Amazon-TiVo linkup goes live

Stephen Withers
Thursday, 08 March 2007 02:49

Your IT - Home IT

Amazon's Unbox movie download service is now available to TiVo users.

So far, movies and TV shows purchased from Unbox have only been playable on Windows-based PCs.

Now, once a customer has synchronised their Amazon and TiVo accounts, Unbox content can be ordered, downloaded and then played directly from the TiVo just like locally-recorded shows.

A handy feature of the service is that if you need to free up space on the TiVo, you can delete purchased content and download it again at a later date, although this does not apply to certain new release movies.

Unbox offers movies from 20th Century Fox, Fox Searchlight, Lionsgate, MGM, Paramount, Sony, Universal, Warner Bros and more, plus TV shows from CBS, Fox, Comedy Central, MTV, BBC, Nickelodeon, and others.

Downloading a full-length movie is staid to take between one and five hours, depending on the speed of the customer's broadband connection.

Purchased content may be used on a maximum of two PCs or TiVos plus two portable devices (though the files are not iPod compatible) at any one time.

The service is only applicable to Series 2 and 3 TiVo units, as they have the necessary network interface.

Customers who sign up before the end of April receive $US15 of credit at no charge - enough to buy a movie or several TV episodes, or to rent several movies.

Deliveries of the Apple TV - which provides similar functionality in conjunction with the iTunes store but requires a PC or Mac to act as a staging post for downloads - have been delayed.