Amazon Unboxed (affiliate) champion of the longest URLs is ready to take the gloves to the online video rental and download canvas. The rumor is iTunes will be joining next week and I wrote about a small time local Seattle contender called Reeltime yesterday. Already here are Vongo (a more intriguing membership concept) and Guba along with longtimers Cinemanow and Movielink. There are more but with no exceptions they all seem to have the same problem which regular readers are going to see the complaint coming.

Pricing
Who decided that $1.99 for TV shows was the right price? Who will be interested in paying $3.99 for a movie rental online when they can pay 25 bones a month and get unlimited movie rentals with DVD quality? Convenience? That is a tired sales pitch that has limited appeal. Most people work hard for their money and aren’t going to pay $1.99 to catch the most recent of episode of Prison Break that can be seen for free on the Fox website. No, maybe they can’t download to their portable device and watch while running on the gym, but why not just wait for the whole season on DVD which can be traded or resold later on for some return on investment? Online video stores seem to be focusing their pricing on the impatient and ignorant consumer instead of the informed and enlightened.

As for buying movies online versus the DVD, forget about it. When all three seasons of Star Trek the Original Series can be bought new for under $150 USD and yet to download them without artwork, inserts and collector’s packaging they are still $41.57 per season or $1.99 per episode at Amazon Unboxed? No, no, no. They should be at least half that price of the DVD or provide us with higher quality downloadable versions.

Blame Hollywood, not Amazon
The pricing isn’t Amazon’s (or ___ insert online movie site name here) fault, it’s Hollywood who remain so eternally petrified that we are going to rip them off that they won’t give us what we really want and deserve at a decent price. Online media is not worth more and arguably not worth the same price as the physical media with packaging and artwork. Convenience isn’t worth that much compared to physical material than can be collected, traded and resold.

I asked my wife who is out resident Amazon shopping guru what she thought. Her response contained a few expletives I don’t feel like reposting here.

No online video site review would be complete without mentioning the Hmm benchmark: The Cave (affiliate) which sells for $17.99. This subpar movie should be priced at or below $9.99 but there it is at nearly twice the price.

Amazon is running a deal where you can get your first TV rental credited back. That might be worth at least checking out, but I didn’t bother. I’m disgusted with seeing the same stores with different logos and a few different titles make the rounds. It doesn’t matter if it’s Amazon or Google or ___, they are all flawed on the most important business factor.

Frankly, I’d rather point people to my Amazon TV show aStore where physical DVD packages can be bought. Yeah, ok, you can’t get that almost immediate viewing pleasure (but buying online you still need to wait for downloads), but drive to the store if you want that fix. You’ll get more mileage from the media and have something actually worth resale value on eBay or in a garage sale. What sort of resale value do online downloads have?

Sorry Amazon, the look is, well uninspiredly Amazon-ish and it’s nice that you got an exclusive Star Trek deal, but the Trekkies will have already purchased the DVDs. Maybe next week with Reeltime or iTunes they will finally price this stuff fairly for what people are actually receiving.

In the meantime another service at least our family will rarely, if ever use. If you can’t get people without cable or satellite TV interested in your online stuff, Hollywood, you are totally screwed with people who already have multiple TVs and PVRs. I had higher hopes after seeing Guba’s pricing, only to learn that was merely promotional and not permanent. Wind. Out. Sales.

Go ahead, somebody use the G word in the comments, it’s well deserved. Again. [sigh] Will Hollywood ever learn?

• RUMOR: iTunes to announce movie rental plan at WWDC, says Think Secret
• Creative DVD packaging for Grease and My Name is Earl
• Guba lowers prices on downloadable movies, the iron is getting hotter
• Not into downloading The Cave for $25.99 vs $9.99
• Amazon wants to get into online DVD rental biz
• STARZ and REAL add new monthly movie download service