Vudu app failing on Xbox since early March

[Gamewatcher]

I posted much of the following to the Xbox community last week (revised to reflect recent findings), and the conclusion is that there is a problem with the VUDU streaming app and not my networking or ISP. I would love to know if anyone else is encountering this issue as so far VUDU has implied that they cannot reproduce it and suspect it's an issue with me or Xbox.

I have been grappling with this problem for nearly six months. Xbox support suggested posting to the Xbox forums/community so here I am.

This is fairly exhaustive so please bear with.

In early March, I took an update to the VUDU app on Xbox One X. It introduced a bug where the second thing I tried to watch would fail (no error, just those spinning blue spheres would go on forever). The first thing, whether a trailer, movie, or TV show would work fine. But if I stopped or finished watching something, it would fail.

Since I had two Xbox Ones, I was able to copy the old version of the app (v7.8.49.70) and, apart from annoying nag messages, it continues to work great. I also tested the latest PS4 app and this continues to play videos without issue.

Last month I finally landed an Xbox Series X and learned that Xbox One apps can't be copied to the Series X. All of the apps appear to be Series X native. And, yes, the issue exists on the Series X version of the app and because I wasn't able to secure one at launch or before March (despite many near misses!) I do not have the pre-March version of the app. So now I'm stuck switching to PS4 anytime we want to reliable watch VUDU content.

I have worked with VUDU on several calls and emails (also reported this more than once to Insider support using Report a Problem; my Xbox One X was in the preview program but I have held off on enrolling the Series X in it).

VUDU cannot seem to reproduce the issue. I'm wondering if this is maybe due to my ISP (Comcast Xfinity) or some other external factor - possibly Xbox Live. They keep saying they will escalate to engineering but there is no evidence this has actually happened. I did some traceroute tests for them in July where two servers were reachable and two were not. Last week I tried the same traceroute on my iPhone over AT&T 5G and got the same results. So I doubt it's related to that. I've also tried direct connecting my Xbox to my cable modem (removing the router from the mix) and that didn't help. (Also, my PS4 uses the exact same setup and works fine - as does the earlier version of the Xbox app). I'm guessing maybe this has some relationship to failover or error handling code in the Xbox version of the app?

More recently I've had intermittent success with the VUDU app on my Series X. During this time I tested connecting via my AT&T hotspot but found, after a few days, that either both worked or neither did. So that seems to rule out the ISP angle and suggests some sort of failover bug that didn't exist in the Xbox version of the VUDU app before March. Whatever is fixing this on the backend is a temporary solution at best, since it never seems to last more than a few hours.

So.... we are back at Square One.

My hope is that others with this same issue find this thread and respond (so I know I'm not alone) and/or Xbox + VUDU engineers see this and help identify the issue.

Ultimately, I think the solution is this: VUDU should roll back some of their app code to what they had pre-March and/or mirror the code approach used for streaming in the PS4 app so that it works again on Xbox One and Series X.

Best,
Gamewatcher

 

[Gamewatcher]

Hey, if you're reading this and don't use the VUDU app on Xbox much (or at all), could you maybe give it a try and report back on whether you have this issue?

Just launch (or install/launch) the app, play something like the trailer for a movie featured on the home screen, then when the video stops (or you stop it), launch it again and see whether it plays on second try.

-If it fails to play (eventually times out), you have the issue. Please let us know!
-If you have no problem playing subsequent streams, maybe try a few more times and also on different days/times.

 

[Gamewatcher]

Quick update - I figured this out, somewhat. If you are using an HDMI adapter and/or switch, there is correlation on what makes VUDU consistently work or have the issue. I'm still ruling out which causes the issue but there is a workaround (not ideal) and I've alerted VUDU second tier support, and they assure me they will alert engineering and QA to repro and determine a fix.

One of my Xboxen won't work at all because it's connected to a TV that's so old it doesn't have an HDMI port (so I have it plugged into a DVI adapter). Interestingly enought, it is 3D Blu-ray compatible (unlike the Series X).

So if you have this issue, it could be that you have an older TV with an adapter/converter/switch setup. Hoping VUDU follows through and delivers a fix sooner than later.

 

[Gamewatcher]

I did some testing with an HDMI monitor. One the Series X, I hooked it directly to the second output on the switch and everything worked fine. So the component converter was definitely the issue there. Looking into getting a 50-foot HDMI cable I can run to the kitchen as a more permanent solution (now that I have the HDMI monitor in there, I don't need the conversion).

However, and this is the mystery that remains: I moved the same monitor, same HDMI cable, to the Xbox One X I had moved to the bedroom, and the issue remains EVEN WHEN IT'S DIRECTLY CONNECTED TO THE CONSOLE. How can that be? No idea. I thought I had this pegged. May try more testing when I have the time.