Amazon Unbox And Tivo Feeding Your Screening Together

Okay, it’s going to look rather self-serving, because there are surely Amazon ads surrounding you right now, but I’m going to tell you about Unbox and the Tivo combination. It’s not news to anyone that you can now download movies and TV shows on Amazon (this isn’t really a news site. You’ll never hear about anything here before its long-dead as a scoop, especially by internet standards). It’s also not news that you can use your Tivo to get these Amazon Unbox titles.

Actually, it probably is news to someone, but they aren't likely to get to this anyway.

What is news (or newsish) is that I think it’s pretty cool, and if I do there’s probably a decent reason for it.

Briefly, how’s the whole thing work ---

Head over to Amazon’s Unbox store and download the viewer thingee so that you can download to your computer. While you’re there, you setup your Tivo box with Amazon, so that everyone knows who everyone is. You put in a little code so that you can buy from Unbox direct from your Tivo, and then everything is ready for unbridled screening.

On the movie rental side, things are pretty straightforward. Rent the movie, and you have 30 days to watch it. Rentals are between $3.99 and $1.99. A few things are even cheaper, and there are things you can get free, but you don’t want any of them.

TV shows might be a puzzler though, especially for the not-currently-screening-addicted. Jump over to the frontpage of Amazon Unbox, and you’ll find yourself with the glorious option of buying episodes of shows that were on last night for $1.99. But, hello, I’ve got Tivo! If I wanted that show, how do I not have it already? Frankly, that bit stumps me. Seriously, I don’t know why anyone would get that. Sure, you forgot to program the final episode of Shear Genius, or had your Season Passes out of whack and a repeat of that Dog Grooming show recorded instead (sorry that show is not available for download), but it’s going to be on fourteen times in the next week anyway.

But.

What if you don't get Showtime, and everyone says you have to watch Weeds? What if you didn’t start watching Eureka or Battlestar Gallactica from the beginning, and no one told you that you were supposed to be watching it until midway through Season 2? Your Tivo isn’t going to find the re-airs of those shows. Am I supposed to buy a DVD full season set of something I don’t know, or worse… use up slots in my Netflix account (which you can find on this page by the way, and yes, it’s empty right now, ask me later)?

For the fairly wallet-friendly price tag of $1.99, I can get whatever episode I want, and watch it whenever I want. Better yet, you don’t have to keep it on your Tivo, or your computer. Amazon stores the fact that you bought it, and it knows your Tivo, so you can delete it from your Tivo, and redownload it whenever you want.

If that’s not enough, sure, you can find a lot of stuff to screen with your Tivo, but it is a bit unlikely that Freakazoid! is on in syndication in your neighborhood. I’m even more certain that Land of the Giants isn’t turning up on your cable lineup. And, even if you’re a fan of Friends, you might not want to buy the complete set of seasons, and some of those episodes just don’t turn up on the syndicated, twenty-total-episode cycle. Like, The One with the Thumb.

Of course, you can also download shows using your Pepsi Points… but I don’t really know what that means.

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About Marc Eastman

Marc Eastman is the owner and operator of Are You Screening? and has been writing film reviews for over a decade, and several branches of the internet's film review world have seen his name. His reviews have brought him personal praise from the director of a major motion picture, and have been used as required reading in a course at a major University. These priceless rewards, along with just bags of cash, keep him from straying from freelance writing. He is also a member of The Broadcast Film Critics Association and The Broadcast Television Journalists Association.

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