The Ultraviolet DVD service, which let people store purchases movies in the cloud, is shutting down July 31.
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Ultraviolet
DECE, the company that owned the service, said the market is much different than it was when Ultraviolet was announced in 2010.
The marketplace for collecting entertainment content was very small when Ultraviolet started. It was siloed into walled gardens at the time.
Wendy Aylsworth, DECE president
The Movies Anywhere app seems to be largely responsible for Ultraviolet’s decline. Major companies like Apple, Amazon, and Google didn’t support Ultraviolet, but they do support Movies Anywhere.
What To Do
- Login and chose Retailer Services to verify the retailers linked to your Library. If your Library is not currently linked to a retailer or if you would like to link to additional participating retailers, select one or more retailers to link to your Library.
- Don’t unlink or close your Library, as UltraViolet and retailers will be working together to maximize your continued access to movies and TV shows.
Between January 31 and July 31
- You can continue to access your movies and TV shows through the retailer(s) linked to your Library.
- You can also continue to purchase new movies and TV shows and redeem digital codes by following the redemption instructions. Depending on the retailer, these new purchases and redemptions may or may not be added to your UltraViolet Library.
- Linking your Library to additional retailers can maximize your access to your Library and help avoid potential disruption.
After July 31
- Your Library will automatically close and, in the majority of cases, your movies and TV shows will remain accessible at previously-linked retailers.
- You can continue to make online purchases and redeem codes, but these may only be available through that retailer, and will not be added to your UltraViolet Library.
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Ultraviolet is purely a cross-company support standard. They don’t keep or stream movies themselves. Disney’s Movies Anywhere has succeeded in out-playing them at their own game, either by better terms or by force of Disney’s size/power.
For those with movies redeemed through Ultraviolet, the saving grace is that their main (surviving) streaming parter — Vudu — is also signed up with Movies Anywhere. As long as you have a Vudu account, those movies will propagate through a Movies Anywhere account/link from Vudu to Google, Amazon… and Apple iTunes. Nothing lost.
This should just be proof to more people that anything in the cloud or that relies on it will one day not be there. Maybe when you really need it or want it too.
I have many DVD/Blu-ray purchases that were for Ultraviolet and not iTunes. Good thing I didn’t bother with them. This kind of stuff just drives people to Torrents since once downloaded from a torrent, it won’t disappear on them once some company shuts down or the Internet goes out. As long as you have some sort of power you can enjoy your movie or whatever it is.
Yet another ‘cloud is a lie’ service death:
https://www.macobserver.com/columns-opinions/devils-advocate/the-cloud-is-a-lie/