Yeah, that Reeltime website is great! And cheap! Makes all these other places look pretty bad. However, the content right now is limmited (a thousand at most). When will they be expanding?

Lots of people shop at WalMart, I know, but their core customer base strikes me as an ill-fit for this idea, at least for now. Maybe WalMart will push for a different audience with this initiative, but I don’t get the sense that many companies, even good, really big and successful ones, understand the unique business environment that is the Web.

This up-start company is adding content daily and inking contracts with big movie houses

They use GridNetworks patented p2p technology for streaming DVD quality video in FULL-SCREEN

Subscription allows use from anywhere, anytime for movie rentals

Check it out … The FUTURE is REELTIME

dwilliams, I couldn”t possibly agree with you more! I bought maybe 1 cd/dvd a year before (and still do) free downloads were available. Now I can watch/listen to free ones all the live-long day but even if I couldn’t, I still wouldn’t buy more than 1 per year. And I think most people who download the free ones are the same as me.

For less than $4, you can get a digital copy of a movie, which you can download AS MANY TIMES AS YOU WANT. So what if you can only keep one movie at a time, Walmart lets you DOWNLOAD IT AGAIN LATER.

I will repeat that: you can download it again later. You don’t have to keep it on your computer. That means you don’t have to worry about losing it if your hard drive crashes.

Jesus ****ing Christ. It’s like you want them to give you the movie on a silver platter while angels sing in the window and dozens of nubile woman service your every need.

This may not be perfect, but it sure beats most of the stuff that’s on the market right now, especially the crap from Amazon and Apple. (Lost your download, too bad! You can pay again!)

Of course they do it this way because of the whole “piracy” issue. Listen kids, if you actually think that everybody who watches a pirated copy of your dreck is a lost customer, you are brain-damaged. The chances that they would have gone out and purchased a “real” copy are somewhere between slim and none. They are not lost customers. They are not customers at all. They are only watching your movie because it was free. They would have never paid a single dime for it. Never. You cannot count as a lost sale a sale you never had.

Am I saying that this is not a concern? As a filmmaker myself, no I am not. If someone wants to watch my work and own a copy, then I would like to be paid, but for the most part, people who really do want to watch my work will buy it from a legitimate source. They will not steal it or make copies and give them away to their friends. A handful will but that is one of the realities of the business. The point is, the majority will not. And those who do, would have never paid for it away.

I think Walmart is too late in entering the disgital market like kodak. But guys better late than never.

What these guys don’t (and won’t) get is that the only way to integrate into the (already) established landscape is to embrace, not try to force into a direction that no one’s going for. The net-savvy public has more foresight than these clowns combined.

iPod is not a portable device? Seems like underneath this attempt at a digital movie download service, is an attempt to downplay the significance of the iPod player in this space. When will it be realized by service providers that the iPod is a part of this space, if not THE market leader. So appreciation of this fact must be acknowledged by firms venturing into digital downloading.

http://video.google.com/videop.....=augustana

I thought this was going to be a value added service, not an add on option. I vote for stupid on this one.

“We are sorry, but Wal-Mart Video Downloads Beta is only available in the United States.”

Im a Comcast Customer in Vermont .(OK some wags might say VT is not part of the US ;P)

Called thier Support and after the rep was running around trying to get her supervisor she tell me they will call back within 10 minutes .

I call back Hours later to find out if they resolved the isssue no one knows , so Im put through to a supervisor who proceeds to tell me they cant contact me via email even though they are offering a online service .And they havnt resolved the issue .

The both times I called the first thing the Wallmart reps ask me for is my email adress …..The supervisor tells me that is only for survey purposes .
Looks like they respect a privcy policy that is supposed to be in place either .

Walmart better get the Customer Service up to scratch if they want to be in the Online video download market or they wil have another failure on thier hands like they did with thier DVDs in the Mail service .

Wal-mart sold an option for a digital download with the purchase of the “Superman Returns” DVD when the movie went on sale today. This is the store’s first foray into the digital movie business.

Also, I just spent 5 minutes looking on Walmart.com for this download option. I can’t find it anywhere (one of the superman dvd’s is sold out)… could you post a direct link? Thanks Natalie!

My belief is that most walmart shoppers are like my mother - would buy the dvd to watch but would have no idea what a portable format even is