker

Update: Now available.

It's live!

https://moviesanywhere.com

So far it looks like everyone is ready except Vudu. That's not able to connect, but iTunes, Amazon, and Google are good to go.

Original Post:

Its been rumored that Disney was courting other studios, now it's officially happening: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...-are-said-to-join-forces-for-download-service

Several major Hollywood movie studios have signed up to a new digital film service led by Walt Disney Co. that lets consumers buy movies and store them in a digital locker to access on their devices, people familiar with the matter said.

Disney has been courting studios to join its Movies Anywhere service since last year, Bloomberg News reported at the time. Customers can buy, watch and store their online film purchases at a single site through the product. Major studios such as 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros. and Universal Pictures are among those joining the service, the people said. The plan could be announced as soon as this week, they said.

Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures is the only one of the six major studios that isn't joining Movies Anywhere, because of a disagreement over financial terms, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private. Paramount, maker of the Transformers films, and smaller Lions Gate Entertainment Corp., home of ”The Hunger Games," are supportive of the concept and may join later, two people said.

As anyone who has bought any Disney movies recently should know, they developed an alternative to UltraViolet that the major service providers (Apple, Amazon, Google, etc) we're down with. Buy a movie on any service, watch it on the others. It brings digital ownership to a whole new level, where you no longer have to worry about being locked to a single ecosystem. Say you have some iTunes movies but want to watch them on a Roku or Fire TV, well that's possible now. Or say Wal-Mart drops Vudu and that service dies, the movies you bought there won't die with it. It also means that even if you're happy with one service, you can take advantage of sales on another one. Real competition, real ownership. This was always the intent of UltraViolet but the execution was flawed, and without the major services on board it was virtually pointless anyways. DMA fixed everything that was wrong with UV, and now most other studios are following suit (with the holdouts being inevitable).

It's about damn time. Thank you Disney.


Say that services only caved to Disney because that mouse muscle and would never agree to adopt a wider ranging system with other studios because they get nothing out of it if old.

first thread sorry if it sucks
 
As long as we can have cross-platform libraries between Ultraviolet and Movies Anywhere, I don't have a problem with this and if I'm reading this correctly, that's happening so i'm likely good?
 

louiedog

Member
Sounds good so far. I had a bunch of expiring MS credit and bought some movies with it and thankfully because of DMA I can watch the Disney ones on every device I have even though MS doesn't have an app on any non-MS devices (AFAIK). I can watch something like Tron Legacy on my Nexus Player in the bedroom, various apps on my Samsung TV, download it to my Windows tablet, my Android phone, etc. while using good, friendly apps.

I really dislike watching stuff in my UV library because the apps are terrible or missing on some devices. I forget which one it was, but there was only one app available on that device and it had a bug that caused movies to play at double speed because it wasn't expecting 60hz output I guess.
 

Oozer3993

Member
Disney Movies Anywhere is awesome. The more, the merrier. If I buy the Blu-ray of a Disney movie, I can watch the digital copy through Xbox Video on my Xbox, Amazon on my PS4, and Google on my phone, for no extra cost. It's awesome.
 
As long as we can have cross-platform libraries between Ultraviolet and Movies Anywhere, I don't have a problem with this and if I'm reading this correctly, that's happening so i'm likely good?

Vudu is supported, so I would assume it could act as a bridge between UV and MA. I've seen no information about how this effects UV directly though, but good chances that service is now dead (good riddance imo).
 
Vudu is supported, so I would assume it could act as a bridge between UV and MA. I've seen no information about how this effects UV directly though, but good chances that service is now dead (good riddance imo).

While there is certainly a lot of shortcomings of Vudu and trust me I know there are, I will be saddened by any UV platform closing its doors simply because I am so invested into them.

If Movies Anywhere can be everything we want it to be without any compromise than maybe its fine but I want to be able to access all the movies I own digitally in perpetuity and any large gain of the market in a single app/company etc. worries me.

Again though with the number of studios in this and with UV seemingly being cross-compatible (whatever you call it), I'm hopeful although cautiously so
 

Riptwo

Member
I hope that this comes to Canada, especially because Ultraviolet support here is an absolute train wreck with no options like VUDU. Disney Movies Anywhere still doesn't work here, so I'm not super optimistic.
 
Small update: studios have begun tweeting the services logo with hashtag #anywhereiscoming

Twitter.com/hashtag/anywhereiscoming

Also, Disney’s DMA banner is being removed from streaming services and their website is down for maintenance.

Launch could be happening tomorrow it looks like. Certainly within a week.
 

//ARCANUM

Member
All I want is to be able to buy movies on iTunes and then watch them via my TCL Roku TV. I don’t want to buy an Apple TV just for itunes movies when my tv does literally everything else. (And I like having movies on iTunes too because I watch them on my iPad while traveling.) iTunes + Vudu + Amazon + Hulu + HBO in one place will be killer.
 

efyu_lemonardo

May I have a cookie?
So basically buy once, watch anywhere?

Sounds like a definite improvement over what we currently have.
Are there any downsides?
 

Syriel

Member
Not a fan. DMA doesn't allow library sharing through Vudu.

That's because VUDU "library sharing" is just UV library sharing. It's not really VUDU library sharing.

DMA syncs across multiple different services that UV doesn't support.
 
I saw on Slickdeals, you get up to five free movies if you sync two libraries. Jason Bourne, Ice Age, some others. I'll post it up if I remember.

This will be nice to get my languishing movies off iTunes and Google movies.

Oh, and now I can make use of a Fire device. That's pretty cool.
 
Welp so much for my raiders of the lost ark digital copy finally joining the rest of my library. Why it had an itunes specific code is beyond me.
 

Ashhong

Member
Damn, maybe I should start redeeming my digital copy codes now. I never knew what service to do it to so I never bothered..
 

X05

Upside, inside out he's livin la vida loca, He'll push and pull you down, livin la vida loca
I read about it yesterday, thought it was just a rumour.

DMA works with iTunes, Amazon, Google and Vudu, so this is a win in my book.
 

Cheebo

Banned
Biggest win of this over UV is...I trust Disney to keep this service in tact 10+ years from now...UV not so much.
 
Biggest win of this over UV is...I trust Disney to keep this service in tact 10+ years from now...UV not so much.

And the thing is, assuming this works just like DMA, even if this program ended or you lost your account, any movies you already link to iTunes, Amazon, etc are there permanently. So multiple layers of ownership security there.
 

Snaku

Banned
UV has basically become a failed platform because Apple refused to support it, and then Amazon withdrew their pledge to support it once it became clear Apple was out. UV's crime was trying to unify these different ecosystems before any of these content provider was ready to do so. They were all still trying to compete with their walled gardens, and locking consumers within their platform. It doesn't look like Movies Anywhere really provides any advantage over UV other than it now works on iTunes and Amazon, which UV absolutely could do if either of those companies wanted it to. My only guess as to why both of those companies are now on board with a platform agnostic digital locker system is that unlike UV, MA doesn't support family sharing.
 

Mindwipe

Member
UV has basically become a failed platform because Apple refused to support it, and then Amazon withdrew their pledge to support it once it became clear Apple was out. UV's crime was trying to unify these different ecosystems before any of these content provider was ready to do so. They were all still trying to compete with their walled gardens, and locking consumers within their platform. It doesn't look like Movies Anywhere really provides any advantage over UV other than it now works on iTunes and Amazon, which UV absolutely could do if either of those companies wanted it to. My only guess as to why both of those companies are now on board with a platform agnostic digital locker system is that unlike UV, MA doesn't support family sharing.

The reason Apple supports Movies Anywhere is because Disney has people on the Apple board, why would they care about family sharing?
 
UV has basically become a failed platform because Apple refused to support it, and then Amazon withdrew their pledge to support it once it became clear Apple was out. UV's crime was trying to unify these different ecosystems before any of these content provider was ready to do so. They were all still trying to compete with their walled gardens, and locking consumers within their platform. It doesn't look like Movies Anywhere really provides any advantage over UV other than it now works on iTunes and Amazon, which UV absolutely could do if either of those companies wanted it to. My only guess as to why both of those companies are now on board with a platform agnostic digital locker system is that unlike UV, MA doesn't support family sharing.

I believe the issue was that UV asked the service providers to contribute to the cost of sharing, where now MA rests all the cost on the studios, which didn’t see it as a worthy investment until now when disk sales are slipping but digital isn’t growing fast enough to balance it out.
 
D

Deleted member 284

Unconfirmed Member
This is great! The studios are starting to realize that legitimate customers should have equal or more flexibility than piracy options.
 

rjinaz

Member
Vudu is supported, so I would assume it could act as a bridge between UV and MA. I've seen no information about how this effects UV directly though, but good chances that service is now dead (good riddance imo).

God I hope so. I have over 1000 digital movies on Vudu. Don't hurt me Disney.
 

Snaku

Banned
God I hope so. I have over 1000 digital movies on Vudu. Don't hurt me Disney.

A vudu employee had been leaking lists of movies that were gradually being added to the MA database over the last month or so. I'm assuming if a title in your library is tagged as MA it'll just automatically port to any other movie service you have it linked to.

I hope UV doesn't die immediately, it doesn't look like MA covers television shows atm.
 
A vudu employee had been leaking lists of movies that were gradually being added to the MA database over the last month or so. I'm assuming if a title in your library is tagged as MA it'll just automatically port to any other movie service you have it linked to.

I hope UV doesn't die immediately, it doesn't look like MA covers television shows atm.

I’m sure UV will continue to exist for a long time, but I doubt the studios will continue supporting it in new releases. At least not where MA is available.

I do hope TV is added at some point too though. Or a separate TV Anywhere program.
 

Weevilone

Member
So what about movies that were redeemed on other UV providers, so they're on Vudo simply because of UV sync? I rarely redeem directly on Vudu because when I had problems, they were useless.

I mostly only cared about UV and Vudu because of family sharing. I'm buying the disks anyways and use those, but my extended family could watch them too.

It's live!

https://moviesanywhere.com

So far it looks like everyone is ready except Vudu. That's not able to connect, but iTunes, Amazon, and Google are good to go.
 
So what about movies that were redeemed on other UV providers, so they're on Vudo simply because of UV sync? I rarely redeem directly on Vudu because when I had problems, they were useless.

I mostly only cared about UV and Vudu because of family sharing. I'm buying the disks anyways and use those, but my extended family could watch them too.

It's live!

https://moviesanywhere.com

So far it looks like everyone is ready except Vudu. That's not able to connect, but iTunes, Amazon, and Google are good to go.

Yessss

iTunes and Amazon accounts connected, just waiting on VUDU to get their shit together

Edit: my MA account recognizes that those accounts are hooked up, and those accounts recognize they are hooked up, because each one now has those 6 free movies. But my other purchases haven't started sharing yet
 
So what about movies that were redeemed on other UV providers, so they're on Vudo simply because of UV sync? I rarely redeem directly on Vudu because when I had problems, they were useless.

I mostly only cared about UV and Vudu because of family sharing. I'm buying the disks anyways and use those, but my extended family could watch them too.

It's live!

https://moviesanywhere.com

So far it looks like everyone is ready except Vudu. That's not able to connect, but iTunes, Amazon, and Google are good to go.

Well that was fast.
 

robotrock

Banned
so my Fast and the Furious movies from iTunes are accessible on Movies Anywhere. But they are not accessible on Google Play, but some of my Google Play movies are accessible on iTunes.
 
Well that was quick, Amazon and iTunes successfully merged. Once VUDU is up I'm going to be ecstatic

so my Fast and the Furious movies from iTunes are accessible on Movies Anywhere. But they are not accessible on Google Play, but some of my Google Play movies are accessible on iTunes.

Give it time, my stuff was taking a bit to sync. There's a lot of movies and accounts that gotta pass through this system
 

Weevilone

Member
Lot of people on various forums warning that UV doesn't get ported to MA, just content from the retailer. I'm guessing that means that UV content redeemed on the studio page, or on Flixster, etc.. don't get ported. It's sorta tough to separate Vudu from UV mentally though, since essentially all UV codes could have been redeemed there.

If all that's true, anyone that redeemed on Vudu or iTunes directly are in business I guess. I used one or the other for the longest time, but after having some problems with Vudu redemptions and having Vudu ALWAYS point the finger elsewhere.. I moved on and it became a viewing portal only. Flixster customer service was the BEST.

On another note, I guess it's time to redeem those Fox UHD codes on iTunes if Apple has them in UHD.
 
Does it give you the free movies automatically or do they have to be manually redeemed? Call me weird but I don't want some of those stinking up my library.
 
So do I log into this with my DMA account, or create a new account and link everything to it?

Create a new account, it'll offer to link your DMA account if it has the same email address, then you hook everything else up

Does it give you the free movies automatically or do they have to be manually redeemed? Call me weird but I don't want some of those stinking up my library.

Automatically
 
Lot of people on various forums warning that UV doesn't get ported to MA, just content from the retailer. I'm guessing that means that UV content redeemed on the studio page, or on Flixster, etc.. don't get ported. It's sorta tough to separate Vudu from UV mentally though, since essentially all UV codes could have been redeemed there.

If all that's true, anyone that redeemed on Vudu or iTunes directly are in business I guess. I used one or the other for the longest time, but after having some problems with Vudu redemptions and having Vudu ALWAYS point the finger elsewhere.. I moved on and it became a viewing portal only. Flixster customer service was the BEST.

Though this does mean anything bought using disc to digital on Vudu should work.
 
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