‘I Am Legend’ stakes out Unbox top spot
The Will Smith-starrer “I Am Legend” stands alone at the top of the Unbox video ratings, followed closely by the WWI weeper “Atonement.”
Order was restored as the remaining slots went to a trio of geeky guy-friendly titles.
Here are the top 5 sellers on the Amazon Unbox download video service, ranked as of early Sunday.
- “I Am Legend
” (Warner Bros.) rental price: $3.99
- “Atonement
” (Universal) $3.99
- “30 Days Of Night
” (Sony) $0.99
- “Resident Evil: Extinction
” (Sony) $0.99
- “Stargate: The Ark of Truth
” (MGM/Fox) $2.99
TiVo owners in for faster downloads
TiVo box owners jonesing for more storage space finally are in luck. The DVR pioneer hooked up with Western Digital to enable an external hard drive. The catch: you must own an advanced TiVo box, as in not Series 2.
The eSATA drive — going by the tag of My DVR Expander — bulks up the TiVo’s storage capacity by 500 gigabytes. That’s roughly 600 hours of standard definition or 65 hours of high-def programming, TiVo says. The hard drive has to be bought at Best Buy or on TiVo’s web site, apparently.
All of the four upgrades announced earlier this week are limited to networked-in owners of Series 3 DVRs.
The DVR pioneer also unveiled a multi-room viewing feature, in which the advanced TiVo boxes can stream content to another TiVo box, including Series 2
“TiVo to Go,” another it’s-about-time feature, allows programs to be ported over to PCs. From there, the video files can watched elsewhere or burned to blank DVDs. Yes, that means they can be sent to iPods and other handheld devices. The PC needs TiVo Desktop software for Windows, Roxio Toast 8 or, for Macs, Popcorn 3.
TiVo also has joined Vudu in the progressive-downloading game. Instead of waiting for movies or TV shows from Amazon Unbox
(This capability is one of Vudu’s main sales pitches. The 2-month-old service just lowered the price of the Vudu box from $399 to $250, taking a cue from Steve Jobs.)
Here’s the word on how the TiVo progressive downloading is supposed to work, direct from the company’s antenna-wearing PRists:
When a download begins, the TiVo box checks the speed of the download, and calculates whether you can begin playback. If the download speed is going faster than playback speed, it will let users start playback immediately.
If the download is slower, it will wait until users have enough of the program “buffered” on disk to be able to play it from start to finish without hitting the end of the buffer, and then let you start playback.
None of these are breakthroughs, except in the TiVo universe. While well past due, it’s good to see the upgrades, which signal to company is working hard to justify its existence.
Read the TiVo press release.
Burn baby burn: Download copying OK’d
Downloaders soon will be able to legally burn discs of movies and TV shows they buy from CinemaNow, Movielink, Unbox and some of their rivals.
The industry watchdog DVD Copy Control Association said it will release software allowing the burned discs to be played on home system DVDs players. The content burned onto a disc cannot be daisy-chained, or copied again.
“This is great news,” CinemaNow chieftain Curt Marvis told the L.A. Times. “We expect the proliferation of burners that can burn these types of discs.”
The process of linking computers to TV screens to play movies hasn’t thrilled many consumers. Even using a device such as Apple TV, the images can look crappy and weirdly framed — good for Starwars Kid but not “Star Wars.” Presumably, the download-to-burn content will permit reproduction that’s competitive with studio DVDs.
The DVD CCA is the same bunch that enforces regional controls on DVDs, allowing distributors to control release patterns around the world. Multiregion DVD players, common overseas, are needed to override that control.
Update : Audio good guys Sonic Solutions detailed their download-burner software technology and said players should be hitting the market in the first quarter.
Movie Downloads. 100% Legal. No membership fees.
NBC packs its fall shows in Unbox
NBC couldn’t get what it wanted working out of Apple’s iTunes Store, so the network’s fall shows are headed for Amazon’s Unbox download service.
NBC Universal and Amazon Inc. confirmed Tuesday that free pilots of the peacock network’s new shows are going up on Unbox starting Monday.
NBC’s revenue-generating downloads such as those for “The Office” and “30 Rock” already are up on Unbox. The network gains pricing flexibility with the deal that iTunes rejected.
NBC provided the iTunes Store with about 40% of its video fare. The NBC Uni-Apple relationship went publicly sour last week, with the network parent saying it would not renew with the music-video download service. Apple then decided NBC’s new shows wouldn’t be going up on its digital shelves.
Unbox, iTunes put on Hewlett’s ‘Dog’
A little film has rustled up some big publicity via its online film debut. MGM’s “A Dog’s Breakfast,” directed by “Stargate Atlantis” star David Hewlett, went live
It’s now listed as the No. 2 downloaded movie on Unbox.
“We’ve got such a huge loyal and tech-savvy fan base for this film. What better way to premiere it than on their home turf, with an online iTunes and Amazon release,” Hewlett said in a statement.
The actor/director is trying to put together an online simulcast to reward his fans for their help in promoting the black comedy. The trailer reportedly has logged more than a quarter million downloads on YouTube.
Hewlett, who is into heavy flacking on his web site, describes the dark comedy as “a head smacking, bone breaking, fiancé bashing romp, with a family that just loves themselves to pieces.” (The dog ate his hyphens, apparently.)
Aside from this detour, the film is going straight to video on Sept. 18. It can be preordered now