Amazon Now Streams HD Movies and Shows

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Dear Anthony,
I'm amused by the "duh" at the end of your comment since you clearly don't know too much about what you're ranting against. And knowing what HD means "to you" isn't really relevant.
Blu-Ray video quality is typically better, yes. But the "HD" standard includes 1280x720 AND 1920x1080, in both interlaced and progressive modes (1080i and 1080p), and allows for all kinds of different bit rates which also drastically alter the image quality and file size of each movie being authored. So claiming that using the term "HD" automatically means Blu-Ray quality is just ignorant on two levels - "HD" doesn't specifically designate any of those details and neither does "Blu-Ray." All "Blu-Ray" really designates is a physical disc specification, on which you could store a bunch of recipes if you were so inclined...the term does not inherently infer anything about video quality. And if you really want to argue semantics, the term "HD" has been used to describe anything above standard definition...
If you really want Blu-Ray quality you're not just looking at a slightly longer download...more like 10x longer. A ~45min episode of a TV show in 720p H.264 format will run you around 1.5GB on iTunes, and that includes two audio tracks. On BD that number would jump to more like 10GB at least. Those are rough averages but you can't expect people to embrace digital downloads as a viable entertainment option if it takes all night to download one episode of a TV show. To get that number down to anything acceptable you would have to sacrifice bit rate to an extent that would render the whole notion pointless.

TinkerTenor of CA 11:10PM January 17, 2011

HD should mean exactly the same regardless of the company offering it. HD to me means 1080p. If you advertise HD, to me that means blue ray quality. There is NO reason why companies cant offer blue ray quality. After all, its just a download. Being higher quality just means it will be a longer download. Duh!

anthony of FL 7:30AM June 24, 2009

can u use a xbox 360? for this service

Carlos of RI 8:42PM May 10, 2009

This is the dagger for vudu the way I see it. The NETFLIX library AND Amazon movies.
I have a vudu, saw this, and quickly looked at ebay to see if I could sell my vudu to buy a roku, and to little surprise, the vudu's aren't selling any where near their retail cost, 50%-60% below actually. While the roku is selling a few dollars off the asking price of $99 (going in the $80's).
Sucks :/

Ed of NY 6:35PM May 03, 2009

not be be mean, but your article really paints a negative impression of the service. Comparing the service to a blue ray disc and over-the-air broadcast is unfair comparison, especially since those two source are know for the highest resolution. Cable or Satellite television are not able to match them either. All those other sources suffer because of compression methods and so forth.
A more fair comparison would have been to Netflix HD content. Possibly, AppleTV or Vudu, but those are downloaded content. Granted, Amazon can be either depending on what device the user is using..

robot of CA 12:49PM April 23, 2009