Let’s cut right to the chase… is Amazon’s Unbox Video service a good deal?
It is, and it isn’t, depending on how you use it.
Unbox allows customers (those running Windows, at least), to either rent or purchase digital content, which is downloaded to their computer and watched on the computer, transfered to a variety of supported handheld video devices, or else (via some audio and video jacks), watched on television. There are currently a fairly decent number of movies available for purchase and rent. Purchasing a movie typically costs between $9.99 and $14.99, although some are more expensive, while renting a movie typically costs $3.99 or less.
There are also television shows available for purchase. Individual episodes generally cost $1.99, and entire seasons are available for purchase as well, with cost varying depending on the number of episodes.
How does Unbox work? First you’ll need an Amazon.com account, and then you’ll download the Unbox software, which acts as a downloader, player and a conduit into the store. Amazon wants to set you up with a One-Click account, so purchasing or renting a title is as simple as single-clicking, so if you see what you want you can purchase new content right from within the Unbox player.
Movie files are typically DVD quality, meaning the picture size is roughly 720 pixels across, while the height depends on whether the movie is widescreen (common) or pan-and-scan (uncommon). For those interested, the bitrate for the movie I downloaded (“Shooter,” which was on sale… more on that in a moment), tended to hover around 2500 Kb/s, which means it’s slightly less than a store-purchased DVD, but the more efficient WMV codec being used meant that I honestly couldn’t tell the difference between the downloaded video and the DVD used for comparison.
And that’s another point that needs to be made: these files are not small, not in the least bit. The video file for “Shooter” that I downloaded ended up being roughly 2.37 GB, as a matter of fact, and with my broadband cable access took between 40-60 minutes (I forgot to pay attention to when it actually finished). Judging by the length of the movie and size of a file, a typical 30-minute sitcom would likely be around 400 MB, while a 60-minute drama would top 1 GB. Obviously, this is nothing you’d want to attempt on a dial-up connection!
Once the file was downloaded, and actually far before it was finished, the Unbox player allows you to start watching the movie. I didn’t notice any stuttering or jitters at all, and certainly nothing that could be attributed to the fact that the movie was still downloading. Sound and video quality were excellent (as I said, I really couldn’t tell the difference between the downloaded file and the actual DVD), and about the only thing I can think of to complain about (as far as the content goes), was that there are no chapter markings. Because of this, the only way to move forward or backward through the movie with any kind of speed was to grab the progress marker and drag it forward or backward. Not the most convenient thing to do if you’re not sitting at the computer desk. In addition, the Unbox Player doesn’t remember where I am in the movie, so if I have to stop for an hour or so, I have to find my spot. Not a deal-breaker, but more than a little aggravating.
Although in truth, if you’re watching a rental, you’d best be prepared to get it finished, or risk losing access to it. When renting a movie from Unbox, you are given a full 30 days to view the movie, which of course sounds great. I can hear some of you going “huh… I could watch a movie a lot of times during a month!
No you can’t.
The way Unbox is set up is that you have 30 days from the day of purchase to watch the movie, but once you start watching it, you must finish within 24 hours. So unlike renting from Blockbuster or the corner store, where you might be able to keep a movie for up to a week (and watch it as often as possible during that time), with Unbox you need to plan your viewing very carefully. I managed to get my rental watched in the alotted time, but making sure I had the time set aside was definitely something I thought about. Still, if I hadn’t thought I’d have time, I wouldn’t have started, knowing that I have a full month to use my rental.
With purchased content, whether it be a sporting event, a television show or movie, Unbox works like you’d expect. You download it, and with some stipulations, it’s yours. You can transfer it to another computer (it can be on up to two different machines at a time), or a portable device (again, up to two at a time). You can’t burn the movie to disc, unfortunately Well, you can burn the file to back it up, but not to DVD Video, so any watching really does need to happen on your computer, a portable device or, sure, on your television, assuming you have the right cables.
All in all, Unbox seems to be fairly nice. I have absolutely no complaints about the quality of the videos or the prices. I highly doubt I would ever want to purchase a movie via Unbox – the fairly cheap prices and close to immediate availability don’t offset the lack of choices I have in viewing), but for rentals, I think Unbox is a fairly good deal. Especially on weekends. I’m new to Unbox, but have seen mentioned that on weekends, Unbox often offers certain movies for rent for really low prices, and I can confirm at least the second part of that. “Shooter,” the movie I rented, only cost me 99 cents, and at that price it was a very good deal. So, pick your spots with Unbox. I don’t think Unbox will ever take the place of an all-you-can-view service like Netflix or Blockbuster Online, or the less strict policies of a corner video store, but in the right instance, Unbox can be quite a good deal.
