Amazon Unbox and TiVo

A while ago Amazon and TiVo generally released the linking of Amazon's Unbox to TiVo DVRs. They also gave $15 credit with the link, so I decided it was worth trying. I quickly found a show that had been canceled last fall after only 3 episodes, and discovered the next 4 were available on Unbox, and labeled as TiVo compatible.

The quality on them is indeed good. It's not DTV quality, but definitely better than the normal TiVo best quality (which is OK, but not great). There was much less macroblocking, which is probably the most annoying part of watching normally-recorded content. I wouldn't say it's DVD quality, but part of that is likely due to the fact that the best quality output on the Series 2 is s-video. Overall I was thinking the service was sorta cool (although a bit overpriced for download-only).

Then I hit the 3rd episode I tried to download (Smith: Six if anyone cares). I went back online and saw it wasn't listed as allocated to any device, so chose to download it again. Unfortunately it appeared to start online, but never appeared in my Now Playing list, and eventually went back to not allocated in the library online. I tried again and contacted Amazon's support, who responded it appeared to be downloading, and to just wait. They also said it could be available space (unlikely as I had over 50 items in my Recently Deleted), and if I have further problems contact TiVo. Never mind that TiVo pointed me at Amazon for any issues related to downloading.

A while later I went to try again and respond to the fact that it timed out that time as well, and discovered that it's no longer listed as available on TiVo. Off the note went to support, asking why it's no longer listed, if it is related to the problems downloading, and when it will be listed again. The response I've received says it's not currently available (I got that - it's why I submitted the note), how to tell if something is available to TiVo (they must not have looked at the history, and thing I just picked something not compatible with TiVo), and how to view it on a PC (of which I don't have any compatible one, because other than TiVo their DRMed system is rather limited).

So at this point I haven't bought anything since I hit this issue, as I'm debating what to do depending on the outcome. I'd be OK with it if they were up front about it and said the original encoding had issues and they needed to resolve it. This whole replying with barely-related canned answers isn't atypical from my other interactions with Amazon's support. For physical products they seem to have things streamlined, and any problems get resolved quickly despite the canned answers. If they can't handle issues other than fixing a shipment or issuing credits though, I'm not sure this will be a service that's really usable. And that's not even considering that the downloading process was effectively equivalent to saying they shipped, and then when checking because it didn't arrive having them say it hadn't been shipped (no errors or indications it had previously been attempted). It'll be interesting to see how (if) this gets resolved.

Last chance for cheaper TiVo?

You've probably heard about the upcoming changes to the TiVo price plan. Basically it's changing next week to buy upfront and pay $13/mo, or pay $20/mo and get the hardware free. Both cases are a year minimum. Of course if you hit the right deal, you can currently get a TiVo box for free after rebates, and only pay the $13/mo (again a year minimum). So if you're on the fence, now is probably the time to get it. I say the $155 for a year seems worth it. If you are thinking of going lifetime that goes away next week too, which is a even bigger incentive. So here's a free-after-rebate TiVo deal (expires tomorrow).