Amazon Unbox

Along with similar services like Vongo, Amazon's new unbox promises to deliver a direct video experience that'll do away with rentals from the likes of Blockbuster, Family Video, and even Netflix. With an online service like this, a few factors are of direct importance. The quality of the videos available, the selection, the price, and the ease of use are all important in deciding whether or not to use the service.

The videos are available in the typical quality of internet video; that is to say that the videos found here are of similar clarity to those found on Itunes and vongo.com. It's more than good enough for watching on a computer monitor screen, although the software doesn't allow the user to see the video on a television screen. That said, just being par for the course isn't really enough anymore. As such, calling the video quality sufficient shouldn't really be a draw for subscribing to the unbox service; it just shouldn't dissuade you from doing so.

The selection offered by unbox is definitely up to snuff, as well. In addition to recently-released dvd movies, several TV shows also have downloadable episodes available on unbox. From newer shows which are currently running, to older shoes whose primes have passed, unbox's selection is up there. This is largely due to its connection to the Itunes store, which features many new releases on a weekly basis; releases which are shared with unbox.

The pricing of the videos on unbox is really hit-or-miss. Some are priced well below the dvds, with movies placed under 10 dollars. However, some Amazon unbox editions of movies are actually significantly more expensive than their physical dvd counterparts. A prospective buyer really doesn't know what they'll get while looking for a desired movie.

The ease of use is where unbox really crashes. A subscription begins with an offer for a free video, which certainly helps to entice future users. The free offer is worth about two bucks, good for an episode of a TV show. To start using the service, Amazon asks you to download its own video player. Most people would rather play it on windows media player, or some other video player, but this hurdle's understandable. Upon downloading the program, however, the problems start. Amazon promises speedy downloads and a simple, lightweight piece of software. While attempting to download a movie on my 5 megabit cable connection, however, I was faced with a 5 hour wait time. This can all be placed squarely on the shoulders of Amazon's servers, which, as of launch, are heavily congested. The second claim made by Amazon, that the software is lightweight and easy to use? That's incredibly false. Amazon delivers a bulky piece of software which has to be used to play its videos. So, one of the main things that a video downloader would want from a service like unbox, the ability to transfer videos to a DVD player and play them there, isn't possible. As if that wasn't enough, unbox only allows for viewing on certain types of mp3 players, those approved by Microsoft as "plays for sure" mp3 players. That in mind, it's fairly obvious which player isn't included: the most popular of all mp3 players, the Apple iPod. Even the features of the video player which one would think absolutely have to work, like the rewind, fast forward, and scene skip features, are broken. None of them work at all in the current version, a really big disappointment from a company like Amazon.

Unbox has a lot of potential. With the sheer size of their video library and the dollars that Amazon has backing the service, it could really go places. Right now, however, there are better services around to perform the same function. I'd suggest avoiding unbox for the time being, but to keep a very close eye on it, as it could be going places.