Wal-Mart Launches Vudu Disc-to-Digital Store Program: Here's How It Works

17.04.2012
Want to turn your bulging library of digital video discs into high-definition video streams that you can access anytime without spending a fortune?

Walmart claims it has the answer: The company's rolling out its disc-to-digital movie store conversion program today, allowing you to bring supported DVD or Blu-ray discs--the company's joined hands with several Hollywood studios--to any Walmart store and unlock access to a streaming version of the video through Vudu.com, Walmart's digital content delivery service.

Here's how it works: You bring your physical DVDs or Blu-ray discs to a participating Walmart store, then pay $2 per disc to access the streaming equivalent through Vudu on supported devices, including computers, tablets, smartphones and game consoles--basically anything that supports Vudu.

Blu-ray users automatically convert to the high-definition version of a video, but standard-definition DVD owners have the option of paying $5 (instead of $2) to up-convert to the HD version. Out of the gate, the service offers over 4,000 titles, and it's available in about 3,500 stores.

But wait, do you get the same deal if your video disc is scratched? How many discs can you have converted at once? Can you keep the disc? If yes, what's to stop customers from passing discs around to friends? How about bulk-conversion discounts?