Amazon VOD / Ways to get movies/TV shows on the Pre

Hey,... I'm new here but I have something to add. I'm pretty excited for the Palm Pre, and will be getting it. There's literally no other phone (except the iPhone, but I'm not switching to AT&T) that will do what I want. I used to own the Google phone, but blah.

My only concern with the Pre is this: how am I going to get movies and TV shows onto it? We have the Amazon MP3 store for music. What about Amazon's Video On Demand service?

Their files are DRM-protected and will only play on Windows PlaysForSure portable devices. So it doesn't look like we'll be seeing it on the Pre, since nothing has been announced.

Technically, we could watch it through the browser once the Adobe Flash plugin becomes available. I can download torrents, sure, but I want the highest quality available.

To me, this is the only drawback of the Pre.

This is a an extremely valid consideration. I've been wondering the same thing. Will we be able to stream movies/TV through Amazon? Besides Sprint TV, I haven't even really attempted anything of the sort on my Blackberry for the fear of rejection. But I would almost expect it on my Pre. How are we going to get video to our Pre's?

im personally hoping they get live mesh and or silverlight support.... id MUCH rather have netflix streaming on my pre than anything else. (and there have been rumors live mesh will be delivering their mobile video offerings)

Like I said, I suspect that we'll be able to stream Amazon VOD content through the Pre browser, since all Amazon requires is a browser with Adobe Flash. That'd be great, because you'd have a library of media without taking up any of the 8 GB.

I don't really know how Sprint TV works. I'll have to read up on it, but I just wanted to get some opinions on this.

Again, to me, the only drawback of the Pre. Here's me hoping. I have an iPod Touch right now with movies and TV shows on there, and I want to be able to watch video in that quality on my Pre.

Obviously not Apple's, but Amazon's. I don't want some BitTorrent crap, no matter even if it is pretty good quality. I want the original source.

I don't really know much about Live Mesh, Silverlight, Netflix, etc. But I do know the main options are Amazon and iTunes, and Amazon seems like the easiest scenario right now. I am going to have to read up on these services. Thanks.

I'll chime in later. It's an issue I haven't really seen discussed.

I'd be super stoked if I could stream Netflix on the Pre like I do on my Xbox360! That would be awesome, and I hope Netflix will make an App like that, although I doubt it.

As far as Sprint TV goes, the streaming quality is just OK, it's not great. There are quite a few channels included, some of them are Live, some of them Live but also have a Episode component where you can watch your favorite Epidsodes. Others just have clips, not the full show. On my Sprint Touch, Sprint TV is quite the resource hog. Going from portrait to landscape mode and back takes quite a while, and sometimes I think my phone is just not fast enough to handle it. My friend has a Diamond, and the resolution is quite a bit higher and better looking on his phone. Not all shows are shown in the correct aspect ratio, which shows them stretched in one way or another.

If you have a big DVD collection, you can always get yourself a converter program that converts a DVD down to size, in my case, the Touch has QVGA and your average movie is about 230 MB.

Seeing how digital distribution is the future, and with all those comparatively large screen phones out there and the ever expanding 3G (and faster) networks, I am sure watching your movies on your phone will soon be second nature.

I must say, Spb Mobile DVD is doing a very good job of converting movies down to size, I have an older version so I don't know if the new versions support more resolutions, hopefully they do, because I sure want to put some of my favorite movies on my Pre, once I get it.

I love this topic! For me, I can't wait for Flash to be supported because that would mean hulu.com and all other sites that stream their TV episodes in HD. But for now, I would REALLY like for slingbox to have an App for Pre. That would mean pretty much streaming ANYTHING you want to your phone without having to store anything in the memory.


Manny - I agree with you on netflix + xbox360 = AWESOME

It streams faster than my HD Tivo and using the controller is pretty cool too.

I didn't think flash would be available til end of year in an update..and you know how that goes..could be delayed. Even then, its not like having media on the device.

Regardless, this IS crucial for palm. I want convenience, not a recipe to follow (like if i install this thing, then convert a to b, then do this, then do that). The mainstream isn't going to do this and history should tell us that.

Whether palm wants to compete with the itunes experience is one thing (you know..using an itunes like desktop app), but they at least need to provide a simple method to manage media, purchase it, and get it on there so that most anyone can do it.

Itunes isn't all that revolutionary. Palm had a desktop sync. Apple had itunes. Apple adapted it to sync and do backups. Palm could use the same and get with amazon to provide all the media, not just songs.

I posted a question a while back to Dieter and he submitted it during the original three pages of questions for the Pre, but Palm was sort of vague.

Just to reiterate, I hope I can play my current MP4 movies that I've converted from my collections of movies. I'm trying to digitize my collection and I'm hoping I won't have to "re-convert" to be playable on the Pre.

[url]http://discussion.treocentral.com/1538850-post3.html[/url]

No. 55

They can't get a Slingplayer out fast enough for the Pre.
It's the toughest thing to leave if I get a Pre to replace my 700p.

Maybe I am not getting it, but what prevents someone from using Youtube's mobile internet site at [url]www.m.youtube.com[/url] on the Pre?

[QUOTE=sir_mycroft;1567653]Maybe I am not getting it, but what prevents someone from using Youtube's mobile internet site at [url]www.m.youtube.com[/url] on the Pre?[/QUOTE]

Compared to a proper App, it's clumsy.

[QUOTE=MannyZ28;1567656]Compared to a proper App, it's clumsy.[/QUOTE]

Sorry, I ment to post this in another thread, then tried to delete it, but somehow failed.

The mobile site I find to be much more flexible. I can do searches, put in my own links etc. The one app program I have used (for the Treo) did not allow for any of this.

[QUOTE=Palmfood;1567605]Just to reiterate, I hope I can play my current MP4 movies that I've converted from my collections of movies. I'm trying to digitize my collection and I'm hoping I won't have to "re-convert" to be playable on the Pre.[/QUOTE]

The Pre supports MPEG-4, H.263 and H.264, so you'll be fine.

[QUOTE=sir_mycroft;1567660]Sorry, I ment to post this in another thread, then tried to delete it, but somehow failed.

The mobile site I find to be much more flexible. I can do searches, put in my own links etc. The one app program I have used (for the Treo) did not allow for any of this.[/QUOTE]

My calling it clumsy is based on using a WinMo phone with touchscreen keyboard. I suppose on the Pre, with a proper keyboard where not half the screen is being taken up, using the full website will work just as well.

[QUOTE=patchs;1567639]They can't get a Slingplayer out fast enough for the Pre.
It's the toughest thing to leave if I get a Pre to replace my 700p.[/QUOTE]

This is also a big concern for me. I use my sling mobile on my 755P all the time. Do you think the PRE's browser will work with the Sling.com website?

Do people use their phones for emergency video watching? I just can't imagine it would be worth the effort on a 3.1 inch Pre screen. I know it's pretty lame to watch video on my N95, but it's a little smaller than the Pre will be. Still though, I'd much rather watch video on the 12.1 in screen of my tablet, or even on the 38 in LCD, why use a screen a tenth the size? Help me understand?

It's like asking why Apple would design the iPod with a 2.5" screen or even the Nano to play video. Yet probably millions of people still use it to watch video. It's a tiny screen but I think the simple fact that it's so portable makes it not necessarily better - but just "good enough" for people who don't need a larger screen to enjoy their shows.

Why? I think Cary explains it pretty good. Also, for someone like me who doesn't own a computer.

I have an iPod Touch at the moment, and feel completely comfortable watching shows on the 3.5" screen.

It comes in handy when you're bored and out and about, that's what I use it for. I watch all my TV/movies usually at home. I'd be upset if I didn't have that functionality!

Amazon VOD would rock.
Amazon RENTALS would be even better! (my Archos will play video purchases, but not VOD streaming or rentals so you can have one and not the others)
Netflix streaming would be absolutely amazing! (this one I think is very unlikely. I just finally got it on my Mac)