Saturday, September 09, 2006

Amazon UnBox Review, Part 1

Ok, I've been downloading videos from iTunes since they started allowing it and so far I've benn happy with the service. Now I know this is supposed to be a review of Unbox, but I have to compare it to what I know first. So far, my only gripe with iTunes has been the resolution of the videos. The price, and the software have both made me happy even with the poor resolution.
Now on to Unbox...
First, the install gave me trouble (ie it locked up). This happens from time to time and at first I simply let it go. However, after downloading a video (an Episodse of Star Trek Enterprise), I soon started to see lots of problems in the software player. In simply trying to play the video, It stopped run (just stopped playing at dissapeared) about a half dozen times within the first few minutes of the video. I then went through the typical ritual of rebooting and eventuall (after an hour of fiddling) reinstalled the application. I then tested the video in Media Center and found that the video would not play after about 6 minutes which is the time that I could get the Unbox player to crash at everytime. So, in doing my civic duty, I deleted the video and have just now redownloaded it to test.
First pass, I the software IS WAY UNSTABLE with horrible (as in no appearent) error handling.
Media Center at least gave me a sense that there was a problem with the video file.. oh that's another thing.. a corrupted video file? Oh come on...
So far, I am NOT HAPPY. If this file plays at least I will have my $1.99 worth out of them. I don't think I'll be spending another dime there after this.
Part 2, Later..

Update: Oh, I just found out, this video player is phoning home a WHOLE LOT. Great.. it keeps getting better....

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