X-Ray Pull Quotes

About X-Ray for Movies and TV

First arriving for Kindle Fire in 2012, before landing on Fire TV and the Nintendo Wii U, Amazon X-Ray for Movies and TV uses IMDb data to serve up relevant information related to what's happening on-screen in Amazon Video streams. Want to know who that familiar-looking face is, or what other movies they're in? X-Ray tells you. "We started thinking about how we could bring IMDb to different platforms," said Needham. "At the time, Amazon was developing the Kindle Fire tablet, and it was a sort of lightbulb moment. Imagine if you're watching a TV show, and you can be given added information on actors, trivia, and goofs. I've seen 10,000 unique movies, and watching something with X-Ray can bring a new deeper experience." This is actually a major differentiator between Amazon Video and the likes of Netflix. Rather than relying on a second screen to google information, you interact entirely with the movie or TV show you're watching.
– Deadline

This perhaps partly explains the enduring popularity of IMDb. Regardless of whether you're a film noir aficionado, action-flick addict, or Breaking Bad buff, IMDb has so much data at its disposal, it can appeal to nearly every type of viewer. And with the mighty Amazon running the show, IMDb can be put to use in new products such as X-Ray, which were built with the modern streaming era in mind.
– VentureBeat

"The new feature is called X-Ray, and was debuted in a tablet-only format in 2012. Finally, it’s now coming to regular Fire TV. Through integration with the Amazon-owned directory service IMDb, Fire TV can call up information such as what actors are in what show or movie, and what music is playing either from the soundtrack or in the background of the scene. The integration with IMDb comes with a robust set of data, allowing viewers to interact with little-known trivia from the movie being watched or to browse any actor’s entire career while watching them on-screen."
– BuzzFeed

"Amazon launches X-Ray on Fire TV to bring IMDb movie and TV data to the big screen. It may be a slight overstatement to say that X-Ray holds the power to sway a would-be customer away from one of Amazon’s competing services, but it is certainly a key differentiator and a genuinely useful feature that should go down well with existing Fire TV and Fire TV Stick users. It can reveal a wealth of data related to what’s happening on-screen, covering soundtracks, actor biographies, character back-stories, and other interesting tidbits."
– VentureBeat

"The X-Ray function on smart TVs and tablets deepens the audience’s ability to harness IMDb’s data by offering pop-up, real-time trivia while watching a movie at home."
– Total Film

“There are a bunch of other new features in Fire OS 3.0. "X-Ray for Movies and TV" shows not only the actors on screen in a show or film, but the name of any songs that are playing and IMDb trivia data about what's on screen at the time.”
– PC Magazine

"Amazon’s X-Ray for Movies and TV Shows feature is great when you're trying to figure out the name of the actor on your screen. Today that feature is hitting Amazon Instant Video on the Fire TV, which is frankly where it should have been since the set-top box's launch. The IMDb-powered X-Ray feature brings many of the same attributes found on the Fire tablet to your television. To activate it, viewers can either pause what they are watching or press up on the remote's directional button to see the names of the actors and music playing in the current scene. Pressing up a second time drops the viewer into the full X-Ray environment with access to information about the actors, characters, music and IMDb's user-submitted trivia."
– Endgadget

“There are a bunch of other new features in Fire OS 3.0. "X-Ray for Movies and TV" shows not only the actors on screen in a show or film, but the name of any songs that are playing and IMDb trivia data about what's on screen at the time.”
– PC Magazine

“Amazon has also updated the software that powers the Fire tablets. The new Fire OS 3.0 enables a raft of new features, including an updated version X-Ray for Movies and TV. Introduced last year, X-Ray displays the names of actors that appear in programs as they enter a scene on the tablet screen. Using data from Amazon’s IMDb.com movie and TV database, X-Ray also shows each actor’s film and TV credits, as well as back stories about their characters and trivia about the program.”
– The Seattle Times

“Say you are watching a TV show. Turn on X-Ray and you can see info pulled from IMDB for the exact scene on your screen. It will list the actors you see, trivia or goofs, and show what song is being played. You can even pull up the entire soundtrack for an episode or movie and, naturally, buy it on the spot.”
– CNN

“The service is pretty awesome and it keeps you from wondering who that actor is on the screen or what you've seen him in before. X-Ray slurps intel from Amazon-owned IMDB, so every time you pause, you get basic detail on every actor on screen in that scene. Then you can go further and explore specific people, from reading their bio, to learning about their career, and finding everything else you'd ordinarily pause the TV show to look up on IMDb anyway.”
– Gizmodo

“Amazon's continuing the steady X-Ray takeover of media today by extending the feature to its TV selection. The latest implementation of the concept, which has already made its way to the company's e-book offerings, offers up similar functionality to its movie counterpart, harnessing IMDB data to offer up contextual information on actors.”
– Engadget

“‘Our vision is to make X-Ray available on every movie and TV show, we’re excited to make another big step forward today, and we are working hard to add X-Ray to more TV shows and movies in the future,’ IMDb CEO Col Needham said in a statement. The feature will be available on the latest Kindle Fire as well as the Kindle Fire HD tablets and through the Amazon Instant Video app for Wii U.”
– Wired

“Today Amazon is rolling out its X-Ray feature for TV shows playing on any of its Kindle Fire devices. Powered by data from IMDb, X-Ray lets you pull up information about the show’s characters, actors, production staff, and even some interesting factoids if available. Amazon already offers this sort of video background info on movies and ebooks sold through its online store, but obviously TV is probably where it’ll become the most useful for Kindle owners.”
– VentureBeat


“‘X-Ray has been one of the most loved features on Kindle Fire HD since it launched last September,’ Amazon Kindle Peter Larsen said in the press release announcing the new feature. X-Ray is now available on Kindle Fire, Kindle Fire HD, and the Amazon Instant Video app on Wii U. IMDb, an Amazon company for 14 years, specializes in movie, TV, and celebrity information and has more than 160 million monthly unique visitors.”
– Motley Fool


“Amazon's X-Ray ‘vision’ can now see through TV shows. Six months after the online retail giant introduced ‘X-Ray for Movies,’ the feature is expanding to popular television programs available on the Kindle Fire HD. X-Ray lets users tap the screen to find out the names and filmography of the actors they're watching, thanks to integration with the Amazon-owned Internet Movie Database (IMDb).”
– PC Magazine

“IMDb is an Amazon company, allowing the Kindle team to tap into a very comprehensive movie database. As IMDb provides data for TV shows as well, adding TV shows to X-Ray was just a matter of time. The idea is to make the video experience unique on Amazon’s devices, making people want to buy those tablets and stay in the Amazon ecosystem. X-Ray could be one of those little features that make you choose Amazon over Netflix or iTunes. In addition to providing the X-Ray feature to Kindle Fire users, the feature will make its way to Amazon Instant Video’s Wii U app. This little fact shows that what matters for Amazon is that people consume content from Amazon, no matter the platform.”
– Tech Crunch (March 27, 2013)

“IMDb is an Amazon company, allowing the Kindle team to tap into a very comprehensive movie database. As IMDb provides data for TV shows as well, adding TV shows to X-Ray was just a matter of time. The idea is to make the video experience unique on Amazon’s devices, making people want to buy those tablets and stay in the Amazon ecosystem. X-Ray could be one of those little features that make you choose Amazon over Netflix or iTunes. In addition to providing the X-Ray feature to Kindle Fire users, the feature will make its way to Amazon Instant Video’s Wii U app. This little fact shows that what matters for Amazon is that people consume content from Amazon, no matter the platform.”
– Tech Crunch (March 27, 2013)

“X-Ray is the most efficient means of answering the question, ‘Who’s that guy?”
– American Way (American Airlines' In-Flight Magazine/May 2013)

“The service is pretty awesome and it keeps you from wondering who that actor is on the screen or what you've seen him in before. X-Ray slurps intel from Amazon-owned IMDB, so every time you pause, you get basic detail on every actor on screen in that scene. Then you can go further and explore specific people, from reading their bio, to learning about their career, and finding everything else you'd ordinarily pause the TV show to look up on IMDb anyway.”
– Gizmodo (March 27, 2013)

“Amazon's continuing the steady X-Ray takeover of media today by extending the feature to its TV selection. The latest implementation of the concept, which has already made its way to the company's e-book offerings, offers up similar functionality to its movie counterpart, harnessing IMDB data to offer up contextual information on actors.”
– Engadget (March 27, 2013)

“Our vision is to make X-Ray available on every movie and TV show, we’re excited to make another big step forward today, and we are working hard to add X-Ray to more TV shows and movies in the future,’ IMDb CEO Col Needham said in a statement. The feature will be available on the latest Kindle Fire as well as the Kindle Fire HD tablets and through the Amazon Instant Video app for Wii U.”
– Wired (March 27, 2013)

“Today Amazon is rolling out its X-Ray feature for TV shows playing on any of its Kindle Fire devices. Powered by data from IMDb, X-Ray lets you pull up information about the show’s characters, actors, production staff, and even some interesting factoids if available. Amazon already offers this sort of video background info on movies and ebooks sold through its online store, but obviously TV is probably where it’ll become the most useful for Kindle owners.”
– VentureBeat (March 27, 2013)

"X-Ray has been one of the most loved features on Kindle Fire HD since it launched last September,’ Amazon Kindle Peter Larsen said in the press release announcing the new feature. X-Ray is now available on Kindle Fire, Kindle Fire HD, and the Amazon Instant Video app on Wii U. IMDb, an Amazon company for 14 years, specializes in movie, TV, and celebrity information and has more than 160 million monthly unique visitors."
– Motley Fool (March 27, 2013)

"Amazon's X-Ray ‘vision’ can now see through TV shows. Six months after the online retail giant introduced ‘X-Ray for Movies,’ the feature is expanding to popular television programs available on the Kindle Fire HD. X-Ray lets users tap the screen to find out the names and filmography of the actors they're watching, thanks to integration with the Amazon-owned Internet Movie Database (IMDb)."
– PC Magazine (March 27, 2013)

"So this feels like the future: Amazon's X-Ray for Movies can tell what flick you're watching on your Kindle Fire HD, and gives you every piece of information you could ever want about it every time you pause. Pretty incredible stuff. The information is gleaned from IMDB (which Amazon conveniently owns), and pulls granular detail down to which specific actors are in the scene your watching. From there, you can navigate back through their whole career, read their bios, and do all the other creeping you'd normally do on the world's foremost movie database. It's pretty incredible having all of that information literally at your fingertips in the background. Tablets themselves don't feel like the future anymore. But things like this, that put the entirety of mankind's knowledge at your disposal in a blink? That does. That very does."
- Gizmodo (September 6, 2012)

“Today has undoubtedly been a momentous one for Amazon. We've seen the introduction of a new family of Kindle products including the new Kindle Fire and a pair of Kindle Fire HD tablets. X-Ray for Movies,powered by IMDB is a feature that's being introduced exclusively with the Amazon Kindle family, and looks to ‘revolutionize the movie experience’ by providing an answer the question ‘Who's that guy?’ in a single tap while watching a movie. Drawing information from IMDB's vast database of movie knowledge, X-Ray allows users to find out the name of an actor, along with a list of other movies he or she has acted in, photos, biographies, and othertidbits. Once you find an actor's other movies, you can add them to your Watch list with just one more tap. X-Ray is definitely an awesome feature for movie lovers, and adds a new dimension of convenience to both watching and discovering new films.”
- Android Police (September 6, 2012)

"But where the Fire HD really shines is with a bunch of new preloaded app features. My favorite is the X-Ray feature for movies. If you are watching a movie you have bought from Amazon, a small box in the corner will pop up to show you the names of the characters in the movie or scene. And, of course, that's where Amazon really shines, with content. Mr. Bezos, you have certainly built one of the best tablets at any price."
- ABC News (September 6, 2012)

“With the Fire HD, Amazon clearly intends to make the most of its cloud storage capabilities and content partnerships . . . When you pause a movie, a window pops up listing every actor appearing in the given scene, with links to their IMDb resume, and the ability to select their other movies for later viewing. With all that firepower, what is it like to use aKindle Fire HD? I got to use the 7-inch model for about five minutes, and if you want to read a book or watch a movie, it’s deeply impressive. The screen is sharp and rich, and you’ll wonder why that IMDb integration hasn’t always been available for home viewing.”
- Entertainment Weekly (September 6, 2012)

“Bezos sees the tablets as instrumental in helping Amazon sell more books, movies, TV shows, games and music. And thatshould be music to Hollywood's ears as studios especially look to boost digital sales of their content as more consumers access entertainment on mobile devices . . . New devices will incorporate other Amazon-owned brands like Audible.com and IMDB to give users access to more content.”
- Variety

“Now here’s the nifty part, X-Ray for Movies. It’s like facial recognition combined with IMDb. Pause a movie and the gizmo identifies the actors in the scene and tells you what other movies they’ve starred in. No more, ‘where do I know him from’ moments. It’s my dream feature.”
- Marketing Pilgrim

"Wouldn’t it be cool if you could tap amovie at any time. Who’s that guy? X-Ray for Movies. Uses IMDb data.”
- Harry McCracken (Time Magazine technology reporter) via Tweet on September 6, 2012

“'X-Ray for Movies is a new feature that revolutionizes the movie experience by bringing the power of IMDb directly to movies on Kindle Fire HD, accessible with a simple tap,' says Amazon. Without ever leaving the movie, customers can look up any actor in the scene or movie, see what other movies they have been in, and view photos, biographies and more. X-Ray is offered only by Amazon and is exclusive to the Amazon ecosystem. IMDb, an Amazon company for 14 years, is the #1 movie website in the world with more than 160 million monthly unique visitors worldwide.”
- WebProNews

"Where Amazon especially shines is in some of the latest features that bolster content. I'm especially keen on X-ray for Movies, a boon for cinema fans. If you ever have watched a movie and wondered the name of an actor, you'll appreciate this neat feature. You can pause a film and see the actors' names, get brief bios, see other movies they've been in, all culled from the Amazon-owned IMDB app. The beauty is you don't actually have to leave the movie to open a separate app."
- USA Today (September 11, 2012)

“Amazon has introduced a number of what I’d like to call ‘intelligent consumption’ features. They’re all designed to improve your reading, listening and viewing experience . . . The best of these is easily X-Ray for Movies which is powered by the Internet Movie Database (orIMDb). When you’re watching certain movies, you can tap on the screen and a little IMDb box will appear with the name of the cast members currently onscreen (the movie does not stop at this point). If you want to learn moreabout them, just tap their image and a larger window will pop up with IMDb cast member information. The movie freezes in the background until you minimize the larger window."
- Mashable (September 11, 2012)