What’s the Appeal of Amazon Unbox?

Amazon made some big news today by announcing their Unbox service offering movie downloads, beating out Apple’s expected announcement next week of their movie download service. But I just really can’t see the appeal.

Let’s look at a few movies:

Office Space

The top seller on Unbox right now is Office Space. Great movie. You can download it for $13.45 from Unbox, which gives you a DRM restricted file that you can play on your PC, plus a DRM restricted file designed for portable Windows Media-based players. It offers 2-channel stereo audio.

You can also buy the movie on DVD from Amazon for the exact same price. That version is not DRM restricted, and you can play it on your PC, your DVD player, your portable DVD player, or encode it to play on any portable video player (iPod or Windows Media-based). It gives you Dolby Digital 5.1 audio, deleted scenes, and an Office Space retrospective video feature with Mike Judge.

So for the same price you can choose the more restrictive format, 2-channel sound, and no extras, or you can choose the unrestricted format, 5.1 sound, and extras. And not have to download the movie again if your hard drive crashed. And you don’t have to set up a HTPC just to watch it on your television.

Well, so that’s just one movie, and who really needs 5.1 for Office Space? Let’s look at another one they’re heavily promoting.

V For Vendetta

V For Vendetta is another excellent movie. A 5.1 mix is much more important here, since this movie definitely takes advantage of a good subwoofer and surround system.

The Unbox download is $13.87 and gives you the DRM-restricted file in… wait for it… 2-channel stereo.

The real DVD at Amazon is $15.87, two dollars more. For those extra two dollars, you get the same freedom from DRM, plus the much-needed Dolby Digital 5.1 track. You also get a dubbed French 5.1 track for you French Canadians who have something against subtitles. Oh, did I not mention subtitles yet? Neither does the Unbox site. Apparently they aren’t available. That would have been an easy way to at least give hearing-impaired customers the option of using Unbox, but they decided not to do that.

One more?

Walk the Line

I haven’t seen this yet, but I’m a big fan of walking, and a big fan of interesting lines, so I have to guess that this movie is awesome.

The Unbox download is a staggering $19.95. You have to assume that you get some good extras or something since it’s that much more expensive. At least a 5.1 track to show off all the music? No, same as all the others. DRM-encumbered and 2-channel audio, and that’s all.

The DVD is 4 cents more at Amazon, $19.99. It gives you no DRM, of course, plus Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 audio tracks. You also get a commentary track with the director, and deleted scenes with optional commentary. I’d pay way more than 4 cents just to not have to deal with DRM and all the other headaches of a downloaded file, let alone the much-improved audio and all the extras.

And if you want to spend 91 cents more than the Unbox download, you can get the 2-disc DVD from Amazon, which gives you a whole other disc of extra features.

I just really don’t see the appeal here. Who would prefer to get a crappier product with painful DRM restrictions without getting a significant price reduction in exchange? If you’re going to take away features, why keep the price the same? And shouldn’t they be offering something that’s at least close to what you can download for free (albeit illegally) online, which is always without DRM and always has the 5.1 audio track and subtitles, if not many of the extras?

Can anyone explain why you’d choose Unbox over buying the DVD? Go for it in the comments…