Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Downloadable Movies from Amazon?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the glimpse-of-the-future dept.

StrongGlad writes "Screenshots of what could be an Amazon.com video store in the making surfaced Friday on the Web. Alan Taylor, who claims to have worked for the online retailer more than two years ago, said he discovered the screenshots while poking around an area of Amazon.com used by developers. The screenshots can be seen on Kokogiak.com. The pictures show a service called 'Unbox Video' that offers first time users a free TV show or $1.99 off the first movie they download. Instructions are given for downloading the player and buying movies and video that can be played on a PC, TV or portable media player. Amazon.com has declined to comment."

3 of 71 comments (clear)

  1. Great.. by zyl0x · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Now all we need are reliable ISPs so we don't have to spend 12 hours downloading each movie.

    --
    Blerg.
    1. Re:Great.. by hey · · Score: 3, Insightful

      They could use BitTorrent.

  2. Format? by Zelbinian · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Downloadable movies/TV shows are great, because this is one area where they won't have too much trouble combatting filesharing networks if they do it right. Chances are the downloadable copies are gonna be of better quality than the freebies, and if they're cheaper than an in-store DVD, then most people - especially anyone who's into movies or cares about the quality of rips - will happily take a legal middle ground.

    The only thing I'm worried about is how proprietary this is gonna be. What's this download gonna be formatted as? Will it be some specialty format like Apple does with 'mp3s' you download from them, or will it be something standard, like an .iso image that you can burn straight to a DVD if you choose? Should be interesting to see where they go with this.

    --
    Putting the 33k in G33k.