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September 22, 2006

Will Tivo box the Amazon Unbox?

Marshall Kirkpatrick

18 comments »

Amazon is reportedly in talks with Tivo to enable movies downloaded from the Amazon Unbox service to be sent to TV sets via the Tivo. Strangely, stock prices for both companies took a quick leap this morning before quickly losing gains again within an hour. Perhaps after the initial enthusiasm the reality set in that Unbox is widely seen as a technical disaster.

Amazon Unbox does provide a DVD quality file with each download that can be burned to a DVD as backup but cannot be watched with a DVD player. For more details on Unbox, see our coverage of its launch.

Apple announced its own set top box called iTV at the “Showtime” event. Rumor has it that the company is in talks with Google to, among many things that are possible, allow videos from Google Video to be played on the iTV.

Ultimately it’s probably all a matter of DRM, as any of these files ought to be viewable on any of the set top devices coming to market. Just as the movie studios make DRM demands on the download services, the download services then share their DRM carefully with device makers. You can only imagine how much further along this industry could be if it weren’t tangled up in such matters. Perhaps everyone would be broke and movies would be free, though, it’s hard to say.

Thanks to Steve Poland for the tip.

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This entry was posted on Friday, September 22nd, 2006 at 10:04 am and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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Comments

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  1. Bryan

    September 22nd, 2006 at 10:21 am

    Sounds like the right idea, but maybe Amazon is the wrong partner. Their DRM is terrible. If I have more than one TiVo .. they will probably not let me watch it on all of them.

    Bleh.. I like my TimeWarner On Demand (including HBO, Cinimax, Starz, Showtime, etc.. all on demand) anyway … it usually has all the latest releases as well as a ton of older movies .. and I can watch it as many times as i want and on any digital cable box on my house.

  2. kaiju

    September 22nd, 2006 at 10:46 am

    I’ll stay with Netflix.

  3. SD_Chris

    September 22nd, 2006 at 11:17 am

    So many roadblocks to overcome. DVDs are still the way to go!

  4. Scott

    September 22nd, 2006 at 11:19 am

    If you haven’t read BoingBoing’s excellent breakdown of Amazon’s Unbox TOS, “Amazon Unbox to customers: Eat shit and die,” give it a scan & see just how horrible it is:

    http://www.boingboing.net/2006....._cust.html

    …and I agree with kaiju: I’ll stick with Netflix.

  5. pwb

    September 22nd, 2006 at 11:39 am

    I’m surprised Bezos and Jobs couldn’t figure out an Amazon iTunes arrangement.

  6. NeoTechie

    September 22nd, 2006 at 11:50 am

    If these two companies were to work together, then they would position themselves to acquire more wealth form us. Some of the most creative ideas were derived from smart individuals [ever heard of a small company called Google ? :)] and companies collaborating.

    Web 2.0 is stresses collective intelligence.

  7. Cara

    September 22nd, 2006 at 12:25 pm

    I think it will be interesting to see what happens if the two decided to collaborate. Either way I will be fine with the outcome. I am a Tivo fan.

  8. Adam

    September 22nd, 2006 at 12:34 pm

    “I’m surprised Bezos and Jobs couldn’t figure out an Amazon iTunes arrangement.”

    Apple doesnt need amazon. They rule the media download world.

  9. Bill G

    September 22nd, 2006 at 12:51 pm

    Presumably this would only be technically feasible on broadband connected TiVo’s.

    Is large file downloading possible on DirectTiVo’s, which are a huge number of the TiVo installed base? I don’t know, I have never had one.

    If it’s limited to only non-DirectTV broadband connected units, that’s not a very big number of potential customers.

  10. Ed

    September 22nd, 2006 at 1:04 pm

    I had mentioned before that the Google-Apple arrangement is more than just studio movies. It’s also about indies and amateurs. I could see scenarios such as:

    - Wedding videographers uploading and selling their videos
    - Families sharing their videos
    - Teens sharing videos or collaborating in the creation
    - Dating service videos

    Apple made podcasting subscription easier and exposed it to folks who were aware of it. Google currently takes a 30% cut from professional videos sold through them. So Google have the infrastructure for the indies and amateurs established. Apple brings in the consumer hardware and the studios. Interesting to see how it will all play out.

  11. Patricia

    September 22nd, 2006 at 2:43 pm

    hooray! this is music to my ears! :)

  12. Chris

    September 22nd, 2006 at 10:45 pm

    As a big fan of both Tivo and Amazon I would definately use this service if it was offered.

  13. What is DRM?

    November 12th, 2006 at 3:03 pm

    About the DRM in the Tivo, noboby cares right now. The entertainment industry has no interest in informing consumers about DRM. Only when iTunes users upgrade to Vista and discover that they’re music can’t come with them will public awareness be aroused.

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