As you may have read, Roku pulled the trigger on Amazon VOD this week. And I was supremely depressed to learn that the HD-capable Roku Player ($99) is only serving standard definition Amazon video-on-demand titles at this time. While Amazon’s library is quite large (40,000+ titles), including many of the new releases not available via the Netflix service, it’s unlikely I’ll spend “real money” on SD content. (As opposed to the “free” streaming included in my Netflix DVD rental plan.) So, in 2009, where the heck is Amazon VOD in HD?

And, in fact, one of my TiVo moles had told me Amazon HD VOD was headed into beta but had been pulled back for some reason. It seems inevitable that this service goes HD (one day…), so there must be technical or licensing issues at play. More recently, in December, TiVo flipped a bit and accidentally revealed an Amazon VOD “Available in High Definition” menu item.