Testing Amazon Unbox

Leaving the house to buy movies, that is so 1990's. Renting DVD's through the mailis so early 2000's. Today it is all about legally downloading your favorite movies and television shows right to your computer. Itunes has been offering downloadable video content for almost a year now, to great success. Now online retail powerhouse Amazon is getting in on the action with its Amazon Unbox service.

Amazon Unbox allows you to either buy or rent hit movies and TV shows to your computer. The films range from about $14.99 for newer flicks to $9.99 for those less in demand. The price is on par with Itunes and about five dollars less then the price of buying the films on DVD. One of the advantages of Unbox over Itunes is the ability to rent movies for about $3.99. Once downloaded you have 30 days to watch the film, and once you start watching you have 24 hours until the file is automatically erased.

The service delivers as promised. When I tested it recently I was able to download a film in around a half-hour using a cable modem. In order to watch the movie you will need to first download the free Amazon Unbox Video Player which is, unfortunately, only available for Windows compatible PC's. The video quality is acceptable, about on quality with Itunes, but it isn't nearly as impressive as what you can get with a high quality home theater. The biggest problem with the service is that Amazon Unbox keeps you tethered to a box- your computer. You can't burn it to disk and watch it on your television. You can't transfer it to your IPod or IPhone. Unbox is compatible with a number of media players but until it is compatible with Apple's products it will be useless to a large portion of the market.

One advantage Amaxon Unbox does have is through its partnership with TiVo. TiVo users who have their DVR on a home network are able to download movies from Unbox directly to the TiVo. This is the only way you can watch the movies on your television, unless you are able to hook up your computer to your TV screen to use it as a monitor. I rented the film The Illusionist using this feature. The picture quality was good, but again not as good as it would have been on a high end home entertainment system using DVD. Not all the films available on Unbox are capable of being transferred to the TiVo, which means that if you have your heart set on seeing a particular film you may be disappointed. But there is something ingenious about being able to rent a movie at work and have it waiting on the TiVo when you get home. That being said, I can really only recommend renting films using the TiVo and Unbox since buying a film would mean using up some of the precious hard drive space on your DVR.

Overall, Amazon Unbox is a fine delivery system for movie fans who want a legal way to get their digital content. Apple users are, once again, completely shut out from the service. And true cinephiles who enjoy the rich picture and sound quality, along with audio commentaries, found on DVD's will be disappointed in Unbox. When it comes to renting movies it is a great idea and a good service, you never have to worry about things being rented out or getting lost in the mail. But it still doesn't make financial sense to buy movies this way. Yes, it may be saving a few dollars but you are also severely limiting the ways you can view and share the film.