Amazon's video-on-demand service has been around, but now consumers can stream about 500 movies and TV shows in high-definition. The service's total library boasts about 40,000 total titles.
Although Amazon doesn't broadcast its adult offerings, the site does offer them, including a modest selection of titles in the VOD section.
Tech pundits doubt the sense in Amazon offering a service that so many other tech companies, including Apple and NetFlix, already offer. Analyst MG Siegler noted, however, that Amazon's VOD service will be available on a variety of services, including the Roku set-top box, series 3 TiVo boxes and select Panasonic televisions.
Amazon is pricing its HD movies to compete with the big boys. Renting a movie costs about $4 and renting a TV show costs half that — both prices are about as much as Apple charges through its iTunes service.
But Siegler added that despite the positives built into offering HD content, it may not be enough to justify the expenditure.
"Apple has been expanding its HD offerings, but still only has a few hundred, several months after launching," he said. "Xbox Live’s content is the same way. Apple just rolled out the ability to buy (rather than rent) HD movies, and that is so far restricted to just a handful of movies."