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Loss of HP puts end to Wal-Mart's video download store

By Ed Oswald, BetaNews

December 28, 2007, 12:10 PM

The retailer decided to silently walk away from its planned video download service after HP ended its participation.

HP was providing the back end to the service, but apparently the company felt it was not getting enough of a return and decided to stop offering it. From there, Wal-Mart just decided to end the service altogether.

While exact figures on video downloads from Wal-Mart's offering were not available, from the sudden closure of the service December 21, it's fairly clear they weren't substantial.

Wal-Mart used a feature from HP that was intended to help retailers set up online video stores. However, HP said that the market did not perform "as expected," and the decision was made to end the offering.

Other than Wal-Mart, some 30 other content providers are now left out in the cold. These companies signed agreements in October that made their content available through HP's service.

Anyone who purchased content from the online store will be able to continue to view their videos, however they will not be able to remove them from the computer they used to originally download them.

Add a Comment (9 Comments)

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By PostDeals

edited Jan 2, 2008 - 11:45 PM

Too many players already just merge and build a fast network to support all the downloads and the lawsuits from RIAA.

Score: 0

By patricioalba

posted Dec 29, 2007 - 12:36 PM

I was expecting this
http://www.spymac.com/details/?2321924

Score: 0

By morriscox

posted Dec 29, 2007 - 10:07 PM

Spammer!

Score: 0

By siryak

posted Dec 28, 2007 - 9:53 PM

That is what happens when you charge the same price for a lesser quality digital download as the same movie on a DVD. This business model will NEVER succeed.

Score: 0

By WeezulDK

posted Dec 28, 2007 - 1:47 PM

First Google and now HP/Wal-Mart....

Does anyone still think DRM for video downloads really is a good idea?

Score: 0

By foxfyre

edited Dec 29, 2007 - 5:05 PM

The fact is, the majority of those folks who do not intend to try to redistribute them don't care.

The only ones who care are trying to get something for free.

After all, if you buy them, what do you care????

Score: 0

By crashoverride

edited Dec 30, 2007 - 8:45 PM

So because I don't like DRM that automatically makes me a criminal eh? Why thank you condemning me for wanting to use what ever codec I want (which happens to be ogg for my music), play my music and movies on what ever player I want and what ever OS I want.

Score: 0

By crashoverride

posted Dec 29, 2007 - 1:14 AM

IMHO DRM is not a good idea whether it is applied to video or music. Apparently my opinion isn't worth much since those philistines that ally themselves with the MPAA and RIAA still insist on using it. Walmart isn't much better....serves them that HP pulled out on em.

Score: 0

By TarrantM

posted Dec 28, 2007 - 3:33 PM

Or more to the point, is using any kind of service provided by attention deficit disorder HP a good idea?

Score: 0

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