Digital Locker

What Are Digital Lockers?

Digital lockers are free services that allow you to purchase a digital movie from one retailer and share that purchase with other retailers that are part of the service. UltraViolet (https://www.myuv.com/) was first on the scene with the idea that digital movies should not be limited to where you bought. UltraViolet was the first digital locker that allowed you to link your movies from one retailer to another. It is important to note that not all movies were or are part of a digital locker and you are stuck watching the movie to limited devices that will play from the retailer you purchased your digital movie from but things are changing.

Digital lockers allow you to keep movies purchased from retailers that may go out of business. Like I mentioned in a previous post, I was able to get free digital movies in the beginning as retailer tried to lure me to using their product. Two such retailers were Flixster and CinemaNow (Best Buy owned). My retailer of choice is Vudu (Walmart owned). I know a few who have their preferred retailer like Amazon/Amazon Prime, Google Play, and iTunes. Thanks to Disney Movies Anywhere (a direct competitor to UltraViolet), you can have your preferred retailer and many other options for purchasing.

UltraViolet vs Disney

At first, I was very disappointed that Disney (who now seems to own 80% of all movie franchises I like) was not part of UltraViolet. They instead launched their own digital locker called Disney Movies Anywhere. Unlike UltraViolet that syncs between Vudu, FandagoNow, Paramount, Sony, Verizon FiOS, and a few others, Disney Movies Anywhere syncs between Vudu, Amazon, Google Play, iTunes, and Microsoft. In 2017, Disney re branded their service to Movies Anywhere (https://moviesanywhere.com/) and was able to get all major studios with the notable exceptions at the time of this writing of Paramount and Lionsgate studios to join with their digital locker.

At the time of this writing, UltraViolet still exists and is currently the only digital locker that includes TV series but it is definitely on life support with nearly every major studio now working with Movies Anywhere. FandangoNow who supports UltraViolet is limiting what it supports. Several retailers are making sure to put the Movies Anywhere and/or UltraViolet logos next to the movie you are purchasing so you know whether the movie will go into your digital locker.

Benefits

Why are digital lockers so important? To get the most for your money. Movies Anywhere has made it where retailers have nearly the same price for the same digital movie. However, each retailer has sales. In one case, I was looking at the classic Forbidden Planet to purchase. Most places had it well over $10 but by luck, I found it on Amazon for $5 and it was Movies Anywhere compatible. I have found Amazon has many of the movies in my wish list a dollar or two less than other retailers. Add to that the $1 off digital content for using no rush delivery and you get additional savings for purchasing a digital movie.

Vudu is My Preferred Retailer

I still have purchased or converted many more movies through Vudu. If you haven’t yet, definitely get a Vudu account and link it with your Walmart saving catcher. Black Friday 2018, I purchased five movies on sale. Since my Walmart savings catcher is linked to my Vudu and all the movies included Instawatch, all five movies were in my Vudu before I was out of the store. The main reason for getting a Vudu account is Disc to Digital which I will discuss in another post.