Stan Beer
Monday, 11 September 2006 07:02
Opinion and Analysis
It’s what Microsoft has been aiming for since it released Windows Media Center. However, the release of Amazon Unbox, is a true test of whether consumers are ready to make the PC part of the living room entertainment set up.
Some consumers will want to watch movies on
their notebooks. Fewer will want to watch full-length movies and TV
shows on portable players with 4-inch screens. Even fewer will want to
watch movies or TV shows on their PCs in their home office sitting at a
desk.
Since Amazon Unbox does not enable users to burn movies to DVD, the
only viable option that will give home consumers the sort viewing
experience comparable to what they already get from renting or buying
DVDs is if they hook their computers to the TV.
Amazon makes the point that you can watch the downloaded video on a TV
if you can connect your PC to it using a “standard” s-video connection.
You also need to use the audio system of the PC or connect it via the
audio out to a home stereo system for sound.
According to Amazon, an average 2 hour movie is about 2.4GB. So a 1.5M
DSL connection will take about 1 hour to download. However, the Amazon
Unbox system has a progressive download feature that allows you to
watch your video while you download. So theoretically, you can be up
and watching you movie within a few minutes while it’s still
downloading.
As far as price is concerned, taking the movie Office Space as an
example, since it’s one of the biggies being advertised right now, the
price for a download at US$13.45 is exactly the same as the price that
Amazon sells the DVD. It can also be rented for 24 hours for US$2.99.
In order to accomplish all of this, you need to first download the
Amazon Unbox Video Player software, which is copy protected using
Microsoft’s PlayForSure digital rights management (DRM) system. Don’t
even think of trying to play a downloaded video from Guba, CinemaNow or
Guba using the Amazon Unbox player because it won’t work.
As for Apple Mac, well Amazon reckons you may be able to use its system
with a Mac running Windows but doesn’t guarantee the results. No doubt
if Mac releases its own video downloads this week, Mac users won’t care.
The bottom line of all this is that the emerging video downloads space
is bringing the video DRM issue to a big white pimply head. Forgetting
the Apple space for the moment, there are now a number of video
download sites, all of which are protected by PlayForSure, most of
which can be played on portable devices and notebook computers. Amazon
has gone the extra step of trying to lock users into its own system by
not allowing downloads from other sites to be played on the Amazon
Unbox player.
It is fair to say that video downloads have not exactly become an
overnight sensation and probably the main reason is that the
PlayForSure DRM precludes users from burning their downloaded videos to
DVD. For rentals, it is understandable. For downloads costing the same
price as a DVD, it is sheer madness, given the ubiquity of DVD players.
Looking at the music downloads space, both the Microsoft and Apple DRM
systems enable users to burn tracks to CD. It makes sense given that
most consumers have CD players in their homes, on their computers and
in their cars. Likewise, most consumers now have several DVD players in
their homes and on their computers. To expect them to buy into a video
downloads system that leaves their DVD player out of the loop simply
does not make sense for consumers.
It will be interesting to see what Apple comes out with this week at
its media briefing. The chances are it will also preclude DVD burning.
Is it a coincidence that the new iMac includes a model with a 24 inch
monitor?