Vongo

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Vongo is a video on demand service, owned by Liberty Media's Starz Entertainment, parent company of the Starz! network, that allows the user to download and view movies for a fixed price per month.

Contents 1 Service provided 2 Technical overview 3 Criticism 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Service provided

Vongo requires a high-speed broadband connection, and is only available to users in the United States. The service claims to offer high quality video playback of over 1,000 movies and 2,500 total video selections. Members pay a flat fee of US$9.99 per month, and have access to unlimited downloads during the 30 day period. Separately, certain release are available for pay-per-view; they incur a separate fee, and are only viewable for 24 hours. Users also have access to a streaming version of the Starz movie channel.

[edit] Technical overview

Vongo uses Adobe/Macromedia Flash Software developed by Schematic. (Source: Flashback Flash Future section of Adobe webpage,10.25.06). Additionally, the service uses Microsoft's Digital Rights Management, an encryption that regulates on which device files can be played or whether or not they can be burned onto discs. The software is compatible with PCs running Windows XP or Vista. Movies can be transferred and played on up to 3 devices but cannot be transferred to external drives or other storage media.

Currently, movies downloaded through Vongo are only viewable with the service's software. They are viewable within the confines of a certain time period; some movies are available for weeks, some for months. Once a movie expires, it is automatically deleted from the user's hard drive. The service claims an average download time of 30 to 40 minutes on a 90-minute movie.

Users of Linux are unable to view the Vongo web site and get redirected to an "Incompatible OS" error site.

Vongo is not accessible to Macintosh users. The company hopes that the service will be available to these users in the future, but it is unknown when this will take place. The issue is that Vongo does not have access to Apple's version of the Digital Rights Management. Support for the iPod video is rumored to be in the works but can't be made available until support for the Macintosh is added.

Movies downloaded on Vongo can be transferred to portable devices that support version 2 of the Windows Portable Media Center. Currently, Series S and Series V Gigabeat devices from Toshiba Corporation have support for use with Vongo.

Technical support is provided from Manila, Philippines.

[edit] Criticism

Vongo comes pre-installed on HP and Compaq Laptops, takes up large amounts of memory and does not uninstall correctly. In addition, some users of the software report that is has required the user to modify the registry in order to stop it from constantly attempting to reinstall itself upon startup. ^{[1] [2] [3] [4]}

Vongo offers a list of movies that are new this week - they do this to make it look like they are always adding content - it's completely false. While some movies are indeed new, many of them have been on the service for a long time, and are simply posted as new to make vongo look better.

All of the service I have received so far has sucked, and it has also been outsourced 100%. Even when I call in, 95% I get hung up on before I can even talk to someone.

While the download service does work fast, and somewhat reliably, the content is old, static, and BS. Vongo needs work, and it isn't worth $10 a month yet in my opinion.

[edit] References

1. ^ http://forums.cnet.com/5208-7587_102-0.html?forumID=69&threadID=201778&messageID=2163108
2. ^ http://www.j2eegeek.com/blog/2006/01/05/no-vongo-for-me/
3. ^ http://www.j2eegeek.com/blog/comments/feed/
4. ^ http://blogs.chron.com/helpline/archives/2006/11/vong_will_not_u.html

[edit] External links

• Home page
• Review of Vongo
• Free removal of Vongo