Walmart today announced that a new update to the mobile app for its streaming movie service, VUDU, will allow customers to scan and digitize any physical DVD or Blu-Ray into digital form for a price between $2 and $5, right from their smartphone. The update is an expansion of Walmart's "Disc-to-Digital" in-house service, which encouraged customers to bring their physical movies to a local Walmart to transfer them into cloud storage, and in recent years also added digital conversion on home computers.

Now, Mobile Disc-to-Digital will work on both iOS and Android devices and will support nearly 8,000 films from Lionsgate, Paramount Home Media Distribution, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. VUDU said it intends to keep adding support from more distributors over the coming months.

walmart disc to digital

“The average movie collector owns nearly 100 DVDs and Blu-rays. We know these customers have invested a lot into building their physical movie collections,” said Jeremy Verba, general manager, Vudu. “As more and more customers create digital libraries, we are constantly looking for ways to help them unlock additional value from the movies they already own.”

“Like Walmart, at Vudu we’re always striving to save our customers time and money,” added Verba. “Our Mobile Disc-to-Digital service is a key part of Vudu’s broader effort to make digital entertainment access simple and convenient.”

To convert a movie into a digital copy, customers must navigate to the new disc-to-digital section of the VUDU app and scan the physical barcode of the film they want to digitize. Here they will be presented with digital options and prices: converting a DVD to SD or a Blu-ray disc to HDX costs $2, while converting a DVD to the higher-definition HDX costs $5. Users can keep scanning and adding movies in bulk, and once the digitalization is finished, all of the movies can be viewed on any VUDU-enabled device.

To ensure that users are scanning in copies of films that they have already purchased, the VUDU app will enable disc-to-digital conversions only when it can determine that the user is at their designated home/billing address.

VUDU is available on the iPhone and iPad [Direct Link], and today's Mobile Disc-to-Digital update will go live at 12:00 p.m. EDT. An engineer working for the streaming company recently confirmed that an Apple TV app is in development, with no clear timetable as to when it might debut.

Tag: VUDU

Top Rated Comments

JBaker122586 Avatar
100 months ago


Disney would never do D2D. Too greedy.

Disney has BY FAR the most consumer-friendly disc/digital policy in the industry, and it's not even close. I feel like you are talking without knowledge of what Disney actually does here.

Every Disney new release comes with a "Disney Movies Anywhere" code in the box. Enter it online, and you now own that movie on iTunes, Amazon, Google, Xbox, and Vudu, in addition to being able to view it within the Disney Movies Anywhere app. I believe the same applies if you purchase digitally. If I buy a Disney movie on iTunes, it is also added to my account on Amazon, Google, etc.

So we don't need Disney to adopt a policy like Vudu, we need other studios to adopt policies like Disney.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Kaibelf Avatar
100 months ago
While i understand the business model for this, I can't bring myself to pay again for content I already bought. I should be able to spend a flat fee (or perhaps, frankly, NO fee) to have access to content that I already paid a studio to own.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
garylapointe Avatar
100 months ago
For $2 a Blu-Ray, I'd convert everything over in a heatbeat if Apple/iTunes offered this ($3 even!). I'd probably even do a bunch of the DVDs I still have lying around...
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
avanpelt Avatar
100 months ago
Those prices are steep; but like everything else in this world, if you don't have the knowledge or resources to do it yourself, you pay someone else to do it for you.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Westside guy Avatar
100 months ago
For discs I've already purchased, I use the free alternative service HD2D - Handbrake Disc to Digital ('https://handbrake.fr'). :D
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
HDFan Avatar
100 months ago
My attempt at a free conversion of a DVD failed with a "Location must match billing address". My billing address is correct. Might be an issue with the Postal Database for my location which is incorrect.

Now waiting for Vudu support. I see from a post above that it's not that great. Guess I'll soon see. It's been 24 hours and nada.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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