New NBC Pilots Free on Unbox - Includes Bionic Woman

[jmjerome]

Check it out.
www.amazon.com/unbox

[jon01]

looks like you get the pilot for free if you subscribe to the full season d/l.

- Jon

[jmjerome]

looks like you get the pilot for free if you subscribe to the full season d/l.

- Jon
Not true. I did not have to buy the season.

[TexasGrillChef]

Yeah, but NOT in Hi-Def....

I will wait for the Hi-Def Broadcast!

TGC....

I love lost... but until lost is available on Blu-ray or HD-DVD, I won't delete it from my TiVo because that IS in HD :)

[rainwater]

Yeah, but NOT in Hi-Def....

I will wait for the Hi-Def Broadcast!

TGC....

I love lost... but until lost is available on Blu-ray or HD-DVD, I won't delete it from my TiVo because that IS in HD :)

I will be checking out a few of those pilots just to see if they are worthy season pass additions. If I was paying for it, I would want it in HD but for free its not that important. I have found Unbox TV shows are better than SD quality for the most part anyways.

[sneagle]

Just watched Bionic Woman. Not bad. Will check out the season.

Very cool feature. Kudos to NBC for offering the shows.

[Ivomir]

Is it just me, or the Unbox menus are reeeeally slow? The top menu is fast (where you select new movies, free stuff, etc). But after that it takes 20-25 seconds to do anything - like up/down arrow page up/down, select, etc. I have a cable internet, and the Tivo is connected through a router and a switch.

[slimoli]

I wouldn't watch Unbox even for free. On my 73" the picture looks like an old VHS tape, 4 X 3 and not 5.1 People with HD Tivo or S3 should be more demanding and never accept this kind of service.

Sergio

[rodalpho]

I disagree. I'd watch low bitrate crappy SD video for free. I'd just never consider paying for it.

[MighTiVo]

More info in the earlier thread
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=365621

[Revolutionary]

I wouldn't watch Unbox even for free. On my 73" the picture looks like an old VHS tape, 4 X 3 and not 5.1 People with HD Tivo or S3 should be more demanding and never accept this kind of service.

Sergio

Have an HTPC? I watch Unbox on mine, never on my S3. The quality is much, much, much better.

FWIW, Unbox on PC quality is also better than iTunes, particularly as to black level, black crush, and white crush.

[aaronwt]

I wouldn't watch Unbox even for free. On my 73" the picture looks like an old VHS tape, 4 X 3 and not 5.1 People with HD Tivo or S3 should be more demanding and never accept this kind of service.

Sergio

With a VP50 and an HDMI FLEA it looks much, much better. It's still SD but it will look better than on any set you see in the store without those two components.
And it doesn't look anywhere close to VHS. VHS only has 240 lines of resolution(if I remember correctly). The unbox downloads have twice that.

[Revolutionary]

With a VP50 and an HDMI FLEA it looks much, much better. It's still SD but it will look better than on any set you see in the store without those two components.
And it doesn't look anywhere close to VHS. VHS only has 240 lines of resolution(if I remember correctly). The unbox downloads have twice that.

LOL. :D

Nothing personal, I'm just amused by the juxtaposition of recommending $2400 in components to improve the viewing experience for a $1.99 download. ;)

No doubt it's true...

[aaronwt]

LOL. :D

Nothing personal, I'm just amused by the juxtaposition of recommending $2400 in components to improve the viewing experience for a $1.99 download. ;)

No doubt it's true...

It's a $0.00 download. It's free. :D

[tootal2]

I wouldn't watch Unbox even for free. On my 73" the picture looks like an old VHS tape, 4 X 3 and not 5.1 People with HD Tivo or S3 should be more demanding and never accept this kind of service.

Sergio
the bionic woman looks good on my 48" crt rptv. I use zoom to full the screen of my tv.

[flyfishingdad]

I'm downloading the free Bionic Woman, Journey Man, Chuck right now. So far it's been almost three hours and all that has downloaded is 22 minutes of Chuck. What gives?

I have Comcast Cable, doing a quick test of my download speed right now, with Tivo downloading at the same time, and using my laptop, my laptop is showing download speeds of 4.5Mbps to 5.5Mbps

At that available speed, and considering Unbox says that these shows are all about 900MB in size all four shows I selected for download should have been done by now Considering when I'm not using any bandwidth with my laptop the Tivo should have access to the full bandwidth Comcast allows me (or close to it) the Tivo sure is going slow.

[MickeS]

I wouldn't watch Unbox even for free. On my 73" the picture looks like an old VHS tape, 4 X 3 and not 5.1 People with HD Tivo or S3 should be more demanding and never accept this kind of service.

Sergio
It depends on which video it is. Some look great, others look bad.

The "Chuck" download looked great. About DVD quality.

Yes, not hi-def, but worth the cost for sure. ;)

[tootal2]

I'm downloading the free Bionic Woman, Journey Man, Chuck right now. So far it's been almost three hours and all that has downloaded is 22 minutes of Chuck. What gives?

I have Comcast Cable, doing a quick test of my download speed right now, with Tivo downloading at the same time, and using my laptop, my laptop is showing download speeds of 4.5Mbps to 5.5Mbps

At that available speed, and considering Unbox says that these shows are all about 900MB in size all four shows I selected for download should have been done by now Considering when I'm not using any bandwidth with my laptop the Tivo should have access to the full bandwidth Comcast allows me (or close to it) the Tivo sure is going slow.

Is your tivo hooked up wireless? or by Ethernet cable? Tivo seems to download alot faster from the Ethernet cable.

[flyfishingdad]

I have it plugged directly into my wireless router.

[Dr_Diablo]

Free?

two hours to download a feature movie? no thanks

[tootal2]

I have it plugged directly into my wireless router.
I downloaded the bionic woman, chuck, life and battlestar galactica to my tivo in about 5 hours. Im on 3mbs dsl.

[flyfishingdad]

I wonder what's taking so long on mine? When I don't have any other things using up bandwidth (for instance the Tivo is downloading something) I can get speeds over 6mbps.

[Revolutionary]

I'm on a 5mbs pipe and a one hour episode only takes about 30 minutes to download on my HTPC.

[Bierboy]

the bionic woman looks good on my 48" crt rptv. I use zoom to full the screen of my tv.It actually looked pretty good on my Hitachi 51-inch, too. But lack of closed captioning really limits my use of Unbox.

[flyfishingdad]

Well I watched Chuck. I wasn't impressed with the show or the video quality. I really don't like that it was wide screen, but not optimized for a 16:9 tv so I had to zoom to fill my 50 inch plasma.

I still haven't figured out why it is taking so long to download things. I could download similar file sizes to my laptop or desktop in under 30 minutes, sometimes under 15 if the server I'm downloading from has plenty of bandwidth. I downloaded America's Army which was over 1GB in 20 minutes from GameSpy once.

[aaronwt]

It's SD. It's not going to fill the screen with widescreen and SD. But with the zoom it fills the entire screen with nothing being cut off. This is the way it always been as far as I know.
If it was HD, 720P or 1080i, it would fill the screen without using the zoom funtion.
This is nothing new for SD TV shows in widescreen and HD TV shows. It's been that way for the 6 years I've been watching HD.
And the quality was the same as when in best recording mode recording SD.

[nathanziarek]

It's SD. It's not going to fill the screen with widescreen and SD.
I agree with flyingfishdad -- when I pop in a DVD, even though the resolution is only 720x480, it fills the screen as best it can without having to mess with zoom levels. I expected the SD Unbox shows to do the same. I don't use my TV remote for anything, so finding it just to hit a zoom button is an (extremely minor, considering) inconvenience. And lets not kid ourselves -- the video quality is pretty bad, so all TiVo+Amazon are selling is convenience.

[Goober96]

so all TiVo+Amazon are selling is convenience.
Well, in this case, they aren't SELLING anything. It's absolutely FREE and I think it's a great idea and good marketing strategy for NBC.

[flyfishingdad]

I think he's referring to the vast majority of shows, including television shows, in which you have to pay 1.99 or more to view....and if it's a rental, only be able to view within a 24 hour window of first viewing, that's pretty lame and not even all that convenient unless you are a shut in who can't even get the mail. (Netflix and blockbuster online)

Frankly I think those who spend money at unbox have more money than brains and are so enthralled with the gimmick they leave common sense behind.

Also, Zoom does cut a bit off, it also degrades the quality slightly.

Still, so long as it's free, sure I'll download a show or two, but the movies wouldn't be worth downloading even if they were only $1. Heck now you can get a movie for $1 from your local McDonalds if you are going to be sure and watch it within a day....and you get the bonus features most DVD's have. (I love the deleted scenes and bloopers most DVD's include)

[MickeS]

Frankly I think those who spend money at unbox have more money than brains and are so enthralled with the gimmick they leave common sense behind.


Or they have different priorities than you do. :rolleyes:

[aaronwt]

I agree with flyingfishdad -- when I pop in a DVD, even though the resolution is only 720x480, it fills the screen as best it can without having to mess with zoom levels. I expected the SD Unbox shows to do the same. I don't use my TV remote for anything, so finding it just to hit a zoom button is an (extremely minor, considering) inconvenience. And lets not kid ourselves -- the video quality is pretty bad, so all TiVo+Amazon are selling is convenience.
It has no way of knowing if the SD is full screen or widescreen.

[AbMagFab]

It has no way of knowin if the SD is full screen or widescreen.
The Tivo knows.

If they were to do the same thing as a DVD - send down a 16x9 MPEG-2 file, the Tivo then will format it properly for your TV. S2 and S3 Tivo's know how to do this, and have been doing it since TTG/TTCB were created (and actually long before that).

This is something that should be part of Unbox from the beginning, since it appears they encode the file differently for Tivo's anyway. It's pretty much unacceptable that they didn't do it this way.

[flyfishingdad]

It has no way of knowin if the SD is full screen or widescreen.

See but that's just it. My DVD player knows it is sending to a 16:9 TV, so it sends 16:9 content without the letterbox. My Tivo S3 also knows it is sending to a 16:9 why can't it send SD content to my 16:9 screen the same way my DVD player can? It's all in the content. Many really old DVDs also will not fill a 16:9 screen if they are widescreen movies. Instead you will get both pillar boxes AND letterboxes. All newer DVDs are encoded in such a fashion that the DVD player can decide on what aspect ratio to display the content. Unbox programming COULD be set up this way, but it isn't.


EDIT:

Looks like you beat me to the answer AbMagfab

[aaronwt]

Well there is a zoom button on the TiVo remote that makes it easy for people if you want to use that. I zoom in from my video processor. I would rather decide If I want a picture zoomed in or not. I don't want the device deciding for me.

[TexasGrillChef]

I wouldn't watch Unbox even for free. On my 73" the picture looks like an old VHS tape, 4 X 3 and not 5.1 People with HD Tivo or S3 should be more demanding and never accept this kind of service.

Sergio


EXACTLY... since the shows will be broadcast in 16:9, HD 5.1. :)

TGC

[flyfishingdad]

Did you guys know that you can download HD TV shows and Movies for the Xbox 360? I've thought about getting an Xbox 360 and that makes it all the more tempting. Too bad Tivo Unbox isn't that forward thinking...after all I already have a Tivo S3. Still before I'd be willing to pay for content even if it was in HD I'd have to be able to view it as often as I want for at least a month, a 24 hour window once you start watching is ridiculous.

[Canoehead]

I downloaded Bionic Woman and Life yesterday - each took a litte under 1/2 an hour - not too bad. I watched it in the box with bars on all four sides - zooming it was too painful to watch. I would recommend Life - it was pretty good, and I've liked Damien Lewis since Bank of Brothers. I don't normally use Unbox, but last year when I missed an episode of 24 I bought the missing ep so I would not fall behind or be out of order. Clearly the next step is HD, which would make it great.

[MickeS]

Well there is a zoom button on the TiVo remote that makes it easy for people if you want to use that. I zoom in from my video processor. I would rather decide If I want a picture zoomed in or not. I don't want the device deciding for me.
It's about the resolution. A zoomed letterbox 4:3 image has less useful picture area resolution than a 16:9 non-zoomed image.

[MickeS]

Did you guys know that you can download HD TV shows and Movies for the Xbox 360? I've thought about getting an Xbox 360 and that makes it all the more tempting. Too bad Tivo Unbox isn't that forward thinking...after all I already have a Tivo S3. Still before I'd be willing to pay for content even if it was in HD I'd have to be able to view it as often as I want for at least a month, a 24 hour window once you start watching is ridiculous.
The Xbox360 rentals are also 24-hour rentals after you start watching, like every other online/VOD rental.

[Bierboy]

I disagree. I'd watch low bitrate crappy SD video for free. I'd just never consider paying for it.Bingo!

[MickeS]

How about low bitrate goodlooking SD video? :)

[Dr_Zoidberg]

IMO, the downloads looked fine to me. I'm no purist, but BW and Chuck looked fine on my 50" Sony, using component video. These shows were 43-44 minutes in length, and were .96GB. Maybe NBC wanted them to be under 1GB r something.

I think NBC's doing this to finalize their departure from offering shows on iTunes (they are moving to Amazon for that, at a higher cost, no doubt). I would not have downloaded them if they cost any money, so offering them for free makes it worthwhile.

[flyfishingdad]

So I was watching Bionic Woman last night with my wife. After a while of watching I had my wife look on IMDB to see if the show had the same producers as Battlestar Gallactica on Sci-Fi. Sure enough, it does. What is with the idea of taking what was a good, fun, family friendly sci-fi action show and turning it into something dark and brooding? By the way, if you woke up after being in a horrible accident, most likely expecting to be seriously maimed, then you found out your legs arm and eye were damaged beyond repair would you be ANGRY to find out that not only are you going to be able to walk again because of advances in prosthetics but you are getting bionic limbs!? NO WAY. At first you might grieve over the loss of your natural limbs, but you wouldn't be angry at the spectacular rate of healing and being able to walk and run see and better. Me, I'd almost be joyful about losing my limbs, heck if I can feel the new skin, lets do the other arm too! Stupid.

[CCourtney]

IMO, the downloads looked fine to me. I'm no purist, but BW and Chuck looked fine on my 50" Sony, using component video. These shows were 43-44 minutes in length, and were .96GB. Maybe NBC wanted them to be under 1GB r something.

I think NBC's doing this to finalize their departure from offering shows on iTunes (they are moving to Amazon for that, at a higher cost, no doubt). I would not have downloaded them if they cost any money, so offering them for free makes it worthwhile.

I'd have to agree with these comments. The image quality was not spectacular but it was better than what I'm use to seeing from digital SD feeds. I wish they had a DD5.1 audio track though.

I'll have to try this on my HTPC tonight and see if:
1.) See an improvement in download speed (~1hr per episode - estimated by looking at the time stamps on the video's)
2.) See an improvement in video quality (which some I would expect as I have decent HW for upconverting video.)

I was also getting 0.96GB per episode. I thought I saw someone reported 0.85GB. Anybody know if they may be pushing MPEG4 video streams to the TiVo HD or if Amazon Unbox even supports MPEG4? This was my first Unbox experience. I'd have to say I enjoyed being able to watch the pilot's two weeks before most everyone that I know.

CCourtney

PS: Viewing on 56" DLP TV