Amazon Unbox on Tivo - Series3 HD content, maybe?

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Jim,

How would you compare the quality of the UNBOX movie to a movie played on normal (no upconverting) DVD player?

 

I commented on that in this post above. If you start watching one of these films on an evening before a weekday and fail to finish it, most of those 24 hours will be hours that you're sleeping, getting ready for work and at work and it won't be convenient for you to start watching it again until the same time that you started the previous night. In this situation there's no difference between 4 and 24 hours. The period needs to be at least 30 hours.

 

The quality is better then "BEST QUALITY" on a Series 2... At least that's what I remember hearing. I recorded 2 episodes of 24 on my Unbox player and it looks pretty dang good on my Sony XBR70 HD TV.

Of course you can't compare Digital Quality to HD quality.

 

The concern and/or question I have with the Amazon Unbox program is if I would purchase/rent a movie, if that that can then be downloaded to any of my other Tivo units. If I buy/rent a DVD, I can play it any of the televisions in my house - certainly not simultaneously, but nontheless that option exists.....

Of course, Series1 & Series2 boxes currently have MRV functionality, however I feel pretty confident Privacy Protection will be enabled on those shows to prevent distribution (e.g. TivoToGo).

Bottom line, is Amazon needs to either provide downloading to all units on an account, given certain rights as I wouldn't wany my children to be able to unilaterally download a movie they shouldn't AND/OR work with Tivo to allow MRV within an account for those Series that have MRV functionality. If these options can not be provided, I'm sure they will be forgoing revenue to the DVD distribution outlets, whether retail or online....

 

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A faq at Amazon.com/unbox/ answers your question as follows:

I also like this faq:

Hopefully, the videos will be 5.1, which I realize isn't as much of a necessity for most PCs. For me, stereo downloads = continued Netflix subscription. I know at least some of you understand.

 

Drew, thx!! I should have reviewed the FAQ more closely, so it does at least provide more than 1, while not optimal (all of my units) it will allow some level of duplicity. I was aware that they could be downloaded subsequent to the purchase to save space, but couldn't locate/find, where it could be to additional units at the same time.

Also, does it say if you need to 'register' the additional units or with the application / portal plug that value, when an additional download takes place? Also, how will the system know if you download on a 2nd Tivo unit and then delete that one and want to download it on a 3rd Tivo unit?

Furthermore, I am hopeful Tivo will provide an MRV update to allow 2 Tivo units of of any given account to warehouse the show at any given time as transfer times would be significantly faster than having to download via the Internet again for additional devices....

 

Agreed. The two big ones for me are that it play in 16x9 format and that the audio be in DD. If the movies aren't widescreen, that'll be a deal breaker for me. If the audio is stereo only, then it'll probably just severely limit which movies I download. I understand that both of those are probably impossible for series 2 units, but I'd hope to see this on series 3 units.

 

Sorry, no clue whatsoever . . . though it seems like we'll have to wait until it's available.

 

I try not to be too picky, but feel I am settleing for less than the best with DD. DTS sounds much better on my system. Unfortunately, when HD-DVD and Bluray came out, movie studios stopped releasing DVDs with DTS. If Amazon's downloads are only in stereo . . . and remain that way (i.e., until after prices drop) I will go back to DTS by adopting one of the new formats.

 

As I stated in my previous post - the movie I downloaded was widescreen.

Jim H.

 

Letterbox or anamorphic? Qualitywise there is a big difference.

 

Anamorphic

 

Just downloaded and watched "The Italian Job" and here are my impressions:

-It took 1 hour and 30 minutes to download at an average of 3MBPS, although my internet connection is 6MBPS.

-Picture is VERY good, as good or better than a good DVD. My monitor is just 21" and it's a 4X3.

-Anamorphic widescreen.

-Can't tell if it's 5.1 or not because my PC only has 2 speakers.

-The unbox video player sucks. Very few settings (only brightness and contrast) but my guess is that they wanted it very simple and user friendly.


Looks very promising and I look forward to use Unbox on my Tivo and my 73" TV.

Sergio

 

I played the video using Windows Media Player and it looks like there is only one audio track, probably stereo.

Just wonder if we never use the Unbox player how can Amazon know that we have already started the 24 hours window?

 

Just noticed this incentive on TiVo

Register for this new broadband service by April 30, 2007 and get $15 in free movies and TV shows.

http://www.tivo.com/4.9.24.asp?WT.ac=HPsubbb_unbox

 

Yep. Just did it! A movie is being downloaded to my S3 right now. I will let you guys know how it goes very soon...


Sergio

 

Some intel on movie rentals:

-We have 30 days to start watching the movie . Some movies (new releases?) must be watched in 24 hours but many movies can be watched during 7 days. I can't understand why such a hurry for the new releases since we are not "keeping" it.

-It's not clear to me if it is possible to rent a movie and download it to 2 PCs. I guess this option is only if we purchase it because only one device can be clicked at a time . I registered 2 PCs and the S3 but I can send the download to just one of them.

It's too late now and it looks that my S3 download will take another hour or two. I will report tomorrow morning.

BTW, I read ALL the FAQs and it looks that there are movies with 5.1 audio.

Sergio

 

I've never seen one which says 7 days, could you give an example?

I was just looking through a few movies its recommending for me, and it looks like there's 2 different encodngs. Its giving a PC file in widescreen (1.78:1) and "TiVO Best Quality" file in 1.33:1. If I'm wathing a movie on my S3 I want a widescreen version, anamorphic preferably, but letterbox will do in a pinch.

 

Now that seems to support what I theorized a few posts above how they are going to handle downloads to S2 Tivo boxes (and probably S3 users will be stuck with the lower quality Tivo mpeg2 format as well in which case it's worthless IMO).

 

Are the 1.33:1 movies letterbox or Pan&Scan? Either way is useless on my Series3/plasma. Just looking for more info from people who have had the $15 credit show on their account.