I too have been considering some sort of media storage.
I do think that the deal that the Outlaws are presenting is a great deal. Audio stores in my area who sell the VUDU do not offer any side dishes with the purchase.
However my draw-back from the VUDU then and now is the rental fees for movies. It seems that they are a little steep. $5.99? Purchase of a movie as high as $24.00. Ouch!

I currently have a imac from Apple and was thinking about buying a couple of external hardrives. One for music and movies.
I have a good friend who is a computer geek who would hook it up and after downloading movies and music on the imac I will be able to view them on my 100" diagonal screen via wireless.
Of course I already have the main component, the imac.
I get my rentals from Blockbusters. $32.00 a month unlimited rentals @ two movies a rental.

My cost should amount to no more than $500.00 for the setup. I am not sure about the logistics but I am seriously considering the above idea.

Unless for some reason I am unable to do the above why VUDU?
The cost of the movies from VUDU is my turnoff.

This thread was never going to be about the 997. And since I haven't seen any mention of Sherwood R-972's arriving at retail, it would be safe to say that the 997 is still be sitting in line behind the 972.
And an option for a whole bunch of half-price credit. It's certainly different for Outlaw, but I can see there being a real market for it.

This offering is interesting, even if it may not really fit with my family's current movie-viewing habits. I poked around on Vudu's site a bit, and I can see where it could have some real appeal to people under the right circumstances. I'm something of a "physical media" type person - I get some songs off iTunes on occasion, but I still buy CD's as much or moreso than I download music. As such, I'm not terribly keen to build a library of downloaded movies, being more likely to rent or pick up a DVD/Blu-ray to keep on the shelf. On top of that, our schedules are such that we use the one-at-a-time Netflix service and still have to carve out time to watch those discs, so we're less likely to use an on-demand rental service. Even still, I can see how a wide array of good HD being available for spur of the moment movie choices could be very cool - especially if it does work "instantly" or close to it (unlike what some other systems like iTunes/AppleTV's rental setup, which I've tried a bit and found very underwhelming).
There's a note in the VUDU XL manual indicating that they plan to add support for external NAS via a firmware update, which would let you go as big as you want to build an array.

Interesting. I'm sure a lot of folks will like this. I like the concept, but having just added a Bluray player, and joined BB online, I am content at the moment. I will have 4-5 Bluray rentals in my hands at once by Monday (already have 3) and need to figure out when I can watch them. Besides that, cost is a major driving factor. For $16.99/month I am getting all the movies I can watch. Like Gonk, I'm a hardware-in-my-hands type who likes the physical media aspect.

Best of luck Outlaw!

oh well....congrats to Outlaw for expanding their horizons. I'm not particularly fired up for Vudu. The cost is a bit steep, all for the ability to spend more money. I'd rather just pick and choose my movies at the store. But that's me, to each his own.

Vudu is a great product for the right user. I think this is a major announcement for Outlaw Audio, but it is probably not for me. I have access to instant movies over my PS3 and have never used it once. I think that getting $1,000 worth of movie rentals for $500 makes the $5.99/movie fee a little more palatable and I believe those fees will come down as the competition heats up in this area. But I don't know how many people will drop $1,500 for video on demand.

I think the thing that strikes me most about this announcement is that it is not what I think of when I think of Outlaw Audio. I think of audio engineers producing great products. This announcement is a move toward being a pass-through retailer.

There is some uniqueness here, something only available from Outlaw, and I don't think this is a trend, but it is interesting nevertheless.

Interesting for sure but I think I will save my $ and put it toward a 997 when it becomes available. I like many here prefer the hands on approach when it comes to purchasing movies. I don't see much benefit to saving space while spending lots of cash to do it.

I would like to see just how good a picture and sound vudu has to offer in an actual system. If someone does buy this unit please let us know what you think of it when compared to BD.

I have to agree that the VUDU is not what I was expecting. I was hoping for some news about the 997 and maybe a combo deal with an amp or maybe some speakers. Maybe when the market resolves itself I will think about the VUDU. Right now I need to spend my $$$ where I know Outlaws excell.

I think I am in agreement with several others here. Vudu sounds neat but it is not something I am interested in buying. I might have considered something more along the lines of a high quality media server where I could store my music and videos. I would be really interested in a server that could store my SACD, DVD-A, CD, DVD, and BD media and replay it with excellent audio/video quality. The ideal unit would be a combination of the new Oppo BDP-83 with a TB of storage and some good media server software to run it all. Oh yea, throw in the ability to serve the recorded bit streams across an IP connection to remote rooms with a small box that converts the IP encapsulated bit stream into an HDMI output to drive a remote system and now you have something I would be willing to spend my $$$ on!

And of course we would want that all with Outlaw quality and pricing!

Hopefully this will be a plus for Outlaw, but it's a bit of a disappointment for me. It's not something I'd choose to spend money on.

This last part sounds like a video version of a Logitech Transporter, Squeezebox or Duet (in descending quality order). I agree that an Outlaw video (and audio) versions of one of these could be a real winner. Possibly even a partnership with Logitech who would seem to have a vested interest in a lower end, high volume product. If it had a reasonable sized flash hard drive, it could probably present hd video over an 802.11G wireless home network. This would be a great front end device for the 997 with its video processing chips.