Looking to backup your DVD and Blu-ray collection and convert it to virtual copies for playback at home and on your mobile devices? Walmart will enable you to purchase virtual copies of your existing DVDs and Blu-ray discs through its new Disc to Digital service for Vudu, its digital video rental and purchase service.
Starting Monday April 16th you’ll be able to come into Walmart stores with your discs (purchased at Walmart or elsewhere) and pay a $2 for a straight conversion (DVD to SD or Blu-ray to 1080p HD) or $5 for up-converting a DVD to an HD copy—and you’ll be able to leave with your disc, too.
The virtual copy will then be available through Walmart’s Vudu video service on your Vudu-enabled TV, Blu-ray player, PS3 or Xbox 360. Currently, you can use a computer or iOS device only to stream SD videos.
The Disc to Digital service for Vudu is powered by UltraViolet, a cloud-based movie and TV storage service. Technically, with an UltraViolet account, you can stream your content to up to 3 devices simultaneously. Flixster, an UltraViolet app, is already available for iOS and Android devices. And, the ability to download your titles onto up to 12 UltraViolet-capable devices is coming soon. But it's not yet clear whether the Vudu service will have options for Android, and downloading is only supported for PCs (up to 5) and simultaneous streaming to 2 devices.
The selection of movies available for conversion to UltraViolet is currently limited to titles from Warner Brothers, 20th Century Fox, Sony Pictures and Universal Pictures. Notably absent is Disney.
The big question is whether consumers will be willing to pay for the privilege of streaming content they already own.
For content not available on Netflix or Amazon Prime, it may make sense. I also have plenty of scratched discs (especially kids’ titles) that I would like to recover and keep in a more durable format (discs don't have to be playable when brought in for conversion). And once the ability to download and play back content offline becomes available, UltraViolet may very well replace DVDs and Blu-ray discs entirely.
From Caroline Rhodes on March 14, 2012 :: 11:42 am
Will you be able to down load the digital copies to your ipod?
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From Suzanne Kantra on March 14, 2012 :: 12:13 pm
Right now, the only option for iPod touch would be to stream it using the web browser. Hopefully that will change, but nothing has been announced.
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