Walmart Entertainment's Disc-to-Digital Service Powered by VUDU: How it Works
The process to convert previously-purchased DVD/Blu-ray movies to digital copies is quick and simple:
Bring your movie collections from the participating studio partners - Paramount, Sony, Fox, Universal and Warner Bros. - to your local Walmart Photo Center.
A Walmart associate will help you create a free VUDU account.
Tell the associate how you'd like your movies converted:
◦Convert a standard DVD or Blu-ray movie for $2; or,
◦Upgrade a standard DVD to an HD digital copy for $5.
Walmart will authorize the digital copies and place them in your VUDU account. No upload is necessary, and you get to keep your physical discs.
Log onto VUDU.com from more than 300 Internet-connected devices to view movies any time, any place.
Walmart Entertainment supports UltraViolet, the movie industry's initiative currently in its beta phase that allows consumers to put their purchased movies into a cloud-based digital library and keep track of them safely and securely. Walmart is able to offer customers the ability to watch and purchase UltraViolet-enabled titles directly from VUDU.
If you read around, a lot of folks are trashing this (why pay twice, why not rip yourself and save $$, why get locked into VUDU, etc) but this actually has some appeal to me. VUDU has continued to impress me, and the centralization and time saving has some appeal. Wouldn't do the whole library, but would consider a few titles, especially kids flix.
Do they keep any record of what you bring in? How do they verify the copies? I could see someone borrowing all the DVDs from a friend and then getting HD versions for $5...
It will never work .. the upload kiosk will always be down and there will be no employee available .. and if an employee is available, they will know nothing about the kiosk and simply stare at you with a blank look on their face ..
So, does this apply to ALL titles from these studios, or just selected titles? I doubt that these studios are offering digital copies of every single movie they've ever released on DVD. Where do we find out which titles are applicable?
I'm interested. I can borrow a Blu-ray movie that I don't own from a friend and get a 1080p movie with 5.1 or 7.1 surround for $2. The digital copy movies installed from disc that I own has taken up all the space on my laptop is not 1080p nor 5.1 or 7.1 surround and I paid $5 to $10 more for that digital copy from a 2 disc Blu-ray set.
I saw some talk suggesting they will stamp a disc once its been ripped to prevent people doubling down. How hard is it to wipe a stamp off though.
I could see doing a couple dozen titles, but wouldn't do the whole collection. If it was per title versus per disc I would love to take in some of my season/series long sets of dvd-on-tv in.
I think this is a step in the right direction. At least the studios are trying to expand the market. For people on the go, this seems a pretty good option. For me, not so much as I'm home all the time and already have my discs on the computer with Netflix filling out the rest.
If this turns out to be successful, I wonder how this will affect pricing in the PPV market?
Good question, but it sounds to me like they will rip any disc that Vudu does not already have in its database and store it in your account.
I'm wondering how they will convert any disc to HD? Could it be these participating studios have finished converting virtually everything they've put on disc to HD? It's either that or there will be exceptions.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Josh Z /forum/post/21777207
So, does this apply to ALL titles from these studios, or just selected titles? I doubt that these studios are offering digital copies of every single movie they've ever released on DVD. Where do we find out which titles are applicable?
I think it's a good idea. I use Vudu on the ps3, I would love to upload some blu rays, then go over to my friends or families houses, log in, then watch some movies there.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Taperwood /forum/post/21779190
Good question, but it sounds to me like they will rip any disc that Vudu does not already have in its database and store it in your account.
I'm wondering how they will convert any disc to HD? Could it be these participating studios have finished converting virtually everything they've put on disc to HD? It's either that or there will be exceptions.
This service is 'virtual' not physical. There is no 'actual' ripping of customer's disc. There is no 'actual' physical conversion of your DVD to HD. Your 'eligible' title will be access to same copy they have for rent on VUDU.
Also, a streamed VUDU movie in 1080p is not dependent on movie already converted to Blu-ray. VUDU has 1080p streaming of movies and TV shows that have no release on Blu-ray or been converted to 1080p HD. That's why a 1080p stream does not look quite as good as a Blu-ray.
Why not just go to a redbox, rent some movies for $1 to $2, go down to walmart and register them in your name. Tell them you dont have the case for them anymore.
I could see this being good for titles available on Vudu in HD that aren't released on Blu yet (of which there are a few). Just give them your DVD, pay the $5 and viola, HD copy where previously none existed.
Except not everyone has internet service fast enough to accomodate HDX quality (I can't play it without it stopping to buffer every few seconds), and the quality STILL isn't as good as a Blu-Ray. The stuff I've watched on Vudu on regular HD usually has more detail than a standard DVD, but more compression.
Also some "HD" titles on Vudu are cropped to 16x9 and have only 2-channel sound when they were released in 5.1, but this mostly applies to older titles. I'll just keep my discs, thank you very much.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wxman /forum/post/21779927
Why not just go to a redbox, rent some movies for $1 to $2, go down to walmart and register them in your name. Tell them you dont have the case for them anymore.
And if you think you can get by that by peeling them off, you wouldn't be able to reattach them or return them, and Redbox would charge you $25 a disc.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wxman /forum/post/21779927
Why not just go to a redbox, rent some movies for $1 to $2, go down to walmart and register them in your name. Tell them you dont have the case for them anymore.
What if I'm on vacation and don't have a BD player? What if it's not one of the very few titles that redBox carries? For me this will be about portabilty. I rip all my BDs to ISos, but I can't carry the many terrabytes of hard drives with me. This will be a way to be able to easily and quickly view some of those titles at other locations.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Charles R /forum/post/21777166
100 titles at $2 gets them $200. Can you build a ripper/streamer and store them indefinitely for less? I realize you'll take a minor quality hit but outside of front projection I can't see that coming into play (without emotions setting in).
Next step might be at the time of purchase... $1 for online storage would you like it included?
1. A lot of people already have a computer that is capable of ripping a DVD
2. A $50 NAS and $130 3TB drive is still less than $200 and will store ~450 DVD's assuming an average size of 6GB.
3. You are limited to the devices you can play back on
4. Is Vudu guaranteed to never go belly up? Even MS has pulled the plug on their like service.
5. The may not be able to convert all of your 100 titles.
6. So it's only potentially legal to rip your DVD library if you 'Pay Up' *again*. This is the largest sticking point for me. That assumption that I am a crook unless I participate in a payola scheme with both a retail chain and the movie studios.
Quote:
Originally Posted by aaronwt /forum/post/21781089
What if I'm on vacation and don't have a BD player? What if it's not one of the very few titles that redBox carries? For me this will be about portabilty. I rip all my BDs to ISos, but I can't carry the many terrabytes of hard drives with me. This will be a way to be able to easily and quickly view some of those titles at other locations.
Given my personal track record with hard disks vs all the shuttered services from Goliath's like Amazon, Google, MS etc... Historically speaking I will take my chances.
I remember when Walmart killed their music service. I had a few digital only titles (Steve Morse High Tension wires among them as an example) I had to rip to CD and THEN rip back digitally just to get them to play due to DRM server un-availability. Yes Walmart left me high and dry. Not going to attempt to kick the football with them again.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Charles R /forum/post/21781870
You are technically. Just like with DVDs one has to move on.
This will be great for movies that have not been put on Blu-ray yet. Looks like I might be spending $5 each to get 1080p versions of these I still have on DVD:
Are they going to actually deface the disc itself with some sort of sticker, or some other sort of visual mark?
I'm guessing they'll say they discourage the practice, but there is probably no way to stop it, plus it's money in their pocket so there's likely to be little pushback.
"The appetite for enjoying movies is strong and growing. Walmart wants to help movie lovers download or stream their movies when they want and where they want. Walmart asked thousands of customers their thoughts regarding movie ownership. Customers want to own physical Blu-rays and DVDs and customers also want to have digital access to those same movies for convenience. Customers also cited accessibility, security, affordability, and simplicity as key decision factors for wanting a digital solution. Walmart listened and is delivering America's first disc-to-digital service.
"Walmart is helping America get access to their DVD library," said John Aden, executive vice president for general merchandising, Walmart U.S. "Walmart Entertainment's new disc-to-digital service will allow our customers to reconnect with the movies they already own on a variety of new devices, while preserving the investments they've made in disc purchases over the years. We believe this revolutionary in-store service will unlock new value for already-owned DVDs, and will encourage consumers to continue building physical and digital movie libraries in the future."
1. Shouldn't the Library of Congress be asking what people want from their BR and DVD titles and then removing any shadow of a doubt about the private legality of doing this for yourself. Why do solutions like this require big business?
2. On the point about accessibility and 'preserving investments' already made, haven't these same arguments been made for the past 10+ years. Why has it fallen on the deaf ears of our government representatives?
Does this mean the next review of the DMCA will see some major changes in the consumer provisions? Clear up any CSS/BR+ related problems?
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