There's nothing like a random question on a marketing survey to get the old rumor juices flowing, but we wouldn't be at all surprised to find that Amazon is working on HD
Unbox rentals, as hinted by the latest survey sent to customers. Respondents were asked to prioritize several interesting potential features, including HD downloads, instant streaming of DVDs ordered from Amazon, ad-supported free streaming, and the ability to browse your entire Unbox purchase history from a TiVo. Actually, several questions focused on the TiVo and other media streamers -- it looks like Amazon's at least considering developing the TiVo as its answer to the Apple TV and Xbox 360. Of course, if that's the case then HD downloads need to happen yesterday, since Unbox already way behind iTunes and Xbox Live Video Marketplace in that regard -- and with the possibility of Netflix
coming to the 360 and PS3, it stands to fall even farther back. We'll see how this plays out -- hopefully the high-def download scene is about to blow up.
posted Mar 4th 2008 8:11AM
I would love it if Amazon's Unbox did HD content so I could enjoy it through my HDTiVo. I've downloaded free movies and TV shows and on big screen TV's -it looks awful.
I've downloaded a couple of movies from unbox and found them better looking than most analog cable channels (on a 52" Mits)
I define Media Nirvana as: selection and all-you-can-eat pricing of Netflix in a non or minimal DRM'd downloadable package with lots of high quality HD content. This is another baby step in that direction.
if they can roll this out with a ton of titles on the ps3 and tivo platforms they are going to bank. I'm onboard if they do, it all depends on the number of HD titles