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I love me some TiVo and Amazon Unbox!
By Michael Lundberg | September 9, 2007
Anyone who knows me knows that I love TiVo. When I say TiVo, it’s very important to note that I mean a TiVo brand DVR - not some off-brand DVR and not some cable company-provided DVR. When I say TiVo, I mean TiVo. I’ve had my TiVo for almost three years now and when I got it, it was a novelty. It was merely a way for me to keep up with my shows when I traveled. Now, it’s a necessity.
There are several reasons why I love my TiVo DVR, but one of TiVo’s newest features has me in love with it all over again. I’m talking about Amazon Unbox. TiVo + Amazon Unbox equals sheer heaven. If you have a TiVo and you’ve never tried Amazon Unbox, you don’t know what you’re missing. Let me tell you why.
For those that aren’t aware of it, Amazon Unbox is Amazon’s answer to Apple’s iTunes movie and TV show downloads. Amazon announced the service, along with several other companies, shortly after Apple announced their movie and TV show partnerships. It’s very similar to Apple’s iTunes, except you purchase the movies and TV shows via the Amazon store instead of iTunes and you watch your show with a free application provided by Amazon, rather than through iTunes. Easy enough, right?
Well, one other difference that I didn’t mention is that Amazon offers movie rentals. This is a big deal for me, especially because I don’t generally watch movies more than once, unless it’s something related to Star Wars, but never mind that. Ahem… Any who, Amazon has movie rentals and Apple iTunes doesn’t and that’s all you need to know to get to our next point.
Amazon’s debuted their Unbox service on September 6th, 2006 (press release here) and at the time, you could only purchase and rent movies at the Amazon online store and watch them on an Amazon-provided Windows-only application. This was good. Then, six months later on March 7th, 2007, Amazon announced a partnership with TiVo (press release here and here), allowing any TiVo owner (Series 2 or better model) to purchase movies via the Amazon online store, then download them to your TiVo. Ok, better. Most recently, on July 10th, 2007 (press release here), Amazon and TiVo did away with the need to purchase online from Amazon and debuted functionality allowing TiVo subscribers to browse, purchase and rent directly from TiVo units. Best!
Again, what attracts me to this service is the ability to rent movies. Most movie rentals are priced at $3.99 and Amazon offers weekly specials of $.99 rentals. The specials are what I find to be priceless. The ability to just download and watch a movie for $.99, without the hassle of having to drive to a Blockbuster to pick it out, stand in line and purchase the rental is absolutely priceless. Let’s not forget the time or gas saved with not having to return a rental DVD to the store. Even if you have to pay the full price of $3.99 for a rental, this is still a great deal.
Now you can totally browse and rent or purchase movies directly from your TiVo. I mean the whole thing is just “kewl”.
So far, I’ve rented and watched:
- Little Miss Sunshine ($3.99) - this is a classic. Run, don’t walk and rent this now.
- Office Space ($2.99) - I had never seen it from beginning to end in one sitting. With a last name so close to Lumberg, how could I not watch and enjoy this?
- A Scanner Darkly ($3.99) - interesting, but not great. Excellent visual effects.
- The Departed ($3.99) - great movie, but very violent.
- Children of Men ($3.99) - good movie, but it left me feeling just a tad bit unsatisfied.
- The Astronaut Farmer ($.99) - good movie.
- 300 ($3.99) - good action movie, but very violent.
- Breech ($.99) - great suspense movie, especially since it’s based on a true story.
If you own a TiVo and haven’t tried it yet, you need to check it out. I’ve listed the weekly $.99 movie rental specials below. Also, be sure to check out the free Amazon Unbox downloads for Battlestar Galactica and get yourself prepped for the upcoming season 3.
Lastly, if you don’t own a TiVo, you can register to win a free TiVo HD and one year of service here. All you need is an email address to enter!
The below Amazon links are from their Unbox collection and are compatible with TiVo or with their stand alone player.
Topics: TiVo |
September 20th, 2007 at 1:19 pm
Is it your understanding that once you purchase an unbox item it has to stay on your TiVo and cannot be transferred/backed up?
September 23rd, 2007 at 10:13 pm
@ Kristine:
I’ve only rented movies via Amazon Unbox, but here’s my understanding
of how purchased movies work:
1) you own the movie and can delete it off your TiVo at any time
2) if you want to watch it again, you can access it via your Amazon’s
YourMediaLibrary, which is accessible via your Amazon account (you may
have to link your TiVo to your Amazon account first). Login to your
Amazon account > View my order > View Your Media Library > which takes
you to YourMediaLibrary
3) any movie that you’ve purchased (rental or purchase) should show up
under the Downloads tab (of YourMediaLibrary) > Amazon Unbox. From
there, you can force your TiVo to download the movie that you select.
The only catch is that you have to make sure that you have enough
space on your TiVo for the download. The only reason I know about
this feature is that I purchased a rental and much to my surprise the
download didn’t happen automatically. Amazon support told me that I
had to make room on the TiVo, then restart the download from
YourMediaLibrary.
I would assume that if you purchase a digital copy of the movie, they
will always be accessible from YourMediaLibrary, as long as you have
room on your TiVo to download it. You might ping Amazon support, just
to be sure.
The Amazon Unbox FAQ has some info on this:
http://tinyurl.com/3ylkgy
I am sure about one thing: you cannot burn purchased movies to DVD.
Thanks,
Michael Lundberg
http://www.michaellundberg.com
October 7th, 2007 at 9:41 pm
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