Amazon Video on Demand goes high-def

Amazon Video on Demand HD, as it appears on the Roku Digital Video Player

(Credit: Roku/Amazon)

It's been a long time in coming, but Amazon Video on Demand is finally available in high-def. Owners of TiVo HD/Series 3 DVRs, the Roku Digital Video Player, the Sony Bravia Internet Video Link, and Panasonic VieraCast TVs (and, presumably, VieraCast-enabled Blu-ray players) will be the first to enjoy Amazon's content in HD (software updates to enable HD viewing on those products should be available imminently). Likewise, Windows and Mac users will also get access to HD video content via Amazon's Web site.

As with competing services, HD movie rentals will cost $3.99 to $4.99, and TV episodes will be available for purchase for $2.99 each (HD movie purchases currently won't be available). More than 500 HD movies and TV shows will be available initially, encompassing content from most major studios, including Warner, Sony Pictures, MGM, Paramount, and Universal. TiVo is pledging that the "vast majority of titles" on its boxes will offer Dolby Digital 5.1 surround soundtracks.

CNET was able to get a sneak preview of the Amazon HD offerings on the Roku box last week. For existing users, it's a pretty seamless upgrade: new HD-specific filters for HD movies and TV shows are available, so there's no need to go hunting and pecking for high-def content.

Quality on the Roku box was very good--the 720p video is closer to that of a really good DVD, but it's definitely superior to the standard-definition content that's available. We didn't detect any major difference between the quality of Netflix and the Amazon HD offerings on the Roku, but the Amazon interface allows you to choose rentals or purchases directly from the onscreen interface, whereas Netflix requires you to manage your viewing queue via a PC.

[slapppy]

According to Engadget the movies are only Stereo and no 5.1? Sounds a bit strange having HD video yet no 5.1 DD sound.

[SaT_161]

They are just overloading my harddrive!

Last time I checked the website it downloaded about 500mb just to watch a 10min movie in so call HD
I don?t even know if this is full HD (1080) or 720 but I know that it takes a lot to load for me, im using a ADSL2 at 2Mbps and it just dosnt work fine.

I was checking arround the web the other day and I find out that theres a company that calls this HD service (Saturn Liberty) on radio and tv.

Right now the site seems to be out of maintance but they have a HD+ channel up, it looks like 1080p but the video resolution is 1400x1080 or something like that.

The cool thing about this is that they didn?t send anything to my PC no files no extra diskspace

No required plugins (I was using Google Chrome on Windows 7 build 7077), nothing

They go full screen and it looks awesome!

Can someone make a review on the site?

Oh yeah I almost forgot to mention , this site (http://www.ardcorp.tv/) is not using flash
It seems to use the VC-1 style but is not silverlight.

It worked like chram , untill my borther started a download on his pc and everything got laggy. (including browsing)

Anyways the site is:

http://www.ardcorp.tv


I want to try the High Definition Radio that they say , I wonder how good it is

So far the TV Channel I saw was Higher than 720p (1280x720) but I don?t think it was Full HD, in any case is better than this one (they don?t sent me 500Mb or more in video files) qualty is awesome 10+ , audio is the same 10+ and well it took like 20seconds to start the whole thing I didn?t wait for buffering ot anything, and unlike Flash or Others this site didn?t ask me to Install anything.

And im using a new browser that dosnt even have 1 year out.
I tried on IE8 (Win7) and Chrome and they both have no problems.

I don?t use Firefox or Safari or any of the others because I don?t like them

Anyways if someone can make a review will be awesome
Thanks

[VT808]

I think that internet speeds need to seriously catch up to this technology for it to become useful. Unless your at work using that gigabit ethernet connection ;-)

[Stammy12]

From what I have seen the HDX format from VUDU still wins out in quality. I can't see Amazon offering the sharpest HD when the movies aren't downloaded to the box, and streaming is limited.

[vhhughes]

Not looking terribly compelling at this point. For the cost of 2.5 of their HD TV episode purchases or about 2 of their HD movie rentals, I can have a whole month of Netflix instant streaming (which includes both HD movies & TV, like Heros, and a host of non-HD, too) in addition to their standard 1 DVD at a time borrowing program. I've been trying it over the last four months and have been *very* impressed with the HD quality streamed through our Xbox 360. I'd be surprised if CNET didn't have an article comparing the quality of the two HD streaming offerings soon. Even then, I still like the monthly subscription model better than the $4-5 HD movie rental, because--let's all be honest with ourselves here--streamed HD will never be able to compare in bitrate with Bluray. (even downloading video at that bitrate will always be a long time coming with today's Internet)

[AnthonyNYC]

I'll honestly say to your comment that streaming HD will neverbe able to compare to bluray, by saying "Who Cares?" if it does or not.
I have the Roku box and it streams beautiful quality SD and HD to my HDTV set. Most of the time I won't pay the extra dollar to see movies in HD because the SD stream looks perfectly acceptable to me anyway.
But the HD amazon video on deman is excellent, and I am using as a way to get tv series a la carte at the moment.
I cancelled cable tv, saving me $120 a month, and just pay for the tv series I enjoy on amazon on deman, ala carte, no money spent on stuff I can never have time to watch each month.
Plus the netflix movies, the roku box is all the tv I need. Also got the new DTV Pal HD OTA DVR by Dish, for free OTA HD dual tuner programming of the local networks, digital is way better picture than I even imagined it could be.
Instead of debating it, I am just enjoying it.
:)