Cool Tech Reviews

Amazon has been testing a video on demand service since July and this week it became generally available as Amazon Video on Demand and absorbed the old Unbox video download service as well.

The finished Video On Demand service is now compatible with a wealth of device types: Windows PC’s, Macs, suitable TiVo models, Windows Media Center extender boxes (like the Xbox 360), the Sony Bravia Internet Video Link TVs used in the beta, and many portable media players. Amazon is offering a vast catalog of 40,000 movies and TV shows. Some are free, but for most of them the prices are:

• Movie rentals: $2.99 to $3.99
• TV rentals: $1.99

All rentals expire 24 hrs after purchase and all offer a 2 minute preview.

If you aren’t interested in rental and streaming, you can still purchase and download movies as before using the Unbox application and they will always be available in your personal video library. Rentals will be there too (at least for 24 hours) in case you get interrupted while watching or want to watch on a different system than where you order.

Initial reviews indicate the Amazon Video on Demand service is quite usable albeit with some video glitches reported, so you might care to try some of the free videos before plunking down some cash. A bigger question if you are a TV fan is whether or not you might prefer the Hulu service which is free, but has commercials. (Hulu does offer some movies as well.)

Finally, my perpetual rant is that Internet video won’t take off until it is dead simple for the average consumer to use and use in the room where they have their TV set. Amazon Video on Demand goes quite a way towards solving the simplicity problem. As for getting that video into the room where the TV resides, Amazon does its best with the available technical options and is way ahead of most alternatives with the enhanced TiVo lashup which now supports streaming rentals.

Back in February when Amazon.com and TiVo announced that they were hooking up the TiVo DVR with Amazon’s Unbox Internet video store, one problem I noted was that “it’s not perfect because you can’t order the downloads from the TiVo.” Instead you had to order through your PC for delivery to your TiVo. However, starting today, that gap has been bridged:

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I’ve always been hopeful about Internet video downloads even though the available services always seem to leave quite a bit to be desired. Gizmodo’s Charlie White summarizes the problems nicely in Top 10 Reasons Why Movie Downloads Suck, but I’d like to call out a couple of them:

3. No computer in the TV room: Most people don’t have a computer near the TV, and getting a downloaded movie from one to the other is awkward at best.

10. Too complicated: Finally, all of that knowledge and computer know-how needed for downloading movies is simply nonexistent in the skill sets of the average movie viewer. They’re just not willing to go through the learning curve to get the digital data from the PC to the TV screen when they can effortlessly pop in a DVD.

These aren’t problems for a “power user,” but they surely are impediments for the casual consumer. That’s why I was interested to see the alliance announced last week between Amazon’s Unbox movie download service and TiVo, the digital video recorder makers, to provide Unbox downloads automatically and directly to the TiVo DVR. The details of the announcement are here, but the FAQ may be more illuminating.

In a nutshell, if you are the owner of a broadband connected TiVo Series2 or Series3 DVR, you can register the unit with Amazon from your PC and whenever you purchase any video at Amazon Unbox (again from your PC) you can specify that it be delivered to your TiVo. If you delete it from the TiVo, it can be downloaded again free from your Amazon Media Library.

It’s not perfect because you can’t order the downloads from the TiVo, but it neatly gets around the two problems listed above. Of course, there are still more of the “10 Reasons” to overcome, but at least it’s a start. Amazon’s Unbox had a very shaky launch, but presuming that they have ironed out the bugs, the only downside that I see is that broadband connected TiVo Series2 and Series3 boxes aren’t particularly common - TiVo estimates that there only are 1.5 million potential candidates. However, if you happen to own one it would be worthwhile to head over to Unbox and at least kick the tires when this rolls out later this year.

Update - March 7, 2007: The Amazon Unbox TiVo service is now live.

Last week Amazon launched a video download service called Unbox:

Amazon.com unveiled the Unbox Video Store on Thursday, a direct rival to Apple’s iTunes 24-7 video store, which allows U.S. users to buy or rent TV shows, movies and other video content from the Internet.

Amazon Unbox is offering thousands of DVD-quality videos from over 30 movie and TV studios, which can be stored on up to two PCs and two portable video players at once, the company said. When a user downloads a movie or show, Unbox automatically sends a second download file optimized for Windows Media-compatible portable devices. It also keeps track of media purchases on a personal page at Amazon’s Your Media Library, and acts as a backup, allowing users to download video purchases onto an additional PC.
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Users interested in trying Unbox can go to http://www.amazon.com/unbox. Amazon Unbox is offering a $1.99 rebate on a user’s first purchase, enough for one free TV show. But new users will have to enter their credit card information into the system first as part of the registration process, and then download the Amazon Unbox Video Player software.

Unbox is charging between $7.99 and $14.99 for most movies, and rentals of the latest movies for $3.99.

Since it’s for Windows Media devices only, Mac and iPod users need not apply, and some of the PC requirements are fairly hefty, but before you get out your credit card, you should be aware that widespread problems have been reported with Unbox. Here’s a sample:

Tim Thorpe at DailyTech:

DailyTech tried the service with less than pleasant results. First we tried to rent a video from the store, but the software insisted that our hard drive was full even though it also indicated that we had over 40GB free. The client refused to download the content while still charging us for the rental - twice. We then tried purchasing a movie through the service, but the media refused to play in the Unbox client or through Windows Media Player, again charging our credit card. We then contacted Amazon.com about our issues via e-mail and requested the company call us using the call back feature. It has been 36 hours and we have yet to hear from the company or receive a refund.

Tom Merritt at CNET:

So, in summary, to be allowed the privilege of purchasing a video that I can’t burn to DVD and can’t watch on my iPod, I have to allow a program to hijack my start-up and force me to login to uninstall it? No way. Sorry, Amazon. I love a lot of what you do, but I will absolutely not recommend this service. Try again.

Michael Gartenberg:

I figured I’d try to download a video or two for my flight to SF next week. First step, finding some content. Excellent, an old Star Trek episode. Click, purchase, download and install player (which first installed some new version of .NET without asking). Load player, it connects and then nothing. No download. No nothing. It shows but nothing happens. Fifteen minutes of nothing. I click troubleshoot. It tells me it’s checking stuff like DRM. Everything checks out. Message pops up. You have used all licenses for this file. If you want to watch it on this PC, you need to purchase it again. OK. We’re done.

Time to un-install this thing and hope it didn’t screw up my PC in the process.

Gartenberg also notes that not all PlaysForSure Windows Media devices will necessarily work.

Not everyone is reporting problems, but everybody seems to be saying that it has a glitchy feel and it’s clear that you have a nonzero probability of complete failure. Amazon can do better than that and should have. For now, it gets a Thumbs Down.

Update 9/19: Two thumbs down for Unbox:

Amazon.com’s Unbox is a horror show. The Unbox service appears not so much to have been introduced as to have escaped from the laboratory.

Of all the smart and talented people at Amazon, did no one dare say, “Wait, our new service bites! It’s slower than a trip to Blockbuster, more expensive than a DVD, absurdly restrictive on how the consumer uses the movie, delivers lower resolution than a DVD, and requires running a cable from the PC to the TV if you want to watch the movie on something larger than a PC monitor”?

And that’s when it works.