Amazon's Unbox video download service "now available" on TiVo

Usually when a vendor says available "later this year," they deliver in December, not the following month. So excuse our surprise to find Amazon's Unbox video download service "Now Available!" to any broadband connected Series2 or Series3 TiVo. That's right, after a brief pilot kicked off in February, TiVo subscribers can now register their box with Amazon and get $15 worth of free movies and TV shows in the process. Not all Unbox content is available for download -- only about 1,376 titles are tagged for TiVo download as of this posting. We presume that's due to the need to transcode titles into a TiVo-playable format and not the result of some nefarious meddling by the studios. TV shows cost $1.99 per episode while most movies can be purchased for between $9.99 and $14.99 -- movies rentals start at $1.99 although most are listed for either $2.99 or $3.99. If you already own a TiVo then this is about as easy as movie downloading can get.

[Via TiVo Lovers]

[klew @ Mar 7th 2007 5:29AM]

no soup for basic subscribers = weak

[Jake @ Mar 7th 2007 8:44AM]

Of course there is "no soup" for basic subscribers... since "basic subscribers" don't actually subscribe to anything! Basic is the default service level for certain Series 2 Tivos -- it is not a "subscription" like the Plus service. And since you have to have plus service to access any Tivo online feature...

[Michael @ Mar 7th 2007 5:52AM]

This is pretty awesome. I just set it up in literally less than 3 minutes, and already have borat downloading on my tivo. If this only worked with itunes... sigh.

[C @ Mar 7th 2007 7:54AM]

I am so excited about this, I love it. For once I'm included in something cool.

[Jake @ Mar 7th 2007 8:47AM]

For the record: I've registered my Tivos, but Amazon still isn't showing me the option to "RemoteLoad" to my Tivos... its been 3 hours...

[Jake @ Mar 7th 2007 8:53AM]

Update:

Stupid Amazon... Apparently some of the videos that come up on the list of "Tivo" Unbox downloads AREN'T ACTUALLY AVAILABLE FOR TIVO. I've been waiting and waiting (and waiting) to download an ep of "Supernatural." I keep refreshing the page, waiting for it to show my Tivos under the remoteload destinations. I decided to try out something else, instead, and lo-and-behold, there are my Tivos. Supernatural, it seems, shows up on the Tivo-compatible list, but isn't, since you can't actually download it to a Tivo...

[JD @ Mar 7th 2007 9:09AM]

NO JOY for the Series 3!

Across the board, the Aspect Ratio information for all movie downloads show that the PC download comes in the original DVD aspect, while the Tivo "Best Quality" versions all come in 1.33:1 -- also known as 4:3 standard def.

There is absolutely no reason for an S3 owner to use this service.

[Jered @ Mar 7th 2007 9:40AM]

I have a TiVo Series3 and just signed up. Easy as pie, but...

None of the content available is in HD, including OTA content (TV episodes) that originally were. In fact, while the PC downloads are 16:9 for those, the TiVo downloads are 4:3. WTF?

This is the same problem as with iTMS. If these vendors don't offer equivalent quality to what people can download for free (albeit illegally), then people will continue to use BitTorrent and its ilk to get content, especially OTA content which should be the easiest for them to provide.

Sad.

[Colin @ Mar 7th 2007 9:57AM]

Holy crap... finally! I can't beleive this is here! Seems like everyone's been talking about this kind of functionality on TiVo for ages and all of a sudden it's here. I'm downloading flicks right now to my TiVo. COOL.

[Bill Curnow @ Mar 7th 2007 10:04AM]

Looks like its SD only for Series 3 owners.

[matt @ Mar 7th 2007 10:42AM]

Wow. Everyone say it with me...."Goodbye Netflix."

[nigel @ Mar 7th 2007 11:09AM]

is there any drm?

[rotasman @ Mar 7th 2007 12:01PM]

Right now, I am not impressed. I called Unbox because my credit wasn't showing anywhere. Turns out you have to keep a mental record of your $15 credit, since Unbox is unable to deal with credit. Also, the movies are either letterbox or pan&scan depending on how it was delivered to Unbox. That comment is straight from tech support. So it looks like Series3 users with HD tvs will be stuck with 4:3 content.

Looks like AppleTV might actually be a better choice for me if Apple decides to rent movies.

[Adam Pennington @ Mar 7th 2007 12:43PM]

Yup, and because of the 1-Click ordering you also have a hard time verifying that you're spending out of the credit.

[Xenoterranos @ Mar 7th 2007 12:35PM]

The sad thing is that even if it where 100% free, it still couldn't beat a good torrent.

[Jiffylush @ Mar 7th 2007 5:44PM]

It works on your TiVo S3, so it beats a torrent in that one area.

Totally agree that none of the pay services equal the quality or convenience of the pirated stuff, very much like the days of Napster (pre-itunes).

[Adam Pennington @ Mar 7th 2007 12:43PM]

I haven't found the setup very exciting, but it does work. It also does erase rentals 24 hours exactly after you start watching them (it will keep them up to 30 days if you haven't touched them). Certainly no harm in burning the $15 credit, as there's no subscription fee when you're done, and it doesn't install anything but the movie on your TiVo.

[Sam Gigliotti @ Mar 7th 2007 2:04PM]

I am the lead engineer on the Unbox team. It's great to see all this interest in the TiVo launch.

We're working on getting HD content for the Series 3, as well as cleaning up the 4:3 vs 16:9 issue. It just takes time to re-encode thousands of video files and get them uploaded to our CDN. You will see this situation improve in the near future.

[larrs @ Mar 8th 2007 9:56AM]

Sam- thanks for monitoring this thread. What most of us Series 2 and Series 3 users could use would be a choice for widescreen content. Since many people even with Series 2 boxes have them connected to widescreen HDTVs. I think we could live for a while with Standard definition content at the Tivo "best quality" setting if we could get the aspect ratio choice.

[deleyo @ May 16th 2007 8:42PM]

works pretty well, aspect ratio needs to be cleaned up. "rentals" should not automatically delete after 24 hours if you haven't FINISHED watching it yet

[Jiffylush @ Mar 7th 2007 5:45PM]

Come post to the S3 section of tivocommunity.com when you have some HD content for us.

[Z @ Mar 7th 2007 8:59PM]

'Wow. Everyone say it with me...."Goodbye Netflix."'


Not quite yet. Not only does Amazon not offer anything in HD, from some peoples' comments here, they don't even offer the movies in widescreen format. And that's simply not good enough.

Not to mention, Amazon doesn't have that many titles yet, and as hard as it may be for some to believe, not everyone has a TiVo. But most everyone has a DVD player.

Once Amazon builds their library of titles up to a lower-mid five figures, and they offer everything in widescreen, and offer HD content, THEN we can begin saying goodbye to Netflix.

Netflix is going to have to get in the game, because virtual is where it's all headed.

[MasterKeef @ Mar 13th 2007 2:01AM]

Netflix is already in the game...albeit they don't have the ability to stream directly to a DVR yet.

http://www.netflix.com/MediaCenter?id=5384&nfse=Y

[siujoey @ Mar 29th 2007 6:51PM]

Netflix will STILL dominate Unbox. $3.99 per rental is a WHOLE lot more than I work out to paying for my Netflix rentals. You can get 3 at a time for around $20 with Netflix. Say you do that once a week- thats 12 rentals for $20. And I usually do it twice a week. You cannot beat the value of Netflix. But here is the worst part of Unbox for me- Unbox movies cannot be transferred and/or burned. Why would anyone buy an Unbox movie? Rentals, maybe. But why would you pay for an Unbox movie when you can buy the DVD for the exact same price? Also, Netflix is coming out with on demand viewing which will be pretty cool. Unbox is great in theory and dissapointing in practice.

[Todd @ Mar 8th 2007 9:41AM]

A quick report: tried it, and it worked - flawlessly. Not sure what happened with rotasman and the Amazon $15 offer/"mental credit" thing - sounds like a customer service error. Downloaded an episode of Friends to try it out - got a receipt showing my discount and an total of $0.00.

This is only going to improve - widescreen, HD content all to come (plus a lower price on that Series 3 box - how about it, Tivo?)

And to everyone saying Goodbye Netflix - when the HD Content arrives, how about Goodbye "HD-DVD/BluRay" issue? If Apple and Amazon can start shuffing HD movies directly to our boxes - no need for another player on the shelf. Of course - we'll need to do something about that 2 channel sound issue..

[alexhrose71 @ Mar 13th 2007 11:10AM]

Actually HD movie downloads direct to your TV have been available since last year to the approximate 5 million xbox 360 console owners in the US. Its all available on Microsoft's xbox live service (broadband $50/year plus approx $5 per movie).

[gonzo136 @ Mar 13th 2007 5:49PM]

Yeah, this is the killer app. 'Cept it's not available for Tivo subscribers in Canada. (Yes, Tivo works here.) Tivo's explanation is that the Amazon servers and the Tivo servers that support Canada won't talk to each other yet. I think it's more copyright clatter that has yet to cross the border. Even the iTunes Store doesn't offer more than music video on this side of the 49th parallel. Frack!

[NgtHwk @ Mar 13th 2007 9:58PM]

I'm still waiting for my first TIVO download to fininsh... I can't believe the show's going to be in 4:3 ratio. Watching a 4:3 aspect download on a 50" Pioneer PDP 5070 plasma is truly a waste of my time. I'm in the techie world professionally, and oops we forgot to consider encoding requirements is, well, frankly a bit lame.

I don't mind paying, but I'm truly impatient with poorly implemented supposedly "cutting edge" technology...

Anyone else have an Mvix 760HD??? HD downloads to a 300GB external harddrive on a wireless network with DVI HD and optical surround??? Trust me SWEEEEEEEET!!!!! I can rip my whole collection and watch anything I want at any time.

[John Woodell @ Mar 14th 2007 10:13PM]

If they REALLY want Series 3 users, they should also encode an MPEG-4 version... seems the the cost savings for download bandwidth would be worth the effort.

[docsharp01 @ Mar 31st 2008 9:35PM]

Excellent article and comments about Amazon's Unibox video download service.
http://www.1-satellite-tv-facts.com