Amazon Unbox and Tivo

[astolat]

So just recently, Amazon Unbox got hooked up to Tivo. If you have a Series 2 or Series 3 Tivo on a broadband internet connection, you can buy videos through Amazon Unbox and save them directly to the Tivo. (If you sign up for this now, you'll get a $15 credit free to use on videos.)

You do NOT need to install the crappy Amazon Unbox software on

Comments

[shezan]

I would like to direct you to this post, especially the article it quotes.

Won't you still be loading spyware and paying money for something you can't keep and can't watch repeatedly, or will doing it throught the TiVo avoid this? Won 't the TiVo turn into a spy, checking verything that runs through it?

[astolat]

The short answer is no, you do not have to install the Unbox software on your system. Tivo already monitors a lot about your viewing, that's where Tivo suggestions come from, and Amazon ditto about your purchases, that's where recommendations come from. If you don't like that, you probably don't want to be using either Tivo or Amazon, period.

[morgandawn]

I may have posted about the Amaxon Unbox decryption a few months back - I test downloaded a free copy of City on the Edge of Forever and used something called FairUse4WM. It converted the wmv file I had bought so I could make a backup in case my PC died. Yeah. But it was still a WMV file (not too good for the vidding). Also, Microsoft has updated Windows media Player so the description software does not work (there is a rollback fix that sometimes fixes this - but not if you upgrade to Vista). A lengthy thread is here: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=114916

of course with TIVO in the mix - what file format is downloaded?

[astolat]

I don't actually know the format -- I assume, actually, that it's downloaded in Tivo's proprietary format, which I vaguely remember once learning is MPEG-2 based, but in some kind of special wrapper? Not sure. And yeah, I've heard the same thing about faireuse4wm, but to get the files onto my computer, I'd have to install Amazon Unbox, and I am reluctant.

[astolat]

And I revise, because I couldn't resist trying, and so I did in fact install the unbox software, and fairuse4wm 1.3 decrypted it just fine. The resulting unlocked WMV file could be played in Windows Media Player 10 and could also be imported into Adobe Premeire Pro 2.0 and used for vidding directly -- note that only the most recent versions of Premiere support WMV files for editing.

[morgandawn]

thank you for checking/testing this. The Mac vidder in me is sad..... but yeah for us all.

note to the rest of the world - so far fairuse4wm works best with Windows Player 10 - the Doom bulletin board suggests you do *not* migrate to WPM 11 - it is unclear whether the developer will be able to release a Vista or WMP 11 compatible version (given the high visibility he now 'enjoys').

I guess this is my long winded way of saying: it took someone 4 years to come up with a way to decrypt Microsoft DRM - and we only have one version that may (or may not) be updated. Buying TIVO shows if your primary goal is to vid may not be cost efficient. But for ease of watching your shows? Yes.

PS. I feel so lame and clueless. You said earlier that the TIVO files (without Unbox) was in a DRM MPEG2 wrapper. Is there any other way to get those TIVO files off the TIVO and decrypted that does not rely on Msoft DRM decryption?

[franzeska]

Is the amazon quality higher than the iTunes quality? I have a Mac and no Tivo, so I just went with iTunes, but the pictures are a bit grainy-looking on fullscreen mode.

[astolat]

I haven't ever tried iTunes video downloads, but I can tell you that the Unbox video quality was as good as the SPN DVDs, watched on a 36" Sony HDTV.