Amazon Unbox Video Released!

[Ameesh]

Hey Guys,

My team has just released our project to the world. It's called Amazon Unbox Video. We plan on being the best store for digital video downloads. We currently carry TV Shows and Movies from here and around the world.

In my opinion we have a couple of things make us leaps and bounds better then our competitors.

1) DVD Quality files - We use the VC-1 codec for our videos (the same one being used on HD-DVDs) at a bit rate of ~ 2.5 mbps. I think the content looks great. The sound quality is excellent in some cases we have full 5.1 audio tracks. In addition to giving you a DVD quality file meant to be watched on your PC or TV (If you have an XBOX360 it works great), we also give you a mobile optimized file free of charge so you can enjoy your content on the go.

2) RemoteLoad - We have a very cool feature called RemoteLoad that allows you to purchase the content from work or school or really any web accessible location and have your content delivered to any location you have setup our application on. Imagine you are at work or school and friend tells you about a very funny ATHF episode or the latest episode of prison break. You can buy it immediately and have it ready at home waiting for you.

3) Unbox Library - When we were building this product we realized that most people don't have infinite hard drive space so we thought why don't we just keep a copy of your purchases on our servers and if you want to delete the content after you have watched it you can. When ever you want to watch the content again just visit your library and re-download it, free of charge!

4) IMDb Integration - We are integrated with IMDb so i n our application when available you will see very rich data about the content include cool artwork, fun facts, trivia, box office stats, actor info, etc. All of this metadata is there to add an extra layer to your viewing experience.

For our launch we have a very cool promotion of 1 free TV Show. Come to Amazon Unbox Video to see the details and download your first piece of content for free.

I sincerely hope you guys enjoy the product just as much as we enjoyed building it. If you have feedback I would love to hear it!

-Ameesh

http://www.amazon.com/unbox

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

I know people who watch the history channel and discovery pretty religiously, this could work well for them so they don't have to pay out the ass to buy dvd's of the show...

 

[jpeyton]

Downloading free episode now.

 

[uhohs]

hm, what to download what to download.

 

[MikeMike]

only one of the four movies, right?

otherwise i would go and download a discovery show.

 

[MmmSkyscraper]

Discussion of pros and cons on /.

 

[flexy]

ameesh,

hmmm....vc-1 is a h.264 alternative....whats the major advantages of vc-1 over h.264 ?

 

[arod]

id love to get some more "indepth" info on the drm scheme too.... i downloaded a firefly ep and it looks great but the drm scheme looks very resitrictive (which pretty much kills me wanting to use it). Personally I would have made the drm be playable on unlimited number of computers and you wouldnt have to use the amazon player to transfer to a portable device (I am not a fan of having to use multple programs to manage my content and I like to keep everything in media player 11 for my toshiba gigabeat S).

I would want to use the unbox player as a download service only... not to play my files and manage the portable players. (but that would require redoing the drm scheme)

The potential is there (content and quality look excellent) but the drm scheme is killing it for me right now.

 

[nakedfrog]

Wow, it sounds pretty nifty.

 

[DurocShark]

Nice Ameesh. Thanks for letting us know.

Now let us know when they actually get cheaper than buying the DVD.

 

[Ameesh]

Originally posted by: flexy
ameesh,

hmmm....vc-1 is a h.264 alternative....whats the major advantages of vc-1 over h.264 ?

Hey Flexy, great question.

From a codec perspective they are very close to one another as far as compression and quality go. What we did find was, looking forward, many new pieces of hardware and software coming out in the next year or so support VC-1 more then H.264 as well as the fact that VC-1 played better with our systems in general. As HD-DVD and Bluray both support VC-1 as a standard we are seeing companies embrace it as a standard very strongly.

I hope this answers your question.

 

[djheater]

Holy sh!t that's cool Ameesh!

Unbelievably, I stumbled upon it today while looking up "Guns, Germs, and Steel" I was kicking myself for being so out of the loop that I had never heard of Amazon's online rental service, and came to offtopic to see if anyone had mentioned it



Will be downloading the eps tonight!

I look forward to it.

~edit - hey why are they missing ep. 3?

 

[Ameesh]

Originally posted by: arod
id love to get some more "indepth" info on the drm scheme too.... i downloaded a firefly ep and it looks great but the drm scheme looks very resitrictive (which pretty much kills me wanting to use it). Personally I would have made the drm be playable on unlimited number of computers and you wouldnt have to use the amazon player to transfer to a portable device (I am not a fan of having to use multple programs to manage my content and I like to keep everything in media player 11 for my toshiba gigabeat S).

I would want to use the unbox player as a download service only... not to play my files and manage the portable players. (but that would require redoing the drm scheme)

The potential is there (content and quality look excellent) but the drm scheme is killing it for me right now.

Hey Arod,

Currently we allow people to watch the content on 2 computers and 2 mobile devices concurrently. As far as allowing unlimited PCs, that wouldn't get very far with the studios when we negotiated with them to get this kind of great content. Becasue we keep track of how many pcs and mobile devices you have it on it requires the fact that license mangement happens in our app. Due to this fact mobile devices transfers have to be done with our app but you can watch the content on your pc in WMP or the MCE interface or whatever you like.

I realize the DRM may be an inconvience but without protecting the content for our studio partners we we would never be able to get you guys, the consumers a great selection to choose from.

-Ameesh

 

[Glavinsolo]

WTB more History's Mysteries

 

[Glavinsolo]

Here you go http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/02/fair...eeps-stay-one-step-ahead-of-microsoft/

 

[Ameesh]

Originally posted by: djheater
Holy sh!t that's cool Ameesh!

Unbelievably, I stumbled upon it today while looking up "Guns, Germs, and Steel" I was kicking myself for being so out of the loop that I had never heard of Amazon's online rental service, and came to offtopic to see if anyone had mentioned it



Will be downloading the eps tonight!

I look forward to it.

Excellent, I hope you enjoy it!

 

[Goosemaster]

glad you chose vc-1 over h.264....not enough stuff can accelerate it in hardware yet can it runs liek crap on may devices

 

[djheater]

Originally posted by: Goosemaster
glad you chose vc-1 over h.264....not enough stuff can accelerate it in hardware yet can it runs liek crap on may devices

Liquid Lunch today?

-> <-

 

[Goosemaster]

BTW, do you have any demo files?


Not sure how I would compare teh quality of a tv show with a movie...

 

[Goosemaster]

Originally posted by: djheater

Originally posted by: Goosemaster
glad you chose vc-1 over h.264....not enough stuff can accelerate it in hardware yet can it runs liek crap on may devices

Liquid Lunch today?

-> <-

I haven't eaten lucnh today...gonna go hit the gym


then gonna hit Panera up later

 

[Goosemaster]

Ameesh,


the main hurdle that it looks like your product will have to overcome is download times. While the quality of movielink and that starz one isn't steller, it does stream the movie to you, even on 768k dsl. I realize that WMP lets you stream a lot, but it looks liek your app here controls downloads.

<---hasn't tried it yet

Any comments about that?

 

[Ameesh]

Originally posted by: Goosemaster
glad you chose vc-1 over h.264....not enough stuff can accelerate it in hardware yet can it runs liek crap on may devices

Hey Goose,

Just wait till we get our HD content starts coming in, you are going to love it.

-Ameesh

 

[Goosemaster]

Btw, how are you handlign licensing support issues such as lost keys, formatted computers? I'm sure you've tinkered with the SDK qutiea bit and would liek to see how computer-noob friendly you are.
Frankly, that is one thing itunes has done really well. They don't necessarily have to be lax with their rules and they simply have to have procedures in place to make dealign with clueless patrons routine and painless


Also, is there a time limit on how frequently the license file needs to access the internet or not?

 

[Miramonti]

Congrats to your team. :thumbsup:

 

[Goosemaster]

Originally posted by: Ameesh

Originally posted by: Goosemaster
glad you chose vc-1 over h.264....not enough stuff can accelerate it in hardware yet can it runs liek crap on may devices

Hey Goose,

Just wait till we get our HD content starts coming in, you are going to love it.

-Ameesh

muwahahahahha


*walks away with a certain 'aura' about him that can described as an influx of joy*