Big news today for folks who enjoy renting Amazon Video On Demand content through their Windows / Mac PC, TiVo (Series 3, HD, HD XL), Roku Digital Video Player (now available through Amazon.com), and Sony Bravia Internet Video Link. The service has been upgraded to serve up HD quality TV episodes and Movies in 720p / 2Mbps video (some titles providing Dolby Digital 5.1 audio) [source]. HD rentals will range in price from $2.99 to $4.99 depending on the content type. Also announced: Panasonic VIERA CAST-enabled HDTVs are now part of the line-up of Amazon Video On Demand supported devices. MORE »

Sure we’ve started seeing a crop of “Connected HDTVs” making the news this month, but the real winner here is the Yahoo! Widget Engine and Intel’s system-on-a-chip (Media Processor CE 3100) which provides the TV’s processing power to handle all the various interactive media application services. In other words, all future HDTVs supporting TV Widgets powered by the Yahoo! Widget Engine will have the ability to tap into the same services – through a broadband wired or wireless connection – currently provided by eBay, MySpace, CBS, The New York Times, Netflix, Amazon, Blockbuster, CinemaNow, Showtime, USA TODAY, Pandora, Rhapsody, Twitter, Flickr, and Yahoo! News / Weather / Video / Finance. In addition, Intel and Yahoo! have announced that they are now providing a Widget Development Kit (WDK) to interested developers, CE manufactures, advertisers, and content publishers. Comcast has also developed proof-of-concept TV Widgets for tru2way capable HDTVs in order to create a richer Comcastic set-top-less environment. Something tells me this is going to be big. MORE »

Scoot over, Netflix. Roku and Amazon have announced a partnership to provide the Roku Digital Video Player (notice Roku finally changed their device’s name from “Netflix Player by Roku” to the Roku Digital Video Player — good move) users access to Amazon’s Video On Demand library in the early part of 2009. Soon users will be able to rent new movie titles (launched the same day as their DVD counterparts) and TV shows ranging in price from 99-cents to $3.99 with a 24 hour viewing window. Users will also be able to purchase videos to own, which will be stored in “your video library” at Amazon.com for convenient access from any PC, Mac, or TV. It’s also worth pointing out that Amazon VOD videos will be encoded in the advanced H.264 codec and will stream at the best quality possible (either 300, 600, 900 or 1200 kbps) automatically according to your detected bandwidth connection speed. Full press release below. MORE »

Amazon.com, Inc., today announced that customers can now instantly watch ad-free movies and television shows on Macs or PCs with Amazon Video On Demand, Amazon’s digital video service offering thousands of movies and television shows. Previously, customers could only download titles and watch them on a PC (using the Amazon Unbox application) or on their TiVo box. Now customers can either watch instantly within their web browser or download using the Unbox application and watch anytime. Additionally, customers can now rent or purchase Amazon Video On Demand movies and TV shows directly through Sony’s BRAVIA Internet Video Link device on compatible BRAVIA® television sets (currently in beta). Sony’s BRAVIA Internet Video Link device seamlessly streams Internet video content directly to compatible Sony HDTVs through a broadband connection. MORE »

Finally, something other than YouTube on these Internet connected TVs. Sony and Amazon have announced that Amazon’s new streaming service will connect to Sony’s Bravia TVs, and as I’ve written about here, Sony has been working on a number of angles to get their Internet TV’s more content, much of it in Japan, but more and more I think they’ll partner with the likes of Amazon to get content to their devices.

As for Amazon, the service is their first streaming service, with Amazon VOD packing the Unbox download service capabilities within. As most of you know, Unbox has been largely seen as a disappointment, mostly due to a combination of a poorly executed launch with clunky software and the slow state of paid downloads. I think streaming is a good move, as consumers have shown that they want instant-viewing. MORE »

I just got this e-mail notification in my inbox this morning (see graphic). So, I jumped over to see what it was all about. Boy… was I impressed. Amazon’s Connected Home Store page is so well dialed in, it’s scary. Amazon has products broken down by popular Digital Home categories, bestsellers, and even home setup scenarios. And if that wasn’t enough, Amazon is providing in-depth/usage case articles (on topics like: printer sharing, wireless photo frames, TV place-shifting), FAQs, terminology definitions, a community discussion board, and a widget tool for helping users discover the perfect device(s) for their needs.