This time last year, most of us would have predicted that Blu-ray and HD-DVD would still be going at it, but even with a victor now declared in the high definition format war, digital downloads and streaming content are ruling the roost, just as Michael Bay prophesized (minus the corporate conspiracy theory). Hoping to become king of the digital hill, Amazon.com is introducing a new online store of TV shows and movies.

What's that you say, Unbox isn't new? That's right, but this isn't Unbox. Amazon Video on Demand departs from the company's first attempt at offering a digital video download service, and this time around, customers will not be required to download special software to the watch programs they buy. And in another departure from Unbox, the new service will extend support beyond just Windows PCs and TiVo set-top boxes.

Catalog and Studio Support

Customers of Amazon's new store will have access to roughly 40,000 movies and television shows from the get-go, which is roughly four times as big as Netflix's catalog of streaming titles. That number looks to get even bigger, as films and TV shows from nearly all the major studios and television networks are available to Amazon's customers, save for Disney and ABC.

Start Watching Right Away, at Home or Away!

In addition to a robust catalog of titles, just as with Unbox, customers can begin watching purchased content immediately after ordering instead of waiting for the download to complete. But unlike Unbox and other similar services, the first two minutes of all movies and TV shows will start playing whenever a customer visits a title's product page.

Even better, customers won't be tied to a specific location, nor will they need to download a purchased video to a hard drive. Instead, viewers can store a selection in their online video library (dubbed "Your Video Library"), so you can begin watching an episode at home, stop it midway through, and then pick up again where you left off once you get to work. In the words of the Guinness guys, 'Brilliant! '