Amazon and TiVo talk about partnership.

[Hew]

"Amazon and TiVo in talks to bring movie purchases to TV sets-NY Post
Online retailer Amazon.com (AMZN) is speaking with TiVo (TIVO) about creating a feature that would allow users to automatically transfer online movie purchases to their TiVo set-top boxes. If completed, the deal could be a key step to bridge the gap between home computers and television set."

-from yahoo stock message board.

I wonder if this would have happened if Apple kept iTV a secret until the 1st Q of next year when it's planned to be released.

Stock is jumping this morning with no news other then this post.

[jmoak]

from nypost.com:

AMAZON AND TIVO GET IN MOVIE BIZ (http://www.nypost.com/business/amazon_and_tivo_get_in_movie_biz_business_tim_arango.htm)

[ping]

OK, stock message boards and NY Post don't quite cut it, but here's BusinessWeek (actually, AP):
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8K9TS680.htm

Edit: oh, crap, their source is the Post :eek:

[Globular]

This would be awesome!! Let's hope it's true.

-Matt

[cwoody222]

This is different than the (not yet - maybe never will be) feature with Netflix how exactly?


Oh yea, Amazon already already digital rights. I still don't see it going anywhere anytime soon.

[bilbo]

maybe i will get the zen vision:m 30gb for $229.99 at Amazon. it comes with $20 worth of free Unbox downloads.

[Ingersoll]

This would be awesome!! Let's hope it's true.

-Matt


I just don't see the attraction of anything but a real DVD or a real broadcast on a full size tv. The iPod is one thing for convenience and portability, but this... I just don't see any advantage over Netflix or buying the disc except for the immediate gratification crowd. :confused:

The video quality on a SD TiVo is poor enough for regular old tv content. I can't imagine paying for a movie that would be dumbed down significantly compared to DVD quality.

[HDTiVo]

Amazon's announcement came a few days before Apple's splashy presentation announcing a deal to sell full-length films released by Disney.

Amazon, meanwhile, has deals in place with every movie studio except Disney, whose board Apple boss Steve Jobs joined earlier this year after Disney acquired the Jobs-controlled Pixar Animation Studios.

:up: ;)

[rainwater]

If this let me buy shows/movies from the TiVo itself and didn't require the use of a computer, then this might be something. But if this requires TiVo Desktop, then I don't see the point. Of course, Amazon doesn't do a rental service so I know that direct downloads will not be the case. Its just shame that this service even if TiVo added it, will not be a hit because of the ease of use factor.

[ZeoTiVo]

If this let me buy shows/movies from the TiVo itself and didn't require the use of a computer, then this might be something. But if this requires TiVo Desktop, then I don't see the point. Of course, Amazon doesn't do a rental service so I know that direct downloads will not be the case. Its just shame that this service even if TiVo added it, will not be a hit because of the ease of use factor.

so how do you know any of this to be true from what little is known of a deal still in the talking stage?

it could well be rental service - SD type downloads and TiVo DRM would fit nicely into a rental type business.
Maybe it is MPeg4 on the S3 only
It could be a nicely developed HME app that lets me register with Amazon via the TiVo and info sharing and then select the movies and they show up on the TiVo.
or it could be I select a TiVo option on the Amazon web page and downlaod movies to my PC into the desktop directory.

who knows, but to make a blanket statement based on the NY Post article is just silly.

[rainwater]

so how do you know any of this to be true from what little is known of a deal still in the talking stage?

it could well be rental service - SD type downloads and TiVo DRM would fit nicely into a rental type business.
Maybe it is MPeg4 on the S3 only
It could be a nicely developed HME app that lets me register with Amazon via the TiVo and info sharing and then select the movies and they show up on the TiVo.
or it could be I select a TiVo option on the Amazon web page and downlaod movies to my PC into the desktop directory.

who knows, but to make a blanket statement based on the NY Post article is just silly.

I'm basing this on the fact that Amazon doesn't offer rentals with their service. If they had the power to do that, they would be offering it now, not just to TiVo users. I don't know how it will work, but I would be floored if they offered a rental service with direct download to a TiVo. The reason being, without a rental service, no one is going to buy a movie to download directly to their TiVo that would get auto deleted to make room for other programs.

[rainwater]

I take that back, I do see Amazon offers rentals according to the FAQ. Although, I didn't actually see them on the site because its only for movies.

[ZeoTiVo]

I take that back, I do see Amazon offers rentals according to the FAQ. Although, I didn't actually see them on the site because its only for movies.

well we do a good job at keep each other honest ;)

[Dennis Wilkinson]

The video quality on a SD TiVo is poor enough for regular old tv content. I can't imagine paying for a movie that would be dumbed down significantly compared to DVD quality.

Having transferred DVD-quality video to my TiVos for playback, and having it look, well, DVD-quality (using "TiVoToComeBack"), quality won't necessarily be an issue (the box can output very, very good video -- it just can't encode it as well as a professional compressionist.) It could be, but that's more of a "how would they compress this stuff for broadband delivery" question.

[Narf54321]

more of a "how would they compress this stuff for broadband delivery" question.

The S2 units only have an MPEG2 decoder, which would likely make downloaded files quite large. Or heavily compressed as to be unwatchable (MPEG2 at low bitrates is usually pretty bad).

If Amazon uses something like MPEG4, only the Series-3 units have the decoders neccessary to decode those. I doubt the S2 CPU has enough horsepower to software-transcode in any reasonable amount of time. This might end up limited to S3.

[MickeS]

Yeah, the TiVO Series 2 can easily do DVD-quality, at least picture-wise.

I don't see much value in this though if it has to go through a computer first - hopefully it'll be direct-to-TiVo.

[Dennis Wilkinson]

The S2 units only have an MPEG2 decoder, which would likely make downloaded files quite large. Or heavily compressed as to be unwatchable (MPEG2 at low bitrates is usually pretty bad).

If Amazon uses something like MPEG4, only the Series-3 units have the decoders neccessary to decode those. I doubt the S2 CPU has enough horsepower to software-transcode in any reasonable amount of time. This might end up limited to S3.

S2 doesn't have nearly enough oomph to do MPEG4->MPEG2 transcode, so that'd be out.

MPEG2 as an IP-based VOD distribution method has been discussed to death around here in the past. I think that it's possible for them to use MPEG2, despite the implied file sizes -- even at DVD rates of a bit more than 2GB/hour of video, I could pull down a feature-length film in a little over an hour on my cable modem connection.

[jmoak]

MPEG2 as an IP-based VOD distribution method has been discussed to death around here in the past. It's not only been discussed, it's been done! Tivo has delivered some pretty good quality mpeg2 vids via ip in the last year via product watch and the like. Heck, they've even downloaded a full length movie/feature or two.

Today we can (and have!) initiate downloads via the tivo gui and have them delivered directly to our tivos.

The only gripe I have is that the price amazon has on their offering is just too dang much.

But then again, I am a Che@p B@$t@rd.
;)