Click to viewThe Amazon Unbox movie download system is now firmly connect up with the TiVo armed service , and if you have a TiVo Series 2 or Series 3 box seat , now you may download Amazon Unbox movies aright into your Now Playing list just as if they were another TV show or movie . We give it a attempt , nose our fashion through its watchword protective covering and DRM ( digital rights management ) and thirstily awaiting the result .
To utilise the Unbox On TiVo serve you must have both an Amazon account and , of course of study , a TiVo report . First you make indisputable your TiVo is enabled for movie downloads at the TiVo internet site , and then go to the Amazon Unbox area , log into your Amazon accounting , and if you register for Unbox on TiVo by April 30 of this year you get $ 15 Charles Frederick Worth of free movies and TV shows . It ’s a scrap of a hurting in the ass making sure you ’re all file and sign up on both the TiVo and Amazon sites , but once that unpleasantness is overcome , that ’s when the playfulness starts .
There ’s a spacious selection of movies from which to take , and some of them you may rend for $ 3.99 , while others must be purchased for the ripoff price of $ 14.99 , but that ’s for a fairly new movie such as Running With Scissors . We determine to first try renting a movie , so we pick out The Illusionist , a $ 3.99 download .
After your first rental , it ’s a delightfully easy one - clink summons , where you just press the “ split now with 1 - click ” push button and then the flick ’s on its way to your Now Playing queue on the TiVo . Incidentally , you do n’t need a TiVo to use the Amazon Unbox service , you could download the special DRM - wooly Unbox player to your PC and follow its movies there .
The site instructs you that your moving picture will start downloading to the TiVo within 15 minutes , and for sure enough , after about 10 minute , a blue light appeared on the front of our TiVo Series 3 HD boxful , one which we ’d never seen before and which apparently intend there is content that ’s download rather than being recorded .
At the same prison term , in the TiVo interface , rather of a red acid next to The Illusionist on the Now playacting leaning , there was a blue Zen . Alas , TiVo would n’t allow me diddle back any of that motion-picture show until it had been completely download .
This is where the DRM comes in , and it ’s a bit teasing . When you hire a flick , it stays on your system for 30 days , but if you click looseness , then the movie will wipe out itself within 24 hours . Damnit , if I ’m bear four clam I would care to select what I ’m doing with this picture show , short of sending it out to the rest of the earthly concern . At least with Netflix I can determine part of the movie now and the other part a week from now with no penalty . Plus , for much less than that $ 4 price I can rent a in high spirits - definition Blu - beam of light or HD DVD movie from Netflix .
Then there ’s the caliber of the movies . It ’s moderately average - course stock definition television , letterboxed but not taking up the full screenland on our 1080p test equipment . We saw raft of compression artefact , and the focus seemed rather piano , but the colors were reasonably saturate and the result was a watchable flick with comme il faut sound . Trouble is , we ’ve been wholly spoiled around here with 1080p HD videodisk movies , and anything less pales by compare .
summarise up , once you get all signed up , this is a unlined mental process that influence well , but we were disappointed in the DRM limitation and the staring want of high-pitched definition choices . Nevertheless , the Amazon Unbox On TiVo service is off to a fair first .
Unbox on TiVo
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