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You are here: Home / Science & Technology / Amazon Video

Amazon Video

by John Cole|  April 29, 20148:47 pm| 51 Comments

This post is in: Science & Technology, Television

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Has anyone bought anything and streamed it from Amazon? I bought Season Six of Sons of Anarchy in HD because it was 30 bucks cheaper than the blu-ray, and I am shocked at the quality. It’s amazing. It’s light years better than the HD on Netflix.

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51Comments

  1. 1.

    Comrade Mary

    April 29, 2014 at 8:49 pm

    No, because Canada.

  2. 2.

    Sasha

    April 29, 2014 at 8:49 pm

    I watch streaming video through Amazon Prime. I haven’t noticed any difference. I prefer netflix because I once ‘bought’ a season of ‘The Closer’ by accident. They refunded the purchase but I’ve always been nervous since.

  3. 3.

    Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader

    April 29, 2014 at 8:50 pm

    Amazon has the only the finest minimum wage workers operating in 110 degree warehouses delivering that high quality video so you don’t have to sweat it.

  4. 4.

    shelly

    April 29, 2014 at 8:51 pm

    Hey john. Any updates on your friend in the hospital ICU?

  5. 5.

    raven

    April 29, 2014 at 8:52 pm

    I’ve had Prime for 3 years but have only watched a couple of things. The quality was very good.

    Hey John, a friend has taken a faculty position at WVU starting in August. She is married with a son, it looks like housing prices are pretty high in Morgantown. Any ideas?

  6. 6.

    Wiesman

    April 29, 2014 at 8:52 pm

    I watched “Orphan Black” on Amazon Prime. It was great. My only complaint with Amazon is that it doesn’t work with Chromecast.

    BTW, Cole, have you watched Orphan Black? You should. It’s amazing. My 2nd favorite show on TV, behind Game of Thrones, but I actually look forward to it more, since I’ve read the GoT books and I’m spoiled. Orphan Black has something happen every week that is shocking and Tatiana Maslany is one of the most talented actresses in the universe. Watch the show and you’ll see why.

  7. 7.

    scav

    April 29, 2014 at 8:52 pm

    Congrats OK and compounding phamacies!

  8. 8.

    raven

    April 29, 2014 at 8:56 pm

    Doc Rivers is great.

  9. 9.

    Brad

    April 29, 2014 at 8:58 pm

    @Wiesman: I highly doubt google is going to let amazon vod on chromecast to compete with the google play store.

  10. 10.

    voncey

    April 29, 2014 at 8:59 pm

    I watched Veronica Mars on Amazon Streaming and it was great quality.

    Also, Orphan Black is awesome. Go Canada!

  11. 11.

    cthulhu

    April 29, 2014 at 9:04 pm

    Somewhat out of the blue, my 9 year old daughter has decided she wants to see all of the X-men movies; Since they aren’t on Netflix, I decided to try Amazon a couple of days ago. I totally agree that they’ve got a pretty good set-up. The HD buy price wasn’t very competitive compared to Blu-ray (certainly better to buy boxed sets of the movies) but it might be more convenient in not adding clutter to the house (one reason I have been on an anti-disc buying phase – unless it is something not available for streaming).

  12. 12.

    ? Martin

    April 29, 2014 at 9:07 pm

    I’m a little bit proud of the NBA tonight. Gotta say, I didn’t see this coming.

  13. 13.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    April 29, 2014 at 9:08 pm

    I dropped Amazon Prime this month. They raised the price from $79 to $99 and I neither found their content that compelling nor do I order enough stuff from Amazon to justify the cost.

  14. 14.

    MikeBoyScout

    April 29, 2014 at 9:08 pm

    All the time John. Luv it

  15. 15.

    jeffreyw

    April 29, 2014 at 9:09 pm

    bah, firefox sync is teh suck

  16. 16.

    lamh36

    April 29, 2014 at 9:11 pm

    @cthulhu: Amazon also seems to me to have alot more classic tv than Netflix. The have the whole 90s X-Men tv series available to stream.

    I have both Netflix (for my lil sister to watch while away at college) and Amazon Prime (cause use my Kindle ALOT and Prime members get discounts on books and stuff and I used to buy stuff from Amazon alot and Prime members get Free or discounted shipping)

  17. 17.

    David

    April 29, 2014 at 9:12 pm

    We have both netflix and amazon streaming and have found the video quality on netflix much better than amazon. Streaming is also smoother on netflix. None of that will keep me from watching The Wire when it’s available on amazon, though.

  18. 18.

    raven

    April 29, 2014 at 9:12 pm

    @? Martin: They just had about a 20 minute interview with Doc that was great. It’s cool watching someone I saw play in high school turn into such a wonderful representative of the sport.

  19. 19.

    Emerald

    April 29, 2014 at 9:13 pm

    I watch it all the time, streamed through my TV via my Roku player. Love it. Quality is perfect. Not only the free Prime videos, but you can rent new movies (and old) for lots less than a movie ticket. I’ve even bought a few movies–you don’t get the bonus materials usually, but they’re starting to add those now.

    I tried the Prime on the month free trial, and like all the features. Can borrow a book a month for free on my Kindle too. Plus free shipping.

    (Amazon: you may direct deposit my check now, please)

    Edited for spelling

  20. 20.

    dp

    April 29, 2014 at 9:15 pm

    I broke down and bought the last half-season of Breaking Bad. Like you, I was impressed with the video quality.

  21. 21.

    kindness

    April 29, 2014 at 9:16 pm

    @Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader: Yes Amazon sucks as a progressive company but where I live there aren’t really any record stores anymore. If I want a disc/movie I’m looking at Amazon, CDUniverse or if I’m going high end Music Direct. Even Costco doesn’t stock stuff any longer.

    What is one to do?

  22. 22.

    lamh36

    April 29, 2014 at 9:19 pm

    @raven: speaking of NBA. Apparently, all the teams are posting the same pic on twitter in solidarity with the Clippers players.

    A Black background with the words “We Are One” and their respective teams logo.

    #WeAreOne

    @dallasmavs 3h
    #WeAreOne #DallasMavs pic.twitter.com/4o4DYDobiO

    ‏@ATLHawks 4h
    #WeAreOne pic.twitter.com/hMFOurp9na

    @Raptors 1h
    #WeAreOne pic.twitter.com/663jGnkFYL

    @Raptors 1h
    #WeAreOne pic.twitter.com/663jGnkFYL

  23. 23.

    cleek

    April 29, 2014 at 9:22 pm

    we’ve watched lots of stuff from Prime: The Americans, Orphan Black, Gilligan’s Island, etc..

    the quality is better than Netflix, for sure.

  24. 24.

    raven

    April 29, 2014 at 9:22 pm

    @lamh36: Yup, some folks here were unhappy that the NBA didn’t fine him more. Rachel is documenting how totally unprecedented this permanent ban. It has NEVER happened, not Marge Schott, not Steinbrenner (after multiple felony convictions) never.

  25. 25.

    Wen

    April 29, 2014 at 9:24 pm

    We “cut the cord” on cable (just pay for internet) early this year so I take the money we save each month and use that to purchase current shows I really want from Amazon. I buy the Season Pass and save a little. The Final season of Mad Men is only $1.69 an episode with the Season Pass. New episodes air Sunday night and I can watch them on Monday morning. I’ve also bought seasons of Walking Dead, Sons of Anarchy and Game of Thrones. Sometimes I splurge and get the HD but sometimes I don’t. I think both are great quality.

  26. 26.

    ? Martin

    April 29, 2014 at 9:24 pm

    @raven: Yeah, that’s what I just finished watching.

    This is the outcome that should have happened. The NBA has the most diverse fan base in US pro sports. Doing this should have been a no-brainer, but pro sports has resisted dealing with this shit forever. It was probably easier that everyone hated Sterling, so I’ll retain my skepticism that this would happen to a more popular team owner, but this is still a surprising outcome.

  27. 27.

    lurker dean

    April 29, 2014 at 9:28 pm

    i watched the last few episodes of breaking bad on amazon, seemed fine. you all probably heard that amazon prime is now getting a bunch of old hbo series, like the wire, which i’ve been wanting to watch. but then i read more stuff about how amazon is screwing the middle class, which stops me from signing up. now amazon is hiring independent contractors for deliveries instead of using company’s like UPS or USPS that pay a decent wage with benefits.
    http://gawker.com/amazon-and-the-squeezing-of-the-middle-class-1567079028

  28. 28.

    ? Martin

    April 29, 2014 at 9:31 pm

    Has anyone considered that your ISP might be throttling Netflix’s traffic more than Amazon’s, and that it may not be a matter of quality on their side?

    I don’t use either but a videophile friend of mine observed that Netflix quality was worse at his house, but did a bunch of tests at work (we have incredibly good bandwidth at work and don’t throttle at all) and determined that quality was actually about the same there. Looking at the trace on the connection, they’re comparable number of jumps for both services at work and at home, so the only real variable was the possible influence of the ISP.

  29. 29.

    Roger Moore

    April 29, 2014 at 9:37 pm

    @? Martin:

    The NBA has the most diverse fan base in US pro sports.

    I’ve heard people say that, but I’m curious about the evidence to back it up. I’m not even sure how you’d decide which fan base is most diverse. Is it the league that has the most even distribution of fans across all different racial and ethnic groups, or is it the one that has a distribution that most closely matches demographics in the population as a whole? You can make a case either way.

  30. 30.

    Omnes Omnibus

    April 29, 2014 at 9:38 pm

    I mentioned this on an earlier thread, but here it is again. Good news for WI voters. A federal judge found WI’s voter ID to be unconstitutional. It should be noted that state courts have found the same thing in state court on purely state constitutional grounds. All of the cases have been or will be appealed.

  31. 31.

    Chris T.

    April 29, 2014 at 9:41 pm

    I was catching up on some stuff via Amazon Prime Instant Video earlier and the video was just terrible, low resolution etc., until suddenly it was great. If you hover the mouse over the “HD” symbol it tells you why: bandwidth was something like 300 kbit/s until suddenly it was 5 Mbit/s.

    So the quality level is “it depends”. Or maybe sometimes “it wears Depends”.

    (Traceroute to the Amazon server was not directly helpful (they don’t respond to the packets) but traffic from my local Intarweb address to other local Intarwebzorz was fine, and the problem must have been somewhere in Texas based on the traceroute results.)

  32. 32.

    Fluke bucket

    April 29, 2014 at 9:44 pm

    Constitutional crisis and botched execution in Oklahoma. Oklahoma is fucked totally up. What a god damn governor the have.

  33. 33.

    Jay C

    April 29, 2014 at 9:46 pm

    We got Amazon Prime last summer on the trial to watch “Under The Dome”, but forgot that it would “auto-subscribe”, so now we’re stuck with it til October – we were quite disappointed to find that “Under The Dome” was just about the only thing we wanted to watch that was available on Prime. And still is.Unfortunately. Be aware….

  34. 34.

    lamh36

    April 29, 2014 at 9:49 pm

    @Roger Moore: I don’t know but I did find this, it’s from 2012 though and analyzed All Star Game viewership

    Who Will Be Watching? A Closer Look at NBA All-Star Game Viewers

    …NBA All-Star Viewers are 22 percent more likely than all US Adults, to be Hispanic, and over twice as likely to be Black.
    In addition, here are a few more stats, highlighting some noteworthy info about the NBA All-Star Viewer fan base:
    59% Male, making NBA All-Star Game Viewers 22% more likely (index) to be men
    22% are males 18-34—making viewers 47% more likely to fall into this hard-to-reach demographic
    26% live in the West census region, making Viewers 14% more likely to live in the West…

    According to this 46% White, 33% Black, 15% Hispanic, 6% Asian/Other….

  35. 35.

    raven

    April 29, 2014 at 9:52 pm

    @lamh36: I’d be more interested in regular season patterns. The All Star Game is pretty weak.

  36. 36.

    ? Martin

    April 29, 2014 at 9:53 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    Is it the league that has the most even distribution of fans across all different racial and ethnic groups, or is it the one that has a distribution that most closely matches demographics in the population as a whole?

    In the case of the NBA, it’s the former. Overrepresentation of african americans among the fan base compared to other sports, along with comparable representation of latinos relative to the population.

    Relative to the NFL, the NBA fan base is more closely representative of the players themselves. I think the NHL is only better on that mark (white people watching white players).

    But in the context of a racist remark, this matters more than comparable representation. I have no expectation that racism would be dealt with in the NHL at all.

  37. 37.

    GregB

    April 29, 2014 at 9:54 pm

    @Fluke bucket: Any guesses as to the race of both the death row prisoners in Oklahoma.

  38. 38.

    Zach

    April 29, 2014 at 9:57 pm

    Netflix and other providers of “HD” streaming have obviously increased compression over the past few years — Netflix, YouTube, Vimeo, etc. Just because something decompresses to a given pixel density and can be called “HD” doesn’t mean it isn’t compressed to hell, but apparently consumers don’t really mind. This is consistent with the history of media compression going back to MCI clobbering AT&T with lower prices despite inferior audio fidelity. Most people will be more upset by lag, load time, etc than compression artifacts.

  39. 39.

    TooManyJens

    April 29, 2014 at 10:02 pm

    @? Martin: Unpossible. Our corporate overlords would never do something so anti-consumer. That’s why they don’t need to be regulated.

  40. 40.

    ? Martin

    April 29, 2014 at 10:08 pm

    @raven: FiveThirtyEight data, by team no less.

  41. 41.

    rikyrah

    April 29, 2014 at 10:12 pm

    I have Amazon Prime, so I’ve been watching Veronica Mars- the series, during my lunch hour the past few weeks. Love Amazon Prime.

  42. 42.

    rikyrah

    April 29, 2014 at 10:15 pm

    yeah, more Orphan Black converts!

    Orphan Black rocks.

    and you can watch it free on Amazon Prime!

  43. 43.

    Ed

    April 29, 2014 at 10:53 pm

    They seem the same through my older generation roku. Just watched the last Orphan Black on Prime. Looking forward to season 2.

  44. 44.

    Ed

    April 29, 2014 at 10:53 pm

    They seem the same through my older generation roku. Just watched the last Orphan Black on Prime. Looking forward to season 2.

  45. 45.

    tBone

    April 29, 2014 at 11:18 pm

    Streaming quality for Netflix vs Amazon can be highly variable depending on your ISP and how shitty and/or predatory it is, the CDN Netflix uses to reach you, and a lot of other factors. For me I get about the same quality from each for HD, but Netflix does better under low-bandwidth conditions.

    All of this will be moot if our spineless FCC chair gives a big ‘ol knob-slob to his former colleagues at the major telcos & approves pay-to-play fast lanes for last-mile access to customers, as he appears poised to do. And we can thank Michael Powell, who started this ball rolling when he reclassified ISPs as “information services” instead of common carriers back in 2002. So nice that we’re still having to choke down shit sandwiches served up during the Bush era, huh?

  46. 46.

    Darkrose

    April 29, 2014 at 11:31 pm

    I use my Prime membership for watching stuff all the time. Most recently, I blew through the first four seasons of Archer and then bought the fifth. I didn’t buy it in HD, and the quality on my iPad was excellent.

  47. 47.

    CanadaGoose

    April 30, 2014 at 1:06 am

    @Comrade Mary: Not so difficult to do from Canada. Provided you have a US mail address (use a Mailboxes Whatever).
    Lots of programs available to give you a US ISP address. We stream both Amazon.com and Netflix.com

  48. 48.

    different-church-lady

    April 30, 2014 at 11:33 am

    Got bad news for you: the quality of all HD streaming sucks, no matter who you get it from. Too much data trying to go through too small a pipe. Period.

    Use streaming if you care more about convenience than quality. Do not even consider quality in your calculations. It does not exist as such.

  49. 49.

    different-church-lady

    April 30, 2014 at 11:35 am

    @Zach: Nice to see that someone here actually knows what they’re talking about.

  50. 50.

    Epicurus

    April 30, 2014 at 2:00 pm

    @tBone: This pretty much mirrors my experience. I use both Amazon and Netflix streaming. For example, I recently caught up on the first two season of “Justified,” which is only available on Amazon. Due to technical limitations (i.e., older computer), I can’t stream from my Mac to my TV, so for Netflix, Apple TV, for Amazon, Airplay from my iPad to the set. My only complaint was that the Amazon connection often “buffered out,” much more so than Netflix. I like ’em both, and say “Death to the DVD.” Also, too, we will be dining o the shitburgers left us by the Worst President in History for a long, long time.

  51. 51.

    My Truth Hurts

    April 30, 2014 at 3:48 pm

    I have bought one item and rented the rest, all in HD and I agree the quality is exceptional.

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