What is the best place to buy TV episodes digitally?

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Weaksauce
Joined
Jun 8, 2009
Messages
95
Hi everyone, forgive me if this is the wrong section but I wasn't sure where else to ask this question.

I would like to download a few shows that I want to re-watch, and I would prefer to download them as it's easier to manage the files (as opposed to buying physical discs). I looked around on iTunes and Amazon and they both have the shows I want. I've never bought a show digitally before so I'm not sure what would be the best place to get it. I read that iTunes is a poor choice because the DRM protection is so strict that you can't play it on most media centers anyway. I'm basically just looking for a mp4 or mkv file that I can open on whatever media player I want. Also is the video/audio quality actually good or do they compress everything down to a couple hundred MB and ruin it? In iTunes there weren't any specs, just generic info that doesn't tell you anything.

I'll admit I did torrent 1 episode to see how the quality would be (I'm purchasing it as well anyway so I don't feel bad about it). The file was a 1.2GB mkv and both the video and audio quality were excellent. Also there was no DRM protection so I could play it on my devices without any trouble. So this is basically exactly what I'm looking for, just from a legal source. Can anyone recommend something? Thanks.
 
Doesn't everything come with DRM? My preference would be to buy the seasons on Blu-ray and rip them into .mkv files myself. The bitrates on downloads suck.
 
*walks in*

Oh wait, the thread title says "buy"

*walks out*
 
Amazon files are DRM locked to 8 devices, up to 4 PC's and 4 portables, that you assign on Amazons site, if you download.
SD files are 1.2GB for 60 minute show and is in WMV format.
I just bought a couple of Boardwalk Empire episodes yesterday since I had 2 incomplete episodes, and decided to download them since you were asking about it.

EDIT: well, something is messed up DRM-wise on my system since the files won't play. This is the main problem with purchasing DRM infected videos, you pay and can't play them and have to fuck with the system to get it working.

I can't even find where to add another device to download to,


I can get the downloads to play on my main machine using the Amazon Unbox player (which is also the app that downloads the files), but won't play in Windows Media Player or any other player I have tried.

Oh, and I can't even find the download on Amazons site for the Amazon Unbox app to test it on my laptop.
 
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What a pain in the ass. They put all this effort into stopping illegal downloads and then they don't even offer a good legal method of obtaining the product.

Zepher - did you only buy the SD versions?

Deimos - it's not that I have any ethical qualms with torrenting, it's just hard to find older seasons of shows if you're trying to grab them from the beginning to binge watch.
 
Ya, I only bought the SD version since I am watching it on my laptop and didn't really need HD for these couple of episodes, SD is fine and $1 cheaper.
 
Zepher said:
Ya, I only bought the SD version since I am watching it on my laptop and didn't really need HD for these couple of episodes, SD is fine and $1 cheaper.
Click to expand...

Did you manage to get it working? There must be a way to strip the DRM protection from the file
 
nope, can only play those 2 files on my main desktop using the amazon unbox player app.

Also, on my HTPC, it currently won't play any files I downloaded originally on it in unbox, gives me an error.

with problems like these, why bother to pay for content that you have to jump through hoops to get working.
 
Here is a new issue after messing with the HTPC for a bit,
 
I click on upgrade and I get this from MS, but the upgrade button doesn't work, you can't click it.

 
Zepher said:
I click on upgrade and I get this from MS, but the upgrade button doesn't work, you can't click it.

Click to expand...

Yeah the entire Amazon angle is starting to seem like more trouble than it's worth. Have you tried something like this: http://www.noteburner.com/mac-m4v-converter-plus.html

or could you use something like FormatFactory to just convert the file into a different format, thereby erasing the protection?
 
I use handbrake for format conversions and it doesn't like the Amazon videos, stops after 1%.
That noteburner app looks like it would be great for itunes files, but I don't have a mac to test it with the itunes shows I have.
 
Zepher said:
I use handbrake for format conversions and it doesn't like the Amazon videos, stops after 1%.
That noteburner app looks like it would be great for itunes files, but I don't have a mac to test it with the itunes shows I have.
Click to expand...

If you want to send me the file I can try it with FormatFactory, I've used it to convert itunes DRM stuff before because the DRM protection doesn't work in my car for some reason
 
Sorry dude, if you want to do stuff legally, you have to deal with DRM and the constant headaches of the DRM either forgetting that you already purchased the content and locking you out or...just dealing with things not working at all.

Its amazing how that works, isn't it?
 
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