Unbox to begin progressive play mode....

they would have to change somewhat the file format/DRM to allow immediate playback of a partial download. I hope they can do that but it will take some work to pull off.

 

immediate viewing of unbox movies is greatly needed in order to compete with PPV and VOD.

 

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I've used unbox about half a dozen times. Not a novelty to me.

 

I've used unbox about a half dozen times also, and still consider it a novelty. When HD is available it will become an integrated part of viewing.

 

Good news. I have bought the $0.99 specials every week since I found out about them, and apart from the quality issues I had with a couple of movies (mentioned in another thread), the waiting for the download is to me the biggest drawback. If they fix that, I'll be very happy.

 

For .99 cents, it works great. I like how I get the .99 cent emails in the morning. I can pick one to download and then watch it later that night, after work.

 

HD and a bit more time than 24 hours for a rental.

 

HD will improve it but unbox it is a long way from a simple novelty. Immediate playback will really bring it closer to PPV/VOD with far a better selection available. I see this as a really big step forward that is likely to bring more revenue to Amazon than HD will. They seem to be making sensible rather than fashionable choices.

IMHO the ability to watch down-loadable content directly on my TV makes it a usable service. The offerings that limit you to a PC are really the novelty.

 

I regularly rent the 99-cent specials - even if I don't get around to watching (which has happened a couple of times) - it is a buck, big deal. But I also have used to to rent movies I missed in the theater and that sounded interesting.

Sure, if there were an HD option I'd use it, but for now it is OK.

 

My use will be low, if even existant, until they increase the rental/watch window from 24 to at least 48 hours......

 

I do use UNBOX - those 99cent specials are awesome.
But I also agree that 24 hour window is the number one drawback for me. Still just dabbling in HD myself so SD is not a big issue since UNBOX gets better and better at downrezzing for a good SD picture.

anyway - the content provider is responsible for this setting and both UNBOX and TiVo can only follow what the content providers prescribe.

Hopefully at some point the content providers can grasp that a rental download is different from a PPV/VOD even with progressive download and open that window up to 48 or 72 hours.

 

Did they specifically say for TiVo? If not I'd vote that comes to PC's WAY WAY WAY before tivo's

Search for tivo stephens posts- if i recall there is a limitation of the current tivo download protocol that it can not decrypt downloaded content until the entire file is downloaded.

So tivo would need to redo their whole download system to do such a thing.

 

5.1 audio would be close to the top of my list. Suprised it has not been mentioned yet.

 

I would hope they toss that in when they start doing HD...

 

Yes - in fact this news came from *TiVo*, not Amazon. *TiVo* announced progressive downloads are coming.

 

cool!

thanks

I wasn't clear who said what since the title just said unbox.

 

Closed captions please!

 

Me three...