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AmazonUnbox, Amazon’s movie and TV show download store, opened for business yesterday while many people are still holding their breath to see what Steve Jobs and Apple will unveil on Tuesday. It is widely expected that Jobs will be announcing the availability of movies via the iTunes store, little more than that is for sure, though. I’m still of the mind that watching video on handheld players or even my computer isn’t that exciting for most people. While we like our phones and iPods to get smaller, the one consumer electronics product that everybody wants bigger and bigger is TV. I might want to watch a flick or catch a missed episode of “Lost” while I’m on the road or flying, but other than that, I’ve pretty much believed this is an idea looking for a market.

With that said, the Amazon store looks to be launching with far more to choose from than Apple’s rumored launch titles from Disney (go figure), Pixar, Mirimax, Touchstone and Lion’s Gate. Amazon’s pricing, however, seems to be all over the place, it’s expected movies from Apple will follow similar flat pricing as music with newer movies going for $14.99 and older ones $9.99. Until we really know what Apple will have on launch day, Amazon easily wins as far as choice goes.

Only Windows users will be able to purchase and view videos from Amazon, and you must use the Amazon Unbox Player to view your movies. Do you suppose we’ll hear people complain of lock-in with Amazon like they do with the iPod and iTunes store? The DRM from Amazon seems fair although you can only burn movies to DVD for backup, the DVD will not play in a DVD player. I’ll assume the DRM from Apple will be exactly the same as it is with music purchases, again we’ll have to wait and see.

The thing that bothers me most about both services is what you get for the price you pay. Music purists will argue that a digital download doesn’t contain all the highs and lows you hear listening to a vinyl record and should cost a quarter/song. But for most people who have never heard an album played on a $10,000 turntable, they aren’t going to know the difference anyway. Generally, you do see a little savings when purchasing digitally, but it certainly could be better than $9.99/album. With movies, it appears the studios don’t want to pass any of the savings onto consumers, instead pocketing it themselves. No packaging. No distribution. Lower quality. All for pretty much the same price. “Office Space” is $14 from Amazon, I’m pretty sure I could stop by Target and pick it up for $7.50 and watch it on my huge TV. At the same time we’re expected to shell out for a Blu-Ray or HD-DVD player, they want us to pay the same price for a low quality digital version of their movies. Are we really that stupid?

Of course, when Jobs says, “One more thing…” and introduces the 120GB, widescreen video iPod on Tuesday, I’ll be eating my words and renewing my membership in the cult.