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Tim Briody: A couple of weeks ago, BOP's David Mumpower e-mailed me a few brief instructions to create a couple of online accounts at sites that culminated in entering some gibberish looking code. Less than 10 minutes later, The Hunger Games was playing on my Xbox 360.

If that's the future, I'm all in.

I've been wary of cloud storage as a viable format for the future because 1) it's a new technology and I'm always hesitant to be an early adopter and 2) I still like the idea of my media having a tangible form. Don't get me wrong. I haven't purchased a CD in nearly ten years and my iPhone is essentially my stereo, but at least I know the music is stored on my computer and at the worst I can always burn it to a disc, thereby ensuring I still have a physical copy of it. But for it to just be out there, in whatever exactly this whole "cloud" thing is? I was skeptical. Couldn't it all just go poof one day? What's to stop somebody from just pulling the plug tomorrow?

Following David's instructions, the process of registering with UltraViolet and Vudu was fairly painless as these things go, and even connecting the brand new account to the Vudu app on the Xbox 360 was surprisingly smooth and moments after entering the code on my computer I was able to begin playing The Hunger Games instantly. I found that pretty darned impressive. The app's interface is somewhat clunky and busy, which is to be expected when wielding a controller, but I like the fact that whenever we get the inevitable Xbox 720 or whatever Microsoft is going to end up calling it, the movie will still be there. (Oh, and the code also worked in iTunes so I do have a "physical" copy back up if I so desire.)

Despite streaming over the wireless internet connection via my Xbox 360, there was zero interruption in the stream at any point and the quality never suffered. It looked better than a few things I've watched over Netflix, even in SD. I can only imagine how amazing HD would look.

Browsing the Vudu store, the selection is fine. It's certainly not everything but it hits most of the big titles. In the era of 99-cent and $1.29 song downloads, the idea of spending about 20 bucks to "own" a movie in the cloud seems a little strange to me. The option to rent is fine too, but that's anywhere from three to five times the cost of something at Redbox (and I'd argue the selection is similar).

Ultraviolet technology is still in its relative infancy, and trying to explain it to some people may be difficult ("The movies are out there! In the cloud! In cyberspace!"), but it's going to be a serious and viable option going forward, and one I would recommend checking out for anyone with a gaming console, a high end television or someone who doesn't want any more discs in their movie collection.

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