I can finally say to you that this device, DMX-NV1 (pictured here), is worth it if you have the money to burn on downloadable content. While I’ve had no formal or informal experience with Amazon’s streaming video service (simply called “Amazon Video on Demand”), it must be appealing to owners of the $200+ NV1 that they actually have a use for this thing. Initial reviews were very negative, ranging from “lack of content” to “BUT this product is nothing more than a dead-end. The content is lackluster at best and totally out of date. The video quality is no better than a YouTube-ish website and the sound as abysmal.” or my other favorite “Unless you are prepared to watch video clips, from 1-5 minutes, with poor video (Not HDTV quailty), poor sound (Not Digital quality). I was lead to believe I would be able to watch full length movies and TV shows, not trailers. What a laugh!!! Don’t bite!! Don’t waste your money!!” (from Amazon’s very own product listing).
Well, hopefully a sense of redemption is on the way after months of disappointment – Amazon.com on Thursday made available to the general public its video-on-demand service, through which ad-free movies and TV shows can be streamed on Macs, PCs, and Sony Bravia flat-screen TVs. The online retailer is teaming up with Sony to enable users to purchase or rent movies and TV shows directly through the DMX-NV1 device on the Bravia TV sets. There seems to be hundreds, if not thousands of listings for television shows and movies. But Sony Insider must inquire – why not just make a direct link to the Playstation Video Store instead? Amazon offers a nice service, but it is unclear at this time if the offerings will even be in HD.
A better question – why not just have ethernet jacks built into Sony televisions already? It probably won’t be much longer till we see that worldwide, and this is simply a bridge device to introduce the concept to non-Japanese consumers.
