Amazon Unbox list to be browsable through Tivo interface?

[yunlin12]

Any idea on when this may happen? Apparently Tom Rogers mentioned in some investor conference call that Tivo's cut on Amazon Unbox revenue would go up once user can access Unbox list using Tivo remote, instead of PC.

I already have a Amazon product browser HME on my Tivo, but I don't remember who made it. I wonder if this is related.

[MichaelK]

that's great news- means tivo has an incentive to urry along.

My guess is it's part of the unified search thing that they announced at the end of 2006.

[BlackBetty]

any word on what TiVo's cut is currently? and what it will be once the tivo standalones have a Amazon unbox search/order function built in?

[rainwater]

any word on what TiVo's cut is currently?

Probably not much at all. The whole point of the agreement for TiVo is to add value to the TiVo Service so they can gain subscribers. Its doubtful they make very much money directly off Unbox sales.

[ChuckyBox]

Probably not much at all. The whole point of the agreement for TiVo is to add value to the TiVo Service so they can gain subscribers. Its doubtful they make very much money directly off Unbox sales.
In other words, you don't know.

[rainwater]

In other words, you don't know.

Of course I don't. But if you look at how much most of the companies like Amazon are making on digital downloads, there's no way TiVo is getting a huge chunk of the pie since they aren't even the ones providing the service. It doesn't take a financial genius to figure that one out.

[ChuckyBox]

there's no way TiVo is getting a huge chunk of the pie since they aren't even the ones providing the service.
They're TiVo's customers. Eventually there will be many companies that offer video downloads over the net -- it's competitive now, and only going to get more so. But only TiVo can link the downloads to TiVo's customers' TiVo boxes.

[HDTiVo]

The way TiVo describes it, it sounds like they get zero or near zero revenue out of the current arrangement.

Later this year there will probably be a way (probably HME App) to transact Unbox Vids directly at your TV/TiVo, which it sounds like TiVo thinks there's a good chance they can get a cut of the $.

I think the current arrangement is reasonable; TiVo's subs get the value of the ability to receive Unbox Vids on the TiVo units, which is a decent payoff. Although TiVo downloads are certainly traceable now, it seems easier to win the argument (and negotiation) that box generated sales deserve a cut.

In the future, if TiVo can demonstrate they offer significant value from their subs, they'll probably get better terms from such deals.

I think Rogers said yesterday that thousands had signed up for Unbox so far. Does anyone know what their actual broadband connections are up to now?

[MichaelK]

i think it's somewhat symbiotic actually.

Tivo needs the content and bandwidth that amazon has. And Amazon needs the direct connection to the tv that tivo can provide.

Unfortunately for TiVo when you are a couple of orders of magnitude smaller then your "partner" then you dont have much power.

There's probably more then a few compaies that would want to offer amazon downloads on their hardware. It seems clear that SO FAR there isn't a line at the door to get paid for content on tv's through tivo hardware.

[HDTiVo]

i think it's somewhat symbiotic actually.

Tivo needs the content and bandwidth that amazon has. And Amazon needs the direct connection to the tv that tivo can provide.

Unfortunately for TiVo when you are a couple of orders of magnitude smaller then your "partner" then you dont have much power.

There's probably more then a few compaies that would want to offer amazon downloads on their hardware. It seems clear that SO FAR there isn't a line at the door to get paid for content on tv's through tivo hardware.
I don't know that Amazon needs TiVo so much. What's wrong with an xbox360 that has more than an order of magnitude more BB connected units. ;)

I think one challenge TiVo has is making Amazon's effort worthwhile to Amazon; that will affect future deals with Amazon and other content resellers.

Edit: BTW I found out TiVo is saying 600K BB connected units now.

[ChuckyBox]

There's probably more then a few compaies that would want to offer amazon downloads on their hardware. It seems clear that SO FAR there isn't a line at the door to get paid for content on tv's through tivo hardware.
True enough. I've argued elsewhere in this forum that this just isn't a very big business...yet. I think TiVo's approach to broadband content is sound -- put it in as a differentiating feature as long as the company doesn't have to pay for content. If and when broadband content distribution becomes a driving force in the industry, they'll be in a good position to offer us whatever is available.

In a talk he gave yesterday, Steve Sordello, TiVo's CFO, said that in it's current form, the Amazon downloads are primarily a marketing feature for TiVo. Later in the year, when people can search for and order Unbox video directly on their TiVo boxes, it will become more of a revenue driver. Given that Amazon is paying their associates a 10% referral fees on Unbox content (http://affiliate-blog.amazon.com/), I think TiVo's cut is likely to be healthy.

[MichaelK]

I don't know that Amazon needs TiVo so much. What's wrong with an xbox360 that has more than an order of magnitude more BB connected units. ;)
....


Nothing wrong with the xbox 360- or any of the others.

I didn't say Amazon needs Tivo but they do need a box, any box, connected to a tv so people can download straight to their living room.

An xbox360, the apple thingie, maybe a movielink box (didn't blockbuster just buy that?), deals with other dvr's, some sort of system through slingbox, any of them would work. But it seems clear that everyone thinks pc's connected to tv's aint cutting it and they need a box in the living room to get their downloaded content on to the end users tv directly. And that's why I said there are other hardware peope that could allow amazon to do it- and that's why Tivo's hand is so weak.

It will be interesting to see how the whole content download thing works out- will everyone choose up sides or will it all wind up availible on everything? In 3 years will it be amazon on tivo, blockbuster on moviebeam's successor, netflix on dbs dvr's, etc, etc. Or will it be that anybox can download amazon or netflix, or blockbuster to any of the hardware that exists? I wonder which way it winds out.

[resanders]

Has anyone tried Amazon unbox, yet? I was successful in downloading a video to my series 2 box but unsuccessful with downloads to my series 3 box. Just curious if anyone experienced the same and/or may have a resolution. As far as I know it should've worked since it showed up as being in the download queue for my series 3 when I checked my media library in Amazon.

[SugarBowl]

just write the 10 titles down on a sticky, and post it on the side of your tv.

[Dan203]

I've downloaded several things to my S3 unit with no issues. Just this weekend I watched Jackass 2 and the four unaired episodes of Smith all purchased from Unbox. (Jackass was a rental) Also a couple weeks ago when this first went live I downloaded an episode of 24 and Prision Break, and they worked fine as well. In fact I was surprised by the quality of these recording. They were pretty much on par with what I get from my digital cable service. :up: My only complaint is the lack of selection.

Dan

[MichaelK]

I've downloaded several things to my S3 unit with no issues. Just this weekend I watched Jackass 2 and the four unaired episodes of Smith all purchased from Unbox. (Jackass was a rental) Also a couple weeks ago when this first went live I downloaded an episode of 24 and Prision Break, and they worked fine as well. In fact I was surprised by the quality of these recording. They were pretty much on par with what I get from my digital cable service. :up: My only complaint is the lack of selection.

Dan


totally agree.

I've downloaded 2 rental movies.

First one did take 2 hours to start but once it started all was fine. Second one started in less than the 15 minutes claimed.

Both zoomed on the S3 to fix the aspect ratio still looked good- I'd say akin to DVD quality for sure. I was pleasantly surprised.

So all they need to do is get some more content. If they can get most new releases then I'm likely never to rent a DVD again. If they figure out HD movie downloads to the S3 then It's way more than likley that i never rent a dvd again.

[trafeng]

I tried a movie rental download from Amazon to my Tivo S3. It took several hours, but the aspect ratio and picture quality looked good. A company, zeros and ones (zros) released last week a software program that increases internet downloads by a factor of 100. This could be a godsend for both Amazon and Tivo as far as the rental TV business goes.

[Dan203]

If they can get most new releases then I'm likely never to rent a DVD again. If they figure out HD movie downloads to the S3 then It's way more than likley that i never rent a dvd again.

I thought the lack of DD5.1 audio would bother me and make me less likely to rent movies this way. However I've discovered that the convenience outweighs the audio quality at this point (I've never been a huge audiophile anyway) so I'll probably use this more then I originally expected, more so if they increase their selection.

Dan

[wmcbrine]

A company, zeros and ones (zros) released last week a software program that increases internet downloads by a factor of 100.Um, BS.

If it does anything at all, it compresses material (e.g., HTML) that's not already compressed. MPEG data is heavily compressed, and no known algorithms can squeeze more than a few extra percent out of it (unless you start talking about lossy compression... which just means lower quality).

[MichaelK]

amazon has a blurb that their latest PC software 'increases download speeds by 50%" or something like that.

The zero's and one's thing sounds like it just makes sure to max out your side of the connection by connecting your to a bunch of servers at once.

If I understand there's a way to get faster downloads by opening multiple connections to the same server - I'd bet the amazon thing is doing that. (isn't there a setting in internet explorer so you can make more connections at once or something?)

No expert in any of this but i suspect all this is just a way to fill the pipe on your side of the connection.

[wmcbrine]

amazon has a blurb that their latest PC software 'increases download speeds by 50%" or something like that.At least they're more modest with their BS.

[HDTiVo]

Nothing wrong with the xbox 360- or any of the others.

I didn't say Amazon needs Tivo but they do need a box, any box, connected to a tv so people can download straight to their living room.

An xbox360, the apple thingie, maybe a movielink box (didn't blockbuster just buy that?), deals with other dvr's, some sort of system through slingbox, any of them would work. But it seems clear that everyone thinks pc's connected to tv's aint cutting it and they need a box in the living room to get their downloaded content on to the end users tv directly. And that's why I said there are other hardware peope that could allow amazon to do it- and that's why Tivo's hand is so weak.

It will be interesting to see how the whole content download thing works out- will everyone choose up sides or will it all wind up availible on everything? In 3 years will it be amazon on tivo, blockbuster on moviebeam's successor, netflix on dbs dvr's, etc, etc. Or will it be that anybox can download amazon or netflix, or blockbuster to any of the hardware that exists? I wonder which way it winds out.

It will be devices that handle a common standard - almost certainly WMDRM, and maybe a couple of others if they are large in number (>> 1.7M ;) .) The rest will fade into oblivion.

[BlackBetty]

to get back to the original topic. Once TiVo has the function built into the tivo software to be able to view, browse, search, and purchase from amazon unbox....IT BEST BE SNAPPY AND RESPONSIVE!!! The current TiVo cast and home media functions are so damn slow that they can be painful to use.

[MichaelK]

I'll gladly take the current speed compared to nothing.

Even DOG SLOW on my Tv in the living room is tons better then having to go grab a computer and wait for it to boot up and then browse the amazon website.

(not to say that Home Media speed couldn't be fixed but I'd prefer more apps rather then wait for them to fix the underpinnings.)