Analysts were right on the money when they predicted HD television shows coming to Amazon.com, but the shopping website announced today that it will rent both HD television and movies.
TV shows are sold for $2.99 each, and can be downloaded to a PC, Mac or any compatible set-top box, including Roku, TiVo, Sony Bravia and Panasonic Viera Cast. HD Movies are available for the set-top boxes but not for personal computers, and can only be rented, not purchased. Movie rental prices range from $3.99 to $4.99.
I asked Amazon why it's limiting the distribution and purchasing options for HD Movies and got the following answer from a spokeswoman: "Due to agreements with content owners, HD movie rentals are only available for purchase and playback on compatible connected devices at this time."
The HD offerings include 500 shows and movies from major content providers such as Warner Bros, Sony Pictures, Paramount Pictures, MGM, Universal Studios and Showtime. Though it's not mentioned in the press release, there appears to be a free episode of the television show "Parks and Recreation" available for download.
Amazon isn't up front about the size of its downloads, but the product pages for "Heroes" say each episode takes about 30 minutes to download. As our commenters pointed out with the iTunes story, there's no textbook of HD to describe the quality of downloadable files. At an extra $1 per TV episode, maybe checking out that freebie is the best way to find out.
