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Topic: Amazon's Unbox (Read 3582 times)
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Trippy
Administrator
Posts: 23657
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Has anyone checked this out yet? It's a downloadable movie service from Amazon... Each movie comes with a "DVD-quality" version for your computer and then a portable version, for your portable players... Interesting. Kinda want to check it out, but I think I'll wait until someone else can report on the quality of the video, etc...
I haven't tried it myself but from reading the FAQ the files are in WMV format and DRM'd and played through a special Amazon video player. It's not clear if you can use a regular WMV player that supports DRM like WMP to view them. They are encoded at about half the normal DVD bitrate but given that WMV9 (assuming that's what they are using) is a much more efficient format than MPEG-2 the quality should be very good, but of course you are lossily recompressioning already lossily compressed material so it won't be as good as the source DVD. Given that the pricing on movies is about the same as the DVD versions and you are presumably missing all the DVD extras and you can't burn a DVD with the movie to watch it through your DVD player unless you hack the DRM I'm not sure I understand what the point of buying the movie downloads is unless there are really that many impatient people for whom even Amazon Prime (unlimited 2 day shipping) is too slow. TV shows, I can understand, since it can take a while for the boxed set to come out, if ever. Also "Unbox" is a really really stupid name. |
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Murgos
Terracotta Army
Posts: 7474
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I suddenly have this intense craving for guacaMOLE...
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"You have all recieved youre last warning. I am in the process of currently tracking all of youre ips and pinging your home adressess. you should not have commencemed a war with me" - Aaron Rayburn
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Der Helm
Terracotta Army
Posts: 4025
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"I've been done enough around here..."- Signe
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Krakrok
Terracotta Army
Posts: 2190
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Yeah I'm thinking there is some guerilla marketing going on as the article Slashdot posted on the subject was similar (DRM and 'Cool!').
Want to know my take on it? I knew you did.
How does fucking stupid sound? Why would I want to pay $1.99 for 1 episode of something when I can rent the DVD from Netflix which usually contains 2-3 episodes and only costs ~$1? Additionally, I don't have to download a gigabyte worth of DRM shit and if I want to time shift the rental I can just rip the DVD. Not to mention that if I bought the DVD of some of that season crap (Macgyver for example) I'd only pay $1.45 per episode (or less if I bought a used DVD) instead of their download of $1.99.
Here's a movie linked off it's main page 'Rumor Has It (2005)'. They want to charge $14.99 to download the DRMed piece of shit OR you can rent the same movie from them for $3.99 (and still have to download it) OR you can buy the DVD from them for $14.99. Again, what the fuck? You can rent the same movie from Netflix for ~$1. And why would you buy their digital download when for the same price you can buy the DVD? If I buy the DVD you should give me the fucking download FOR FREE.
Maybe Amazon can patent "Shitty Download Service" as their next 1-Click patent.
I feel dirty for even having replied in this thread as it bumped the thread.
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tdean001
Terracotta Army
Posts: 13
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Hey man... I'm no marketer, just a insomniac who saw it posted somewhere else and thought I'd get your opinions about the service. Geesh  |
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HaemishM
Staff Emeritus
Posts: 42666
the Confederate flag underneath the stone in my class ring
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If the DRM is so draconian as to not allow me to burn a copy of the thing on DVD, it's just not really worth it no matter the cost. I'd rather just buy the DVD.
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tdean001
Terracotta Army
Posts: 13
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Yeah, that was my wife's first question - Can you burn it onto a DVD?
Seems kinda lame that they wouldn't provide that functionality. Who wants to watch a movie (really) on a small screen when you could enjoy it on your sofa...
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Righ
Terracotta Army
Posts: 6542
Teaching the world Google-fu one broken dream at a time.
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I don't suppose it will matter that they got it out a week before Apple. I'm sure Jobs isn't pleased, but he's probably got a bit more than a handful of DRM'd titles up his sleeve. The "Showtime" announcement will probably involve new media player devices. Plus the whole Pixar/Disney thing. It's probably reasonable to be bullish about Apple stock. It's still all DRM infected crap. Go download some legal DRM-free FLAC music from Burning Shed, Mindawn or Bleep. |
The camera adds a thousand barrels. - Steven Colbert
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Trippy
Administrator
Posts: 23657
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How does fucking stupid sound? Why would I want to pay $1.99 for 1 episode of something when I can rent the DVD from Netflix which usually contains 2-3 episodes and only costs ~$1? Additionally, I don't have to download a gigabyte worth of DRM shit and if I want to time shift the rental I can just rip the DVD. Not to mention that if I bought the DVD of some of that season crap (Macgyver for example) I'd only pay $1.45 per episode (or less if I bought a used DVD) instead of their download of $1.99.
The hundreds of thousands if not millions of people who have download TV shows off of iTunes disagree with you. I'm not sure what the latest figure is for videos sold through iTunes (which is mostly TV shows but does include things like music videos) but three months after launch they had already sold 8 million of them and we're coming up on the one year anniversary which is in October. Yes $1.99 per episode is somewhat more expensive (though not always) if you compare it to the boxed set. However you can get the episode one day after it airs rather than having to wait months and months for the DVDs to come out and in our culture of instant gratification that's really important. Also, at least through iTunes, they now have a season pass feature where you can get them at a discount if you subscribe to the entire season. Seems kinda lame that they wouldn't provide that functionality. Who wants to watch a movie (really) on a small screen when you could enjoy it on your sofa...
There are people with HTPC setups <insert Sky's PlanetSide image here> but they are still relatively rare. As for not providing that feature I'm sure the movie studios wouldn't allow it. It'll be interesting to see if Steve Jobs was able to convince the movie studios to allow it for Apple's upcoming movie downloads. |
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Righ
Terracotta Army
Posts: 6542
Teaching the world Google-fu one broken dream at a time.
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The camera adds a thousand barrels. - Steven Colbert
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Krakrok
Terracotta Army
Posts: 2190
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The hundreds of thousands if not millions of people who have download TV shows off of iTunes disagree with you. Yes $1.99 per episode is somewhat more expensive (though not always) if you compare it to the boxed set.
Apple users are use to paying more for less. I, however, am not. |
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Trippy
Administrator
Posts: 23657
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« Last Edit: September 09, 2006, 05:07:05 PM by Trippy »
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Morfiend
Terracotta Army
Posts: 6009
wants a greif tittle
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I read some thing about Unbox this morning, about how it is constantly trying to connect to the internet, and some other bad crap. Also.... is typing.... like this... a new form... of moleish vernacular?
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bhodi
Moderator
Posts: 6817
No lie.
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This is a great breakdown of the terms of service. I'll give a few good quotes here but there's much, much more in the article: I once attended a DRM negotiation where an MPAA vice-president said, "Watching a show that's being received in one room while you're sitting in another room has value, and if it has value, we should be able to charge money for it." Siva Vaidhyanathan calls this the "if value, then right" theory -- if something has value, someone must have a right to sell it.
Amazon says it respects your privacy, but this clause tells the real story. Click "I agree" and you've just signed away permission for Amazon to wiretap all of your viewing habits, and to search your entire hard drive continuously and report back on all the software you've installed. The entertainment industry can produce a blacklist of legal software that it just doesn't care for -- say, software that lets you take screenshots, or screen-movies -- and refuse to allow your movies to run if you've installed it. In other words, this clause lets Hollywood specify how you must configure your PC.
If Amazon sells you a DVD but it never arrives in the mail, Amazon gives you a full refund. But if you buy an Unbox movie and your download fails, Amazon has no obligation to get you that flick. Naturally, replacing your Unbox movies costs nothing, while shipping you a replacement DVD costs quite a lot.
We will put commercials on your computer without your permission. But you can't keep the good ones.
We call it "purchased content," but you don't own it.
If you move, or if you travel, we'll take your movies away.
It's a "Sale" but you haven't bought it -- you've only licensed it.
If we think you've done something naughty, we can take away all the movies you've bought, without appeal. Better not do anything we think is naughty. What do we consider naughty? We're not telling.
We can change the terms of this deal at any time. Today you can play it on two portable players -- maybe it'll be zero tomorrow. Today you can only watch these movies in the US, tomorrow, maybe only west of the Mississippi.
Even if you're not doing something naughty, we can take away the movies we "sold" you. Link (Thanks, Xeni!)
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