Amazon Prime Video

[Tom*]

Is the Amazon streaming generally good, compared to say Netflix?

If I didn't have Prime or LoveFilm at all currently, the streaming and Prime sub all for £49 seems ok... right?

9 hours to go!

[deerokus]

After tomorrow It'll be £79, not £49. For £49 Prime is not a bad service if you buy lots of stuff from them.

Depends on if they're going to just rebrand Lovefilm's library and streaming service. If so, no, it's shit, but maybe they'll make it half decent as it apparently is in the US.

[metallicfrodo]

I'd say if you are interesting in Prime then it would be a no brainer to get it now because you essentially get the streaming and book rental for 'free'.

I like lovefilm, but I chose that over Netflix because of the disc service. From a streaming point of view I don't have an issue with the library, it's got enough on it for my son, and enough trashy TV for the wife, and enough films on it to watch something here or there when the urge takes me.

To be fair I think why people rate the Netflix library is due to the ability to use a US proxy and get their selection, as opposed to a like for like UK Netflix to UK lovefilm. But as I say because of the disc based service I always chose lovefilm. Also the lovefilm library has increased massively in the last year of so, and I don't think people who have made a choice between either are that inclined to see how the other has changed.

[deerokus]

To be fair I think why people rate the Netflix library is due to the ability to use a US proxy and get their selection, as opposed to a like for like UK Netflix to UK lovefilm.

Nah, even if you're only using UK Netflix, there's a lot of great exclusive stuff on there well worth the monthly fee.

[Wizcat]

Streaming quality with Netflix is also much better. To my understanding that's due to Netflix offering a server hosting their media library directly to each ISP (so the streaming is directly from your ISP rather than further afield)

Also Lovefilm still don't support streaming to Android tablets or phones.

[gospvg]

I did not believe it but with the move over to Amazon my Lovefilm by post subscription has dropped to £2 per month

I also like that you can now purchase Instant Video's via Amazon.

[metallicfrodo]

Yeah, mine has dropped to 4 pounds (two discs at a time). So a saving a six pounds a month.

So as someone who already had prime and lovefilm this has saved me 48 quid over the remainder of this year's subscription to prime, and will save me 22 quid next year.

Oh and with regards to the replies to my post, fair enough. As I say my priority was always the disc based service, the streaming was a bonus. And as I only ever really watch it on an iPad the stream quality or fact that it doesn't work on android devices was never a problem for me, which is obviously not true for everyone.

[PaB]

I checked to see if my subscirption had dropped... I though it had, but it hasn't. They have split the two subscription fees. So I was paying £7.99 per month for one disc unlimited and Lovefilm instant.

I am now paying £5.99 for Prime instant video and £2 for LoveFilm by post - SO still £7.99

Are you chaps sure you have counted both subscriptions?

[gospvg]

I checked to see if my subscirption had dropped... I though it had, but it hasn't. They have split the two subscription fees. So I was paying £7.99 per month for one disc unlimited and Lovefilm instant.

I am now paying £5.99 for Prime instant video and £2 for LoveFilm by post - SO still £7.99

Are you chaps sure you have counted both subscriptions?

I have Prime so the instant video section £5.99 is currently free for me.

Can you cancel the Prime Instant & just keep the by post option?

[PaB]

I have Prime so the instant video section £5.99 is currently free for me.

Can you cancel the Prime Instant & just keep the by post option?

Oh I guess so - I don't have Prime so that's the difference.

[gospvg]

Oh I guess so - I don't have Prime so that's the difference.

£7.99 is still good for you on the old pricing if you were to subscribe now you'd be paying £9.99

Will think about my Prime renewal in April.

[Sng]

Just checking this out now on ps4. What a load of shit? You have to pay for most of the good stuff.

Why would you buy stuff if you're the kind to want to pay a fixed monthly/yearly fee. Would be like paying for Spotify but having to buy all your favourite albums.

[gospvg]

Just checking this out now on ps4. What a load of shit? You have to pay for most of the good stuff.

Why would you buy stuff if you're the kind to want to pay a fixed monthly/yearly fee. Would be like paying for Spotify but having to buy all your favourite albums.

The latest movies were never included in the Lovefilm instant you were always looking at titles 18 to 24 months old. They've now added the option to purchase the newer movies.

[Nick R]

Instead of being in alphabetical order, the order of items on my rental list has now changed to something else (release date? date I added them to the list?) which makes it hard to browse through it.

Viewable rental history limited to last 60 items only, previous ratings apparently lost, can't find my history of streamed videos...

Can't see any option to change my postal package (number of discs I can have out at a time)... not that I want to change it from two right now, but it'd be nice to know that the option's there!

Some people on the site's help forum are saying they've encountered problems with losing their entire rental lists when they make priority changes or reallocate discs between different lists, and issues with it being unclear if the title they're adding will be a DVD or Blu-Ray.

I know it's always the case that people will complain whenever any website makes changes to their UI, and then the problems get ironed out or they get used to it after a while. But first signs in this case aren't too promising!

[gospvg]

It's quite a bit to merge the data across & I'm sure they have back up's of all the Lovefilm data in case of any lost data.

All my data seems to have come across ok, just wished they would have posted me out the new Thor movie or Rush (High Priority) to watch instead of Wolverine (Med Priority).

[Ben]

The selection isn't quite as terrible as I thought it would be, quite a few decent films in HD. It has Twin Peaks as well. £50 a year inc Prime Delivery doesn't seem too bad a deal for it.

[Guest]

Video and sound quality on the (PS4) version of the app is awful, and the selection is shit. Back to Netflix!

[Gotters]

I setup the app on my PS4 last night and watched the first ep of Vikings (meh but will stick with it for a bit)

Picture quality was fairly poor, I assume like Netflix the grey HD logo needs to light up white to be getting HD, if so I never got HD (I'm on superfast fat cable pipe and always get more than 80mb dl on a test and on the same PS4 get 1080p within seconds on Netflix)

[metallicfrodo]

I setup the app on my PS4 last night and watched the first ep of Vikings (meh but will stick with it for a bit)

Picture quality was fairly poor, I assume like Netflix the grey HD logo needs to light up white to be getting HD, if so I never got HD (I'm on superfast fat cable pipe and always get more than 80mb dl on a test and on the same PS4 get 1080p within seconds on Netflix)

That's weird I always got the white HD logo on my PS4 even when I had and ADSL2 8mb line, and ceratinly always get it now I'm on Inifinity at 80mb, literally the moment it starts streaming. Maybe they have had a surge in people trying it out now that they have bundled it in with Prime and they haven't upped their server capacity??

[Garwoofoo]

The introduction of this coincided with a Prime trial I happened to have running so I took a look at it last night. I've never used Netflix or any other streaming service so it was all a bit new to me.

I watched the first episode of Ripper Street. The picture quality was fine - it said 1080p and although it wasn't Blu-ray quality it was more than decent enough to watch. The sound quality, though, was piss-poor, to the point where it was actually hard to make out some of the dialogue.

Is this normal for Amazon or these streaming services in general? Or was I just unlucky? It seems odd that the picture was OK while the sound was so poor, so I'm wondering if this is standard. If so, I certainly won't be signing up.

[SeanR]

it's the same as lovefilm! what a swizz!

[metallicfrodo]

The introduction of this coincided with a Prime trial I happened to have running so I took a look at it last night. I've never used Netflix or any other streaming service so it was all a bit new to me.

I watched the first episode of Ripper Street. The picture quality was fine - it said 1080p and although it wasn't Blu-ray quality it was more than decent enough to watch. The sound quality, though, was piss-poor, to the point where it was actually hard to make out some of the dialogue.

Is this normal for Amazon or these streaming services in general? Or was I just unlucky? It seems odd that the picture was OK while the sound was so poor, so I'm wondering if this is standard. If so, I certainly won't be signing up.

When they first did the streaming service the sound quality (and indeed the picture quality) was really poor. Mostly because they seems to be taking the 5.1 signal and making it stereo and fucking up the levels in the conversion.

However I haven't had an issue recently (last year or so) with the sound (mostly on the iPad) and when I've used the PS3 hooked up via optical the sound has been fine (i.e, properly balanced). I think it probably depends a lot on the content you happened to have picked. Although with Ripper Street being quite new I'd be surprised if there wasn't a 5.1 stream for that.

Slightly off topic, I watched Batman: Year One streaming from lovefilm last night and it's a brilliant adaptation of the comic. Bryan Cranston voicing Gordon is brilliant. So for those who have Instant because of the new Prime set up I'd recommend watching it (They also have The Dark Knight Returns parts 1 and 2 which are also excellent).

[Pob]

Just checking this out now on ps4. What a load of shit? You have to pay for most of the good stuff.

Why would you buy stuff if you're the kind to want to pay a fixed monthly/yearly fee. Would be like paying for Spotify but having to buy all your favourite albums.

I assume this is why Netflix don't add any kind of option to watch the newest stuff for a pay-per-view fee - because it would result in a load of brand-harming "fucking Netflix! Why do I have to pay for the good stuff?" comments.

I mean, no-one would have an issue using Netflix for whatever they have available for £6 per month and going to something like Blinkbox for the latest releases at £3.50 per film. It would logically be much easier to use a single decent service/app for all your streaming needs (which is what LoveFilm Instant offers I guess), but actually it just makes you pissed off.

[gospvg]

But do subscribers really expect to be able to watch the latest release as part of their subscription?

At £3.50 to £4 per movie for new releases, the subscription for a service like that would have to around £20 to £30 a month for the provider to make any money.

I very rarely used lovefilm instant it was £2 extra as part of my subscription to get the by post service for which I was happy to pay just in case I wanted to watch something.

In my circumstance because I am a prime customer until April the by post service has now been reduced to £2 a month.

What the Instant does offer you is a selection to watch as part of your subscription & any new releases you want you can purchase. I actually like that it is all under one roof.

If the rumours about a spotify type service also being offered to Prime customers happens then I will be signing up for another year of prime even at the higher price it seems.

I just wish they would include the MP3 Player subscription into the Prime Membership.

[Tunisia]

The PS3 UI is horrendous and I think the selection is very poor. I can't actually tell, because the UI is so bad.

[thesnwmn]

I don't think it's stunning so far but not that much worse than Netflix UK really. Seems to be a fair amount of content to me.

[Nick R]

Since it's now been split into two subscriptions and payments:

- Prime Instant Video - £5.99

- Lovefilm By Post - £4.00

And since Netflix also costs £5.99 per month, it occurred to me that for the same price, I could combine the two: keep the Lovefilm postal service, but cancel Amazon's streaming service and subscribe to Netflix instead.

Seems like there's nothing to stop me doing that - if I click "End Membership" for Instant Video, the confirmation screen says:

You will no longer have access to:

Prime Instant Video

Unlimited instant streaming of over 15,000 movies and TV shows.

Your DVD Rental membership will not be impacted by this change. You can manage your DVD Rental membership here.

I haven't really investigated the ways Netflix UK's library is different from Lovefilm's, but it seems like a useful change I could make when Marvel's Netflix-exclusive Daredevil TV series (and the other ones they announced, but mainly that one) begins!

[Miner Willy]

Anyone got prime and a kindle fire and able to say how good the selection of instant videos available to download is? I already have prime, so I'd pick up a fire hd just for this feature, only I can't find a list of included titles. Apparently amazon are quoting that it's selected titles, not all, due to rights etc.

[Mad Gear]

Also, I just checked my account and my next renewal is in a couple of months, and showing £79 already. No contact from them that they'd increased the price, and no option to get the one year at £49 they are offering new people. So much for rewarding long standing customers.

Mine renews next month and it's £49 still. It says that April 2015 will be £79 (which i will cancel before that date).

[Gotters]

i think their servers may be getting better, or less hammered - I've only watched vikings but wasn't getting HD during the week - last night I was getting full 1080p within seconds

anybody who liked Spartacus or Rome should really give Vikings a try, takes a couple of eps to get going but its very good, and second season is being added an ep a week on Fridays, just a day after US broadcast