# Free Classic Movies on Amazon Unbox for TiVo through 11/18



## TiVoStephen (Jun 27, 2000)

Hi folks,

From now through November 18, you can download a classic movie FREE via Amazon Unbox. (Some are free rentals, and some are free purchases.)

Remember, for rentals, you can wait up to 30 days to start watching -- so if you're worried about running out of things to watch during the writer's strike, act quickly!

There are some amazing movies available, including:


Charade (1963)
His Girl Friday (1940)
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1990)
My Man Godfrey (1936)
Penny Serenade (1941)
House on Haunted Hill (1959)
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919)
Vampyr (1932)
Laurel and Hardy: Lost Films Volume 4 (1925, 1928, 1929, 1936)
8 1/2 (1964) -- Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film
The Mark of Zorro (1920)
The Battleship Potemkin (1969)
Nosferatu (1922, silent)
Chaplin Mutuals: Behind The Screen (1917, silent)
Suddenly! (1954)
The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952)
The Iceman Cometh (1960)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923)
Detour  (1945)
Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914)
Here's how to get your free movies:

1. Go to TiVo Central -> Find Programs -> Download TV & Movies
2. Choose Amazon Unbox
3. If you haven't already, link your TiVo account to your Amazon account as prompted. (You can also do this online at http://www.amazon.com/unbox/tivo/.)
4. Select the "Free Classic Movie Week" feed. Then select the movies you want to download.
5. If you have a Series2, wait for the download to complete to your DVR. If you have a Series3 with a fast Internet connection, wait a few minutes and begin watching.

May I recommend _His Girl Friday_ if you haven't seen it already? Cary Grant's performance in that along with Douglas Fairbanks's in _The Mark of Zorro_ are among my favorites.

Enjoy!

Best regards,
Stephen


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## Chew (Jan 22, 2003)

Very cool! I've always wanted to see Potemkin, 8 1/2, and His Girl Friday. Add a little Laurel & Hardy and I have plenty for the weekend.


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## HDTiVo (Nov 27, 2002)

TiVoStephen said:


> May I recommend _His Girl Friday_ if you haven't seen it already?
> 
> Enjoy!
> 
> ...


Nope, already downloaded that one over a year ago free off archive.org.  You have a couple there that are on Archive.

House on Haunted Hill is one of the true greats. Got that off TCM with my S3 many months ago - now even better with TTG!

Now The Iceman Cometh sounds very tempting.


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## ZeoTiVo (Jan 2, 2004)

I pulled some down last night and will get some more on the downstairs TiVo to show the kids some of the classics they might like.

It would be cool if there was a way to experiment with broadening the 24 hour to wtach window on these. Movies such as these are ones I might very likely watch an hour of when I have the time and then want to come back to finish watching later.  I really find the 24 hour window LIMITS the USEFULNESS of UNBOX and thus limits the money I will spend on it.

Free however is very good. :up:


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## mtchamp (May 15, 2001)

Even 24 hour rentals for free give me stress. Who wants my money that won't cause me stress? I downloaded the free movies to own. Rentals I avoid, because I just can't be sure I'll be able to finish a movie in one appointment with my TV. I have access to plenty of free movies that my TiVo serves up without any restrictions. I pass on 99 cent rentals all the time. Come on Hollywood, I'm not a pirate and I'm willing to pay. Make it worthwhile! Do something bold. Let me watch it for 30 days and I'll buy in volume. Give me a subcription deal like Rhapsody and I'll go antenna and Unbox.


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## flaminio (May 21, 2004)

I'm guessing many of those listed are in the public domain, but free movies are always a Good Thing. Thanks for the tip; I queued up a bunch for DL. Now hopefully my broadband won't catch fire...


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## MickeS (Dec 26, 2002)

Public domain or not, this is an easy way to get them onto the TV screen. There are some great movies there, if you haven't seen "The cabinet of Dr Caligari" or "Nosferatu", I highly recommend them.


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## windracer (Jan 3, 2003)

> Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1990)


Now how did _that_ one sneak in there? What's with the gap from 1969 to 1990? 

I loved R&G and probably haven't seen it in 15 years ... might have to grab it.


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## mphtrilogy (May 29, 2007)

I just grabbed a bunch, looking forward to seeing how good the quality is.


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## sbourgeo (Nov 10, 2000)

I grabbed a purchase and a rental just to try out Unbox, but I was bummed that I couldn't use the TiVo desktop software to transfer the purchased movie to my PC for backup purposes.

I realize that it is marked as "Copy Protected", but why would anyone spend their money to purchase a movie this way if they might have to eventually delete it to make room for other programming or lose it if their TiVo hard drive TiVo craps out?


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## CrispyCritter (Feb 28, 2001)

sbourgeo said:


> I realize that it is marked as "Copy Protected", but why would anyone spend their money to purchase a movie this way if they might have to eventually delete it to make room for other programming or lose it if their TiVo hard drive TiVo craps out?


Note you can erase and re-download a purchased movie as many times as you want to (modulo a possible blackout period for a brand new movie). There's no need to backup, at least theoretically; Amazon maintains the backup for you.


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## TiVoStephen (Jun 27, 2000)

sbourgeo, you can use the Amazon client to download a copy of a purchase to your PC if you really want in on your PC. Otherwise, for purchases, you can re-download purchases from Your Media Library on Amazon.com to any TiVo DVR on your account. (With the exception of new movies having a pay TV blackout window during which time you cannot re-download.)

So, you don't have to worry about space or losing the purchase if you lose your DVR to a disaster.

Rentals obviously you can't transfer or re-download -- but if it's a free rental like these you can keep on renting for $zero if you want another copy.


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## TiVoStephen (Jun 27, 2000)

windracer said:


> Now how did _that_ one sneak in there? What's with the gap from 1969 to 1990?
> 
> I loved R&G and probably haven't seen it in 15 years ... might have to grab it.


It surprised me a little too, but it DOES have a "classic" feel to it.


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## TiVoStephen (Jun 27, 2000)

Any other fans of "8 1/2"?


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## scandia101 (Oct 20, 2007)

TiVoStephen said:


> Any other fans of "8 1/2"?


Sorry, but when I tried to watch it all I could think was that watching the paint on a park bench fade would be far more entertaining.

There are a couple of these classic titles that I'd like to download, but Amazon still thinks that I'm in Barcelona.

and FYI as I was reading this thread and checking out the available movies on unbox on my Tivo, I lost all of the menus and any other on screen displays. No menus, no on screen guide, no info screen, no green bar and had to restart it the hard way.


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## sbourgeo (Nov 10, 2000)

CrispyCritter said:


> Note you can erase and re-download a purchased movie as many times as you want to (modulo a possible blackout period for a brand new movie). There's no need to backup, at least theoretically; Amazon maintains the backup for you.


Thanks, that didn't occurr to me. I kinda figured that I was on my own once I had successfully downloaded it.



TiVoStephen said:


> sbourgeo, you can use the Amazon client to download a copy of a purchase to your PC if you really want in on your PC. Otherwise, for purchases, you can re-download purchases from Your Media Library on Amazon.com to any TiVo DVR on your account. (With the exception of new movies having a pay TV blackout window during which time you cannot re-download.)


I saw that, but it looks like I couldn't go from my PC to the TiVo either. I suppose that doesn't matter as long as you can grab it from Amazon again.

Either way, this was a nice way to give Unbox a shot. :up:


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## twassel (Feb 20, 2006)

Unfortunately, the version of "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" is not the 1919 classic but the 2005 remake, unseen by me.


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## MickeS (Dec 26, 2002)

twassel said:


> Unfortunately, the version of "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" is not the 1919 classic but the 2005 remake, unseen by me.


Never heard of a remake of it. When I click on the link for "Caligari" in Stephen's post, it says "This item is currently not available". 
http://www.amazon.com/Cabinet-Of-Dr-Caligari/dp/B000NPEJ36/ref=pd_sbs_atv


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## twassel (Feb 20, 2006)

If you go to the Unbox site and click on "download classic movies", "Cabinet" comes up as one of the choices, but not the 1919 version, which is, as you correctly found, "unavailable".


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## MickeS (Dec 26, 2002)

twassel said:


> If you go to the Unbox site and click on "download classic movies", "Cabinet" comes up as one of the choices, but not the 1919 version, which is, as you correctly found, "unavailable".


Ah... well that is hardly a classic movie.


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## flaminio (May 21, 2004)

I don't know what I did, but I was able to DL the 1919 version of the Caligari for free. I watched it this morning -- had no idea how _bizarre_ it would be. The sets are just wild, especially Caligari's little house.


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## flaminio (May 21, 2004)

That was weird. I went back to the free download screen last night to see if there was anything else I wanted to get before the promotion ended, and lo and behold, the version of Caligari had changed from 1919 to 2005. So, I downloaded that one too. Now I've got both. Sweeet...


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## nirisahn (Nov 19, 2005)

I downloaded 2 purchase and 2 rentals. I also downloaded the purchased movies to my computer. It took almost 24 hours for the 4 movies to download to my TiVo. The two that went to the computer took about 2 hours. That's total, not each. Then, to transfer the movies from my computer to my zen took about 1 minute per movie. The biggest reason I don't do this more often is it takes to darn long to download the movies!


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## flaminio (May 21, 2004)

nirisahn said:


> The biggest reason I don't do this more often is it takes to darn long to download the movies!


Yeah, it's a bit slow, but you just need to plan your viewing a bit. I set up my TiVo Unbox downloads before I go to bed -- the movies are ready in the morning for viewing.

At some point in the future we'll all be on terabit networks and will have instant viewing of everything, but that day is not today...


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