Hungarian journalist, novelist, and social philosopher Arthur Koestler once said that "the principal mark of genius is not perfection but originality, the opening of new frontiers." Far be it from me to argue with such a brilliant mind, but I believe history has proven Koestler wrong. More often than not, we don't remember those who say, "I have a new idea," but rather those who say, "That was a pretty good idea, but I can make it better." Think about it—which names do you remember: Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot or Henry Ford? Humphry Davy or Thomas Edison? MPMan or iPod?

I haven't a clue who invented the concept of video-on-demand, but I have a pretty good inkling of the name destined to be associated with it in the annals of entertainment history. Because while Santa Clara-based Vudu, Inc., hasn't created anything new with its eponymous Internet-based movie delivery set-top box, the company has ironed out just about every wrinkle that has kept video-on-demand from dominating the market.

Gone are the cumbersome and unintuitive interfaces of cable-based video-on-demand. Vudu's menus are as well-ordered as they are beautiful. Most navigation is handled by the scroll wheel on Vudu's exceptionally ergonomic and minimalistic remote control. Glance at the remote's six buttons once and you'll never have to look at it again, except to admire its nigh-perfect design.

Gone also are the long wait times of Vudu's only serious competition: Microsoft's Xbox 360-based Xbox Live Marketplace. Unlike Marketplace—or any other Internet-based movie download service, for that matter—the moment you rent or purchase a film, it's ready to watch, assuming you have a 3-megabit-per-second or faster connection. (Slightly delayed viewing is available via a 1.5 Mbps connection.) Vudu manages this by both preloading a short segment of the movie on the hard drive ahead of time and using what's known as peer-to-peer distribution. What this means is that you're downloading chunks of the movie not only from Vudu's servers, but also from other Vudu users who already have the movie downloaded.

Better yet, unlike Marketplace's confusing points-based pricing plan, the cost of Vudu is upfront and clear: $399 for the box itself, $0.99 to $3.99 for 24-hour rentals, and $4.99 to $19.99 to buy movies outright, when that option is available. The less algebra required to watch a movie the better, I always say.

Perhaps best of all, gone is the limited selection and mediocre video quality of most PC-based services. Gone, for that matter, is the need for a PC in the first place. Setting up the Vudu is so easy that the process is hardly worth mentioning: Plug in an HDMI cable, plug in the power, plug in a network cable and you're done.

With most of Vudu's movies—a total of 5,000 at the moment, with every major motion picture studio onboard and new releases promised at the same time the DVDs are released—video quality comes dangerously close to that of DVD. Sure, a nitpicker could point out a few wiggly backgrounds and the occasional blocky horizontal edge. The only serious objection I have to Vudu's video quality is its inconsistency, and the blame here seems to lie with the file provided by the movie studio rather than with Vudu's capabilities. It presents the vast majority of movies spendidly—in fact, most viewers probably couldn't tell Vudu images from DVD—but a few fall short. Scenes of the New York cityscape near the end of The Bourne Supremacy, for example, are a pixelated mess. The image in 300, though, holds up beautifully from beginning to end, a minor bit of aliasing aside.

It's worth mentioning that the image quality has been optimized for screen sizes 42 inches and smaller, and for the broadest range of movies possible, so it wouldn't be fair to judge the service entirely on a shaky, quick-cutting, hard-to-compress film like The Bourne Supremacy, viewed on my 55-inch screen.

Audio tends to be a tad inconsistent, as well. Those movies that offer full digital surround sound fare quite well. But the majority of Vudu's offerings, including new blockbuster releases like 300, are available with two-channel sound only, the quality of which varies wildly. 300 very nearly sounds like full-fledged 5.1 surround sound when I engage Dolby Pro Logic II processing. The audio for The Bourne Supremacy, though, in keeping with its image quality, sounds like mono on steroids. Even with Pro Logic II engaged, not once during the entire film do my surround speakers sputter out so much as a whimper.

But in the end, this is really a moot point—Vudu isn't going to live or die by audiovisual perfection, anymore than iPod's success hinges upon its audiophile street cred. What makes Vudu such a success is that it works wonderfully, with no major caveats, delivering movies instantaneously at an attractive price through an amazingly intuitive interface. Any company hoping to do it better has a long row to hoe, because with a few easy tweaks and additions—high-definition video, compatibility with touchscreen remote controls, and the ability to augment the box's hard drive with external storage, all of which should be available late this year or early into the next—Vudu will be very nearly perfect.

DESCRIPTION
Internet-based movie delivery system. Offers instant access to 5,000 movies for rent or purchase in near DVD quality, with high-definition available by the end of 2007.

CONNECTIONS
HDMI 1.1, component video output, S-video output, composite video output, RCA-type stereo analog audio output, coaxial digital audio output, optical digital audio output, RJ-45 jack for Ethernet, F connector for RF antenna (remote control), I/O jack for future use (IR input), USB port for future use (expanded storage)

DIMENSIONS
2.4 x 8.9 x 7.3 inches (hwd)

PRICE/CONTACT
PRICE: $399
CONTACT: 888.554.VUDU, www.vudu.com