When I heard about Amazon’s new video downloading product called “Amazon Unboxed”, I figured I’d give it a try. The only criticism I heard was that it took too long to download a show, but I regularly record and watch shows days after their broadcast, so that wasn’t a big deal to me.
To test out the system, I downloaded an episode of Mythbusters, a 45 minute show (no commercials ).
First problem: content availability. There was very little content available. It reminded me of what I see when I use Comcast’s OnDemand service: Most of what I want to see isn’t available.
Next problem: download speed: It was pretty obvious from my download session that they were limiting my download speed to some ridiculously slow number, which they didn’t do for downloading the software itself.
Next problem: Fast Forward didn’t work. Even though they had a Fast Forward button, and a way to move the play point to anywhere in the video, they didn’t work. Clicking the button didn’t change the play position, and moving the play point resulted in it immediately snapping back to the beginning when the recording started to play. I ended up watching the first half of the show multiple times .
Next problem: Running the diagnostics destroyed my copy of the show. When Fast Forward refused to work, I ran a built-in diagnostic of the software. It found no problems, but trashed my copy of Mythbusters! On the plus side, they allow you to re-download the show (after all, I bought it!), but that meant having to deal with the slow download yet again.
Final problem (the last straw): The whole recording refused to play! The first time I watched the program, I got about 30 minutes (2/3, remember no commercials), and then stopped watching. After that, the program would only run about 20 minutes through (which I had to watch again, see above), and then ended!
That was it, I’d had enough at this point. I had been skeptical of Amazon’s ability to really deliver here, since I know their attention to their customers is almost nonexistent. They lived up to my low expectations. Hopefully, Rhapsody will offer video downloads soon…