I am completely sold on Amazon video on demand. The truth is, for the last ten years or so the entertainment industry has been experimenting with different methods for content distribution, and I haven’t really liked any of them.

DVDs were nice, except they required you to get what was then an expensive television to really enjoy them. DVD zoning was insanely stupid though, and DVDs were generally overpriced.

Movielink (which is still around) was a good idea, (Pay a small fee to download a DRMed movie which would play for 1 day), but poorly executed. The selection sucked, there were few new releases, and worst of all, you had to install their stupid software, which meant that it wouldn’t work on non-Windows machines. The DRM also restricted the movie you downloaded to the computer you downloaded it on, so there was no moving it to another machine or watching on your television.

Netflix was also a good idea, just not for someone like me. I watch less than a movie a month, so paying a monthly fee is a waste of money.

Hulu is also good, and I don’t mind sitting through the commercial breaks, but their selection is limited. Some of what they have is great (where else can you still see the A-team?), but if I want new releases I’m out of luck. They also play movies in the browser

Back when I was on college (no money, lots of time), I simply pirated everything. Now that I’m an “adult” (by physical age of course, not the way I act), I have little time and more money, so I’m more than happy to pay for convenience and legality. Amazon VOD has done that. You can either buy or rent a movie through your amazon account. The rental fees are reasonable ($1-$4 usually), anbd the purchase prices are usually less than those of the corresponding DVD. There’s no software to download. I first discovered it when I was trying to get episodes from Battlestar Galactica season 4. Within about 30 seconds of stumbling on the website I was watching the episode – no software, no ads, no lengthy user agreements, no crap. They allow you to either download the video or stream it (your choice), and you can also download to your DVR or other medium if you would rather watch on your TV. The quality is “only” DVD quality (480p), but since I don’t have an HDTV (yet), it’s good enough. Media that you buy is stored in your video library which you can access any time, from any machine, and watch online. They also give you the first two minutes free as a teaser, and as the kicker, they have sporting events.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 1st, 2009 at 2:42 pm by Ari and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.