Wal-Mart Offers Movie Downloads

Wal-Mart is getting into the digital movie business by offering a digital download service to those who purchase the new Superman, movie.

The company announced last week that when customers buy Superman Returns, they can choose to pay an additional $1.97 to download the movie and play it on portable devices. For $2.97 more, it can be played on PCs or laptops, or for $3.97 it can be played on either portable devices, other than iPods or PCs/laptops.

According to Wal-Mart’s Web site, “The Portable format is optimized for… ‘PlayForSure’ portable video players. If played on a PC, the image quality will not be as good as the higher resolution Standard format. These videos are not compatible with Apple iPods. Portable format videos are encoded at a 320 x 240 resolution with an average bit rate of 500 kbps.”

Users may only have the movie on one computer at a time, but they can re-register the license on several computers, meaning it is possible to play it on the computer with the license and then play it on another computer only if the license is moved.

According to CNN, about 40 percent of all DVDs sold in the country are sold at Wal-Mart, but until now, the company had stayed away from online movie sales.