Comments for No More Downloads, Amazon Moves Its Online Video Store To The Cloud

No More Downloads, Amazon Moves Its Online Video Store To The Cloud

2008-07-17T17:33:32Z

Amazon's original video store, Amazon Unbox, is a lot like iTunes - you shop online and the files must be downloaded to your computer in order to view them. For many people, the service wasn't worth the effort. After downloading the large files, they could only be watched in Amazon's proprietary media player which restricted their use. It wasn't until a partnership with Tivo was announced that the service gained popularity, but even still, it lags behind iTunes. Now, Amazon is taking another shot at the video marketplace - this time with a streaming service instead. Will this be the winning ticket?

Our digital lifestyle blog, last100, has an analysis of this news.]]> Syndicated from last100, our digital lifestyle blog

With the gradual roll out of Amazon's new video service, starting today, the company hopes to have fixed everything that was holding back adoption of its original "UnBox" video download store.

Gone are the lengthy downloads or the need to install special software, and instead, "Amazon On Demand" utilizes streaming so that content begins playing almost immediately all within a standard web browser. Additionally, the relaunched service is now Windows and Mac-friendly, and will also be available through Internet-connect televisions, starting with Sony Bravia TVs that are compatible with the company's rather costly Bravia Internet Video Link device.

"For the first time, this is drop dead simple," Bill Carr, Amazon's vice president for digital media, tells the New York Times. "Our goal is to create an immersive experience where people can't help but get caught up in how exciting it is to simply watch a movie right from Amazon.com with a click of the button." Around 40,000 television episodes and movies are available, both rental and to-own, with the same pricing scheme as the original UnBox. Television episodes cost $1.99, movies range from $7.99 to $14.99, and movie rentals cost $3.99. Almost all of the big studios and television networks are on board, with the exception of Disney, where Apple CEO Steve Jobs is the largest shareholder. (We're seeing a pattern here: Disney also snubbed Sony's new video download store, launched earlier this week.)

Cloud television

Not only is Amazon utilizing streaming in order to deliver "instant" playback but it also means that content doesn't have to be permanently stored on a user's hard drive. As a result, Amazon is able to offer another potential benefit to customers: a virtual video library of previously purchased content, stored in the 'cloud' (on the company's own servers) ready to be streamed as many times and to as many compatible devices as the user has access to. While this will initially consist of PCs running Mac OSX or Windows, along with select TVs from Sony, in the future this could extend to many different devices, either through specific partnerships like the one currently forged with Sony, or by utilizing browser-based standards or any other technology or protocol Amazon chooses to support.

"Our goal is to continue to establish partnerships with all companies who have a connected device" says Carr. "Creating this on-demand available-everywhere access to premium content is going to be very attractive to consumers."

Also see: Amazon in your living room: today and in the future

Additionally, since content isn't stored permanently on a user's hard drive, the studios' concerns about piracy is less of an issue. And for consumers, the inconvenience caused by the use of copy-protection technology in the form of DRM becomes much less apparent.

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Comment from Matthew Flaschen on 2008-07-17

2008-07-17T19:53:10Z

"And for consumers, the inconvenience caused by the use of copy-protection technology in the form of DRM becomes much less apparent."

Uh, no. Whatever "protocol Amazon chooses to support." is not good enough. I want to be able to view the content on whatever device I choose, not one Amazon chooses. It disappoints me that after moving forward through DRM-free music, Amazon is moving backwards with the Kimble and now this.

Comment from Rob F. on 2008-07-17

2008-07-17T20:22:44Z

Personally, I think this is a step in the right direction - though I won't be using the service. I already have Hulu, the network stations (which a large percentage of allow ad-supported streaming of full episodes) and Netflix... I do think it's a good idea, but I think it'll be a hard sell when we can essentially get a great variety of content in this format without paying for it. Legally I might add.

If they want to differentiate themselves, they should probably make the videos portable (if you're "buying" them) or maintain a huge catalog of older episodes.

Just my 2 cents.

Comment from Dave Zatz on 2008-07-17

2008-07-17T21:19:41Z

Amazon downloads aren't going away. Streaming is being added to augment the video service. So - PC, TiVo, and Plays for Sure device downloads will carry on. Though it does appear the brand "Unbox" will be retired in favor of "Amazon Video on Demand."

Comment from Datalyss on 2008-07-17

2008-07-17T23:14:48Z

This will only work if the user's connection speed is fast enough. Sometimes (though very rare) when I watch a streaming video, it doesn't download to my browser's cache fast enough to stay ahead of the actual playback, meaning it keeps pausing playback every so often to download a little more into my cache...and I have 1.5MPS DSL.

Comment from Joe on 2008-07-19

2008-07-19T17:18:44Z

The new Amazon approach strikes me as very similar to netflix with the main difference being ala cart pricing versus a flat monthly fee. Netflix does not offer all of their movies via streaming, only a limited subset of their entire library so that is another difference. It will be interesting to see how this nebulous "cloud" thing plays out. So I buy a movie from Amazon and don't have to worry about losing it or storing on my hard drive because it's forever stored on the cloud. Now when I die do I get to will my cloud movie library to my loved ones? :o)

Comment from Tom on 2008-07-20

2008-07-20T19:47:18Z

BUT... who has a computer sitting by their TV to hook up? And if they do, does it have HDMI outputs to your TV? Probably not. Granted, future Sony TVs will have built-in box for this per some agreement between Amazon & Sony. But in the meantime, I have trouble seeing this be successful, no matter how easy the user interface is.

But, Apple could take some cues here and enhance the Apple TV to where the movie doesn't have to download first before watching it. A few Saturdays ago, my little nephew & I rented a movie (in HD) and we had to wait 75 minutes until the Apple TV told us that enough of it had downloaded to begin watching it. Didn't like that at all.

Comment from R.L. on 2008-07-22

2008-07-22T21:41:38Z

I like the cloud television streaming idea. I'm glad things are moving towards getting content on-demand on any medium; bottom line, it just gets better for everyone. The more ways we can get shows and movies online, the better off we'll all be; from Amazon, to Apple TV, to Netflix streaming, to going right to the source from the networks. The more open it gets, the more widely-accepted easily accessible content will be, and hopefully we can move to working on improving other important things, like quality. For example, CBS just moved a big chunk of their lineup online on their official site to stream in high definition. Steps like these are steps in the right direction.