And since there's no physical conversion taking place, i.e. Walmart's just verifying that you own the discs and is unlocking access to already-in-place digital copies, you could argue the whole affair's just a stunt to get customers to pay yet again for content they already own. A wiser, more consumer-friendly move would have been to charge a monthly Vudu access fee, ala Netflix, and let consumers convert for free.

And when it comes to scratched discs, the Walmart rep told me he wasn't sure if Walmart has a policy against accepting them for conversion, since the company is merely verifying each disc is legit and not a rental, but told me that's probably left to the discretion of the sales associate. And lastly, yes, the videos are yours to view indefinitely...so long as Vudu and Walmart stick around.

I sold my 100-plus DVD video collection to a wholesale buyer online over a year ago when I signed up with Netflix and made a fair lot of money. If the prospect of paying for Walmart's disc-to-digital program doesn't appeal to you--depending on whether services like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon offer the TV shows and movies you're interested in--you might keep that in mind as an alternative.

Matt Peckham writes for TIME and PCWorld. You can find him on , , or , and follow on Twitter for the latest tech news and analysis.