January 6, 2009

Roku Will Get Amazon On Demand In Early 2009

The Apple TV has been thrown another curve ball by the Netflix-streaming Roku player. Not only will the Roku box stream Netflix movies, in "early 2009" it will allow owners to purchase or rent digital movies from Amazon on Demand. That will add roughly 40, 000 more titles to Roku's streaming database.

So what can the box do now? From the press release:

Amazon Video On Demand and the Roku Player will enable customers to:

Access and add to their virtual library of purchases via Amazon Video On Demand's Your Video Library, and re‐watch them anytime on the Roku Player or online with a PC, MAC or other compatible device.
Watch new release movies the same day that they are released on DVD. Hit titles such as "The Dark Knight," "Hancock," "Pineapple Express", "Tropic Thunder" and hundreds more that are not currently available on the Roku Player.
Enjoy instant playback, no downloading, no waiting and no subscription fee.
Browse Amazon.com's huge selection of over 40,000 movies and TV shows for rent or purchase.
Enjoy Amazon Video On Demand's high‐quality video through its use of the advanced h.264 codec and an automatic bandwidth detection feature that seamlessly plays back the best quality file at either 300, 600, 900 or 1200 kbps.
Easily setup their Roku Player using its built‐in Wi‐Fi connection and begin watching videos within minutes.
Connect their Roku Player to any television set using HDMI, Component Video, Composite Video, S‐Video, Stereo Audio or Optical Audio connections.

Given the Roku's $99 price tag that includes Netflix content and the $0.99 to $3.99 price of Amazon title's, now's the time to grab a Roku because there is likely more big partnerships on the way.

Via Roku (PDF)