Amazon Downloadable Purchases: Format?

[(PeteCresswell)]

Looks like there's some special format that requires the use of Amazon's
own player: "To download movies and TV shows to your Windows PC, you
must install the Amazon Unbox Video Player. Once installed you will be
able to download videos to your Windows PC and watch them whether you're
online or offline."

Is there any way around this? I'd like to buy an episode of Sopranos
to fill in for a scratched DVD but I want to use my own home video setup
(SageTV) to play it.

[(PeteCresswell)]

Amazon Unbox Video Player....
Is there any way around this? I'd like to buy an episode of Sopranos
to fill in for a scratched DVD but I want to use my own home video setup
(SageTV) to play it.

I think I've answered my own question and the answer is "No".

Apparently the quality/rez is not as good as the actual DVD and
mainstream products like AnyDVD to not decrypt it.

[Ant]

Nope AFAIK. I can't even use a third party player (VideoLAN Client (VLC)
media player, Media Player Classic (MPC), etc.) to play the downloaded
encrypted Amazon WMV files on the same computer. It really requires the
latest Windows Media Player with its DRM protection feature. :(

Also, note that there is no Unbox player for Linux and Mac OS X due to
missing MS' Windows Media Players. :(

Post by (PeteCresswell)
Looks like there's some special format that requires the use of Amazon's
own player: "To download movies and TV shows to your Windows PC, you
must install the Amazon Unbox Video Player. Once installed you will be
able to download videos to your Windows PC and watch them whether you're
online or offline."
Is there any way around this? I'd like to buy an episode of Sopranos
to fill in for a scratched DVD but I want to use my own home video setup
(SageTV) to play it.

[Java Jive]

I bought an Amazon MP3 CD of "Irish Music In London Pubs". I can't
now remember why, but I couldn't download it onto my PC, so I had to
download it onto my phone, and copy the MP3s from there to my PC.
Worse still, it turned out I didn't need to, because the MP3s were
also made up from a vinyl, were no better quality than my old vinyl
copy, and there was one track missing!

In the words of the immortal, well actually rather forgettable,
Herman's Hermits: "A Must To Avoid" ...

Post by (PeteCresswell)
Is there any way around this? I'd like to buy an episode of Sopranos
to fill in for a scratched DVD but I want to use my own home video setup
(SageTV) to play it.

[(PeteCresswell)]

Post by Java Jive
In the words of the immortal, well actually rather forgettable,
Herman's Hermits: "A Must To Avoid" ...

I bought a half-dozen DRM-protected songs for my iPod a few years back.

Now of course, it's money down the drain because I can't come up with
the right password....

Slow learner that I am, the flags still went up when I started reading
the Amazon spiel about the DRM-protected movie purchases.... so I took
it here and am glad I did.... although the crippled rez would have put
me off it anyhow.

[Java Jive]

Yes, I made a similar mistake with a similar source of legal
downloads, Liquid Audio, in the very early days of that industry, in
that I didn't spot the condition that it would only play on the
original PC. When I upgraded my PC, I lost the right to play the
music. Fortunately, I'd kept the old one, and had soundcards with
Digital I/O on each, so I played them all back on the old one and
recorded them with the new one, with, to all intents and purposes, no
loss in quality.

So I still have and can play all the music which I legally paid for
but the DRM wasn't allowing me to hear.

Post by (PeteCresswell)
I bought a half-dozen DRM-protected songs for my iPod a few years back.
Now of course, it's money down the drain because I can't come up with
the right password....