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Hollywood Backs Swedish Movie Streaming Site
paulraps writes "Forget Spotify and Skype: the latest strangely-named-but-hey-it's-free service from Sweden offers users streamed on-demand movies free of charge, has deals with two major Hollywood studios, and is called Voddler. Since its launch two weeks ago, the service has signed up a quarter of a million users and has almost the same number queuing for an invitation. After signing deals with Disney and Paramount, the company provides access to thousands of films, which are shown uninterrupted after a barrage of ads. The target is the file-sharing generation: 'Our customers can be sure that Voddler is totally legal, secure, and that there are no risks of computer viruses infecting their machines from downloaded files,' says executive vice president Zoran Slavic."
Here's what happens when you access their site.
First you are presented with a very sparse page with a couple areas you can put your name and email address to "register".
Next, if you are so inclined, you enter your email address and name.
Then it says "Thanks for your interest in Voddler!"
Then you receive an email informing you that actually you didn't actually register since the site isn't actually open yet.
I suppose it was a good idea to use a throwaway account for this.
You're an idiot. This is not a phising site, this is a completely legit site, and those who are with the ISP "Bredbandsbolaget" can already use the service. It's the same type of business model that spotify uses. And frankly, if you ever get your fat ass out of the US you'll see how many services aren't available for the rest of us. Not everything comes instantly, jackass.
I have been using voddler as a beta tester for a few weeks now and it works quite ok after the last client upgrade. The first mac client was crap, nothing happened when I tried to login and it went fullscreen mode when started plus the program froze so I had to shut down the computer with forced shut down. After the latest client version I was logged in when I started the program, Voddler client is built on XBMC Media Center and you can only use the keyboard to navigate which can be quite annoying when navigating.
Browsing the few movies they have at the moment is fairly easy (only about 500 movies or so). First I get a commercial and then the movie plays nicely on just 10-12Mbit adsl line. I have heard that there was commercial breaks in the movies, but I haven't seen any commercial in a movie so far, just the commercial just before the movie starts which can be 10 minutes long or so.
For a beta I think it's a nice product which works quite well for me. Especially since the last update on the client which allows you to go into windowed mode which I forgot to mention further up in my text.
I believe that Voddler can be great once the new movies pop in and the beta goes into full product. The client has only crashed on me once and when I started it up again and found my movie I was looking at I could start where it ended.
uninterrupted barrage of ads
Why, oh why do they insist on this selling point of "no risks of computer viruses".
I'm always concerned that "legitimate" sources will contain a dodgy driver or a rootkit. No such concerns with the latest aXXo rip.
A Swede was caught and fined for speeding on the autobahn.
As Americans, we sometimes willfully ignore facts, as most Americans believe the Autobahn to be this magical road where speed limits don't exist and every can drive as fast as they want.
They are. Just not ALL of them...
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Do I need to pay for Voddler? You will have the choice of advertised movies and pay per view. In the beta version only advertised movies are available.
It is not phishing.
I got an invitation via my ISP Bredbandsbolaget.
Voddler works fine, but has currenly only budget movies to show. But that will change now with the Hollywood deals :).
It also works as advertised; see a few commercials (time to pop the popcorn), and the movie is played without interruption... as long as your network connection is ok :-).
I was very excited about Voddler (I'm a Spotify premium subscriber, and a big movie buff, so it was just what I'd been waiting for), until I read about how the mac client works.
When installed it takes root access (in beta? how can that be safe?), and the server part never shuts down. That's right, when you're not watching a movie, you're still uploading. When you're out and about with your laptop and on a 3G tether, just checking your email and paying for data transfer, you're still uploading. When you have some real uploading to do (for work or whatever), the only way to turn off the Voddler sharing is to uninstall the server part, and then the client and player stops working.
No thanks.