Buy From Amazon With Your TiVo

PunkOfLinux writes "From The NYTimes comes news that TiVo and Amazon have reached an agreement to allow consumers to purchase products from Amazon through their television sets using their TiVo remote control. TiVo will launch the new service to consumers by merchandising products related to several high-profile programs, including The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, The Colbert Report, and Burn Notice. Broadband-connected Series2, Series3, and TiVo HD DVRs will be able to take advantage of the new feature." This sounds like the latest incarnation of the dream of television executives who in the early '90s talked about the "information superhighway," before it was clear that the Internet was going to fill that role. What they envisioned was "interactive TV," i.e. buying stuff with your remote.

Comcast Entry

If you press something like 888, you get localish car sales. I think there's one for real estate too. Granted, you can't press BUY NOW, because you'd really need to hide the remote from your children...

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TiVo's idea is not to distract you from what you're watching, but just to pair up items plugged on popular shows with items Amazon sells, and throwing something like a "Press ThumbsUp for more info." to see the price, sign in Amazon account info, and get a 1-click purchase in.

Re:Comcast Entry

Last time I was bored at my friend's house, I calculated that in less than 15 minutes I could charge off around USD $2000 in porn using just the remote.

Cars aren't so scary compared with trying to resell pay-per-view porn.

Note

You've been able to play Amazon Unbox videos for quite a while now, but until now, you went to Amazon, and to it to download to your Tivo. I personally think that is easier than going through the remote.

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You've been able to buy the Videos straight from your TiVo, you just needed to know the pass code you set up when you pair the TiVo with your AmazonUnbox account.

Mel Brooks dream come true

TiVo will launch the new service to consumers by merchandising products related to several high-profile programs

Yogurt: Moichandising! Moichandising! Moichandising! Where the real money from the movie is made! Spaceballs: the T-shirt, Spaceballs: the Coloring Book, Spaceballs: the Lunchbox, Spaceballs: the Breakfast Cereal. Spaceballs: the Flame Thrower... [fires a short blast from flame thrower]
Dinks: Oooooohhhh!
Yogurt: The kids love this one. And last, but not least, Spaceballs: the Doll, me.
"May the Schwartz be with you!"
Yogurt: Adorable.

Completing the cycle of (virtual) life

This sounds like the latest incarnation of the dream of television executives who in the early '90s talked about the "information superhighway," before it was clear that the Internet was going to fill that role. What they envisioned was "interactive TV," i.e. buying stuff with your remote.

The last piece of the puzzle, completing the cycle of virtualization, will be Wii integration, so that we can look back fondly on the days when we were able to go to the store to buy it, pull it off the shelf, and ca

No thanks!

The GUI on my Series2 Tivo is really slow when doing anything but navigating the standard menus and browsing shared mp3 files on my LAN. All of the nifty new features: Picasa Web Albums, Swivel Search, etc...all are frustrating experiences with the PLEASE WAIT clock on the screen. I think the processor in the older series2 Tivos aren't up to the task of these fancy new features. And spelling out book titles with a TV remote? (Arrow to letter > Select Letter > Arrow to next letter > Select Next Letter). No thanks!

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And spelling out book titles with a TV remote? (Arrow to letter > Select Letter > Arrow to next letter > Select Next Letter). No thanks!

TiVo should have been supporting wired HID-compliant USB keyboards since the Series2 first came out instead of still not yet now. The Ouija boards still annoy me when I need to get to a letter in the first column and I accidentally push Left one too many times.

I don't need a Bluetooth module or IR keyboard support. Just a simple long-wired USB keyboard will do fine. Even the Series2 with a USB-Ethernet or USB-WiFi dongle installed has a spare port.

Yeah, more Ads! Sign me up!

Just what we've always wanted - more screen real estate taken up by ads and things we DON'T WANT. I mean think about it - how many people REALLY want to have something pop on their screen about how they can buy Burn Notice merchandise through their TiVo? We got the damn things so we didn't have to watch commercials (time-shifting, while awesome was secondary). I see slowly the TiVo is getting more things in the UI that take up space and want you to purchase something. Guess what? I already DID! It was a TiVo to stop me from getting annoyed by requests to purchase something.

I've never really considered using something like MythTV or MS Media Center, but damn - if they can't stop adding useless crap Ads and things to the TiVo I will have to look pretty hard at an alternative.

Burn Notice

I'd love a new coffee maker like Michael's mom got. :D

Is there a market for un-branded TV+Internet purchasing? I'm working as part of an open source effort to bring more applications to a particular embedded TV device (not a TiVo), and would love to hear about things you would/might be interested in purchasing via your television :)

Thanks in advance for any (serious) feedback!

Been buying stuff 'on TV' for years...

...at hotels, that is. A meal the next day, tickets to a local event (though I prefer getting them at the front desk as they are often authorized to give a discount that does not appear via the in-room entertainment system, as well as offering/suggesting amenities, etc.), canceling any housekeeping the next morning if I pulled an all-nighter, etc. Oh, and of course, movies (no, not those.)

The technology has existed for ages; it's just been a matter of getting a widespread-enough set-top box into homes -no

The problem here

I would always get the feeling to be tricked. On the internet I can search around for good deals, reliable companies and products and sellers which have their reputation.

On a TiVo I would always wonder what the companies did pay to get the place, whether the product is realy as good as it is and worth that money and wheather TiVo is tricking me again into something. I would never trust it. And I would get annoyed by it.

And more over: I don't have a TV (only a screen attached to my DVD player)...

This will suffer from unrelated products...

Remember when Walmart.com or Blockbuster.com or whoever it was had to pull their recommended movie service because of terribly innapropriate recommendations? How well will this TiVo/Amazon service be run, and how are they going to recommend products based on TV shows, will they be picked by humans? Will they use a super-complex inhuman computer algorithm?

I see you are watching "History of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre", can I recommend "A Box of Semi-sweet dark chocolates in a red-velvet heart-shape

This Just In

You can buy stuff online, from online stores via devices that give you online access!!!1!

Take it a little further....

A friend of mine worked at a marketing agency where she worked with a prototype system similar to this, howeverit was even more interactive. At any given time during a show, you could:

1) Hit the pause button

2) Point the remote at the TV which controles a mouse like cursor (think Wii Remote)

3) Point to car\shirt\bag\etc that happened to be on the screen at the time

4) Click it and be directed to a 'buy it now' interface

The idea is that companies would pay the show for product placement adding to the revenue of the show and ... dare I say... eliminate the need for commercials.

The only problem I foresee with this approach is increasingly blatant product placement within shows which WILL get to the point of being distracting, much like commercials are today.

Re:What's with this news?

Well, the Apple TV does just that. You use iTunes to buy movies and songs with a remote control. In other words, it's not really a bad idea if they manage to figure out how to do this well.

I'm pretty sure they are talking about buying things other than music and movies. I been able to get music (via MusicChoice) and movies (via Amazon Unbox) on my HD Tivo for quite some time.

Not that I do...

Re:What's with this news?

I'm pretty sure they are talking about buying things other than music and movies.

Yeah, like if you like how the killer used the reciprocating saw to dismember the body on CSI:, buy it now with a ThumbsUp on your TiVo remote.

I'm not shitting you: one of the CSI shows had product placement of a reciprocating saw as a dismemberment tool, first shown prominently in the episode (matching blade marks to bone), then the exact same model was advertised during a commercial break.

I won't like it if it means pop-ups during the show. And I own 8 TiVos (7 subscribed).

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I'm pretty sure they are talking about buying things other than music and movies. I been able to get music (via MusicChoice) and movies (via Amazon Unbox) on my HD Tivo for quite some time.

Well... yes and no.

You know how some ads have those little popups in the upper-right-hand corner? That chime and display when you're fast-forwarding through them?

Now TiVo owners will get those during shows too.

So when Stephen Colbert holds up a copy of I Am America And So Can You, a little pop-up will appear with a link to buy it on Amazon.com.

Apparently you won't be able to browse Amazon.com from your TiVo (except, of course, for the parts you already can), just receive Amazon.com ads through it.

Which I wo

Re:What's with this news?

Never underestimate the addictiveness of immediate gratification.

It happened a couple of times that I've been browsing the 'App Store' and just thought "I need that!" and bought it.

Combining TV watching, aspiration to own 'stuff on TV', with credit card information (on Amazon), and the ability to buy on a whim, we should see this take off.

Re:What's with this news?

Actually, the news item made it sound like Amazon went back to the 90's thinking. My point was that there are ways of doing this in a really good way. I also provided Apple as a good example of this.

You say I am an Apple fan boy, but I really am not. In fact, I really dislike the iPhone and I can't stand OSX. Just because I point to Apple doesn't mean that I praise them.

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My Series 1 SA doesn't get this (much) spam!

BTW & FYI, check to make sure your Series 1 fan is operating properly. It looks like I'm going to have to replace the fans in two Series2 units, so the older Series1 units may be reaching end of life and start overheating or even failing to restart if the fan doesn't get up to speed.

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we could all coordinate our zapping and try to send one enormous zap and see if she bursts into flames.

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And soon, Tivo subscribers as well.

Re:I, for one, hate this

No no...

"Biggs, they're all over me."
"Stay there, Luke, I'm coming."
"I can't shake 'em, I can't shake 'em!"
Luke turns to camera: But I could if I were driving a Scion TC with Turbo! Scion TC!