New Starz Vongo video download service gives portables a big boost

Ok if your gonna purchase a subscription to watch movies I can deal with that...the last thing I want to do is pay twice...the pay per view thing sucks as i can go get a netflix subscription and rent all of those movies they list including pay per view a month for same price...few extra days seem meaningless to wait for the movie by mail as to having to pay for a product twice. Real smart Vongo! Any smart consumer will shoot this down fast.

by lectrcsprx (See profile) - October 1, 2007 11:50 PM PDT

Please, please, please...
stay away from Vongo. run away. fast. Here are the problems with Vongo:
It does not uninstall. Search any message board. Do not take my word for it.
If you think it has uninstalled, you are wrong. Try uninstalling Vongo, then set up a new user in the Windows XP OS. Surprise, Vongo magically reappears! Try it.
Vongo has no meansingful tech support or means to contact them. This may change, but don't count on it.
Vongo is Starz - check the Starz listing - is there anything on Starz you want to watch? There's more to watch on the belly-button lint channel.

I first encountered Vongo as a bloatware add-on pre-installed on a new machine. Obviously I had a low opinion as I tried to uninstall it. My opinion sank from there.

The bottom line is this - Vongo sucks and should be avoided like the plague. - In my own humble opinion.

by stephenselby (See profile) - February 11, 2007 11:17 AM PST

Vongo sucks. No Mac system - so after taking so long they cannot even do the whole of the right thinking computer world, just the PC losers.

by russhart (See profile) - October 7, 2006 2:59 PM PDT

Vongo claims to be compatible with portable players, but as of this posting, no players are currently compatible. The players must use Microsoft PMC version 2.0 and there have only been two manufacturers slated for release with that version -- Toshiba and LG, neither of which have been released. I bought the PMC-120 because this review claimed they were compatible. iRiver has no intentions of developing an MS PMC v2 upgrade. For now, Vongo is only good for downloading videos on computers and converting them to portable formats via hackware.

by dbowles (See profile) - March 23, 2006 5:38 AM PST

James - in your CNET Music Weekly emailed newsletter titled,
"Year of the subscription", you said "According to the Chinese
calendar, this is the year of the dog. According to the digital
media calendar, this is the year of the subscription."

Your "Year of the (MP3/PVP) Subscription" begins with Napster's
death!

I think that will be a harbinger of the immanent fate of all other
MP3 subscription services because it seems increasingly clear
that SJobs was right when he said that most people want to own
their own music - not rent it, and then lose all of it the month
they happen to let their subscription lapse.

And if the non-iTunes MP3 world is never able to come up with
as good a music store system as the iTunes Music Store's that
also sells permanent burnable re-sellable copies of purchased
downloaded WMA or Real/Rhapsody or OggVorbis etc. music the
way the iTMS does, then you are going to see iPod forcing
Creative/Zen and all its WMA-playing ilk out of the MP3 business
- fairly soon.

Vongo looks like it's going to be a big hit (if I understand it
correctly) - even without iPod compatibility, for the same reason
that iPod is a hit - IF (and only if) you get to own what you pay
for the way you can with iTunes.

Meanwhile, first Napster, and then sooner or later, all the other
subscription services will fail. All the enormous investments in
MP3 subscription services are already spiralling down the drain;
the "glug-glug-glug" sound of their complete loss is about to be
heard.

by BurmaYank (See profile) - January 19, 2006 7:46 AM PST

I don't know why all the tech media is talking this horrible stuff up and it really makes me question their allegiances.

How could renting music (for still too much money) that restricts where you can listen to it, on what you can listen to it, where you can transfer it and how long you might be able to listen to it, possibly be a good idea.

What I want is unfettered freedom to play my purchased music, anywhere, any time and as long as I can still get it to play, on the device of my choosing.

Since when does anybody think that allowing the RIAA to impose its draconian measures in order to CONTROL its products usage and to maximize its own profits?

Please correct me if I'm misunderstanding this concept. I will never download music from any of these sites until I get unlimited private use of the music. Is there such a download site?

I also don't want to buy any CDs that have ANY limitations to private usage (as the courts have already set out in fair-use legislation)

Why is the tech media praising this as if it's a suitable approach and customer friendly. Every article I read talks about the bugs and limitations they all try to impose.

Stop giving the company line on this misuse of our fair-use rights under the law!

Confused music fan.

by mrissman (See profile) - January 18, 2006 7:26 PM PST