Sharing your MA Movie Library

[AZBrowncoat]

With UV's eventual (impending?) demise and the subsequent loss of UV Family sharing, it's likely that users will be looking for alternative ways to share their movie collections with Family/Friends, without passing out their personal username/passwords.

So here are a couple of ideas.

Connect MA to...

iTunes Family Sharing - connect your MA account to iTunes and share your MA library with up to 5 other family members/friends. Apple device required of course.

Learn more about iTunes Family Sharing

Google Play Family Library - connect your MA account to Google Play and share your MA library with up to 5 other family members/friends. Great cross-platform support. Unfortunately I don't have a good resource about Google Play Family Library.

MA "Connection" Sharing - utilize any unused connections like Amazon, FandangoNow, Google Play, iTunes or Vudu and share your MA library that way as well.

MA Account Sharing - share your MA username/password directly. Currently, the way MA is setup it would be very difficult for someone to 'appropriate' your MA account, so sharing your MA login information is a possibility as well. (suggested by Anchorsmith)

Partner Account Sharing - an old standby, popularized by Netflix account sharing - share any one of the associated and connected accounts directly; like iTunes, Amazon, Google Play or Vudu. May require the provider to offer multiple, simultaneous streams. Highly recommended only with those you trust implicitly. (suggested by crackedknee)

Library Gifting - share your one of your unused MA connections and allow a family member/friend to connect to it and "gift" them your library. Please do not discuss this in this thread as I'm fairly certain it would be frowned upon. (suggested by twobelowpar)

Comment below...

[Anchorsmith]

Originally Posted by AZBrowncoat

With UV's eventual (impending?) demise and the subsequent loss of UV Family sharing, it's likely that users will be looking for alternative ways to share their movie collections with Family/Friends, without passing out their personal username/passwords.

I know you specify not handing out your MA username/password to family and friends, but the service seems well-suited to doing just that. Assuming you set a unique password, there's not much damage they can do with the account itself since there is no billing or ability to purchase/rent directly from the service.

According to their help pages, you can do simultaneous streaming with some limits:

You can concurrently stream your movies and videos from a signed-in Movies Anywhere account on up to four different devices, but you may only stream the same movie on two devices at one time.

Further assuming you don't actually use the MA app yourself for streaming, but rather use iTunes/Vudu/etc. directly, any potential maxing out of the MA streams doesn't really affect you.

[AZBrowncoat]

Originally Posted by Anchorsmith

I know you specify not handing out your MA username/password to family and friends, but the service seems well-suited to doing just that. Assuming you set a unique password, there's not much damage they can do with the account itself since there is no billing or ability to purchase/rent directly from the service.

According to their help pages, you can do simultaneous streaming with some limits:



Further assuming you don't actually use the MA app yourself for streaming, but rather use iTunes/Vudu/etc. directly, any potential maxing out of the MA streams doesn't really affect you.

You are absolutely correct, there doesn't seem to be much way someone can 'appropriate' your MA account even with your username/password unless they also have access to your email address or you use the same password.

But even so, there are plenty of people that wouldn't be comfortable letting someone else have the username/password to one of their main accounts and especially those that re-use passwords (there are a lot of them).

I will however add your suggestion to the OP as well as I did overlook mentioning that!

[supaet]

The thing is, we already seen the best way of sharing through the old UV/vudu sharing system (it's not available to set up now)

Until MA has that in some way where different MA accounts connects to each other, it's still inferior to what we have for vudu, especially those with multiple vudu/uv accounts already set up to share

[echopulse]

Except the Vudu sharing system is not superior to MA or iTunes, Google Play, because you can't share the most popular movies, i.e., Disney, Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars.

[MachoKing]

Originally Posted by echopulse

Except the Vudu sharing system is not superior to MA or iTunes, Google Play, because you can't share the most popular movies, i.e., Disney, Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars.

There is no sharing through MA so not sure what you're speaking of. You can create other profiles but that is not the same. GooglePlay sharing is rather subpar. iTunes also requires all the users to have Apple TVs and need to have a credit card on file which is used for all the accounts.

Vudu sharing was always best for most non-Disney movies.

[Greyman]

Originally Posted by MachoKing

There is no sharing through MA so not sure what you're speaking of. You can create other profiles but that is not the same. GooglePlay sharing is rather subpar. iTunes also requires all the users to have Apple TVs and need to have a credit card on file which is used for all the accounts.

Vudu sharing was always best for most non-Disney movies.

For iTunes you can use a prepaid credit card with a few cents left and mandate iTunes credit for all share users.

[MachoKing]

Originally Posted by Greyman

For iTunes you can use a prepaid credit card with a few cents left and mandate iTunes credit for all share users.

I'm fully aware.

[AZBrowncoat]

Originally Posted by MachoKing

iTunes also requires all the users to have Apple TVs and need to have a credit card on file which is used for all the accounts.

Use a pre-paid credit card with minimal balance, each iTunes user maintains a balance using iTunes gift cards. I manage two Family shares using this method. But yes, for iTunes sharing an Apple device is required.

Hopefully VUDU and other providers will implement their own sharing options outside of UV.

Originally Posted by supaet

The thing is, we already seen the best way of sharing through the old UV/vudu sharing system (it's not available to set up now)

For all intents and purposes UV sharing is dead, lets discuss options.

[supaet]

Originally Posted by AZBrowncoat

Use a pre-paid credit card with minimal balance, each iTunes user maintains a balance using iTunes gift cards. I manage two Family shares using this method. But yes, for iTunes sharing an Apple device is required.

Hopefully VUDU and other providers will implement their own sharing options outside of UV.



For all intents and purposes UV sharing is dead, lets discuss options.

right, but none of the options are as good as the uv share that was dead.
I'm all for MA replacing UV if it brings back the vudu/UV sharing (maybe not 6 accounts, but 3 is a good number) and TVanywhere shows up

[supaet]

Originally Posted by echopulse

Except the Vudu sharing system is not superior to MA or iTunes, Google Play, because you can't share the most popular movies, i.e., Disney, Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars.

well if you want to discuss contents rather than comparing UV vs MA sharing. obviously you can't share what's not on the service like tv shows for MA

[animefan77]

Originally Posted by supaet

well if you want to discuss contents rather than comparing UV vs MA sharing. obviously you can't share what's not on the service like tv shows for MA

And still missing the entire library of Paramount, Lionsgate and MGM.

I liked that MA transferred several of my movies from iTunes and amazon to my vudu account. But missing major company like Paramount, lionsgate and all the TV series is a big deal.

I hope UV and MA can co-exist. iTunes is still there, why can’t UV?

[AZBrowncoat]

Again, UV sharing for all intents and purposes is dead unless you already have it in place, and as more players exit that platform it will become less and less relevant.

For now, MA is the direction that the studios are moving (personally I'd prefer that all files be available DRM free ala VHX or Vimeo, but alas Hollywood in general will never allow that).

I also expect Lionsgate, Paramount and MGM to fall in line eventually - so let's get back to the topic of ways to effectively share Movies Anywhere content.

[Greyman]

Originally Posted by supaet

The thing is, we already seen the best way of sharing through the old UV/vudu sharing system (it's not available to set up now)

Until MA has that in some way where different MA accounts connects to each other, it's still inferior to what we have for vudu, especially those with multiple vudu/uv accounts already set up to share

And for those without multiple Vudu/UV accounts there is no sharing.

It definitely has advantages, but as stated not everything is shared.

[supaet]

Originally Posted by Greyman

And for those without multiple Vudu/UV accounts there is no sharing.

It definitely has advantages, but as stated not everything is shared.

well we are putting the differences in sharing between UV and MA, not their contents.

if you want to discuss contents, how and when will MOVIES anywhere going to have tv shows?

[Greyman]

Originally Posted by supaet

well we are putting the differences in sharing between UV and MA, not their contents.

I don't think so, kind of hard to separate them if you are talking a benefit of the system.

Originally Posted by supaet

if you want to discuss contents, how and when will MOVIES anywhere going to have tv shows?

A name does not limit what the service can or will do, just like iTunes does more than tunes and Amazon sells more than rain forests.
That being said, I don't think MA will include TV shows. I suspect their are complex licensing issues and residuals to actors writers, studios, etc that would make it more difficult to share across providers. Just speculation.

UV sharing is dead for people that already did not get in on it. Many and probably most TV shows on Vudu are not UV, so they are not shared.

Yes, for the movies and TV shows that are UV, their sharing set up is great and I will take advantage of it for as long as I can.

[supaet]

so regarding the iTunes and google play sharing, does the movies purchased by others get into your MA purchase history?

[xbs2034]

Originally Posted by supaet

so regarding the iTunes and google play sharing, does the movies purchased by others get into your MA purchase history?

They don't. The UV sharing was the best (very simple to use and essentially you owned the movie as well), though these at least allow some sharing. I also think you can only have one credit card used per library, which is another possible issue.

Personally I prefer the Google Play sharing vs ITunes where you have to scroll through someone else's purchase list.

[echopulse]

Paramount and Lionsgate aren't really major players anymore. Paramount hasn't hit 10% in terms of Box Office Marketshare in 6 years. And Lionsgate hasn't been doing well since The Hunger Games came out.

[AZBrowncoat]

Originally Posted by echopulse

Paramount and Lionsgate aren't really major players anymore. Paramount hasn't hit 10% in terms of Box Office Marketshare in 6 years. And Lionsgate hasn't been doing well since The Hunger Games came out.

While that may be true regarding new releases, in the case of Paramount it is their back catalog as evidenced here that is of interest to many movie collectors - https://www.vudu.com/content/movies/...t%2520Pictures