Amazon said it has extended support for its X-Ray for Movies and TV Shows to the Fire TV box and Fire TV Stick, building on the feature’s earlier debut on Fire tablets.
Powered by IMDb and currently exclusive to the Amazon Instant Video library, the X-Ray feature help viewers quickly call up information that’s pertinent to the TV show or movie they’re watching, including other titles that feature a particular actor, additional backstory details, as well as trivia and other “fun facts.”
X-Ray, a data reference element that’s also baked into Amazon’s Kindle devices and apps for electronic books, presently supports “tens of thousands of titles” in the Amazon Instant Video library, including originals such as Transparent, Bosch and Alpha House, and shows offered via the subscription-based Amazon Prime service, including Orphan Black, The Americans, and Vikings.
In addition to providing more raw data, Amazon clearly views this feature as a discovery tool. By way of example, a viewer bingeing out on Bosch could learn that the actor in the lead role, Titus Welliver, has also appeared in shows such as Lost, White Collar, The Good Wife and Sons of Anarchy.
Amazon said the video-focused X-Ray feature, being delivered to Fire TV box and Fire TV Stick devices through a free over-the-air upgrade starting today, draws from more than 180 million data items from IMDb. To activate the feature, users must press the Fire TV’s remote’s “Up” button while they are watching a TV show or movie that supports X-Ray
“We’ve all been there: you’re sitting on the couch, watching a favorite movie or TV show, and a familiar face enters the scene—but you can’t for the life of you remember who he is, or what other movies he’s been in,” said Peter Larsen, vice president Amazon Devices, in a statement. “X-Ray solves this—it integrates the vast database of IMDb right into the viewing experience, so you can easily see trivia, actor information and soundtrack music behind TV shows and movies. We think Amazon Fire TV customers are going to love this elegant experience on the big screen at home, and it’s just one simple click of the remote away.”
