The rumored Movies Anywhere digital locker service that I wrote about yesterday has officially launched today. The service links together Amazon Video, Google Play, Apple iTunes, and Vudu, so that movies purchased from participating studios through any of those retailers will be available in one unified app and across services. A new Movies Anywhere app for Fire TV devices is already available.
Movies Anywhere is trying to achieve what UltraViolet set out to do but couldn’t. It’s trying to make it so that purchasing a digital movie from any retailer will make the movie available across all of the devices you own. The service has not quite achieved that goal yet, but it’s impressively close considering it officially launches today.
Amazon Video, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Disney Movies Anywhere, and Vudu are the digital movie retailers that are currently participating with the new Movies Anywhere service. Once you create a Movies Anywhere account you need to link your Amazon, Google, Apple, and/or VUDU account to the service. Once your accounts are linked, all movies, from participating studios, that you’ve purchased in the past from any of those four retailers will become available to stream from within the Movies Anywhere app and is supposed to also become available from all four retailers.
The idea is that Movies Anywhere acts as a central locker that keeps track of the movies you’ve purchased, regardless of where they’ve been purchased. The catch is that, while Movies Anywhere has managed to get all 4 major digital retailers to participate, not all film studios are currently participating. This means that some movies, even though they were purchased through a participating retailer, will not be available through the service.
Warner Bros., Universal, Sony Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, and Disney are currently participating with Movies Anywhere, with Disney being the company behind the service. That gives the service a launch library of more than 7,300 titles. Karin Gilford, general manager for Movies Anywhere, says that they’re in conversations with Paramount Pictures and Lionsgate to join the service.
The Movies Anywhere app is available on iOS, Apple TV, Android, Android TV, Amazon Fire Tablet, Amazon Fire TV, and Roku devices. Streaming is also possible through Chromecast and the Movies Anywhere website. Theoretically, you shouldn’t need the app and should be able to stream titles from any of the participating retailers, i.e., directly from the Fire TV main interface via Amazon Video, but it seems like there are either limitations or issues that are preventing this at the moment. I’m personally not seeing all of the movies in my various libraries show up correctly across all retailers.
If you have a large UltraViolet collection, you should be able to link it to Movies Anywhere via your VUDU account. I’ve also read that Movies Anywhere will support redemption codes that come with Blu-rays or DVDs, but I haven’t found any detailed information about it. I believe codes must still be redeemed through VUDU and then get incorporated into Movies Anywhere that way.
As an incentive for signing up with Movies Anywhere and linking your various accounts, the service is currently offering up to 5 free movies. If you sign up and link one account, either Amazon, Google, Apple, or VUDU, you will get the movies Ghostbusters (2016) and Ice Age for free. Linking a second account will earn the movies Big Hero 6, The Lego Movie, and Jason Bourne for free.
Movies Anywhere is a great first step to ensuring that a digital movie you purchase, regardless of where it’s purchased, will be playable on the vast majority of streaming devices on the market. While it doesn’t have all the retailers or studios participating yet, and there seem to be a few hiccups with the service, it’s a very promising initial launch.
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My Logan movie, and some strawberry shortcake movies didn’t transfer over. Theyre on the vudu app though.
None of my Vudu movies transferred. It says it can take up to an hour but it’s been much longer.
I had to try several times to link my Vudu account before it finally worked.
Finally, one service to rule them all.
Now they’re showing on my android app. So I’ll check the firetv app once I’m done working.
It seems a lot of my movies are not showing up, but this will be fantastic if all the studios get on board. The lack of Vudu has long been one of my issues with FTV.
Yes!!! I have wanted this for a while. I don’t like having to switch to my smart Samsung TV for Vudu and Google Play movies.
Hmmmmmmm just took a look and it’s mandatory to accept they will share your information and buying and viewing habits across all services and their affiliates, who could be anyone…
You have to agree when creating the account but once you’re logged in you can opt-out of this info sharing in the settings menu of the website.
How else will they allow purchases to sync across services?
Why do Google or Apple ‘affiliates’ need to know your viewing habits??
Is it in the uk?
No, sadly
Too bad it’s only for purchased movies, not the rentals…
Nice, hopefully all or most of people’s movies will eventually be included.
Just FYI… This app only works on 2nd gen Fire TV products. That is directly from the help center’s system requirements.
“What are the minimum system requirements?
If your device meets the following requirements, you should be able to run Movies Anywhere:
iOS: The Movies Anywhere app is currently available on iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices running iOS 9 or higher. Offline viewing (downloading of movies) is only supported on iOS 10 and higher.
Apple TV/AirPlay: The Movies Anywhere Apple TV app is now available on Apple TVs 4th generation or later. Movies Anywhere movie playback is also available on older generations of the Apple TV when using AirPlay Mirroring from a compatible computer or iOS device on the same Wi-Fi network.
Amazon Kindle devices: Movies Anywhere is supported on Kindle Tablet devices running FireOS 5 or later, including HDX 7”, HDX 8.9” (3rd and 4th Gen.) and for playback-only on 2nd Generation Kindle Fire TV Set Top Box and Fire TV Stick
Android: The Movies Anywhere app is supported on Android devices running on KitKat or newer versions of the Android OS. The Movies Anywhere app is also supported on the Android TV and connected TVs running on the Android TV Operating system.
Chromecast: Movies Anywhere content is available to stream on Chromecast via Chrome Browser on the PC, and Android or iOS devices via the Movies Anywhere App.
Roku: The following Roku devices are supported:
Roku Express, 3700X
Roku Express+, 3710X
Roku® Streaming Stick®, 3600X
Roku 4, 4400X
Roku Premiere, 4620X
Roku Premiere+, 4630X
Roku Ultra, 4640X
Roku TV, 5000X
4K Roku TV, 6000X, 7000X
PC/Web: Movies Anywhere is available on the following browsers:
Chrome 50+
Edge 15+
Firefox 40+
Safari 10.0+
Internet Explorer 11+
iTunes, Amazon Video, VUDU and Google Play: All Movies Anywhere-eligible movies will also appear in your connected iTunes, Amazon Video, VUDU and Google Play accounts, subject to availability with each Digital Retailer, and can be played directly on any platforms that support video playback for these providers.”
Been trying to activate for the past 45 minutes and cannot do so. Just gonna try tomorrow to see if the site and app need time for some reason.
Just link the services, you don’t need to install the app. I did and my Google Play Movies from the supported studios show up on my first generation Fire TV Stick under My Videos, without installing anything extra.
I’ve purchased several movies through Google Play and numerous TV episodes from Amazon Video. Exactly ZERO show up and I connected both accounts and jumped through all the hoops. The only movies I have are these freebies mentioned in the article. What’s up? Thoughts?
It doesn’t include TV shows (yet)
I guess this error is at fault:
“Uncategorized exception occurred during JMS processing; nested exception is javax.jms.JMSException: Cannot send, channel has already failed: tcp://100.96.45.6:61616”
Multiple browsers attempted, multiple operating systems. Same error. It says the Google and Amazon accounts are connected, but that’s obviously an error also. I should have known that anything Disney is crap.
Two cool things that happened for me.
1) It seems like the few movies I own on Amazon in SD, play in HD in the Movies Anywhere app.
1) The version of They Live on Amazon is pan-and-scan. The version on Movies Anywhere is the original aspect ratio.
Hopefully they keep signing studios and expanding their library. It’s a great idea that cuts through the BS.
I tried to check as I have Big Trouble In Little China in SD, but rather than playing in HD, it won’t play at all. I get an error. I guess still working out the bugs.
Try restarting your box.
The issue I was having playing the movie was on a Mi Box. Later at night, I tried it on a FTV2 box, and it played fine, though it was just SD. I’ll have to see if there is a cheap upgrade to get it to HD, otherwise no biggie. It’s an 80s classic, and SD kind of fits the movie. :-)
All of my purchases from iTunes, VUDU and Google Play transferred in just fine. They even show up in my Amazon app on the iPad as well as on my Amazon Fire TV. However – none of my movies from Amazon transferred in. I have a bunch of Warner Bros movies (Batman, Superman, etc) and FOX movies (Deadpool, Logan, etc) that did not cross over. I submitted a help ticket. Hopefully they get this sorted. I’d love to watch all my Amazon movies on my Apple TV. Until then I guess I’ll just watch all my iTunes movies on my Fire TV :) But it would be awesome to get all of my movies upgraded to 4K on my Apple TV.
App is not compatible with FireTV v1 box.
If this gets all the studios to come together ill buy a new fire tv box. Thats a big game changer for me. Thats the only reason i went to shield was because family was not able to watch my 200+ vudu movies with the rest of the other stuff we have. I known i could side load vudu but then i would need a mouse and thats just a bother. I needed something that just works with the remote. Was thinking of buying one more shiled but with this news im going to wait and see how this app goes with amazon fire tv. I did just get the new fire 10″ tablet and i love it after i upadted it. Before update it was not getting some of amazon appsand a app i side loaded.now amazon apps work and so does the side loaded app work. great price too. I may buy one more 10″ tablet.
No mouse needed for VUDU. Install the Android TV version of the APK and not the phone version. Works flawlessly with FireTV remote.
What apk do i use. I dont have a tablet to get the apk from.
Vudu Movies & TV APKs – APKMirror
https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/vudu/vudu-movies-tv-android-tv/
I this is not working for me. Only a few Disney anywhere movies and the free movies are showing up. None of my Google play or Amazon movies show up and its been several hours. I hope it works, I’m sure it will since others here seem to be having luck.
I got it working. I had to disconnect all services and reconnect them and all my movies appeared. The movies also show up in my movies through the fire TV interface, very cool!
When you attempt to disconnect from a service it says you will not be able to connect to a different account for 180 days. Did you have any problems reconnecting your accounts?
No problems. I saw that and figured it means a DIFFERENT account. Or at least I hoped that’s what it meant.
It says after you disconnect your account it keeps the movies you have purchased even after you disconnect. I guess you could connect multiple accounts say a friend’s account, disconnect the account and then add another and keep doing that and share movie this way. The 180 days makes it less likely for people to want to share accounts.
I rip all content. Unneeded.
I haven’t done a complete side by side compare yet, but at first glance, I notice there are a few movies I had in iTunes for a long time that didn’t seem to transfer to MoviesAnywhere, and thus aren’t in my other libraries (Google Play, Amazon, Vudu). I do see items I only had in Google Play or Amazon showing in MoviesAnywhere and thus now on the other retailers too.
Oddly, when I log into the UltraViolet web site, and look at “my library” it shows 0 titles!! Out of Panic, I logged into FandangoNow (linked to my UV account, but NOT MoviesAnywhere), and it shows the SAME titles as my MoviesAnywhere (i.e. some non-UV titles purchased from Google Play or Amazon directly, along with my UV titles!).
Is this how its supposed to work?
So now I wonder, will MoviesAnywhere end up replacing UltraViolet? If so, that wouldn’t be so bad. One app/location to redeem and watch ALL my digital copies from would be great, rather than the old “some here, some there” approach.
Might need to file a help ticket… I’m missing some of my UV movies, that *should* be available seeing I can “search” for it on Movies Anywhere and it comes up with a “Buy” link instead of a “Play” link. :\ If this gets fixed, this will be great to be able to watch all my movies in one place.
Movies Anywhere works fine on my Fire TV with the Power VR GX6250 GPU. But it does *NOT* work on my other Fire TV with the Qualcomm Adreno 320 GPU. The app loads and runs on both, but when I try to play a video on the older Fire TV, I get a message saying “Play back error.”
I’ve cleared the cache, the app data, reinstalled the app, restarted the Fire TV and restarted the router. Still works on one Fire TV and not the other.
All my accounts linked and it looks like all movies are there so that’s good. Unfortunately it will not play any movies or prieviews at all. Played one preview, in stereo so I tied to play a movie to make sure surround sound would work and movie will not play at all. Neither will the preview that played before.
I deleted all app data, cache, relinked and such but it will no longer play. First gen Fire Stick. Oh well, new FTD (Fire TV Dongle, it should always be called this) on the way soon I hope and maybe it will work then.
Anyone know if surround sound is good to go in this app?
I have issues with my Mi Box, as it won’t play any movies. My FTV2 boxes seem to work ok though. I do wish they allowed you to fast forward faster/easier though.
The fire tv 1 is able to play the preview JUST FINE… now why cant it play the movies? makes absolutely no sense.
Works great and now my movies are listed on my fireTV under “Your Video Library” as well as the Movies Anywhere app. They appear to they play just fine, in surround sound, on both. Now we need a way to sort on the fireTV.
Glad I found this. Was able to create an account and link all my services. Now all the movies I own show available to play on my Movie Anywhere account, including all the ones mentioned that we get for free for linking accounts. Now I’ll just have to verify the movies are also showing in my accounts for all the services.
The Movies Anywhere video is now working on my older Fire TV, but it’s not recognizing many remote buttons. Or bizarrely, only recognizing every other click of the remote.