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Posted by: Tom Merritt
I do not recommend you try Amazon Unbox, and here's why. Yesterday evening I decided to give the video download service a try, especially since it gives you a free $1.99 video. A nice touch, I thought. I chose a Star Trek episode called "The World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky," because it's one of my favorites.
After the normal Amazon checkout rigmarole, I was prompted to download a proprietary video player from Amazon. It's the only way to complete the download. I wasn't too happy about this. It does download a WMV to a folder, so I figured, what the heck. At least I knew where the file was if I wanted to play it in another player.
Even after it downloaded fully, it wouldn't play. I tried several times in both the Amazon player and the regular Windows Media Player, to no avail. After less than two minutes, though, I found that if I dragged the progress indicator in the Amazon player a little, it would start playing. Maybe a bug on my part, who knows? Video quality was fine, especially for an old TV show. I enjoyed it.
I left work after that and rebooted my laptop at home. That's when the real trouble began. I noticed that the Amazon player had launched itself. Annoying. I looked in the program for a preference to stop it from launching itself, and there was none. Typical. So I went to msconfig and unchecked Amazon Unbox so that it would definitely not launch itself at start-up. When I rebooted, it was no longer there. However, my firewall warned me that a Windows service (ADVWindowsClientService.exe) was trying to connect to the Net. I clicked More Info in the firewall alert and found it was Amazon Unbox. Downright offensive. It still was launching a Net-connection process that even msconfig apparently couldn't stop. Forget it. That's not the behavior of good software. I went to uninstall it.
After the Install Shield launched and I chose uninstall, I got a login screen for my Amazon account. I just wanted to uninstall it. I shouldn't have to log in to my account to do that. So I canceled the login, and the uninstall failed. I tried that three times, and it failed each time. Finally I gave up and logged in and the uninstall finished.
So, in summary, to be allowed the privilege of purchasing a video that I can't burn to DVD and can't watch on my iPod, I have to allow a program to hijack my start-up and force me to login to uninstall it? No way. Sorry, Amazon. I love a lot of what you do, but I will absolutely not recommend this service. Try again.
For more details and a rating of Amazon Unbox, check back for James Kim's full review.
Update: I received an email from Sheila at DV guru saying that she hadn't had to log in to Amazon to uninstall. On a hunch, I reinstalled Unbox and this time allowed ADVWindowsClientService.exe to access the Internet when prompted by my firewall. This time when I uninstalled, I was not prompted to login. So ADVWindowsClientService.exe is connecting to the Net without your knowledge, even when uninstalling.
- Read also: Digital video, buzz, home video, mp3
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TalkBack
63 messages
UnBox doesn't... work. Save yourself trouble
And that's just the begining.
by dhkaiser (See profile) - July 16, 2008 9:30 PM PDT
If you're tempted to use Amazon Unbox Don't!
by ebony12.2 (See profile) - June 10, 2008 12:08 PM PDT
How Amazon.com shoots itself in its foot.
Dear Readers
I teach anthropology and humanities at several community colleges; I will be teaching three online courses in the near future, two of which are similar--Cultures Around the World. They are heavily dependent on DVDs and similar media, such as downloads. There is thus a substantial business opportunity for Unbox, because I would have at least 50 students who would be using downloads--provided they can get to them easily.
And that is the issue I am rasing here. Even after downloading the videos I want to preview before adding to my classes, I cannot seem to get to the downloads myself. When I click on the purchase button, an error message reads that it is not available in my geographical area. Whether that is indeed the issue or because my UnBoc downloaded DVD reader is deficient, I cannot say.
What I can say, however, is that most students in one class will be in the Santa Barbara area, and those of the other class will be in the Lake Tahoe are, near many small towns in eastern California and Nevada. Does that mean they also cannot access UnBox downloads? If this is the case, it seems to me that Amazon.com is shooting itself in the foot.
Even more so, I cannot find a direct contact with Amazon.com. As a frequent customer for Amazon for years, I find that deplorable behavior. Most of the FAQs are irrelevant to the issues I have encountered in the past, and to the ones I am trying to address now.
If you have had a similar experience, I would suggest that you contact the department for which you have issues, click on No in the prompt "did this solve your problem" (or something similar--sorry, I don't have a photographic memory) and present it in the answer box. If enough do so, perhaps the company will find it to their advantage to be more attentive to their customers by providing a direct link to the problem solvers and decision makers.
This ends the message. This advice may not do much good, considering the error messages I received from trying to post this message.
by paulvmcdowell (See profile) - June 6, 2008 1:18 PM PDT
waste of money
by TechieTrekkie (See profile) - April 2, 2008 3:33 PM PDT
Unbox sucks
by Lincolnlaw (See profile) - March 28, 2008 11:21 AM PDT
Slowed my computer down to a snails pace
When I tried to watch my downloads with the Amazon player my cimputer would freeze and it would take up all 100% of system resourses...I have a brand new dell laptop!!!
I shut down on the files and processes running from this Unbox and still my computer was sluggish and unresponsive. Arhhh I hate programs that do this to me.
I tried to uninstall and it froze up during the uninstall that I had to pull the plug on my brand new laptop and then disconect the battery just to shut her down. GRRRRRR
Once rebooted..(sluggish by the way and very very long process atleast 15 minutes) I manually went in and deleted the program file by file. Still sluggish after that.
So I did a complete system restore back to the day before I installed the player. My computer is now running lightening fast like it did before I installed this god awful excuse for a program.
DONT DO IT.....avoid this program at all costs!!!!
by WeatherednBoston (See profile) - March 18, 2008 6:59 AM PDT
YOUR UNBOX PROBLEMS
I found settings so it doesn't launch or run in the background. If it is reaching out to the net, I don't know it. If you have an alternative (other than iTunes, whose quality is horrific) let me know.
Tim
by timscape (See profile) - December 22, 2007 9:24 PM PST
Unbox-Tivo: Nice if it works, hell otherwise
The next one never got there, but I got billed.
Neither Amazon nor Tivo has any way to diagnose failed downloads. 4 emails and 3 phone calls to Amazon got me no resolution, despite the standard help desk prayers: "Reboot the Tivo", "Reboot your router", "Unregister the Tivos from unbox & re-register", :Unplug the Tivo & plug back in", "reenter your order" (That one got me a new 2nd charge on my credit card...
Amazon's last response was - call Tivo. 20 minutes on hold at Tivo got me a clueless support rep - never heard of Amazon downloads. "unplug your network adapter" "reboot the Tivo", finally - call Amazon!
The technology appears to be complicated, kludged together, pretty fragile, and not supportable. I've done software products for a lot of years, and can see that pretty well!
A good idea, though. In a year or so, someone will get it to work reliably.
by blueridgepro (See profile) - December 3, 2007 4:40 PM PST
AOL, Amazon Unbox Alliance Terrible News for Deaf
Amazon was contacted and we blogged about this back in June: http://www.hearingexchange.com/blogs/?s=amazon unbox. Their cookie cutter response said it all.
In this age where most DVDs, television shows and even commercials are captioned, nearly all hotels have television sets with captions and more movie theaters are finally offering screenings with open captions, I find Amazon’s complete disregard for their deaf and hard of hearing consumers reprehensible.
Perhaps if companies like AOL and NBC Universal applied some pressure, we'd be able to get Amazon to "hear" us. Deaf and hard of hearing people are not second class consumers, but Amazon certainly makes us feel that way.
by HearingExchange (See profile) - December 1, 2007 7:47 PM PST
They took my money, and I never got my movie.
by rrblondo (See profile) - November 25, 2007 4:05 AM PST
