Amazon Video On Demand coming to Roku Player

(Credit: Roku)

Amazon Video On Demand will be coming to the Roku Netflix Player in early 2009.

Amazon's video service will become the first non-Netflix "channel" to be available on the Roku box. The service, formerly known as Amazon Unbox, offers more than 40,000 movies and TV shows.

While that dwarfs the 12,000 or so streaming titles currently available via Netflix--and includes many newer titles as they're released on DVD--they're available on a pay-per-view basis rather than the flat-fee subscription of the Netflix.

A mid-December firmware update included the promise of "a number of great new channels that will begin to appear on your player in early 2009." That implies that Amazon is the first of several additional viewing options that will eventually be available on the box. Whether or not the Roku hardware will be rebranded to emphasize its more diverse choices beyond Netflix remains to be seen.

Amazon Video On Demand is also available on TiVo DVRs and the Sony Bravia Internet Link, as well as on Windows PCs and Macs.

[businesscontacts]

I wonder if it is accesible outside the US.

[shootthecops]

people want to pay for movies that are devoid of DRM that they can play anywhere, until then the torrent sites will be de facto

[OrezzerO]

"Whether or not the Roku hardware will be rebranded to emphasize its more diverse choices beyond Netflix remains to be seen. "

Well, maybe if you would look the very first line of the home page at Roku states:
"The Roku digital video player enables you to instantly stream high quality movies from Netflix and (coming soon) Amazon Video On Demand, over the Internet directly to your TV."

Now you've seen it!

[tmarlow]

While Roku makes great products (I have their Soundbridge internet music streamer), the problem with this product at the moment is the fact that it's output at best is 720p. If I'm going to spend $100 on something like this, I would like it to be able to go up to 1080p (or 1080i) so that the movies will look as good as possible on my HDTV. If that happens, I'm in line to buy one.

[nachurboy]

I believe it has component out, which does 1080i. Besides, are there any other devices out there for $100 that does 1080p? Even an XBox 360 is at least $160.

[marvin25]

This is not a surprise as there is one ISP that will be handling most of the volume that Amazon will be doing as well as Netflix. The ISP has the capability to handle this volume with no problem and therefore the fact they should get ready for the ISP to handle their bandwidth. They are putting on customers at a quick pace and therefore meet the needs of the of their customers. This is what Amazon is looking as their customers in the future.

[borschelrh]

I stream Netflix movies each evening to my xbox360 and have seen periodic problems with the server streams and the problem is in the San Jose connection. I am in Northern VA and the stream falls to less that 500kb/s which causes the movie to degrade to a very low resolution. This is happening more frequently several times a week and I run a trace and it is always the San Jose connection so I do not agree that this is a reliable method to stream movies. This will become an increasing problem as the number of subscribers increases. When Amazon joins the streaming then this is really going to be an issue. Personally, I am praying this business model will succeed and am relatively pleased with the quality and price. The selection must be improved to become marketble for the masses. My wife and I enjoy artsy and foreign films so for us it is barely adequate. I am moving to Europe next year and will not have access to US films unless this type of streaming is available.

[johnh83--2008]

Nice. It is getting to the point where between this, livestation, Hulu, an Xbox, and a HDTV antenna, who needs cable? Might be able to save a few bucks over the long term. I have 200+ channels and maybe watch 4....

[blusky08]

WHY, OH WHY ISN'T SONY ALLOWING THE PS3 TO UTILIZE MORE DOWNLOAD SERVICES??