Amazon Video on Demand HD on Roku Video Player hands-on

Roku hooked us up with an early preview of Amazon Video on Demand in HD for its Video Player, and while we didn't have much time to poke around, but what we saw was mostly impressive. Video took a little longer to buffer in than Amazon SD or Netflix's HD streams on our 10Mbps cable connection, picture quality was noticeably better, although still not at Blu-ray levels. Apart from the HD content, the experience on the Roku box is essentially same as always: there's still no search in the interface, so be prepared to hunt around for what you want -- anything other than popular or blockbuster titles requires a little digging. Selection and pricing seem to be about on par with Apple TV / iTunes, but you're getting a little less for your money, since audio is stereo-only compared to Apple's 5.1 encoding. That's a potential dealbreaker for us, but it might not matter to you, and Roku's $99 Video Player is now an undeniably appealing way to beef up your HD content options. Short hands-on video after the break.

Gallery: Amazon Video On Demand in HD on Roku

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[james @ Apr 21st 2009 5:02PM]

How does this compare to the rented HD content on the PS3 store? I've never rented movies from there.

[required @ Apr 21st 2009 6:45PM]

I've rented HD from the PS3 Store and I would also like to know how this compares.

[Templarian @ Apr 21st 2009 5:02PM]

This is the stuff that should be on engadgetHD (well at least 1 of these 2 articles, I know they are different but basically the same idea).

[boutch55555 @ Apr 21st 2009 5:05PM]

double post ?
Oh... there was the news AND the "hands on"

[Kamokazi @ Apr 21st 2009 5:12PM]

They all laughed at me when I said neither HD-DVD or Blu-Ray would make mainstream before HD streaming STBs took over. Who's laughing now? (Okay I'm not really laughing, but you get the idea.)

[s0dOlS @ Apr 21st 2009 5:13PM]

and they negged me when i trolled all bluray posts with "bluray is dead"

[Matt @ Apr 21st 2009 5:14PM]

"Caught on", huh? Blu-Ray is still much higher on the acceptance rate, especially with people still with 256k dial up...

[Mark @ Apr 21st 2009 5:29PM]

Have to say, the people who still have dialup aren't the people going out and buying blu-ray players...

[Joseph @ Apr 21st 2009 6:29PM]

256 dial-up?? does that exist?

[required @ Apr 21st 2009 6:52PM]

Blu-ray blank media is currently less than $5/25GB and a lot more feasible than CD, DVD, HD, or even flash SSD for backing up and sharing data such as home video. Also the quality of Blu-ray feature films and the ilk is impeccable, far surpassing digitally distributed content both aurally and visually. Plus they contain a lot more content, obviously.

[Temple @ Apr 21st 2009 7:26PM]

You should be laughed at if you're willing to pay $15.00 for a SD movie download that can't be played on any other machine. At least with, DVD and Blu-ray you can loan the movie to a friend, give it away when you're tired of it, resell them on ebay, or have the freedom any physical device comes with it. With digital-downloads you are stuck with the DRM and can't even take the movie to your friend's house to watch or even watch with a second player in the bedroom.

With Blu-ray, you can rent it anywhere, Netflix it, and watch it in much better quality then an overcompressed HD movie. Blu-ray movies are 50GBs, that's compressed down to 4-8GBs on a HD digital distribution. If you're going to pay to own, minus well have it in good quality, that is portable. Or you can just get a PS3 and be able to play Blu-ray/DVDs and have digital-distribution as well.

[Andrew @ Apr 21st 2009 11:36PM]

Have to agree with Temple. Free streaming Hulu-style is just fine. But online movie rentals are just pointless unless you are truly lazy and careless with your money. But then again, I also believe that BlockBuster, RedBox, and even NetFlix are overpriced. People need to check out their public libraries more. My local one, within walking distance btw, stocks new releases every month, including Blu-Ray versions. To add to that, all movies PG and under are free, and above PG are $1 a week, and can be renewed 3 times with no extra charge as long as there are no holds on them. Oh yea, and no extra charge for Blu-Rays. Yeah, that means KungFu Panda on Blu-Ray is a free rental. ^.^ I

[Kobutah @ Apr 21st 2009 5:16PM]

Oh great, now I will only get to the 10th of the month before I am at my 250GB limit with Comcast.

[cxp3 @ Apr 21st 2009 5:27PM]

Only 4 stars for Dark Knight?

[GingerFox @ Apr 21st 2009 5:43PM]

i know, that film is amazing

[james @ Apr 21st 2009 5:19PM]

lol, where the hell do you find 256k dialup????

[Nelagster @ Apr 21st 2009 5:20PM]

$4.99 for a streamed rental for 24 hours? That's a little expensive IMO. I was hoping that having movies, etc streamed instead of picked up physically would lower the price. How many people are really going to pay that?

[Gadget Fan @ Apr 21st 2009 5:26PM]

+1 for me ..

I love (!) my Roku and with Netflix its a pretty good deal.. I don't think I'll ever pay $5 for an online movie rental..

[Kanos @ Apr 21st 2009 5:23PM]

I don't know if this would make Blu-Ray go away, I am sure the quality of this video is not up to par even with the pirated versions of HD movies you might find online. Not to mention its only Stereo and not even 5.1. Until they are able to up the quality and include 5.1 I don't see Blu-Ray going anywhere. Although I do feel this type of technology is the future, but this device is not it. When you can stream video at near Blu-Ray bit rates with DD and DTS then I will say Blu-Ray is dead.

[Mark @ Apr 21st 2009 5:30PM]

..and 99% of people won't be able to tell the difference.

[required @ Apr 21st 2009 7:00PM]

you're saying 99% are visually impaired?

[Mark @ Apr 21st 2009 7:09PM]

No, I'm saying that most people can't tell the difference between an upscaled dvd and 1080p, let alone a 720p stream and 1080p. Unless you're a videophile and/or look at the film frame by frame, people can't usually tell the difference.

[required @ Apr 21st 2009 8:06PM]

I doubt it is anywhere near 99%. Many/most have computers and are familiar with high resolution. I would say that those that are unaware of a difference are few (around 5-10%) and don't last once they have been schooled in what is high resolution audio and video.

[danimaldan @ Apr 21st 2009 5:25PM]

I will prolly only use the free 2 min preview in HD :)

[MONKEY @ Apr 21st 2009 9:57PM]

Talk about blue balls...

[Kieran Coghlan @ Apr 21st 2009 5:26PM]

Calling this "HD" is probably a bit of a stretch, IMO. More like "aproaching good DVD quality". Resolution isn't everything, folks. Bit rate is at LEAST as important as resolution, probably more important. The bitrate on these streamed "HD" movies is dismally low, compared to OTA HDTV, let alone an actual blu-ray disc.

[Dr. Spaceman @ Apr 21st 2009 5:34PM]

I watch Heroes in HD on my Roku box through Netflix, and it looks much better than on OTA HD.

Maybe my OTA HD sucks.

[required @ Apr 21st 2009 6:56PM]

Not all over the air HD is created equal nor is it via cable. In fact much of it is as low as 480i. The source plays a role as well as some stream 480i at 1080i. For example most news broadcasts haven't upgraded all of their cameras yet.

[Mark @ Apr 21st 2009 5:33PM]

Too 'spensive. Why stream a movie for 1 day for $3.99 when I can drive like 2 blocks to the nearest vons and pick it up in the better quality dvd for at most $0.99?

[absolutc @ Apr 21st 2009 6:08PM]

Better quality DVD for 99 cents? Lol. If you say so. Blu-ray is where it's at. Plain and simple. This BS HD download crap that can't even get past the 720p barrier is a joke. It's OK - but it's far from quality you can get on a disc. If so so quality is your thing, then download. If highest quality and sound is what you want, go blu-ray. Everything else is a joke.

I have over 150 blu-rays and the quality and sound is superb. Does not compare to ANY download or dvd. Period. 99% won't be able to tell the difference in sound huh? What world are you living in?

Stop commenting - your making yourself look like a fool.

[Mark @ Apr 21st 2009 6:18PM]

nice rant. Yes, redbox(the vons movie rental service) rents out dvds for $0.99 a day which would be better than the $3.99 streaming SD movie for one day. Also, yes, 99% of people won't be able to tell the difference and won't care that there is one. For people like you(an obvious early adopter and video/audio phile) I have no doubt there's a huge difference and blu-ray blows everything else out of the water. On the other hand the average joe shmoe(99% of the population) won't be able to tell the difference between 720p and 1080p or between uncompressed OTA HD and streaming HD over their crappy internet. Notice I never said I can't tell the difference or that there isn't one. Most people just don't care that much to notice one. Maybe I did make myself look like a fool by actually understanding the majority of americans well enough to know that they won't care about a difference between 720p and 1080p or lower bitrates or anything but you made it pretty clear that you're a pretentious dick.

[comments4cheap @ Apr 21st 2009 6:42PM]

@mark

Not to say your not right but how gas would that ride cost you? Are you really saving 'specially if you have to drive back to bring it?

[comments4cheap @ Apr 21st 2009 6:44PM]

"How much money in gas" is what i was trying to say.

[Mark @ Apr 21st 2009 7:07PM]

Let's see, for argument's sake if I assume I get 10 miles per gallon and gas costs $5 per gallon, it would cost $0.35 in gas for 2 round trips to vons. So, the end total is $1.34 as opposed to $3.99. All this assumes I'm not already buying groceries...

[comments4cheap @ Apr 21st 2009 7:21PM]

So when you buy gas you only buy for the distance of your trip? BS. When you put gas regardless of were your going you put for more than 3 bucks.

[Mark @ Apr 21st 2009 7:25PM]

O.K. on that note, I already had the gas since I bought it earlier to get to work and such so the cost of it is free? I don't really know what your point is, I don't usually fill up my gas tank to drive to my neighborhood vons every day. I thought you were asking how much the gas to drive there and back, there and back again costs, not how much my gas for 2 weeks of driving to work and such costs.

[required @ Apr 21st 2009 8:14PM]

If we are going to be open to bringing gas into the equation don't skip: oil, insurance, washer fluid, antifreeze, maintenance, vehicle payment, general total cost of ownership, etcetera. Also time in traffic, heat of the day, all which alters MPG.

[Dr. Spaceman @ Apr 21st 2009 5:33PM]

I don't get it. If you buy a movie, how do you get it? The Roku has no internal storage.

[DYLAN C @ Apr 21st 2009 5:45PM]

It probably adds a tick to your account for having purchased the movie. Then, you are able to stream it whenever you want.

[Wormbolt @ Apr 21st 2009 8:21PM]

You can stream movies you own to the Roku box anytime and download them to your computer in computer-sized and pmp-sized versions.

[MONKEY @ Apr 21st 2009 5:40PM]

The Dark Knight only has FOUR stars?

[John Ellenich @ Apr 21st 2009 5:44PM]

I have an Apple TV and I must say audio and video quality is very impressive on the HD downloads on my Samsung 1080p TV... They also take less than a minute to begin streaming which is nice. The Roku is cheaper though, but doesn't stream my iTunes, Podcasts, or iPhoto libraries.

[Sam @ Apr 21st 2009 5:56PM]

Roku rocks!!

[Kiran_mk2 @ Apr 21st 2009 6:16PM]

Did anyone notice that the Dark Knight scene wasn't in the expanded 1:1.78 Imax format, but the 1:2.40 ratio that the rest of the film is in? I noticed the iTunes verison switched ratios at the appropriate times - scratch another plus point for the ATV.

[Phil J Leitch @ Apr 21st 2009 6:22PM]

Any idea if this might make it as an update to the Samsung Blu-Ray players? Just got one with Netflix and Pandora built in which is the 4/5's of the reason I got it. It was part of a trade for some work I did and while I wanted a Roku box the Samsung player did what I wanted so what the hell. Plus I could finally check out how Blu-Ray looked on my TV.

I think Blu-Ray will have a much shorter life than DVD did, streaming/downloading is definitely the future. I was just wondering last night about Amazon video being available, would be a nice touch.

[Peter @ Apr 21st 2009 6:31PM]

the dark knight only gets 4 stars?!?!

[Guru @ Apr 21st 2009 6:41PM]

Ok what's better this or watching blu ray on ps3 on a 52" Sony 1080p 120hz?
So we agree this is subpar?

[Brian @ Apr 22nd 2009 4:24PM]

$4.99 for 24-hours? I haven't been to Blockbuster in a while, but I know it used to cost $4.32 for a week rental (or longer, when they had the return whenever you want thing going)