As efficient as the Vudu RF remote with scroll wheel is, many folks would prefer to control their home theater via a single remote. So, Vudu’s introduced an IR Receiver Kit today at $39. In addition to the pricey IR dongle, the pricey Vudu XL ($999) with additional storage and IP-based home control hooks is now shipping. On the software side, they’re pushing out v1.3 which includes the ability to archive purchased video in the cloud (their servers) and delete content from the local drive. There’s a few other modifications, but this clever one caught my eye:
VUDU users may now move from one episode of a TV series to the previous or following episode without navigating back to the season heading. For example, once on the episode details page for ?24? season 2/episode 3, users will be presented with the buttons ?next? or ?previous? to go directly to neighboring episodes.
I frequently question the need for (yet another) dedicated set-top box, but I’ve got to give the Vudu folks credit for these rapid and useful updates. I’m on the road this week, but will explore this one when I get home.
Bonus coverage: Gizmodo’s put together an interesting AppleTV/Vudu/Xbox360 chart.
