[drosoph]

I have a 3 & 5 yr old and they started watching "Cats & Dogs" Wed night after I got home from work. But, we didnt finish it before they had to get ready for bed. So, I started it up when I got home from work last night. Sure enough ... about 20 minutes in it hit the 24 hour mark and "EPISODE DELETED"

TALK ABOUT TWO TICKED OFF LITTLE TYKES !

Basically, it its a over 1.5 hours or if I do ANYTHING other than watch TV with my kids at night, we will never be able to watch a rented movie from Unbox together because it will delete before they get a chance to finish it the next night ...

1) Don't delete while I'm actively playing a show ... especially in a part I haven't seen before.
2) Extend to 48 hours PLEASE !!!!

We quickly switched to Curious George (which i hate) and that HELPED but it was not a pretty site and "Daddy deleted our show, Mommy!"

I felt so bad

 

[BlackBetty]

I agree. 24hrs is way to short of a period. It needs to be at least 48 hours.

 

[TiVoStephen]

drosoph, sorry to hear about the near fatality.

Thanks for the feedback, but please be sure to contact Warner Brothers (the studio releasing Cats and Dogs), since these restrictions come from the studios, and we are obliged to obey the terms of their license. They unfortunately make no exception for situations involving children, being in the middle of playing an unseen portion, or anything else. The rule we (Amazon and TiVo) are legally obligated to uphold is 24 hours from the moment you start playback.

While I personally would also prefer to see 48 hours, you won't find any online video rentals offering a 48 hour term. The sole available offering from the studios is 24 hours, so that's all we're able to offer.

My apologies again.

Best regards,
Stephen

P.S. My son loves Curious George too.

 

[ZeoTiVo]

Good ole TiVo informs me that Cats and Dogs will be one Wed 9/12 12:00PM on USA network.

Not quite the Movie with no commercials but it is a partial save.

 

[TiVotion]

As a general question, what is the studio's logic behind the 24 hour window?

 

[nhaigh]

I agree the 24hr rule is too short, even 36 would be an improvement because it would give you two evenings to get through the film.

That said, everyone is complaining about this on unbox but the same rule apply all over the place, on VOD, PPV, other downloadable services. I agree with Steven - E-mail the studio's. Perhaps Steven could provide us with the best E-mail address to use that would have the most impact (or at least get read).

 

[Solver]

Seems strange that everyone else is also doing this 24 hour movie view window. What I'd like to know is if I were the network studio head and I wanted to be competitive and allow people to start and view my movies within, say, a 36 hour window, could TiVo' service easily accommodate that? Or would the only option near the one I would want be the 24 hour one? And, if that is so, whose decision is that?

 

[jfh3]

Why are the studios so slow to learn?

"VHS rentals will kill our business"
"DVD sales will kill our business"
"More than a 24 hour viewing period will kill our business"

Note to studio finance types ... I'll use UnBox A LOT more when you start offering at least a 36 hour viewing window (prefer 48).

 

[jfh3]

Seems strange that everyone else is also doing this 24 hour movie view window. What I'd like to know is if I were the network studio head and I wanted to be competitive and allow people to start and view my movies within, say, a 36 hour window, could TiVo' service easily accommodate that? Or would the only option near the one I would want be the 24 hour one? And, if that is so, whose decision is that?

I'm sure Tivo could handle that easily. I presume the logic is handled at the local box and it would be a small update to change 24 to 36 or whatever.

 

[TiVoStephen]

We've already built the system to handle anything the studios want to allow.

 

[Phantom Gremlin]

Why are the studios so slow to learn?

"VHS rentals will kill our business"
"DVD sales will kill our business"
"More than a 24 hour viewing period will kill our business"

Note to studio finance types ... I'll use UnBox A LOT more when you start offering at least a 36 hour viewing window (prefer 48).

Why not a 7 day rental? Do they seriously expect someone to rent the movie twice in one week?

There's no way I'll ever use unbox until they increase the 24 hour window.

Vote with your wallets. Learn your lesson. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, ...
(thank you Star Trek for this nugget of wisdom!)

 

[andyw715]

"you won't find any online video rentals offering a 48 hour term. "

sounds like a great marketing edge to me, to have such terms

 

[mportuesi]

The simple solution to this problem is to stop buying/renting movies from Amazon (and anywhere else with restrictive policies) until the studios get a clue and offer consumer-friendly terms.

 

[yunlin12]

Agree 100%, don't pay for what you think is unfair. I generally don't buy any TV episode for $2 per, or pay ~$40 for a season. I can own the DVD for the same price. Those 99 cents rentals, they are a whole different story. I like 'em very much

 

[Jstkiddn]

Why not a 7 day rental? Do they seriously expect someone to rent the movie twice in one week?

Even my local movie store has 5 day rentals for all movies....even new releases. And even with that many days, sometimes I don't get them watched.

24 hours is ridiculous. If I knew exactly who to contact at which studio I certainly would voice my opinion.

I looooove the convenience of the Unbox rentals, but I've even passed on some of the 99 cent deals due to the 24 hour rule. I knew it would be a waste of 99 cents because I wouldn't be able to watch the entire movie within that time frame.

 

[terpfan1980]

24 hours is ridiculous. If I knew exactly who to contact at which studio I certainly would voice my opinion.

It would definitely help if the folks at TiVo could pass along some contact points (if they have) for us all to write to and lobby for better terms here.

I'm firmly in the camp of you all aren't getting my money if the terms aren't friendly enough for my needs, and 24 hours is definitely not friendly enough. It has kept me from renting movies on the Xbox 360, and from doing pay-per-views on DirecTV. There's a darned good reason (reflected in comments above) that Blockbuster.com and Netflix.com, as well as Gamefly.com, Gamerang.com and Gameznflix.com get the business that they do -- unlimited rentals without late fees. Keep paying the monthly fees and watch as much as you can turn over in the course of the month. If you can only watch 2 titles, you only get to blame yourself. Watch 20, congrats to you. But either way you watch at your convenience once the movie (or game you want to play) is in hand.

I think it's great that TiVo offers the Unbox service, but there definitely needs to be more friendliness for customers. If it takes lobbying the content rights holders, then please give us a nudge in the right direction on where to contact and watch the letters start piling up on people's desks (or in the e-mail inboxes).

 

[dswallow]

We've already built the system to handle anything the studios want to allow.

That's baloney Stephen, and you know it!

There's no camera in the TiVo to identify how many people are watching the download so that charges can be multiplied accordingly.

Right? There is no camera, right?

 

[MickeS]

The simple solution to this problem is to stop buying/renting movies from Amazon (and anywhere else with restrictive policies) until the studios get a clue and offer consumer-friendly terms.

Studio head's conclusion: "Look, nobody's renting our 24-hour rentals. They must not like to download movies. Let's shut down the online rental business altogether. Oh, and does anyone know why pirated movies are flourishing? I just don't get it!"

 

[terpfan1980]

Studio head's conclusion: "Look, nobody's renting our 24-hour rentals. They must not like to download movies. Let's shut down the online rental business altogether. Oh, and does anyone know why pirated movies are flourishing? I just don't get it!"

There's more than a grain of truth in those comments.

Sony just shut down their online music service (or will be shutting it down) and I'm guessing they are sitting around thinking similar thoughts about the lack of a market for their products.

It isn't that there is no market, it's that the market doesn't want the restrictions, DRM, and and other b.s. that the studios keep trying to push on customers. Customers want to download content and be able to use with little or no restrictions. Studios want money each and every time a product is used. Somewhere in between is a happy medium, if the studios will cooperate a bit.

 

[taronga]

I'd particularly like to have an appropriate contact address for BBC America. I'm a big fan of British TV, but Unbox's BBC titles are all PC-only. They cannot be downloaded to Tivos.