Amazon Unbox

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Amazon Unbox is an Internet video on demand service, only available in the United States, offered by Amazon.com which offers television shows and films for rental and purchase. The service became available on September 7, 2006.[1]

Contents

[edit] Compatibility

The Amazon Unbox player is compatible with the Windows XP family of operating systems and Windows Vista. Downloaded films include a full-resolution video file and a lower-resolution copy for portable devices. The content can be viewed using the Amazon Unbox Video Player, Windows Media Player, a Windows Media Center Extender, a PlaysForSure portable device, or a TiVo DVR. Downloaded videos may be burned to a DVD for storage purposes, but the resulting DVD will not play on a DVD player.

[edit] Video quality

The content is purported by Amazon.com to be of "DVD quality". The average video bit-rate of an Amazon Unbox download equals 2500 kbit/s; this means that a two hour movie consumes roughly two gigabytes (2 GB) of storage space. In comparison, a typical DVD averages 5600 kbit/s, which makes a 2-hour movie about 4.7 GB. However, Amazon uses the VC1 codec, a more modern codec than MPEG-2, which is used on DVDs. VC1 achieves a higher quality picture at a much smaller file size, and arguably allows Amazon to achieve DVD-quality movie downloads.[citation needed]

The quality for the TiVo files is advertised as being 2800 kbit/s and as being "of equal or better quality than videos recorded at the Best Quality setting on a TiVo Series2 DVR." [2]

Due to the large size of the files being downloaded, the service requires a broadband internet connection capable of sustaining transfer speeds of 800 kbit/s. A 2-hour movie may take 7 hours and 20 minutes to download using a 750 kbit/s DSL/cable connection or 1 hour and 50 minutes with a 3.0 Mbit/s DSL/cable connection. Amazon asserts that for customers with an internet connection of 3 Mbit/s or more, any Unbox file will start playing within 5 minutes. In November 2007, TiVo enabled "progressive download" for Unbox content so that users may watch downloaded files before the download is complete.

[edit] Requirements

For display on a computer or transfer to portable device, the service requires the installation of a client application which manages playback and the transfer of video to portable devices that bear the Microsoft PlaysForSure certification, such as the Creative Zen or a Portable Media Center.

For use with a TiVo DVR, no client application is needed. The user only needs a broadband enabled (and connected) Series2 or Series3 DVR. DirecTiVo DVRs are not supported.

[edit] Points of Differentiation

  • RemoteLoad allows customers to download to any Unbox-registered PC or TiVo from any Internet-connected computer. For example, a user can purchase an Unbox video from a work computer and request that it be downloaded on a home computer or TiVo DVR.[3]
  • Your Media Library allows people to delete most large video files from their local hard drive when finished and store them in Amazon's Media Library for later redownload. This allows people to download more movies than their hard drive could otherwise store, and it provides a backup in case of hard drive failure.[3]
  • Unbox on TiVo allows customers to send content directly to their DVR.[2]
  • As of April 7, 2007, Unbox offers over 1,200 movies to purchase[4] compared with 513 on the iTunes Store.[5]
  • Many Unbox videos are also available for rental for $.99 to $3.99. Rented movies must be viewed within the first 30 days after purchase, and they may only be viewed within 24 hours of the first time the user presses Play.[3]
  • In addition to shows from mainstream networks (CBS, NBC and FOX), Unbox sells television series from the BBC, MTV, BRAVO and the Korean Broadcasting System (KBS). Unbox also sells more obscure television series such as Giant Robo (also known as Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot), a 1960s Japanese television show popular in the US in the early 1970s.
  • Beginning with the Fall 2007 season, Amazon Unbox will be the exclusive provider of NBC content - replacing iTunes as the delivery mechanism for these shows.

[edit] Criticism

Unbox movies will only play in desktop applications that support Windows Media DRM, of which none exist for Mac OS X and Linux. Mac and Linux users can still order movies to be loaded onto a TiVo device.[3]

In the first version of Unbox, a background service would launch itself upon system startup to call home and look for videos to download. This automatic behavior, which could not be disabled without uninstalling the Unbox application, drew negative reviews for its implicit permission to run arbitrary code as designated by Amazon.com personnel. [6] In an upgrade released shortly after launch, thought to be a response to these criticisms,[7] Amazon made "launch on startup" optional, though disabling it also by necessity disables the RemoteLoad feature. When active, Unbox's background service periodically phones home to see if there are any new videos to download. This is confirmed in the video player's license agreement. Also, the program will attempt to contact the Amazon server upon uninstall.

The download speeds shortly after the release were very poor, probably because the servers were overwhelmed by initial demand.[8]

Unbox only supports portable devices that support the Microsoft PlaysForSure format, thereby excluding devices such as the iPod and Zune.

Rented Unbox movies cannot be transferred to a portable device. They can only be viewed on the device to which they are downloaded.

Unbox content downloaded to a TiVo can play in mid-download only on Series3 TiVo devices and the TiVo HD DVR. On other devices, a video file must download completely before it can be played. [2]

[edit] Related Links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Amazon Press Release March 7, 2007
  2. ^ a b c Amazon Unbox on TiVo
  3. ^ a b c d Amazon Unbox™ Video Frequently Asked Questions
  4. ^ List of Unbox movie downloads available for purchase
  5. ^ List of iTunes movie downloads available for purchase. Link requires iTunes to be installed.
  6. ^ Merritt, Tom. "My fight with Amazon Unbox." Alpha: The CNET Blog, 8 September 2006. Accessed at [1] on 7 April 2007.
  7. ^ Ouchi, Monica Soto. "Amazon listens to Unbox beefs." The Seattle Times, 27 September 2006. Accessed at [2] on 7 April 2007.
  8. ^ Kramer, Staci D. "Amazon Unbox Update: Download Times, Etc." paidContent.org, 8 September 2006. Accessed at [3] on 7 April 2007.

[edit] External links

[edit] Official Site

[edit] Reviews

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Amazon.com
PeopleJeff Bezos • Tom Szkutak • Brian Valentine • Werner Vogels
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Annual Revenue: Image:Green Arrow Up Darker.svg$10.71 billion USD (2006) • Employees: 13,900 (2006) • Stock Symbol: NASDAQ AMZN
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