Mathew Ingram has a clue for the boys at Wal-Mart, if they have enough brains to pay attention:

As more than one person has already pointed out , the demise of Wal-Mart’s video download service comes as no real surprise. In many ways, it was stillborn to begin with. Why? Simple. Even when it was launched, it was obvious (to everyone but Wal-Mart, apparently) that the service was too restrictive. Only Windows format, and only on one computer, with no burning? It would have been a miracle if it had survived.

Go figure - you download a movie, and you can only watch it at your PC - you can't burn a DVD and watch on that big screen you put into your living room. Yeah, that sounds like a plan. If I download, say, "Transformers", where do I want to watch it:

• My 17" MacBook Pro Screen (using Parallels, since it was Windows only)
• My 51" HD TV in the family room, which is hooked up to a Surround Sound Stereo system

This was a hard question for Wal-Mart and the movie studios, which kind of illustrates the problem.

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