Network Magic in Bayou CountryAt Network Magic you can get the Amazon Unbox - The future of home entertainment? After I got home from work tonight, my wife suggested we watch a movie. Drive to Hollywood Video and pickup a DVD? How old-school! Open one of those stale Netflix envelopes? How 1999. Two days ago, Amazon announced their Unbox service available via TiVo. I gave it a whirl. How was the experience? First up - you have login to Amazon Unbox and give them your TiVo account information. Then you simply pick your movie and purchase. The website tells you that your movie is being 'downloaded'. Not believing it could be so easy I rushed upstairs to take a look at my TiVo. A few minutes later, and the movie appeared on my list. I wasn't able to play it until it was fully downloaded but it came down at a fairly fast rate - in about 45 minutes - we had the movie ready to watch. This is one of those pivotal home technology points for our household. The first was getting a TiVo, the second was getting my music all over with Sonos, the third was being able to listen to any music I want with Rhapsody over Sonos. The notion of recent movies on-demand to my TiVo is killer - my wife is incredibly excited about the prospect - and she doesn't get excited about new technologies easily. The future is bright, and while Unbox has it's host of imperfections (selection & cost being my top two), six months from now, I have no doubt that rather than flicking on TiVo and watching pre-recorded broadcast tv - we'll be picking from favorite new release movies or watching amusing YouTube snippets recommended by friends. Is the "digital home" really here?
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