First things first: the Wal-Mart Video Downloads site does not yet work in Firefox! Not at all. Check out this screenshot (as of 2/7/06):
It works in Internet Explorer, but that’s not good enough these days. However, Wal-Mart assures that it will be Firefox-compatible in the near future.
As for the quality of the videos, it seems reasonable:
Movies come in two sizes: the larger “PC” size and the smaller portable one. They dodged the question about the resolution of movies (supposedly they’re getting back to us and when they do, we’ll let you know) but the PC version is “near DVD quality,” which is to say it has a bit rate of around 1.3-1.6 Mbps. TV shows, on the other hand, are decidedly focused on being quick downloads, with a bit rate of 500-800 Kbps for the file.
For the time being, all of their content will be in WMV format, which is corrupted protected by Microsoft’s DRM. As for the prices, they won’t be quite as “rolled back” as I previously imagined. Wal-Mart was able to gain the support of the six major film studios simply by adhering to their expectations on price so as to not replace their profits from DVD sales.
One of the major selling points, if you want to call it that, is the fact that huge discounts will be offered to consumers who purchase the original DVD. Apparently, the prices will be $1.97 for the “portable” version, $2.97 for the PC version, and both for $3.97.
A lineup of 3000 videos is available, evenly split between movies and TV shows.
[via Gizmodo and TechCrunch]
