I haven't gotten Amazon Prime because my wife seldom shops on Amazon - she likes to hit the stores with her gal pals - and I tend only do much buying through Amazon in about a four month window at the end of the year because that's when most of the birthdays happen and, of course, the holiday season.

But now I'm wondering if the video streaming service might make it worth it. I have been trying out Blockbuster's disc rental/streaming service for a few months. It is cheap, which is why I decided to try it, but the quality of service unfortunately reflects the cheapness in price. The streaming service is crap - the videos that are available are almost entirely crap. I gave up using it in less than a week. The mail delivery of disks (like Netflix's) is really slow. The only way I can average a couple of movies a week is if I take advantage of turning in the mailed disc in exchange for a disk from our local Blockbuster brick and motar. But the Blockbuster store is way on the other side of town and I have to make the trip twice (once to do the exchange and once to return the disc to the store). It just doesn't seem worth it anymore.

So... what's the streaming service like from Amazon? How do you access the service - do you need to have a TV or DVD player that has specific software to access Amazon's video streaming service? I don't think any of my devices have that. How good is the selection? Is Amazon reliable about delivering the video streams?

Any other benefits or downsides to Amazon Prime you can share - not just about video streaming - will also help me decide whether or not to go for it. Thanks.

1. Yes you need specific software to access it, and it's harder to find on devices compared to Netflix.
2. The selection is poor. No recent movies. Very small number of TV series.
3. I've never had any reliability problems.

I don't watch much tv but if i did, i'd get Amazon Prime. Their PBS/discovery channel style programming is pretty deep.

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I have a Roku box that can access their content, but as noted above, the selection blows monkey chunks.

With a good broadband connection, streaming should not be a problem. Content won't be as good as other dedicated services but then, the video access is more "icing on the cake" than a "main course".

In the four month window you say you normally use Amazon, do you buy enough, that the shipping would cover the $79 annual fee. Remember that not all purchases are covered by Prime but most are. If the answer is yes or close, than I'd say joining Prime would be a no brainer.

Content is likely to get better and, right now, theres lots to watch. A post a week or two ago had a link to services that basically listed what each service offered. That made it a lot easier to find programs you were interested in.

I am a pretty heavy streaming user (overall) and I joined prime for the shipping benefits. Prime streaming has practically nothing to offer me. I never use it.

If your quick-shipping needs are limited, I suspect the streaming service would be a disappointment. For us we enjoy both and find it worth the price.

The value of the streaming has gone up with the addition of the iPad app. While you can't throw the video to your Apple TV, the new Mountain Lion feature of AirPlay mirroring gives us that option (and now we can get rid of a Roku we used for that and Hulu Plus, which was recently added to the Apple TV menu)

Don't know anything about Blockbuster's service, but we cut the cable cord a few years back and we're happy with Netflix, Hulu Plus and Amazon Prime (of course, live sports is another matter). We don't watch a ton of TV so it's usually pretty easy for us to find *something* among those three services.

And last night, for instance, my wife wanted to watch an old Julie Child show she recalled. It wasn't on the services, but we found streaming video on PBS site somewhere, and used AirPlay Mirroring to watch on the TV. Not the greatest quality, but it's something we'd never had sat around the laptop and watched.

As for accessing the service, if you don't use Mountain Lion or have an iPad, I'd just suggest a Roku box ... easy peezy to use. Never had any reliability issues.

Netflix selection, at least for movies, seems anecdotally to have become much worse over the past 12 months or so.

I agree with MGS that Amazon's is bad, I would say worse than Netflix overall.

While I don't watch/think about TV as much as movies, both seem to have a decent selection of not-quite-cream-of-the-crop (e.g. top stuff like Game of Thrones from HBO).

You can decide for yourself about selection here: [www.amazon.com]

The quality of service is quite good, a bit better than Netflix overall IMHO.

I feel like we're at a crossroads with streaming services, with the quality of selection at the market leader Netflix dropping so substantially. Someone(s) has gotta emerge with a stronger rather than weaker catalog OR the individual studios need to get their acts together if they don't want to cede control to a third party. I'd prefer the former, but am starting to think the latter is more likely.

I let my Prime membership lapse just recently, as I had a hard time justifying the fee based on the shipping. However, that may change come the holidays. I'll try my best to buy from smaller stores, and locally, but it's hard to resist the easy click.

With regard to video, there's not all that much on Prime that I watched in terms of films, but there was *some* television that interested me. Not much, though, to justify what is freely available on the net (search Frontline and Nova for many freely streamed programs as well as various speakers series through WGBH).

If Amazon lowered it to $49, or thereabouts, I'd be willing to bet they would double or triple their membership now. It's just hard to justify for $79.

Ted,

To answer someof your questions...


MGS’s statement about availablity on devices is correct. Netflix is the more popular and wildly available of the two services. Just about every devices supports NetFlix streaming. That isn’t the case of Amazon streaming with the exception of computers. They are a non-issue. Any modern machine should have access to it. Devices are a different matter entirely.

Each device needs to have the software necessary to access Amazon’s VOD service, even if you just want to enjoy Amazon Prime freebie content. Your device(s) may already support it or have a firmware update/upgrade that provides it. For example, Amazon VOD became available to owners of the PS3. Most current HD TVs, blu-ray players and the more popular streaming devices sucha s the Roku support it.


MGS’s statement referring to the selection of content being poor is incorrect because his taste may not necessarily reflect your taste. It definitely doesn’t reflect mine. On any given day or time, I can always find somethin g enjoyable to watch via Amazon Prime freebie VOD. Always. If someone can’t find a free video to watch, then it’s not an Amazon problem. It’s that individual’s problem, imo.

Reliability is a non-issue. Amazon VOD works just as well as Netflix VOD. The bigger difference is that you can put together a queue with NetFlix and access said queue on a given device. You can’t do that with Amazon.

As Testcase pointed out, Amazon Prime isn’t really intended as a VOD streaming service. It’s a combination of services which justhappens to include freebie streaming of a given selection of content. Much in the same way that subscribers to Amazon Prime get special services for their kindle devices, i.e. freebie book “rentals”. ‘course, free 2 day shipping and reduced price next day air shipping for products purchased from Amazon itself (not typically from Marketplace vendors) is an added benefit, too.

But, the question I think I should ask is about streaming. If it’s your primary reason for getting Amazon prime, then I’d go with NetFlix. It is superior to Amazon, in my opinion. It has a much larger library, a wider variety of content, queue and is more readily accessible on devices. But, it costs more overall ($100+ per year) and doesn’t offer other benefits. Amazon Prime is less expensive, doesn’t have as good a selection, no queue and not as wildly available as NetFlix but it does provide other benefits such as free 2 day shipping, reduced price next day air shipping (where applicable) and the ikindle features.

Robert

If you are a Star Trek fan, they do have all episodes of all five live-action series.

I have Prime because I get my money's worth out of the shipping just for christmas shopping. I've tried the video streaming but found it almost completely worthless and a much lousier selection than Netflix.

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"So be proud to be a decent American instead of just a w'anker whipping up fear!" - Michael D. Higgins, President of Ireland

I have Prime, but it seems to me the items covered by it are often a little more expensive.

I seem to remember the members of this board some time ago came to the conclusion Amazon was offering different prices to different people, based on some unknown criteria.

Could they be raising the prices of prime-eligible items to those who are using it?

Or not.

-mj

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

I did some rough estimating and I don't think Amazon Prime is worth it just for the free and faster shipping. Probably at least half the time I can find an item that has free shipping anyway and the longer wait almost never is a concern. But if the streaming service had been worthwhile for me then it might have shifted the balance enough to make the whole package worthwhile.

I understand that whether selection is any good or not is subjective, and I will take a look at the link of what is available that was provided, but based on so many people thinking it isn't all that great, I think I'll probably just give Amazon Prime a pass. I totally understand that for a great many people it's worth it, but based on the information I'm getting I don't think it would be for me.

But I don't see staying with Blockbuster, either. I may just Redbox it to get the movies I really want to see. I haven't used Redbox yet but it seems relatively simple to use and the kiosks are all over the place. My contract with DishTV is up in about a half a year (it's through Dish that I am getting Blockbuster but I can cancel Blockbuster independently) so that time may be worth waiting for to do a good look see at all the options. I shudder at the thought of going back to Comcast, but maybe at that point with all things considered it may be the better choice for me.

I'm wondering why you're not including the netflix streaming service in your list of possible choices. Granted, they have a limited selection but it's much better than any of the competitors. We have both the netflix dvd service and the streaming service and that gets us whatever we want.

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"So be proud to be a decent American instead of just a w'anker whipping up fear!" - Michael D. Higgins, President of Ireland

Plus if you have Prime and a Kindle, you can borrow one book a month for free. Have been using it to read books that are out of my price range, or I might buy if it is a good read.

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davester
I'm wondering why you're not including the netflix streaming service in your list of possible choices. Granted, they have a limited selection but it's much better than any of the competitors. We have both the netflix dvd service and the streaming service and that gets us whatever we want.

I used to have Netflix streaming and DVD before they split the two and you had to pay more for both - that's why I went to Blockbuster because it had both for a lower price than the two together on Netflix. I very seldom used the streaming service side of Netflix because the selection was so bad. I was hoping Amazon Prime might offer something better which is why I asked since that would make signing up for it worthwhile. Unless the Netflix streaming selection has improved since I dropped it, I don't see it as something that would be worth it to me to pay what they want. When they offered both streaming and DVD together it was worth it to me but just streaming by itself isn't (unless they have significantly improved the selection). If I went back to Netflix I would probably only get the DVD part and the only advantage the Netflix has at that for me over Blockbuster is the thing I mentioned where Blockbuster is so slow in turning DVD's around through the mail that the only way I could get DVD's at roughly the same rate as I could through Netflix is to take the mailed DVD's from Blockbuster and exchange it for a DVD at the store - which is a pain in the butt.

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mlfrank
Plus if you have Prime and a Kindle, you can borrow one book a month for free. Have been using it to read books that are out of my price range, or I might buy if it is a good read.

does this work if you use the kindle App on iPad or Mac? or you really need a kindle in order to loan these books?

Space,

You must own an actual Kindle. I tried with the Kindle App for my ipad, iphone and on my Mac. No go. My wife, on her kindle, with her Prime account, no problem.

Robert

I joined Amazon Prime years ago for the free shipping, but find that I use the streaming a lot. Multiple Star Treks, Doctor Who, Firefly, Pushing Daisies, Arrested Development, Torchwood, Dead Like Me, and The Twilight Zone are some of the TV shows I've enjoyed catching up with, or re-visiting. Lots of PBS and British stuff—and movies, especially older ones (Forbidden Planet!). My son loves that "man-named-Bear-in-the-wild" show, but I don't really want to see him eat raw snakes or drink his own urine anymore.

However, someone who is more up-to-date with TV and movies might not find as much on the free list to like as I do.

I watch on my iMac's lovely 27-inch screen or on the television through a Roku box, and can't recall any hiccups we've ever had with the streaming (even though our cable internet isn't the fastest available).