Amazon Unbox videos downloadable after deleting?

November 6, 2007 5:22 PM

Can I re-download my purchased tv shows and movies on Amazon Unbox, even after I've watched and deleted them from my computer?

I know I can download them again after a day or so, but do my videos ever expire or anything? This feature would make Amazon Unbox so much better than iTunes or anything else out there, since 800mb videos quickly fill up my 60gb hard drive. Thanks a lot for your answers.

posted by CliffDiving44 to computers & internet (4 comments total)

I'd be surprised if you can. That's like saying "Can I take a book from the book shop, even though I have read it and thrown it away".


You bought it, you discarded it. I don't think it is the 'book store's' responsibility to provide you with replacement.
posted by Brockles at 5:34 PM on November 6, 2007

I deleted two videos I purchased from Amazon Unbox from my hard-drive after watching them. They now show up as "Not downloaded" and I have the option to download them again if I want. It has been this way for about 3 or 4 weeks. So far so good.

I have a related question, can those .wmv files be copied and played on a different computer? Do I need the Unbox client on the other computer? Not sure how that works and haven't had a chance to experiment.
posted by alex3005 at 5:57 PM on November 6, 2007

Brockles, it's actually nothing like that.

OP, there's nothing in their TOS that seems to indicate that this would be case. For what it's worth, iTunes does offer the ability to redownload all of your previously purchased music in the event of catastrophic data loss. However, they are only allowed to authorize this once. Unbox may have a similar policy but this probably doesn't help you.

Unbox would have to shoulder much higher bandwidth costs to do what you are suggesting for customers. There may be some feature where you can stream your purchased movies from your PC to your TiVo. (I assume you are referring to a TiVo because getting an additional hard drive for a PC is a ridiculously inexpensive endeavor.)
posted by dendrite at 6:47 PM on November 6, 2007

I just re-downloaded to my TiVo a TV show that I first purchased, downloaded, and deleted about six months ago. I'm not sure whether there's ever a time limit, but if there is, it's a pretty long time horizon.

alex3005, Amazon allows you to download each video you purchase to a total of two devices (computers and TiVos). You need the client on each computer you want to use, including computers you want to view DVD backups you have burned of videos you own. I don't know whether anyone has been successful in getting around that restriction; I'm sure someone is working on it. However, doing so would be in violation of your contract with Amazon.
posted by decathecting at 7:47 PM on November 6, 2007