Vudu arrives on the Boxee Box, along with a host of big fixes (update)

Ah, there we go. After a bit of a false start, Boxee's rolling out Vudu to the Boxee Box today -- you can either hold tight for the auto update in the next 24 hours, or trigger the manual update in Settings. Vudu's offering new users who sign up on the Boxee Box a $5.99 credit, which is the price of a single HDX rentals, so that's clever. Vudu remains Vudu -- 1080p/24 video, 5.1 audio -- but we'll obviously give it a look on the Box to check it out. As for other improvements, there are quite a few; highlights include better browser performance with HTTPS support, a sorting option to ignore "the" or "a" in titles, more deinterlacing controls, a whole host of bug fixes, and quite a bit more. Not bad -- we'll let you know if we discover anything crazy. PR and the full changelog after the break.

Update: Vudu's $2 for two nights deal applies to SD rentals, but you can get a single HDX rental for $5.99.

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We have released a new version of the Boxee Box firmware. Your Box will update automatically within the next 24hrs or you can manually check for the update by going to Settings>System>Update (this is the update we tried to get out last week, but had to pullback after we received initial critical bug reports).

As always there are many bug fixes and in this case lots of work on the Boxee Browser, but the big news in this release is VUDU.

VUDU on the Boxee Box means: access to the largest selection of HD movies on-demand, new releases (same day as DVD), thousands of movies available for rental at $2 for 2 nights. We are psyched.

The VUDU HDX format on the Boxee Box is a match made in geek heaven! (that normal people will appreciate, too). Video is 1080p HD at 24 fps. Sound is Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 surround. It takes advantage of some crafty engineering from VUDU dubbed TruFilm™ which optimizes the encoding, transmission and display of HDX movies on 40-inch HDTVs and larger screens. It's kind of hard to believe this stuff is coming over your Internet connection.

Invite some friends over. Rent an HDX movie. You are guaranteed to gain new respect for your geekness and pass the crucial WAF test.

VUDU is offering every new user who signs up on the Boxee Box a $5.99 credit towards a first rental/purchase. Take advantage of it!

Here are the firmware upgrades included in today's release:

Enhancements:

Settings to control de-interlacing and video filters configuration
Support for language selection in subtitle/audio
Forced subtitle automatic selection during MKV file playback
An option to ignore the prefix in the sort order for movies/albums/artists which start with 'The' and 'A' (big one!)
Enhancements to Browser performance
Browser opens in lower resolution to allow easier reading of text
Browser is zoomed into Video by default for non auto full screen websites
Direct launch of website when defining full URL in the search bar
Preselecting the current chapter when opening chapter selector for MKV/BluRay
Bug Fixes:

HTTPS support for the browser
4:3 Videos Stretched to 16:9
MKV Chapter Time is Displayed Incorrectly
Audio dropouts in DTS-HD audio
Improved WTV support
3gp playback errors
Improve BluRay titles loading time
Allow larger subtitles time offsets
Audio re-buffering when entering commercials in TV episodes.
Viewing "Info Menu" while watching 24hz videos cause temp reversion back 60hz
With playlist over 999 items, track numbers overlap repeat icon in OSD
TV Shows no longer show as watched and can't set to watched/unwatched
Crash at manual resolve if the user rapidly presses the menu/back button whilst the OS tries to apply details to files in a folder
When choosing from search suggestion list -> update the search editbox
Embedded fonts ignored on MKV playback with embedded SSA/ASS subtitles
SSA/ASS Subtitles position and font
Overlapping text when network settings changed
Empty state for App Favorites appearing for empty third-party repository
Crashing while resolving metadata for movies from UPNP
Listview mode is not preserved when returning from an artist selection
In certain cases video freezes when selecting play after pausing
Playing a video and after several times of pausing and skipping the video freezes and audio continues
Boxee remembers wrong PGS subtitle track in MKV file after leaving and then resuming playback
All subtitles (PGS) appears as 'unknown' for some BluRay titles
Crash when attempting to identify media via UPNP
Some .mkv and .m4v files with 2.35:1 AR are playing back vertically stretched to 1.78:1
Hang and video freezes or black screen when Pause Resume and or seeking FF/RWD during playback
Hang on WMV Stream Seeking
Crashed on shutdown and restarted automatically
Scrolling in Files Browse list results in partial control of Files menu and also crash
SMB credentials are not saved on reboot
When deleting an item from the watch later list the focus location of the last item is not remembered
Music tracks which are longer than an hour appears as "01:00:..." on the OSD
Rear channels on AAC 5.1 are not played properly w/ LPCM 5.1 out
Prompting user for credentials that are not used in accessing shares
Can't access network share due to Window Live on Windows 7
large flash videos stop playback when reaching Boxee file system limit
Reconnecting to disconnected shares disables selection in the Movies database view
Subtitles is disabled in the playback OSD for local content
No video only audio while playing certain m4v files
Flash video audio drops out for long length online videos
Disconnects from OSX SMB sources
Occasional loss of focus on main menu
Unidentified files in File Source with "Movies" in path name are being identified as a title called "Movies"
Crashed on shutdown and restarted automatically
Scrolling in Files Browse list results in partial control of Files menu and also crash
SMB credentials are not saved on reboot
When deleting an item from the watch later list the focus location of the last item is not remembered
Music tracks which are longer than an hour appears as "01:00:..." on the OSD
Rear channels on AAC 5.1 are not played properly w/ LPCM 5.1 out
Prompting user for credentials that are not used in accessing shares
Can't access network share due to Window Live on Windows 7
Large flash videos stop playback when reaching Boxee file system limit
Reconnecting to disconnected shares disables selection in the Movies database view
Subtitles is disabled in the playback OSD for local content
No video only audio while playing certain m4v files
Flash video audio drops out for long length online videos
Disconnects from OSX SMB sources
Occasional loss of focus on main menu
Unidentified files in File Source with "Movies" in path name are being identified as a title called "Movies"