13 to 18 feet (1st row versus 2nd row) - I guess the question was more geared towards TRUE HD quality (audio and video) versus where something is touted as HD quality but when you actually see/hear it...not so much. (e.g. highly compressed HD Cable).
HD cable, movies through Kscape, and, of course, Blu looks good from both those distances in my current set up. I guess I was trying to see if there was an On Demand Movie rental setup that was a step up from HD Cable On Demand.
EngadgetHD article on VUDU HDX Quality:
http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/10/16/vudus-hdx-titles-compare-to-blu-rays-picture-quality/
In my experience, the HD video quality is very good. On the audio side, they use Dolby Digital Plus. So, you're not going to get Dollby TrueHD or DTS-HD.
The rental and closed box issues are both significant ones for VUDU. While the 24 hour rental window issues plagues all DL rental services (ridiculously dictated by the studios), VUDU is further limited by a closed environment whereby their content is only viewable on a VUDU box. No transfers to a portable device, watching on your computer, etc. While I hope we will eventually see a day when the 24 hour window is expanded to at least 48 hours (along with the 30 day timeout), VUDU still has the latter problem.
All that being said, I am a VUDU owner and have found myself purchasing fewer discs and renting more - mostly because I find that my personal desire to watch again is very low for the vast majority of titles. Out of the ~1000 titles I have on my K, I watch few of them regularly. With the HD quality from VUDU, I am pretty happy just renting and watching once.
The one other thing VUDU is missing, along with most download services I've seen, is CC. Given the tendency to watch after the kids are asleep, CC comes in quite handy in our house. Hopefully we'll see that eventually.
There's definitely a worry about VUDU's long term viability, but that being said the current cost of entry is so low ($149 and $499 with deals likely to be had form custom installers trying to move units) it doesn't really matter. If you are only renting, it's not like you'd lose a bunch of money tied up in DL purchases that now can't be watched (assuming a worst case scenario with some kind of DRM server turn off that might be required for content to be viewed indefinitely). Given the reaming the studios will likely give us via managed copy pricing, this isn't such a bad alternative...
Jeff