Walmart Launches Video Downloads
Today, Walmart announced the launch of a new service: video downloads. This isn’t an online video download store like their current music download service, though. Rather, the video download service is a feature that allow shoppers who purchase a particular DVD to have the option to also download the video to their computer for a small additional fee. The first DVD that has a digital download available is Superman Returns. Even better, the download service offers users three pricing options: $1.97 for portable devices, $2.97 for PCs/laptops, and $3.97 for both portable players and PC/laptops.
I almost hate it when Walmart does something right, but I have to admit, this is a great concept. I often purchase DVDs so I can enjoy them on our widescreen TV, my laptop, and of course, because they have all the nifty special features. However, to download a movie for a portable device, you end up paying for the movie all over again. Offering a bundle is convenient and forward-thinking. Although both iTunes and Amazon have had extensive movie download libraries for months now, they are not selling DVD/download bundles. I doubt iTunes ever will - that’s not their thing - but I can see Amazon copy-catting this idea very soon, especially if this drives some of their customers over to the competition. Just hope their website stays up.
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Hey girl! I was going through some old archives and re-discovered the link to your blog! How are you?!?!
I still hate this whole “you’ve just paid for a movie, but you have to pay to watch it on some other gadget that you have already paid hundreds of pounds for” culture.
Don’t do it.
It’s perfectly within your legal right to shove it into your desktop/laptop and use software to rip the dvd to avi/mpeg/wmv/aac or whatever so that you can watch it on your iPod/Archos/Mobile phone/iPaq or whatever.
Sure, it’ll take an hour to rip and encode, but hell, if you have an 80gb iPod video then consider how much you’ll be saving by ripping your existing DVD’s compared to re-downloading them at $3.97 a piece.
Good point…it *should* be legal.
However, as a convenience fee, a few dollars to get a digital download to save me the hour to rip and encode is a worthwhile expense to me, and certainly to the non-geeks out there.