In efforts to increase it’s position as an online entertainment portal, Amazon recently extended it’s paid video service to Macs and compatible Sony BRAVIA devices and televisions. Where as before it only made online movies and TV for download to PCs and TiVos, it’s moved on to Macs, too!

Amazon’s newest offering does give it some distinct advantages over competing services. Like iTunes, none of their content is ad-supported, so you won’t have those annoying commercials that stream repeatedly from NBC’s site. On the other hand it also has a much wider selection than sites like Hulu. It also beats out Netflix’s movie service…if you’re a mac user anyway, since currently it only provides streaming video to the PC.

It also renamed it’s video service as well. Previously it was known by the name Unbox, but now goes by the more appropriately branded “Amazon Video On Demand.”

Pricing wise, you’re looking at $9,99 to $14.99 to own, and about $2.99 to $3.99 to rent. TV episodes are fairly cheap too, about $1.99, and there’s a number of older TV episodes for free. Not having a mac myself, I had to employ a family member to test the service out. Thus far, I’ve been told, everything has been working flawlessly. Since one of my favorite part of going to the movies is watching movie trailers, I’m also happy to note that Amazon is also offering free 2-minute previews of each movie and episode available in their library. All in all pretty impressive, and more competition tends to be good on all fronts for consumers, both in the way of prices and quality, so good luck to you, Amazon.