If it is your first time to rent or purchase then you need to create an Amazon.com account. Your video player will appear under the account that you registered in. This is a one time setup and you must also agree with the terms and conditions, select payment method and enter billing address. You might also need a purchase PIN if you have a compatible connected TV or device. Once you have accomplished the one-time setup then you are on your way to accessing thousands of movie collections from different genres.

Top movies that are being rented at Amazon.com are:

1. Knowing
2. 17 Again
3. I Love You, Man
4. Duplicity
5. Taken
6. Outlander
7. Watchmen
8. Obsessed
9. The Soloist
10. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

So with just a small amount, you can watch high-definition movies at your TV or PC anywhere, anytime. Check out Amazon.com for the latest movies for rent.

Here are several devices that can let you watch Amazon VoD on your TV:

• TiVo DVR: With the use of your TiVo remote you can readily download movies and add it to your TiVo playing list.
• Roku Digital Video Player: Roku player allows you stream movies in just a matter of minutes, commercial-free.
• Sony Bravia: Through the BRAVIA Internet Video you can access thousands of free and premium on-demand entertainment straight to your HDTV.
• Panasonic VIERA CAST: Order any new released movies and watch them directly on your TV with the use of any VIERA CAST devices.
• Xbox 360: The Amazon Unbox Video player must be installed on your PC and use Media Player 11 then connect your PC and Xbox 360 console to your home network. Then you must allow media sharing between your PC and Xbox 360 console so that media can be viewed on your TV. Detailed instructions on how to do this setup is seen at Amazon’s website.
• Windows Media Center PCs: This device must be connected to your TV so you can view your downloaded movies in your TV sets.
• Connect PC to TV: The simplest way to watch your downloaded movies from Amazon VoD is to connect your PC to your TV.

Now, you are not limited to just watching your favorite movies in your PC. You can now view them in different TV sets and gets even better when watched in wide screen and HD quality, it is just watching in a cinema.

Technical requirements to watch movies online through Amazon Video on Demand:

• Computer Hardware: for PCs: Intel Pentium 4 2.33GHz processor or equivalent. for Macs: PowerPC G5 1.8GHz or faster or Intel Core Duo 1.33 GHz or faster.
• Computer Hardware for HD playback: Most Duo Core 2.00GHz Macs and PCs or faster.
• Web Browser: IE 6.0 or above, Firefox 1.5 or above, or Safari 2.0 or above.
• Web Browser Plug-ins: The most recent versions of JavaScript and Adobe Flash Player.
• Internet Connection: Broadband Internet connection with minimum recommended connection speed of 450 Kbits/sec.
• Internet Connection for HD: Broadband Internet connection with minimum recommended connection speed of 3,500 Kbits/sec.

If you are using Sony Bravia, then you can also directly connect it to Amazon Video on Demand by using a broadband-connected BRAVIA® Internet Video Link.

Sample videos will let help you assess how fast video streaming is in Amazon’s Watch Now feature. Depending on your Internet connection, there are 4 levels of video streaming quality. Videos that are streamed at 600 Kbps and 1.2 Mbps are streamed in 480p. Videos are streamed at 720p when the files are at 2.5 Mbps HD files. Amazon will detect your connection speed and will determine the highest quality video stream you can acquire. This information will be sent to you  and video stream quality is displayed on the video player. To know if you have achieved HD, the HD connection indicator will turn blue.

Once you rented or purchased a video, you will instantly watch movies online if you choose “watch now”. You can also watch movies online at a later time by creating your video library. All the videos you bought at Amazon store will be stored in your video library.

So check out Amazon’s Video on Demand and watch movies online in just a matter of minutes.

According to its promotional materials, those interested in using the streaming video online on demand service need a web browser with the 32 bit Adobe Flash plug-in to stream videos. You can also use certain portable devices to play your Video On Demand stream. The cost of using the service ranges from as little as 4.99 per month and up. Some videos can cost a little more to stream. There are options now like High Definition, paid video streaming without ads, some free online video streaming with ads, and others. While many people do enjoy this service, and find it easy to simply get these Amazon Video on Demand movies onto their TiVos, there are other problems with the service.

Some users complain that the cost is too high in relation to the convenience of the service. You can’t burn DVDs and play them anywhere, the quality varies from consumer to consumer, and companies like Netflix already offer online streaming along with their traditional postal-service video shipping. Also, the selection availability is said to be higher with a service like Netflix or Blockbuster. Also, while Amazon.com generally offers very good customer service, some folks do not like the idea that using the Amazon Unbox feature will allow Amazon to track their preferences in videos and ad selections, to further market straight to them. Other may prefer this type of selective marketing, but there are definitely consumers who find it to be annoying and even “pushy.”

Some other complaints about Amazon’s Unbox service are that movies are priced too high to rent. For $4, you can only watch the movie for twenty-four hours, while a traditional rental service like Blockbuster allows 3-day rentals at a similar cost. Also, it is difficult, if not impossible, to get an Amazon VOD video in a traditional and preferred wide-screen format, so the look of the movie might not be as high quality as a traditional rent. While there are definitely up-sides to Amazon’s VOD/Unbox system- like convenience- there are also downsides, and many consumers still seem to prefer the traditional way of renting movies, either by visiting the local video store or buy using a mail-in system like Netflix.